Paul Manafort's lawyers tried to redact a court filing but it didn't work. Oops.

2025-04-28 06:25:03admin

Paul Manafort's defense shot itself in the foot a bit when, in filing Manafort's response to claims made by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, it didn't properly redact sections of the submission -- meaning anyone with the document can copy and paste the text underneath the black boxes.

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For instance, on page 9 of the document, using the copy and paste trick, you can see that several blacked out lines actually read:

The first alleged misstatement identified in the Special Counsel’s submission (regarding a text exchange on May 26, 2018) related to a text message from a third-party asking permission to use Mr. Manafort’s name as an introduction in the event the third-party met the President. This does not constitute outreach by Mr. Manafort to the President. The second example identified by the Special Counsel is hearsay purportedly offered by an undisclosed third party and the defense has not been provided with the statement (or any witness statements that form the basis for alleging intentional falsehoods).

Whoops, not great! Twitter sleuths were already collecting all of the not-really-redacted parts to spread across Twitter.

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Those revealed parts show Mueller claims Manafort lied about sharing 2016 polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, who is alleged to have Russian operative ties and has been a main Mueller target, and also discussed a peace plan for Ukraine with Kilimink.

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Pundits and reporters are still trying to untangle everything from the document and what the impact of making this information public will be as it's a rare glimpse into specifics of Mueller's investigations.

And, of course, there were jokes at Manafort's and his attorneys' expense.

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It's only a matter of time until those fake Craigslist job listings to be Manafort's new attorney crop up, so we might as well revel in this ongoing fever dream of incompetence.

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