Washington (CNN) Donald Trump's 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort continued to keep in touch with his Russian associate Konstantin Kilimnik and discuss Ukrainian politics while he was working for the campaign and through last year, and that's become a central issue of Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation, according to a transcript of a closed-door court hearing. Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told a federal judge Monday that a meeting Manafort and Kilimnik had in August 2016 was "of significance to the special counsel." At the meeting, Ukrainian policy -- and, it appears according to previous filings, a peace plan that would have benefited Russia -- came up. Manafort in interviews with the special counsel said the discussion with Kilimnik about the topic ended then. But, prosecutors say, Manafort met with Kilimnik several times throughout 2017 and even into 2018, and discussed Ukrainian policy again and again.

Source: CNN February 07, 2019 23:45 UTC