Ex-Trump campaign head Manafort denies ever meeting with Wikileaks’ Assange

Following a story published by the Guardian newspaper alleging Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Manafort on Tuesday staunchly denied report.

News of the meeting came after an announcement on Monday that Manafort breached his plea deal by lying to federal investigators, US prosecutors said in a court filing, signaling a potential setback to the special counsel’s probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

The surprise development came as Mueller is working toward finalizing a report on his probe into whether Russia and Trump’s campaign colluded in the 2016 presidential election.

According to the new Guardian report, Manafort allegedly met Assange at least three times, including once in 2016.

“This story is totally false and deliberately libelous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him,” Manafort said through a spokesman. “We are considering all legal options against the Guardian, who proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Guardian said the “story relied on a number of sources. We put these allegations to both Paul Manafort and Julian Assange’s representatives prior to publication. Neither responded to deny the visits taking place. We have since updated the story to reflect their denials.”

Part of that probe has involved looking into whether any of Trump’s associates may have had advance notice before WikiLeaks published emails stolen by Russian hackers from Democratic computer networks to damage Trump rival Hillary Clinton.

In recent months, Mueller’s team has subpoenaed associates of Trump’s political adviser and Manafort’s former business partner, Roger Stone, who has denied having access to the emails.

In the Guardian’s story published on Tuesday, the paper reported that Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2013, 2015 and March 2016 — before the damaging emails were released months later.

WikiLeaks also denounced the story on Twitter on Tuesday, saying it was “willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor’s head that Manafort never met Assange.”

WikiLeaks also said that it has launched a legal fund to sue the newspaper for publishing a “fabricated story.”

By Sarah N. Lynch/Reuters

Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler