Paul Manafort’s son-in-law Jeffrey Yohai, who has partnered with Manafort on real estate deals, met with Justice Department investigators more than two months ago, CNN reported late Thursday.
CNN reported, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter, that Yohai met with federal investigators recently. According to one of the sources CNN cited, Yohai gave the investigators information and documents.
According to the report, investigators were “seeking cooperation related to the federal investigation into Manafort for possible money laundering or tax violations in his business dealings with pro-Russia parties in Ukraine.”
Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort, declined to comment to CNN, as did an attorney for Yohai, the FBI and the office of Robert Mueller, the special counsel overseeing the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The FBI raided Manafort’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, late last month as part of the ongoing federal probe. A spokesman for Manafort told TPM that he “has consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries” and did so during the raid as well.
Politico reported on Wednesday evening that federal prosecutors approached Yohai to apply pressure to Manafort. Maloni told Politico that Manafort has “been forthcoming” but is “not a cooperating witness and any suggestion to that effect is silly.”
Manafort was President Donald Trump’s campaign chair throughout the summer leading up to the 2016 election. He attended a meeting in June 2016 that Donald Trump Jr. arranged with a Russian lawyer after Trump Jr. was promised compromising information on Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s campaign. Manafort resigned from Trump’s campaign in August 2016 amid scrutiny of his work for the pro-Russian Party of Regions in Ukraine.
