Judge abruptly cancels Paul Manafort’s sentencing in Virginia case

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Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse for a hearing on June 15, 2018 in Washington, DC.

A federal judge Monday canceled former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort’s sentencing in his Virginia case, which was scheduled for Feb. 8, according to a filing.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis wrote that Manafort’s “current dispute” in a separate federal case in Washington, D.C., makes it “prudent and appropriate to delay sentencing in this case.”

Mueller’s team had previously aimed to delay Manafort’s sentencing in Virginia until the special counsel determined that he had finished cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators.

But Ellis rejected the prospect of doing so as “highly unusual.”

A spokesman for Mueller declined CNBC’s request for comment on Ellis’ court filing.

Manafort, 69, had pleaded guilty in the D.C. case, and had agreed to cooperate with Mueller as part of his ongoing probe of Russia’s election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

But the plea deal collapsed after the Mueller’s team accused Manafort of repeatedly lying in breach of that agreement.

Both the D.C. and Virginia cases were based on charges lodged by Mueller. Manafort’s charges were largely related to work he performed for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine years before joining then-candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid.

Manafort had been found guilty in the Virginia federal court of eight criminal counts, including tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to file foreign bank account reports. Ten additional criminal counts were deadlocked by the jury.

Mueller had later accused Manafort in the D.C. case of breaking his plea deal by telling multiple lies — some related to Konstantin Kilimnik, whom Mueller has alleged holds “ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016.”

Much of the information surrounding Manafort’s alleged falsehoods has been shielded from the public. But Manafort’s lawyers accidentally revealed in a recent court filing that Mueller had accused the onetime Trump campaign boss of sharing polling data with Kilimnik in 2016.