Mueller Drops New Bombshell as He Accuses Paul Manafort of Witness Tampering

Special counsel Robert Mueller has accused President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort of witness tampering in a new court document filed Monday night.

It says Manafort has been “attempting to tamper with potential witnesses while on pretrial release and, accordingly, has violated the conditions of his release."

Manafort has been under house arrest since he was indicted on charges of money laundering and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. He stands accused of working on behalf of a Ukrainian politician who is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The accusations could lead the judge overseeing the case to reconsider Manafort's house arrest.

The court documents say Manafort sent encrypted messages to his former employees and urged them to make "materially false" statements relating to the investigation. 

"Tonight Mueller is alleging Manafort has committed a *new federal crime* trying to tamper with this case and should be jailed while he awaits trial," said MSNBC host and legal analyst Ari Melber on Twitter. "Pretrial imprisonment would, of course, put tremendous new pressure on a defendant to cooperate."