LEGAL/PAUL MANAFORT/RUSSIA: “A spokesman for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Jason Maloni, spent about two-and-a-half hours testifying Friday [9-15-17] before a federal grand jury probing potential collusion between the campaign and Russia.
Maloni arrived at the courthouse just before 9 a.m. and disappeared behind the frosted glass doors of the grand jury suite on the third floor of the federal courthouse near the U.S. Capitol.
When he emerged just before noon, the Manafort spokesman spoke briefly with assembled reporters and photographers, but declined to go into detail about what he was asked.
‘I was ordered to appear before the grand jury,’ said Maloni, with the communications firm Jade Rock. ‘I answered questions and I’ve been dismissed.’
Several members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecution team departed the courthouse shortly after Maloni. They did not comment to reporters.
Maloni’s appearance, reported Thursday by POLITICO, drew the first sizable contingent of media to stake out a Russia probe witness’s grand jury appearance — a ritual common in previous Washington scandals.”
-Josh Gerstein, “Manafort’s spokesman spends 2 and 1/2 hours testifying before grand jury,” Politico, Sept. 15, 2017 12:31pm