WASHINGTON, June 13 - An associate of Paul Manafort in 2012 proposed recruiting former politicians from Belgium, Germany and Spain for a covert lobbying effort on behalf of the Ukrainian government, Politico reported Wednesday.

The newspaper quoted court documents briefly made public by special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating Russia’s interference with U.S. election.

The documents give new insight into the planning for and goals of a campaign Manafort orchestrated to boost the image of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his political party.

The lobbying effort has subsequently become part of Mueller's legal case against the former campaign chief to President Donald Trump, who faces charges of money laundering, failing to disclose his foreign lobbying work in the U.S. and obstruction of justice, among others.

One 2012 memo that was briefly made public in full Wednesday was apparently written by Alan Friedman, a former journalist based in Europe who previously had been identified as “Person D1” in documents released by Mueller’s team.

Friedman’s memo, addressed to Manafort, outlines a plan “to assemble a small chorus of high-level European third-party endorsers and politically credible friends” to burnish Ukraine’s image ahead of the country’s election in the fall of 2012. The group — later dubbed the “Hapsburg group” — went on to lobby members of Congress and congressional staffers in the U.S. as part of a campaign orchestrated by Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, according to prosecutors.

Manafort has said the group's work focused on Europe, but Mueller has made public documents that he says show they also lobbied in the U.S.

A spokesman for Manafort declined to comment on the new disclosures Wednesday.

Friedman proposed that the group would be led by Alfred Gusenbauer, a former Austrian chancellor with whom he said he had spoken shortly before writing the memo. He also listed other European politicians with whom he hadn’t spoken but who "represent the initial talent pool Alfred and I would canvass informally if you approve.”

The names included: Romano Prodi, a former Italian prime minister; Adolfo Urso, a former Italian trade minister; Jean-Paul Moerman, a Belgian judge; Bodo Hombach, a former German government minister and “influential publishing boss”; Javier Solana, a former NATO secretary-general from Spain and “respected man for all seasons in Europe”; Alain Minc, an old adviser to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy; Alain Juppé, a former French prime minister; and Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former Polish president.

“Although his appointment as European Parliament official to monitor the [Tymoshenko] trial would prevent Aleksander Kwasniewski from any formal activity, Chancellor Gusenbauer will meet him June 29th and probe with him the idea of him joining a more formal Advisory Panel in 2013, and in the meantime whether he might feel comfortable with some conference appearances and/or join op-ed with Chancellor Gusenbauer in the next few months,” Friedman wrote. (po/ez)