Folks, it’s all over but the crying. Yesterday was one of, if not *the* biggest Mueller-related news dumps in the last year. There’s well-reasoned speculation that this redaction “oops” from Manafort’s attorney was intentional to warn other targets of the investigation. I don’t know if it was or not, but I suspect yes; in a normal situation, I would say there’s absolutely no doubt this was done on purpose, but these people are so impressively inept that I have to at least wonder if maybe it was an accident. If you missed it, the redactions said the following (Redactions in bold, other text for context):
“After being shown documents, Mr. Manafort “conceded” that he discussed or may have discussed a Ukraine peace plan with Mr. Kilimnik on more than one occasion); id. at 6 (After being told that Mr. Kilimnik had traveled to Madrid on the same day that Mr. Manafort was in Madrid, Mr. Manafort “acknowledged” that he and Mr. Kilimnik met while they were both in Madrid)).”
“Such a failure is unsurprising here, where these occurrences happened during a period when Mr. Manafort was managing a U.S. presidential campaign and had countless meetings, email communications, and other interactions with many different individuals, and traveled frequently. In fact, during a proffer meeting held with the Special Counsel on September 11, 2018, Mr. Manafort explained to the Government attorneys and investigators that he would have given the Ukrainian peace plan more thought, had the issue not been raised during the period he was engaged with work related to the presidential campaign. Issues and communications related to Ukrainian political events simply were not at the forefront of Mr. Manafort’s mind during the period at issue and it is not surprising at all that Mr. Manafort was unable to recall specific details prior to having his recollection refreshed. The same is true with regard to the Government’s allegation that Mr. Manafort lied about sharing polling data with Mr. Kilimnik related to the 2016 presidential campaign. (See Doc. 460 at 6).”
“Mr. Manafort initially explained that he approached the head of Entity B, who owed him money, seeking help in paying his debt. After further discussion, Mr. Manafort acknowledged that the head of Entity B had the head of Firm A pay the amount for Mr. Manafort. Despite the confusion, at bottom it appears that the Government’s evidence corroborates Mr. Manafort’s testimony that the head of Firm A paid the money at the head of Entity B’s request from money the head of Firm A owed to the head of Entity B.
In a subsequent meeting, Mr. Manafort explained that it was unclear to him how this payment was recorded by his accountants and he believed the original plan was to report the payment as a loan, but that it had actually been reported as income on his 2017 tax return. [The Government has indicated that Mr. Manafort’s statements about this payment are inconsistent with those of others, but the defense has not received any witness statements to support this contention.]”
“There is no support for the proposition that Mr. Manafort intentionally lied to the Government. The first alleged misstatement identified in the Special Counsel’s submission (regarding a text exchange on May 26, 2018) related to a text message from a third-party asking permission to use Mr. Manafort’s name as an introduction in the event the third-party met the President. This does not constitute outreach by Mr. Manafort to the President. The second example identified by the Special Counsel is hearsay purportedly offered by an undisclosed third party and the defense has not been provided with the statement (or any witness statements that form the basis for alleging intentional falsehoods).”
Couple this with the news NYT broke yesterday that the operation to pass information to Kilimnik was actually a joint-venture with Manafort and Gates, which makes perfect sense considering Gates was Manafort’s protégé. Gates has been cooperating with Mueller since shortly after he surrendered himself on 10/30/17. The piece also revealed that Manafort and Gates passed data, including private Trump polling data (Et tu, Kellyanne?! Or you, Parscale?!) to Kilimnik with the intention of getting it to Oleg Deripaska. Quick refresher on Deripaska for those who need it: once the richest man in Russia, this oligarch has close ties to Putin and maybe not-so-coincidentally, Paul Manafort. Deripaska’s Manafort connections put him directly in the crosshairs of Robert Mueller, especially the $19,000,000 “investment” he made with Paulie. In mid-December, POTUS also ordered Mnuchin to announce the lifting of sanctions on Deripaska’s 3 companies (U Rusal, En+Group, and EuroSibEnergy). I don’t want to say it’s happening right in front of our eyes, but it’s happening right in front of our eyes. It appears that Congress isn’t going to allow these sanctions to be lifted, but this is still a space worth watching. (CORRECTION: NYT has updated their piece with the correction that Manafort wanted the information passed on to oligarchs Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov, *not* Deripaska.)
This correction doesn't change the calculus a whole lot: Lyovochkin was a founding member of the pro-Russian conservative group "the Opposition Bloc" in Eastern Ukraine. Rinat Akhmetov is another oligarch, and one of the richest men in Ukraine. He and Lyovochkin were both supporters of Viktor Yanukovych, the disgraced ex-President of Ukraine who is currently exiled in Russia. These two connections make sense for Manafort: If you remember a million years ago when all the dirt on Paul began to leak, he was responsible for helping Yanukovych win the Presidency in Ukraine. Akhmetov is the one who originally introduced Manafort to the pro-Russian Yanukovych.
Then, we have Jr... Turns out the lawyer he organized the Trump Tower meeting with is a Russian asset. Whoda thunk it? Everyone? Oh, ok. For those of you keeping count, that’s at *least* four Russian intelligence assets the Trump campaign willingly passed information to and/or coordinated with: Kilimnik, Deripaska, Kislyak, and Veselnitskaya. Thanks to Don Jr. kindly releasing that extremely incriminating email chain, we know that he understood exactly who he was meeting with and why. Then we have the mysterious blocked call that has a 99.99999% probability of being Individual-1. I LOVE the smell of collusion in the morning.
Teflon Don is about to lose his coating. If this information is all public, imagine what Mueller is still keeping close to the vest. There’s already enough open source information to lock Jr. and Kushner up for a long, long time, and now it’s being tied back to Trump. It’s all coming together, folks. There will be tantrums, distractions, whataboutism, calls for revolt, and whatever else the desperate orange despot can cook up in his increasing solitude, but the wheels of justice roll inexorably onward.
At this point, if you’re still inclined to call this a nothingburger, you have to at least clarify that it was made with grade-a Mos-cow, served on a treason bun, topped with lightly-toasted collusion crisps, and drizzled with a Russian red reduction.
LOVE that final paragraph!
It ws great. The entire article ws interesting. Jst love sm Angry
This was fantastic – and yep, last paragraph sealed the deal for it being super fantastic!
Wow, a great insight and a clarification for me. Also loved your end conclusion. Thanks!!!
You are a brilliant writer and a Godsend to our sanity these past two years which have felt like 20. Thank you for being the stable voice of reason in these unreasonable and horrific times. Your sound input is so very much appreciated by so many worried Americans.
This makes Watergate sound like child’s play.
Also, I hope you are writing a book.
Remember when a gross affair in the WH was like the biggest deal in the world? Ha.
Loved the last paragraph too. That needs to be made into a meme.
Thank you. Connecting the dots gives hope.
Nothing give me more hope than a really great nothing burger with my morning coffee!
When Paul Manafort first came onto the Trump scene in 2016 I asked myself, “who is this guy?” I started researching to find out. What I found out was his ties to Ukraine and Russia, Kilimnik, Russian Oligarchs (and a monstrous debt) et al, and that info set off immediate alarm bells. I started screaming this on social media. Two months later, media began asking the same questions albeit quietly and without fanfare. Media essentially sat down preferring to focus on trump’s insipid and dangerous tweets instead. IN the meantime, I’m reading article about meetings in the Seychelles, on a yacht, including names like Eric Prince, Kushner, Russian oligarchs. Someone was watching and paying attention and even writing articles about it. Nearly three years later, everything I suspected based on what I was already ready then has come full circle. Given the reports from Angry WhiteHouse Staffer, I am confident that Mueller has it all and if I’m right, then NSA has it too. Trump will not survive this. The GOP cannot survive this unless they cut ties with Trump. The bigger question is will the United States of America survive this very big ugly.