You are not logged in. Please register or login.
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Re: US Politics Thread
Manafort associate had Russian intelligence ties during 2016 campaign, prosecutors say
The FBI has found that a business associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, including during the 2016 presidential campaign when Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were in touch with the associate, according to new court filings.
The documents, filed late Tuesday by prosecutors for special counsel Robert Mueller III, also allege that Gates has said he knew the associate was a former officer with the Russian military intelligence service.
The allegations underscore Mueller's interest in Manafort and Gates, who continued to interact with business associates in Ukraine even as they helped lead Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
Manafort, 68, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, money laundering, and tax and bank fraud charges related to his lobbying work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine and former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
Gates, 45, who was deputy campaign manager for Trump and had earlier worked with Manafort in Ukraine, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and lying to the FBI in a cooperation deal with Mueller's probe.
Prosecutors made the allegation without naming the Manafort associate but described his role with Manafort in detail. The description matches Konstantin Kilimnik, the Russian manager of Manafort's lobbying office in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
Kilimnik did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did a White House spokesman or an attorney for Gates.
Kilimnik has previously denied intelligence ties, telling The Washington Post in a statement in June that he has "no relation to the Russian or any other intelligence service."
A spokesman for Manafort, who is under a court gag order, declined to comment.
Manafort has acknowledged staying in frequent contact with Kilimnik during the time he worked for Trump's campaign. He has said he met with Kilimnik in person in May 2016 and again in New York City in August 2016, about two weeks before Manafort resigned as Trump's campaign chairman.
A Manafort spokesman expressed confidence in June that investigators would ultimately conclude that Manafort's interactions with Kilimnik were "perfectly permissible and not in furtherance of some conspiracy."
The information about the FBI's assessment of the Manafort associate came in a court filing related to the upcoming sentencing of London attorney Alex van der Zwaan, whose firm worked with Manafort when he served as a political consultant in Ukraine.
Van der Zwaan, 33, the son-in-law of a prominent Russian Ukrainian banker, pleaded guilty last month to lying about his September 2016 contacts with Gates and the Manafort associate, identified in court documents only as "Person A."
Prosecutors explained that van der Zwaan had lied and withheld documents about information that was "pertinent" to their investigation - that Gates had been in direct contact during the presidential campaign with a person who "has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016."
They said that when van der Zwaan was interviewed by the FBI in November, he told investigators that Gates had informed him that Person A was a former officer of the Russian military intelligence service, known as the GRU.
Kilimnik ran Manafort's office in Kiev during the 10 years he did consulting work there, The Post reported in 2017.
During his August 2016 meeting with Kilimnik, Manafort has said he and his longtime Kiev office manager discussed, among other topics, the ongoing campaign, including the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails. Stolen DNC emails had been released by WikiLeaks the previous month, and the hack was widely suspected to be the work of Russia.
During Kilimnik's time working for Manafort in Kiev, he had served as a liaison for Manafort to the Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, with whom Manafort had done business. Emails previously described to The Post show that Manafort asked Kilimnik during the campaign to offer Deripaska "private briefings" about Trump's effort. A Deripaska spokeswoman has said the billionaire, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was not offered and did not receive such briefings.
Kilimnik previously told The Post that he had served for a time in the early 1990s in the Russian army, but he denied any links to intelligence work.
Manafort has also denied knowingly communicating with Russian intelligence during the campaign. He told the New York Times last year, however, "It's not like these people wear badges that say, 'I'm a Russian intelligence officer.' "
Re: US Politics Thread
Why hasn’t anyone blamed Trump for this. I heard Trump was good for the stock market.
Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1,111 points, or 4.4%, since Congress passed tax cut last December
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) April 2, 2018
Re: US Politics Thread
Why hasn’t anyone blamed Trump for this. I heard Trump was good for the stock market.
Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1,111 points, or 4.4%, since Congress passed tax cut last December
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) April 2, 2018
[/embed]
Oh no no no....we can’t pay attention to any questions of that....
All that matters is how he portrayed himself on a ‘reality’ tv show about business. That’s how i determine what’s real and what’s not....no facts or data....just reality television.
Re: US Politics Thread
https://www.yahoo.com/news/dutch-lawyer … 41377.html
This has to be the most corrupt and unethical group of people in the history of politics. I read that the Trump admin is on pace to have more indictments and convictions that Nixon did....and he'll do it in half the time at this pace.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: US Politics Thread
So Mueller allegedly says Trump isn’t part of a criminal probe. Can we finally call those who push the Russian collusion story conspiracy nuts?
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: US Politics Thread
Yeah he was investigated during both terms start to finish but we didn't overdose on the coverage. There wasn't a feeding frenzy going on. Other than the big dogs like Lewinsky and Whitewater, you had to be really interested in politics to know about the other issues plaguing the Clintons.
It simply doesn't compare to the Trump coverage. Last year CNN had breaking news regarding Trump walking up a flight of stairs and taking a drink of water. We're scraping the bottom of the barrel when news is reduced to covering such non issues.
haha, yea right. It's all everybody talked about.
Of course everybody talked about it but it wasn't the only thing being talked about. Off the top of my head other major stories at the time were the Iraq crisis, Unabomber, Kosovo started heating up, the Titanic craze, the Olympics got major attention, World Cup, etc.
It was still an era where you could turn on the news and multiple things were being covered. The internet had yet to become the monster it currently is.
Turn on the news right now. Pick any channel. I guarantee its a panel of talking heads whining about Trump. Turn it on again in six hours. Pick any channel. I guarantee its another panel of talking heads whining about Trump.
That wouldn't be the case in 1998 during the Lewinsky nonsense.
Not just that, but the media only hesitantly reported Clinton’s accusers. Bryant Gumble opined on air “who’s the real harasser” was when reporting Clinton’s accuser.
To claim the coverage is remotely the same is laughable. Anderson Cooper, whom I respect greatly, is having a conversation with her about if he wore a condom and how attracted she was. For real? And people want to suggest this is remotely the same to the Clinton scandals?
Russian intel has certainly infiltrated our society, but it’s not the Trumpers who are their biggest pawns.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: US Politics Thread
David Hogg is a slimy little cunt.
He's not a victim.
He’s a fraud trying to build a career from this. I certainly empathize that he endured a horrible, traumatic event that no one should have to endure in the 21st century.
That doesn’t make his opinion more valid or prevent any criticism of his ideas or behaviors.
The left has finally admitted repealing the 2nd amendment and gun bans is their end game. You can’t walk that back.
The true irony is all of these parkland students crying about being oppressed and violations of their 4th amendment rights because they have to wear a clear backpack. That’s all the evidence I need to reaffirm that teenagers don’t run the world for a very good reason.
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: US Politics Thread
So much crazy shit happens every day it is impossible to cover them all in this thread.
Re: US Politics Thread
misterID wrote:David Hogg is a slimy little cunt.
He's not a victim.
He’s a fraud trying to build a career from this. I certainly empathize that he endured a horrible, traumatic event that no one should have to endure in the 21st century.
That doesn’t make his opinion more valid or prevent any criticism of his ideas or behaviors.
The left has finally admitted repealing the 2nd amendment and gun bans is their end game. You can’t walk that back.
The true irony is all of these parkland students crying about being oppressed and violations of their 4th amendment rights because they have to wear a clear backpack. That’s all the evidence I need to reaffirm that teenagers don’t run the world for a very good reason.
God your posts are antagonistic....
Who should be in charge of the world then? The Donald trumps of the world?
Fuck the second amendment.
