Russian Cutout Manafort To The Rescue?

 

In his financial/ legal/ political desperation, the unscrupulous Malignant Loser is eyeing convicted felon and Russian cutout Paul Manafort to help with "campaign fundraising":

Former President Donald Trump’s team is in discussions with Paul Manafort, his 2016 campaign chairman whom he later pardoned, to potentially help with the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, three sources familiar with the ongoing conversations told CNN.

Manafort, who was one of several individuals who ran Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was pardoned by Trump after being found guilty of several financial crimes in 2018.

One source indicated that Manafort would be helping with fundraising around the July convention but noted that no final decisions had been made. 

You might recall those impressive financial crimes and his treasonous resume:

Manafort spent close to two years of a 7.5-year sentence in prison for bank and tax fraud, illegal foreign lobbying and witness tampering conspiracies before being released in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, spending the remainder of his sentence under home confinement prior to his pardon.

The former Trump campaign staffer was found to have committed financial fraud in 2019. Those convictions were obtained by special counsel Robert Mueller as he investigated Manafort’s alleged collusion with the Russian government in 2016 – though Manafort’s crimes did not relate directly to his work as Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman.

As part of his plea deal with Mueller’s team, he agreed to cooperate with the prosecutors on the then-special counsel’s team – before lying during those interview sessions...

As Todd Zwillich notes:

No repetition of “Russia, Russia, Russia!” obscures the bipartisan, *GOP-led* Senate Intel Committee report, pg 943: Manafort strategized with and gave campaign info to a Russian agent during ongoing interference operations in the 2016 campaign.  [snip]

“These are stubborn facts that cannot be ignored.”

Manafort was a key part of Trump’s willing acceptance of a foreign adversary’s assault on the United States, “in exchange for advancing their own self-interest.”  [snip]

“This is what collusion looks like.” - Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Russian Active Measures Campaign, chaired by @SenMarcoRubio 

(We're not holding our breath waiting for windsock gusano Li'l Marco to comment on Manafort helping with "fundraising" for his cult leader.)

Since fundraising for the Christofascist Republican MAGA cult means fundraising for the Malignant Loser's defense fund, Manafort is well- positioned to get Russian dark money into the Malignant Loser's desperate hands.  Our intelligence services should be keeping a close eye on this self- serving traitor (well, both of them).

(Photo:  trusted fraud Manafort arriving in cuffs for his arraignment in 2019 / Yana Paskova/Getty Images)

 

Manafort Worked With Russian Intelligence, Was A "Grave Counterintelligence Threat"

The Republican- led Senate Intelligence Committee's final report on Russian interference in the 2016 election to benefit existential threat Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump is out with some stark findings.  For example, it's now confirmed that the shady figure Konstantin Kilimnik is a Russian intelligence officer and was working hand- in- glove with then- Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.  Here are more key points assembled by CNN:

• That then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort was working with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence officer, and sought to share internal campaign information with Kilimnik. The committee says it obtained "some information suggesting Kilimnik may have been connected" to Russia's 2016 hacking operation and concludes Manafort's role on the campaign "represented a grave counterintelligence threat."

• That Trump and senior campaign officials sought to obtain advance information on WikiLeaks' email dumps through Roger Stone, and that Trump spoke to Stone about WikiLeaks, despite telling the special counsel in written answers he had "no recollections" that they had spoken about it. 

• That information offered at the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting "was part of a broader influence operation" from the Russian government, though there's no evidence Trump campaign members knew of it. Two of the Russians who met with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Manafort had "significant connections" to the Russian government, including Russian intelligence, and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya's ties were "far more extensive and concerning than what had been publicly known."

• That Russian-government actors continued until at least January 2020 to spread disinformation about Russia's election interference, and that Manafort and Kilimnik both sought to promote the narrative that Ukraine, and not Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

• That Russia took advantage of the Trump transition team's inexperience and opposition to Obama administration policies "to pursue unofficial channels," and it's likely that Russian intelligence services and others acting on the Kremlin's behalf exploited the Transition's shortcomings for Russia's advantage.

The Russians are still colluding with COVID Donnie in ways we can't know at this time.  Meanwhile, his consigliere William "Low" Barr is pressing ahead with his investigation of the investigators, still trying to undercut the conclusions of the Meuller report, intelligence agencies, and now this bipartisan Senate report.  It makes it all the more imperative that their asset is removed by voters in November and that he not be allowed to spend one more second in the White (Supremacist) House than necessary. There's no greater purpose for this country than to rid itself of this treasonous, malignant threat.

Manafort Urged Trump To Attack FBI's Russia Probe Starting In Early 2017

Undermining the rule of law and betraying his country, all in a day's work for über felonious sleazeball Paul Manafort:

Paul Manafort, who served as the manager for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, provided advice to the president and senior White House officials on the FBI’s Russia investigation during the earliest days of the Trump administration. He gave guidance on how to undermine and discredit the FBI’s inquiry into whether the president, his campaign aides, and family members conspired with the Russian Federation and its intelligence services to covertly defeat Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, according to government records and interviews with individuals familiar with the matter. Manafort himself was under criminal investigation by the FBI during this same time, a fact then known to the White House. [snip]

... Manafort advised the president and his political surrogates to more aggressively and directly attack the FBI and other elements of the federal law enforcement apparatus investigating his administration. The goal of Manafort’s advice was to “delegitimize” the investigation itself, one person familiar with the advice explained to me. Manafort wanted nothing less than to “declare a public relations war on the FBI,” this same person said. Another goal was to discredit then-FBI Director James Comey and other senior FBI officials — as it had become increasingly likely they would be witnesses against the president.  (our emphasis)

There's no doubt Individual-1 followed Manafort's advice, which happens to match Individual-1's style of attacking any threats to his power and status anyway.  The article also notes Manafort, well into 2017, urged the White (Supremacist) House and Congressional co- conspirators (=cough= Devin Nunes =cough=) to attack the basis of the FISA warrants on himself and Carter Page, the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, all in an apparent effort to distract from and discredit the Special Counsel's investigation.

Meanwhile, after his felony convictions and signing an agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel, Manafort has been caught back- channeling information to the White (Supremacist) House, hoping to get a pardon from Individual-1.  These new facts, plus that pattern of duplicitous behavior, just adds to Manafort's obstruction of justice binder.  He's just too stupid to have realized that the people in and around the Trump crime family (Individual-1's "political surrogates") were fellow rats perfectly willing to squeal on him when the pressure came down (plus, it looks like there are receipts in the form of "government records").

Of all the associates of the Trump crime family who deserve to spend the rest of their lives in jail, this shitstain is very close to the top of our list. Lock him up, lock him up!

(Photo illustration by Slate. Images by Pool/Getty Images, Brendan McDermid/Reuters, Sarah Rice/Getty Images.)

The Alternative Universe Media Doesn't See What It Doesn't Want To See

While it appears from our limited vantage point that much of the "mainstream" corporate media -- broadcast and print -- seems to have completely whiffed on the import of yesterday's filings (their emphasis has mostly been on Michael Cohen's potential jail time rather than that an arm of the Justice Department has corroborating evidence that Individual 1 committed felonies or on offers of Russian "political synergy" to Trump's  campaign organization), the Republican- wired media is even further into the ether of its alternative universe, often leading with the White House line on the Paul Manafort filings as a way to distract/ deflect from the breaking Cohen news.

Here's just a small sampling of "nothing to see here move along" headlines (we don't link to these cranks) as illustrations.

The Washington Examiner:

Manafort, Cohen legal filings include nothing new about Trump, White House claims

FoxNews.com:

'No collusion' by Trump with Russia shown in new Cohen and Manafort court filings

Boston Herald:

The Latest: White House says court filings show nothing new

The Washington Times:

Mueller recommends ‘substantial’ jail time for Cohen, but no Russian collusion mentioned

and

Mueller accuses Manafort of lying, but not about Russia collusion


"No collusion! No collusion!  You're the collusion!"  Well, you get the half- assed, distorted picture.  This, of course, is if they're even covering it at all. Pretty much what you'd expect, and why there's about 40 percent of the population living in Trump's artificial world.

We've already briefly covered the importance of the Southern District of New York's Cohen filing, indicating there was corroborating evidence of Trump's commission of campaign finance felonies. But to briefly put a point on the claim that the Mueller filings on Manafort and Cohen show no evidence of "collusion," you would need to be able to read the redacted portions of the Manafort filing and also ignore the clues in Mueller's Cohen filing to come to such a risible, misleading conclusion.  As the Special Counsel's office (SCO) previewed in its Cohen filing:

"...Cohen provided the SCO with useful information concerning certain discrete Russia- related matters core to its investigation that he obtained by virtue of his regular contact with [Trump] Company executives during the campaign."

Tick tock tick tock.

Trump-Russia Investigation "Tying Up Loose Ends"

While the media is consumed with presenting its hagiography of George H.W. Bush and his funeral, there are some potentially explosive developments in the Special Counsel's investigation coming up this week to keep an eye on:

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors have told defense lawyers in recent weeks that they are “tying up loose ends” in their investigation, providing the clearest clues yet that the long-running probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election may be coming to its climax, potentially in the next few weeks, according to multiple sources close to the matter. 

The new information about the state of Mueller’s investigation comes during a pivotal week when the special counsel’s prosecutors are planning to file memos about three of their most high profile defendants — former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen. 

A Flynn sentencing memo is due Tuesday, and memos about Manafort and Cohen are slated for Friday. All three documents are expected to yield significant new details on what cooperation the three of them provided to the Russia investigation. (snip)

The fact that Mueller is planning a public filing about Manafort suggests he may no longer feel the need to withhold information about his case in order to bring additional indictments against others. That would be consistent with messages his prosecutors have given defense lawyers in recent weeks indicating that they are in the endgame of their investigation. 

Maybe "tying up the loose ends" refers to completing the final report to be issued on the investigation; perhaps it refers to completing indictments for members of the Trump crime family and its attendants;  perhaps it also means finishing the evidentiary hand-offs to other prosecutors of ancillary crimes the Special Counsel's investigation has uncovered that are not directly in his purview.  How about all three?  Observers have noted that making the memos public in the courts keeps Trump flunky and "Acting Attorney General" Matthew Whitaker from deep- sixing damning evidence that would appear in the Special Counsel's final report.

As far as making an obstruction of justice case against Trump, the un- indicted co- conspirator has provided the Special Counsel with enough evidence (from the firing of James Comey to the dangling of pardons to various slugs) to justify a rather fat article of impeachment.

Keep an eye out today, and on Friday for the court filings and what they reveal.

We could be seeing two funerals this week.

Manafort Pleads Guilty To Two Counts Of Conspiracy (UPDATED)

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has just pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  One conspiracy count concerned conspiracy to defraud the United States (with Russian Konstantin Kilimnick and Rick Gates) mostly through money laundering activities while serving as an unregistered foreign agent;  the second count concerned conspiracy to obstruct justice through witness tampering.

Several significant points regarding the process:

1) It's not known yet whether Manafort's plea agreement includes an agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel's investigation [see update below]; and

2) Some of the crimes Manafort has pleaded guilty to are also state crimes (eg., money laundering), meaning such crimes are prosecutable at the state level and are not pardonable by Trump.

This follows Manafort's August convictions in Federal court in Virginia on 8 counts of felony tax and bank fraud.

Here's a clue to look for in the coming hours/ days:  if Manafort's attorney's abrogate the cooperation agreement with Trump's "legal team" (as Michael Cohen did before he flipped), it means he's cooperating with the Special Counsel.  But while we wait until more is known about what, if anything, has been agreed upon before we pop too many corks, at least we can indulge in some schadenfreude:  "Lock him up!  Lock him up!"

UPDATE:  Pop the corks!  There is a 17- page cooperation agreement with the Special Counsel! Or as Benjamin Wittes puts it --

Boom!https://t.co/2VEHiTUOOP pic.twitter.com/tctFwNSPKx

— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) September 14, 2018

Here's what he could be spilling on Trump.

UPDATE II:  Marcy Wheeler explains why the cooperation agreement is "pardon proof."

Can't wait to see Rump's next tweet about "brave" Paul Manafort not being a "rat."

Manafort Found Guilty On 8 Felony Charges

It's a really, REALLY bad day for un- indicted co- conspirator Donald "Rump" Trump:

President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Tuesday was found guilty of eight criminal counts, including five counts of tax fraud. 

Manafort was also found guilty of two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to file foreign bank account reports.

The judge declared a mistrial on the additional 10 counts after the jury indicated it was deadlocked on those counts.

Manafort Goes To Jail

Lock him up!

Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, was ordered jailed by a federal judge on Friday after being arraigned on a new charge of witness tampering. 

Multiple reporters in the court said that Manafort would be jailed as he awaited trial. 

Manafort was in federal court in D.C. to be arraigned on a new charge filed as part of a superseding indictment in which Manafort is accused of witness tampering.

You don't mess with Robert Mueller.  Are you watching, Michael Cohen? (Maybe so.)

The Doors Are Shutting On Paul Manafort

Another Hail Mary is intercepted by the justice system. Time to cut a deal.

A federal judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Paul Manafort challenging special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s criminal probe of Russian interference in 2016 U.S. elections. 

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson tossed out Manafort’s attempt to bar the special counsel from bring future charges against the President Trump’s former campaign chairman, citing the “sound and well-established principle” that potential defendants not use lawsuits to “circumvent federal criminal procedure” that already provide for individuals to challenge charges. 

Manafort’s lawyers had at first asked the judge to void Mueller’s appointment and dismiss all indictments against him already filed in the District and Virginia contending Mueller had overstepped his authority. Manafort’s attorneys later withdrew those requests.

 Better his attorneys be working on a plea agreement.

Manafort's Home Raided By FBI (UPDATED)

New this morning:

FBI agents raided the Alexandria home of President Trump’s former campaign chairman late last month, using a search warrant to seize documents and other materials, according to people familiar with the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. 

Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee. 

The search warrant was wide-ranging and FBI agents working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III departed the home with various records. [snip] 

Manafort has been voluntarily producing documents to congressional committees investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The search warrant indicates investigators may have argued to a federal judge they had reason to believe Manafort could not be trusted to turn over all records in response to a grand jury subpoena. 

The FBI's "reason to believe" Manafort was withholding records likely speaks to the fact that they have other sources who have evidence Manafort is not cooperating fully. The fact that the raid happened two weeks ago speaks to the tight ship being run by Special Counsel Mueller (our bet is that this news was leaked by someone on Manafort's team).

Mueller's investigation has Trumpworld rattled to its core, to the extent Trump mouthpiece John Dowd is telling anyone who'll listen that Trump has told Mueller he "appreciates" what Mueller is doing (after months of disparagement, of course). If you believe that's Trump's honest opinion, we have some real estate in the Everglades we'd like to talk to you about. More likely it's to soften the very real appearance of obstruction of Mueller's investigation (too late!).

In any event, the investigation continues to grow and deepen.

UPDATE:  Looks like Trump associates in the tabloid media are smearing Manafort. Coincidence? Opinions vary.

UPDATE II:  Like we said,

Yes, use of a search warrant is significant. Also, this happened last month - Mueller team is quiet, professional, methodical & thorough. https://t.co/PwiN1ScAya

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) August 9, 2017

Today's Treason Round-Up (UPDATED)

Amid the distractions being engineered by unfit nitwit Donald "Rump" Trump and his band of incompetents (=cough= flash boom Syria =cough=), we continue to focus on the slow unraveling of the nexus of connections between Rump, his associates and the kleptocratic regime of Vladimir "Vlad the Invader" Putin. Let's catch up on some recent developments.

Former Rump campaign manager Paul "Secret Agent Man" Manafort is in the spotlight again:

Aug. 19 was an eventful day for Paul Manafort. 

That morning, he stepped down from guiding Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign, after a brief tenure during which Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination, Democrats’ emails were hacked and the campaign’s contacts with Russia came under scrutiny. Dogged by revelations about past financial dealings in Ukraine, Mr. Manafort retreated from public view. 

But behind the scenes, he was busy with other matters. Papers were recorded that same day creating a shell company controlled by Mr. Manafort that soon received $13 million in loans from two businesses with ties to Mr. Trump, including one that partners with a Ukrainian-born billionaire and another led by a Trump economic adviser. They were among $20 million in loans secured by properties belonging to Mr. Manafort and his wife. [snip]

Mr. Manafort’s ties to Ukraine and Russia have come under scrutiny as federal officials investigate Russian meddling in the American presidential election. Investigators are known to have examined aspects of his finances, including bank accounts he had in the secretive tax haven of Cyprus; there is no indication his recent loans are part of the inquiry. (our emphasis)

Manafort, who is now, post facto, registering as a foreign agent, and from whom Rump is now ludicrously distancing himself, is one linchpin in the ultimate investigation into "what does Russia have on Trump." Former advisor Carter Page is another:

The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said. 

The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia, according to the officials. 

This is the clearest evidence so far that the FBI had reason to believe during the 2016 presidential campaign that a Trump campaign adviser was in touch with Russian agents. Such contacts are now at the center of an investigation into whether the campaign coordinated with the Russian government to swing the election in Trump’s favor.

True to form, the Rump regime is now trying to minimize Page's role in the campaign.

Meanwhile, a third linchpin, former Nationals Security Advisor Michael "Can I Haz Immunity?" Flynn continues to learn, much like Manafort, Page and Steve "Loose Cannon" Bannon, that there's no honor (or loyalty) among thieves traitors in the Rump regime:

Retired General Mike Flynn has had a tough couple weeks, and the White House seems more than happy to kick him while he’s down. 

President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser worked with White House lawyers last month to correct a financial disclosure statement that omitted any mention of payments from Russian government-linked entities, only to see the White House release that information to the press. 

The White House would have been entirely within its rights keeping the information to itself—and it did so for other officials who amended financial disclosure statements. 

Instead they released them, causing an additional headache for Flynn and casting more suspicion on the former Trump adviser.  (our emphasis)

"Who's this Flynn guy you keep talking about?"

Clearly, the Rump regime is busy building fire lines using former advisors and regime officials as controlled burns to keep the flames from Rump for as long as possible. The relentlessness of the F.B.I. -- and potentially, the Senate's -- investigation (and bless 'em, the leaks), the cooperation of friendly foreign intelligence agencies, combined with the neck- saving deal- cutting that is likely going on behind the scenes, would appear to make this a loser strategy. But, make no mistake, these ratf*ckers will do everything in their power to hang on, and if necessary, they won't hesitate to bring down our democratic institutions with them.

UPDATE:  Investigators now believe they have "concrete and corroborative evidence" of collusion between the Rump campaign and Russia. Man, that fire's getting closer.

"A Closer Look" At The Last 48 Hours

Seth Meyers talks Russia- Trump scandal, Devin Nunes, Paul Manafort and Neil Gorsuch in a sharp 10 minutes or so:

Trump Rearranges Turds On His Sinking Garbage Scow (UPDATED)

The garbage scow S.S. Trump (otherwise known as his "campaign") is sinking fast:

Donald Trump restructured his campaign leadership Tuesday in a desperate attempt to turn around his flagging presidential bid. 

The GOP nominee hired Steve Bannon, executive chairman of the conservative website Breitbart News, to be his campaign CEO and named Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster and Trump team adviser, as his new campaign manager.

That seemingly leaves Trump's fellow Putin poodle and fixer Paul Manafort odd man (and we do mean odd) out.  Sad!

And why Bannon and Conway?  This sounds about right:

Trump’s stunning decision effectively ended the months-long push by campaign chairman Paul Manafort to moderate Trump’s presentation and pitch for the general election. And it sent a signal, perhaps more clearly than ever, that the real-estate magnate intends to finish this race on his own terms, with friends who share his instincts at his side.  (our emphasis)

When you have an uncontrollable, narcissistic egomaniac at the top, his "instincts" are always going to prevail, and he's going to impose them on his organization because he thinks he's the only smart one in the room.  What he's doing here is what he would do should he ever get into the Oval Office. That should be yet another flag for his enablers in Congress who think he'll be at their disposal.

UPDATE:  The American people are noticing (poll taken before today's rearranging of the turds):

64% of Americans think Trump's campaign has been "poorly run" (vs. 29% for Clinton). New @YouGovUS poll: pic.twitter.com/chOQGRK3VZ

— Nick Gourevitch (@nickgourevitch) August 17, 2016

UPDATE II:  This would be Steve "Breitbart, Not Smart" Bannon:

Trump hires the best people. pic.twitter.com/en2XH2ao8n

— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) August 17, 2016

Morning Conspiracy Reading - It Would Be Irresponsible Not To Speculate*

The New York Times has a must- read report on the shady Russo- Ukrainian connections of Paul Manafort, "campaign" manager for neo- fascist Putin poodle Donald "Rump" Trump:

... Mr. Manafort’s presence remains elsewhere here in the capital, where government investigators examining secret records have found his name, as well as companies he sought business with, as they try to untangle a corrupt network they say was used to loot Ukrainian assets and influence elections during the administration of Mr. Manafort’s main client, former President Viktor F. Yanukovych. 

Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.

Crooked!  Like boss, like hack.

Meanwhile, look who's kicking Manafort in the nuts:

Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief https://t.co/7bh7iIHHaY

— Corey Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) August 15, 2016

For those of you just joining us, that would be CNN's Trump Man and former "campaign" manager/ bouncer Corey Lewandowski.  Revenge! Disarray! Sad!

Finally, look who's vacationing with Vladimir Putin's girlfriend:



Connecting dots... connecting dots...

But of course Manafort had nothing to do with shifting the GOP's stance on Ukraine....

— Franklin Foer (@FranklinFoer) August 15, 2016

*h/t Peggy "Three Sheets to the Wind" Noonan, via TBogg.