Mueller Draws His Most Direct Line Yet Between Trump Campaign and Russia

[bigtree]

Washington Post @washingtonpost 15m15 minutes ago
Analysis: Mueller just drew the most direct line to date between the Trump campaign and Russia https://t.co/ZTwL708tTV

That line is drawn in a new court filing related to the upcoming sentencing of London attorney Alex van der Zwaan. Van der Zwaan has pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with deputy Trump campaign manager Rick Gates and a person not named in the document, Person A. Person A appears to be a former Ukraine-based aide to Gates and Paul Manafort named Konstantin Kilimnik.

Here's the paragraph:

That Person A has had ties to Russian intelligence is not terribly surprising. Kilimnik's personal history has been examined extensively by the media, including The Washington Post. He has denied being involved in Russian intelligence, but he served in the Russian military and attended a Russian military foreign language university that is seen as a breeding ground for intelligence agents.

What's particularly significant in the Mueller filing, though, are six words: “and had such ties in 2016.” Prosecutors have said previously that a longtime Manafort and Gates associate had ties to Russian intelligence, but they have never said those ties remained during the 2016 campaign. In December, they said this associate was “a longtime Russian colleague . . . who is currently based in Russia and assessed to have ties to a Russian intelligence service.” Why those six words were added in this filing when they didn't appear in a previous filing is the $64,000 question.

The other new piece here is that they say Gates described Person A (again, apparently Kilimnik) as “a former Russian Intelligence Officer with GRU.” (GRU is Russia's military intelligence organization.) So according to van der Zwaan, Gates talked openly about Person A's ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik told The Post in June that he has “no relation to the Russian or any other intelligence service.” Mueller is now apparently directly disputing that using Gates's own words...

read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/03/28/mueller-just-drew-the-most-direct-line-to-date-between-the-trump-campaign-and-russia/?__twitter_impression=true&__twitter_impression=true&__twitter_impression=true&utm_term=.7543627d7d03


Brad Heath @bradheath
Mueller's office says FBI agents determined that a person who worked with Manafort and Gates "has ties to a Russian intelligence service." He told Van Der Zwaan that he was a former GRU intelligence officer.

thread: twitter.com/bradheath/status/978823498662588416

[Botany]

1. Links between Trump (through Gates) and Russia in Sept. & Oct 2016

[bigtree]

4. that's perfect

...thank you!

[Botany]

5. I love Mike Pence's "of course not"

BTW Pence was involved in the Trump/Russia crime wave too.

[DemocracyMouse]

9. "Trump/Russia crime wave" is apt

[Botany]

14. This is the largest and most wide spread organized crime syndicate in history.

Rigging elections are just a small part of the network.

Money laundering, murder, cyber attacks, banking, oil and gas production,
distribution, and sales, spying, military actions, kidnapping, black mail, media
manipulations (I'll bet anybody that Fox News gets stuff from Russia), mafia stuff,
pushing wedge issues, and porno/prostitution projects are all part of Godfather
Vlad's crime family. Some of the same people who worked for Brexit also worked
for Trump's "election" too.

BTW How did McConnell know that if he waited after the election he would have
somebody else to vote for SCOTUS?

[Wwcd]

2. Kilimnik was named over a year ago by twitter sleuths.

(Just saying)

However, it is encouraging to hear MSM reporting this since it tells us Mueller has narrowed his investigation tighter & to the point where there really are now even fewer paths out of this for the Trump criminals.

Great read. Thanks bigtree

K & R

[blake2012]

3. They did not say back then with any certainty

That Person A still had ties to Russian intelligence agencies in 2016 while working on the campaign.

[Wwcd]

8. They knew enough to name him.

Glad they again were proven correct

[bigtree]

6. kick

[Achilleaze]

7. Way down upon the Zwanee River*...

* aka The KGOP Traitor Trickle

Freaking republicans and their Evil Empire* cronies betraying America and American democracy...as skanky as it gets.

[bigtree]

15. Zwan song

...

[Mountain Mule]

10. K&R! nt

[C Moon]

11. It has to be clearer-than-clear to convince our traitor-laced GOP controlled H&S.

Hopefully, Mueller will show evidence of links to Russia and Ryan/McConnell, etc, first.

[UCmeNdc]

12. K&R

Gates is a Russian intelligence asset.

[dalton99a]

13. Kick

[triron]

16. MSM is giving almost no attention so far today. Why??

Have a feeling Ari Melber will though. (and Rachel)

[Jamaal510]

17. K&R