Home / General / The real Russiagate scandal was Russian ratfuckers collaborating with the Trump campaign

The real Russiagate scandal was Russian ratfuckers collaborating with the Trump campaign

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Look who’s back:

Former president Donald Trump is expected to enlistPaul Manafort, the former campaign manager he pardoned, as a campaign adviser later this year, according to four people familiar with the talks.

The job discussions have largely centered on the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July and could include Manafort playing a role in fundraising for the presumptive GOP nominee’s campaign, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations. While no formal decision has been made, the four people described the hiring as expected and said Trump was determined to bring Manafort back into the fold.

Manafort worked for Trump in 2016 before being ousted and later convicted of tax and bank fraud felonies as part of Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. He served time in prison before receiving a pardon in the final days of Trump’s time in office.

[…]

The hiring of Manafort would be likely to revive discussion of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 elections, which Mueller concluded was “sweeping and systemic.” Mueller also found that Manafort shared internal Trump campaign polling data with a longtime associate who the FBI assessed had ties to Russian intelligence.

A bipartisan Senate committee that investigated Russian interference in the 2016 elections concluded that Manafort’s receptivity to Russian outreach was a “grave counterintelligence threat” that had made the 2016 campaign susceptible to “malign Russian influence.”

While it’s nice to see a citation to the nearly-disappeared Senate Intelligence Committee report, Wheeler says that Dawsey goes on to actually underplay Manafort’s collaboration:

First, there is absolutely no dispute that Manafort sent campaign data to Kilimnik to share with his Ukrainian backers and Oleg Deripaska. Manafort simply maintained that he only instructed Rick Gates to share public data (Kilimnik’s other business partner, Sam Patten, said Manafort shared internal data). But the polling data has never been the key point. They key point was, weeks before the Russians started stealing Hillary’s internal modeling, Manafort told Kilimnik how he planned to win the race in the swing states — Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and also Minnesota — where Trump ultimately did win it.

Dawsey of course is silent about the other two undisputed aspects of the August 2, 2016 meeting. Kilimnik pitched Manafort on a plan to carve up Ukraine (Manafort ultimately admitted that Kilimnik did; he just claimed he didn’t buy into the plan at that point). And Manafort talked about how to get paid by his Ukrainian backers and get his debt with Oleg Deripaska relieved.

That is, the meeting at least maps the outline of a quid pro quo: a commitment to carve up Ukraine in exchange for millions and help winning the election.

And Robert Mueller didn’t just accuse Manafort of lying during the period when he was supposed to be cooperating. Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that he had.

Paul Manafort lied to cover up what really happened between him and Konstantin Kilimnik, and Donald Trump pardoned Manafort to reward those lies.

Seems like it’s time for another investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop!

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