Paul Manafort

“ On October 27, 2017, Paul Manafort and Richard Gates were charged in the District of Columbia with various crimes (including FARA) in connection with work they performed for Russia-backed political entities in Ukraine. On February 22, 2018, Manafort and Gates were charged in the Eastern District of Virginia with various other crimes in connection with the payments they received for work performed for Russia-backed political entities in Ukraine. ”

“ Separately, on August 2, 2016, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met in New York City with his long-time business associate Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI assesses to have ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik requested the meeting to deliver in person a peace plan for Ukraine that Manafort acknowledged to the Special Counsel's Office was a "backdoor" way for Russia to control part of eastern Ukraine; both men believed the plan would require candidate Trump 's assent to succeed (were he to be elected President) . ”

“ The President Learns About the Existence of Emails Concerning the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting In mid-June 2017—the same week that the President first asked Lewandowski to pass a message to Sessions—senior Administration officials became aware of emails exchanged during the campaign arranging a meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and a Russian attorney. ”

“ The only other thing I'd add to all that is, again, in the mid 2000s one of the stories I wrote — actually, I wrote a couple different stories about a Russian oligarch having a meeting with Senator John McCain shortly before the 2008 presidential election and another story or set of stories about Paul Manafort and his involvement with some Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs who were considered to be suspicious or corrupt. ”

“ Sara Murray & Eli Watkins, HOM says he won't agree to plea deal, CNN (Nov. 26, 2018) . ↑ Marisa Schultz & Nikki Schwab, Oval Office Interview with President Trump: Trump says pardon for Paul Manafort still a possibility, New York Post (Nov. 28, 2018) , That same day, the President tweeted: "While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief. ”

“ Russian Federation's military intelligence agency. New Economic School in Moscow (NES) Moscow-based school that invited Carter Page to speak at its July 2016 commencement ceremony. Opposition Bloc Ukrainian political party that incorporated members of the defunct Party of Regions. Party of Regions Ukrainian political party of former President Yanukovych. It was generally understood to align with Russian policies. Pericles Emerging Market Partners LLP Company registered in the Cayman Islands by Paul Manafort and his business partner Rick Davis. ”

“ MR. FOSTER: You have not retained?
MR. SIMPSON: Generally we use things that can't be stolen because they no longer exist.
MR. FOSTER: Disappearing messages, auto deleting messages? Is that correct?
MR. SIMPSON: That sort of thing, yes, that's correct.
MR. FOSTER: I just needed a verbal answer.
MR. SIMPSON: Yeah. Sorry.
BY MR. DAVIS:
Q. You previously mentioned the relationship with Mr. Steele was more collaborative than a manager-employee and I think you referenced mentioning as an example Paul Manafort's been named campaign chairman, what do you know about him. ”

“ Trump may want to say about Russia." [367] In a cover email transmitting that memo and a phone call to set up the meeting, Simes mentioned "a well-documented story of highly questionable connections between Bill Clinton" and the Russian government, "parts of [which] " (according to Simes) had even been "discussed with the CIA and the FBI in the late 1990s and shared with the [Independent Counsel] at the end of the Clinton presidency." [368] Kushner forwarded the email to senior Trump Campaign officials Stephen Miller, Paul Manafort, and Rick Gates, with the note "suggestion only." ”

“ Trump Wonders as the White House Soldiers On, New York Times (Aug. 22, 2018) . ↑ Carol D. Leonnig & Josh Dawsey, Trump recently sought his lawyers' advice on possibility of pardoning Manafort, Giuliani says, Washington Post (Aug. 23, 2018) . ↑ Plea Agreement, United States v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., 1:17-cr-201 (D.D.C. Sept. 14, 2018) , Doc. 422. ↑ Karen Freifeld & Nathan Layne, Trump lawyer: Manafort said nothing damaging in Mueller interviews, Reuters (Oct. 22, 2018) ”

“ He explained that, in 2010, he and Yanukovych had lunch to celebrate the recent presidential election. Yanukovych gave Manafort a large jar of black caviar that was worth approximately $30,000 to $40,000. [628] Manafort's identification of Yanukovych as "the guy who gave you your biggest black caviar jar" is consistent with Kilimnik being in Moscow—where Yanukovych resided—when Kilimnik wrote "I met today with the guy," and with a December 2016 email in which Kilimnik referred to Yanukovych as "BG," Grand Jury [629] Manafort replied to Kilimnik's July 29 email, "Tuesday [August 2] is best... ”

“ GATES obtained more than $3,000,000 from the offshore accounts, income that he too concealed from the Treasury, the Department of Justice, and others.
Relevant Individuals And Entities
8. MANAFORT was a United States citizen. He resided in homes in Virginia, Florida, and Long Island, New York.
9. GATES was a United States citizen. He resided in Virginia.
10. In 2005, MANAFORT and another partner created Davis Manafort Partners, Inc. (DMP) to engage principally in political consulting. DMP had staff in the United States, Ukraine, and Russia. ”

“ Gates has provided information and in-court testimony that the Office has deemed to be reliable. ↑ Gates 10/25/18 302, at 1-2. ↑ As explained further in Volume I, Section IV.A.8,Infra, Manafort entered into a plea agreement with our Office. ”

“ Konstantin Kilimnik Kilimnik is a Russian national who has lived in both Russia and Ukraine and was a longtime Manafort employee. [568] Kilimnik had direct and close access to Yanukovych and his senior entourage, and he facilitated communications between Manafort and his clients, including Yanukovych and multiple Ukrainian oligarchs. [569] Kilimnik also maintained a relationship with Deripaska's deputy, Viktor Boyarkin, [570] a Russian national who previously served in the defense attaché office of the Russian Embassy to the United States. ”

“ Manafort communicated with Kilimnik about peace plans for Ukraine on at least four occasions after their first discussion of the topic on August 2: December 2016 (the Kilimnik email described above) ; January 2017; February 2017; and again in the spring of 2018, The Office reviewed numerous Manafort email and text communications, and asked President Trump about the plan in written questions. [554] The investigation did not uncover evidence of Manafort's passing along information about Ukrainian peace plans to the candidate or anyone else in the Campaign or the Administration. ”

“ But there is a specific sequence of events that has intrigued us for a long time, where Cohen and Ivanka and Jared and Trump, and I can't remember whether Manafort's in this mix too, are all in the Hamptons area in August, and [ [w:en:Dmitry Rybolovlev |Dmitry Rybolovlev's] ] plane is somewhere nearby, and flies to Nice. And then most of these guys sort of come off -- fall off the radar and then, you know, I think it's the 12th of August, Rybolovlev's plane lands in Dubrovnik, and Jared and Ivanka surface in Dubrovnik. ”

“ MANAFORT and GATES generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their Ukraine work. From approximately 2006 through the present, MANAFORT and GATES engaged in a scheme to hide income from United States authorities, while enjoying the use of the money. ”

“ From 2008 to 2014, MANAFORT caused the following wires, totaling over $12,000,000, to be sent to the vendors listed below for personal items. MANAFORT did not pay taxes on this income, which was used to make the purchases. ”

“ Manafort instructed Rick Gates, his deputy on the Campaign and a longtime employee, [552] to provide Kilimnik with updates on the Trump Campaign—including internal polling data, although Manafort claims not to recall that specific instruction. Manafort expected Kilimnik to share that information with others in Ukraine and with Deripaska. Gates periodically sent such polling data to Kilimnik during the campaign. Manafort also twice met Kilimnik in the United States during the campaign period and conveyed campaign information. The second meeting took place on August 2, 2016, in New York City. ”

“ During this period of time, the Campaign received a request for a high-level Campaign official to meet with an officer at a Russian state-owned bank "to discuss an offer [that officer] claims to be carrying from President Putin to meet with" candidate Trump. NOSC00005653 (5/17/16 Email, Dearborn to Kushner (8:12 a.m.) ) . Copying Manafort and Gates, Kushner responded, "Pass on this. A lot of people come claiming to carry messages. Very few are able to verify. ”

“ The Special Counsel's Office also alerted defense counsel for each defendant that the government was prepared to bring all of the charges before a Grand Jury in the District of Columbia, if the defendants were willing to waive venue (since otherwise we could not do so legally) . ”

“ ET) Tweet. ↑ @realDonaldTrump 8/1/18 (11:35 a.m. ET) Tweet. ↑ See, e.g., Carol D. Leonnig et al., Trump calls Manafort prosecution "a hoax," says Sessions should stop Mueller investigation "right now", Washington Post (Aug. 1, 2018) ; Louis Nelson, Trump claims Manafort case has "nothing to do with collusion", Politico (Aug. 1. 2018) . ↑ Sarah Sanders, White House Daily Briefing, C-SPAN (Aug. 1, 2018) . ↑ Chris Strohm & Shannon Pettypiece, Mueller Probe Doesn't Need to Shut Down Before Midterms, Officials Say, Bloomberg (Aug. 15, 2018) . ”

“ Kilimnik, who speaks and writes Ukrainian and Russian, facilitated many of Manafort's communications with Deripaska and Ukrainian oligarchs.
i. Oleg Deripaska Consulting Work In approximately 2005, Manafort began working for Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who has a global empire involving aluminum and power companies and who is closely aligned with Vladimir Putin. [556] A memorandum describing work that Manafort performed for Deripaska in 2005 regarding the post-Soviet republics referenced the need to brief the Kremlin and the benefits that the work could confer on "the Putin Government. ”

“ MANAFORT applied to a second bank, Lender D. Between approximately July 2016 and January 2017, MANAFORT, with the assistance of GATES, sought and secured approximately $16,000,000 in two loans from Lender D. MANAFORT used the Bridgehampton property as collateral for one loan, and the Union Street property for the other.
43. MANAFORT and GATES made numerous false and fraudulent representations to secure the loans. For example, MANAFORT provided the bank with doctored P&Ls for DMI for both 2015 and 2016, overstating its income by millions of dollars. ”

“ Gates further told the Office that, after Manafort left the Campaign in mid-August, Gates sent Kilimnik polling data less frequently and that the data he sent was more publicly available information and less internal data. [606]
Gates's account about polling data is consistent Grand Jury [607] with multiple emails that Kilimnik sent to U.S. associates and press contacts between late July and mid-August of 2016. Those emails referenced "internal polling," described the status of the Trump Campaign and Manafort's role in it, and assessed Trump's prospects for victory. ”

“ And Finkelstein was one of the first consultants to really appreciate how to target voters in a way that somewhat resembles the way the Trump campaign and the Russians did. And he spent many years -- he worked -- Finkelstein worked with Stone and Manafort in Ukraine in or around 2005, 2006, for the same cast of bad guys. And later went off to Hungary to work for the pro-Russian prime minister there, Victor Orban, and went into business over there. And there is a lot of allegations coming out of the Hungarian expat community about all of that. And, so, I think that is an important area. ”

“ Gates stated that "our friend" likely referred to Deripaska, [611] and Manafort told the Office that the "issue" (and "our biggest interest," as stated below) was a solution to the Deripaska-Pericles issue. [612] Kilimnik replied:
I am carefully optimistic on the question of our biggest interest.
Our friend [Boyarkin] said there is lately significantly more attention to the campaign in his boss' [Deripaska's] mind, and he will be most likely looking for ways to reach out to you pretty soon, understanding all the time sensitivity. ”