The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Republican operative Paul Manafort posed a “grave counterintelligence threat” as President Trump’s campaign manager because of his contacts with Russians connected to Kremlin intelligence.
Manafort, a GOP lobbyist who also spent years working overseas in places such as Ukraine, was the chairman of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign until he resigned in August 2016 and was convicted of a host of crimes arising from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. A 996-page report released on Tuesday, the fifth and final volume of the committee’s inquiry into Russian meddling during the election between Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was unsparing in its assessment of Manafort, especially in regards to his close relationships with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska (who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin) and with Russian national Konstantin Kilimnik, about whom Mueller had said “the FBI assesses to have ties to Russian intelligence” and whom the senators concluded “is a Russian intelligence officer.”
“The Committee found that Manafort’s presence on the Campaign and proximity to Trump created opportunities for the Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump Campaign,” the bipartisan report concluded. “The Committee assesses that Kilimnik likely served as a channel to Manafort for Russian intelligence services, and that those services likely sought to exploit Manafort’s access to gain insight info the Campaign. Taken as a whole, Manafort’s high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik, represented a grave counterintelligence threat.”
Mueller’s investigation concluded that the Russian government interfered in a “sweeping and systematic fashion,” according to his report that was released in April 2019. Mueller’s team also “identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign” but “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
The senators said Manafort’s connections to Russia and Ukraine began in late 2004 when he started working for Deripaska, concluding that “the Russian government coordinates with and directs Deripaska on many of his influence operations.” The committee also determined that Kilimnik, who became Manafort’s primary liaison to Deripaska, “is a Russian intelligence officer.” During the 2016 election, Manafort “directly and indirectly communicated with Kilimnik, Deripaska, and the pro-Russian oligarchs in Ukraine,” and “on numerous occasions, Manafort sought to secretly share internal Campaign information with Kilimnik.” However, “the Committee was unable to reliably determine why Manafort shared sensitive internal polling data or Campaign strategy with Kilimnik or with whom Kilimnik further shared that information.” The senators also claimed they “obtained some information suggesting Kilimnik may have been connected to the GRU’s hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election.”
The Senate investigation found that “beginning while he was Campaign chairman and continuing until at least 2018, Manafort discussed with Kilimnik a peace plan for eastern Ukraine that benefited the Kremlin.” And “after the election, Manafort continued to coordinate with Russian persons, particularly Kilimnik and other individuals close to Deripaska, in an effort to undertake activities on their behalf.” The committee concluded that “Manafort worked with Kilimnik starting in 2016 on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.”
Last summer, Manafort loomed large throughout the two-week trial against Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, whose business dealings with Ukraine drew scrutiny from the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act Unit, but who was ultimately found not guilty on charges of misleading DOJ investigators about his role promoting a report written at the behest of the Kremlin-linked government in Ukraine about the country’s controversial prosecution of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was tried under President Viktor Yanukovych, a close Manafort ally. Manafort was Craig’s contact with Ukraine, and Craig’s case spun off from Mueller’s inquiry.
Deripaska sued Manafort in 2018, alleging he and his business partner, Rick Gates, “vanished more than $18.9 million” of his money. The Putin-linked billionaire is mentioned 64 times in special counsel Mueller’s report, and the U.S. Intelligence Community reportedly believes the Kremlin relied on Deripaska to spread disinformation casting doubt on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
British ex-spy Christopher Steele and his company, Orbis Business Intelligence, worked for Deripaska in early 2016, helping recover millions of dollars the Russian oligarch claimed Manafort had stolen from him. Steele sought help in this anti-Trump research effort from Fusion GPS, its co-founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch wrote in their book. The duo hired Steele soon after.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s December report criticized the Justice Department and the FBI for at least 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against Trump campaign associate Carter Page and for the bureau’s reliance on the Democratic-funded discredited dossier compiled by Steele. Declassified footnotes from Horowitz’s report indicate the bureau became aware that Steele’s dossier may have been compromised by Russian disinformation, and FBI interviews show Steele’s primary subsource undercut the credibility of the dossier.
The Senate committee “found multiple links between Steele and Deripaska, including through two of Deripaska’s lawyers, and indications that Deripaska had early knowledge of Steele’s work,” read the report.
Manafort was convicted in Virginia in 2018 on five counts of tax fraud, one count of concealing his foreign bank accounts, and two counts of bank fraud, while the judge declared a mistrial on 10 other charges. Manafort had also been charged in a separate case with failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, money laundering, making false statements to investigators, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and witness tampering, and he pleaded guilty to just the final two charges in Washington, D.C., a month and a half after his trial conviction.
In early 2019, Judge T.S. Ellis sentenced Manafort to 47 months in prison, and Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to another 43 months behind bars. Manafort was released from prison in May to serve the remainder of his sentence under home confinement amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We can say, without any hesitation, that the Committee found absolutely no evidence that then-candidate Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government to meddle in the 2016 election,” acting Chairman Marco Rubio said. “What the Committee did find however is very troubling. We found irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling. And we discovered deeply troubling actions taken by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, particularly their acceptance and willingness to rely on the ‘Steele Dossier’ without verifying its methodology or sourcing.”
“Volume 5 stands as the most comprehensive examination of ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign to date — a breathtaking level of contacts between Trump officials and Russian government operatives that is a very real counterintelligence threat to our elections,” Vice Chairman Mark Warner said. “I encourage all Americans to carefully review the documented evidence of the unprecedented and massive intervention campaign waged on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump by Russians and their operatives and to reach their own independent conclusions.”
The U.S. Intelligence Community concluded earlier in August that the Russian government is “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate” former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee. The Chinese Communist Party wants Trump to lose reelection, and the Iran regime is seeking to undermine his presidency, the assessment also found.
