[View here as a Twitter thread]
1/ We already knew that Manafort worked directly for Viktor Yanukovych, the Putin-backed puppet-President of Ukraine. (Yanukovych was ousted in 2014 when the Ukrainians revolted; remember Yanukovych’s government police fired into crowds of protestors)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/20/ukraine-protests-truce-eu-leaders/5634235/
2/ Mueller’s exhibits contain Manafort’s memos and letters to Yanokovych and others explaining how to “promote” Yanukovych’s image and [falsely] persuade the world that Yanokuvoych was trying to build a “Rule of Law democracy.”
3/Manafort wrote a memo to Yanukovych detailing a smear campaign to discredit his rival, Yulia Tymoshenko. He went to work enacting his smear campaign in the US—while hiding the fact that he was working for (and getting paid big bucks by) Yanukovych. justice.gov/file/1094146/d
4/ Manafort directed his lobbyists (D1 and D2) to spread false stories in the US news media that Yulia Tymoshenko paid for the murder of a Ukranian official. He took care to make sure the story couldn’t be traced to him.
5/ Manafort also orchestrated a scheme for “Obama Jews” to put pressure on Obama’s administration to support Yanukovych by spreading the lie that his rival, Tymoshenko, associated with anti-Semites. Some Israelis were brought in to the scheme. justice.gov/file/1094156/d…
6/ When Yanukovych jailed Tymoshenko on false charges, Manafort hired a law firm to write legal defenses of the Tymoshenko criminal trial and defend Yanukovych. Privately the lawyers told Manafort that the evidence that Tymoshenko committed a crime was “virtually nonexistent.”
7/ Manafort hid facts from the public showing that the charges were false. He rolled out a million dollar public relations scheme show that Yanukovych rightfully jailed Tymoshenko. Where did the millions of dollars Manafort was paid come from?
8/ Stolen from the people of Ukraine, of course. Yanukovych is now accused of heading a mafia-style syndicate whose crimes cost Ukraine up to $100 billion. In plain language: Manafort was paid with blood money.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-yanukovich/toppled-mafia-president-cost-ukraine-up-to-100-billion-prosecutor-says-idUSBREA3T0K820140430
9/ In Feb. 2028, after Manafort was indicted, Manafort and Russian political operative Kilimnik reached out directly to Persons D1 and D2 and pressured them to lie about the lobbying they did at Manafort’s request. (Prosecutors included a telephone log of the many calls)
10/ Most of the Statement of the Offense is filled with facts about how Manafort laundered tens of millions of dollars & lied to banks (no surprise there). Here is something significant (I may be burying the lede in Tweet 10): The phrase “and others” is repeated 5 times.
11/ Like this: “Manafort and others . . .” “Manafort conspired with Gates, Kilimnik, and others to act . . .” There are five separate sentences mention “and others.” Who the heck are those others? We don’t know. But they know. And they know Mueller knows.
12/ After reading these exhibits, I can also draw this conclusion: Manafort is a lot smarter than Trump. He’s the smart guy Trump brought in to help him when he needed a campaign, and nobody in his circle knew how to run one. Cohen, OTOH, seems like the flunkey.
13/ Manafort is a king-maker. Trump is a tool. What do I mean by tool? See twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield… Trump’s response to Manafort’s plea has been somewhat muted. Maybe that’s because Manafort is higher in the criminal org than Trump.
14/ What criminal organization? This one twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield…My guess is that Team Trump is busy hatching a plan. I expect something like another “release the memo” / dueling memos spectacle.
15/I expect Trump & pals to put forward blatant lies. Everyone will get sucked into spending their time exposing the lies. Meanwhile, Fox will gloat over the “news.” The goal? Get enough people so confused that the Manafort guilty plea & implications will get lost in the noise.
16/ Here’s why we have hope: The Russian Puppet President scheme failed in Ukraine. It will fail here, too. We’re onto their tricks.
