Quote (excellence @ Jul 31 2018 07:23pm)
>ukraine hacked the election
Quote
Manafort also may have seen his role on Trump’s campaign as way to settle his debts. Years earlier, Russian aluminum titan Oleg Deripaska ploughed $18.9 million into a telecoms venture in Ukraine run by Manafort and his number two, Rick Gates. When the 2008 financial crisis poleaxed Deripaska’s net worth, he asked Manafort and Gates to sell the firm and give him his cash back. But the two Americans never complied (and it’s not clear that they had even invested the cash in the company, either, Foer reports.)
After joining Trump’s team, Manafort reportedly instructed Konstantin Kilimnik, his number two in Kyiv who was deeply entwined in Kremlin politics, to send his positive press to Deripaska. “How do we use to get whole. Has OVD operation seen,” he asked Kilimnik, using Deripaska’s initials. He reportedly suggested offering the billionaire “private briefings” (paywall) about the Trump campaign.
There’s no evidence to show that Deripaska took the briefings, but the offer is a big deal: Deripaska, who travels on a Russian diplomatic passport, “does not separate himself from the Russian state” according to recent sanctions on him issued by the US Treasury. Briefing Deripaska would essentially mean briefing the Kremlin
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