Emails Show Manafort Used Campaign Position To Please Russian Oligarch
Evidence of collusion mounts with the release of new Manafort emails.
Paul Manafort was told that his campaign work for Donald Trump would “hugely enhance [his] reputation” with billionaire Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, according to email exchanges obtained by The Atlantic.
Manafort had previously worked for Deripaska.
According to emails obtained by The Atlantic, Manafort eagerly reached out to an associate, Konstantin Kilimnik who was Manafort’s number two in Ukraine, to see if the Russian billionaire had seen media coverage of his joining the Trump campaign.
The Washington Post was first to report the existence of the emails in which Manafort asks his associate, how they will leverage his position with the Trump campaign but the details provided by The Atlantic go much further.
Here is the exchange:
Manafort: “I assume you have shown our friends my media coverage, right?”
Kilimnik: “Absolutely. Every article.”
Manafort: “How do we use to get whole. Has OVD operation seen?”
As The Atlantic notes, the emails show “that Manafort attempted to leverage his leadership role in the Trump campaign to curry favor with a Russian oligarch close to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Manafort was deeply in debt, and did not earn a salary from the Trump campaign.”
Here is another portion of the emails published by The Atlantic:
“Yes, I have been sending everything to Victor, who has been forwarding the coverage directly to OVD,” Kilimnik told Manafort in April. As The Atlantic notes, “Victor” is a Deripaska aide, the source close to Manafort confirmed.
“Frankly, the coverage has been much better than Trump’s,” Kilimnik wrote. “In any case it will hugely enhance your reputation no matter what happens.”
And again in July, Manafort emails his associate about Deripaska:
“‘Is there any movement on this issue with our friend?’ Manafort seemed concerned about whether the journalist’s probing had caught the attention of Deripaska. A source close to Manafort confirmed to me that ‘our friend’ indeed referred to the Russian oligarch. Kilimnik did not respond to requests for comment.”
“Referring to the journalist from the Kyiv Post, ‘I would ignore him,’ Kilimnik wrote back, responding within minutes to reassure Manafort that it was just “a junior reporter” and nothing to worry about.
“In the back-and-forth that followed, Kilimnik suggested that Manafort’s efforts to please Deripaska were succeeding.”
“‘I am carefully optimistic on the issue of our biggest interest,’ Kilimnik went on. ‘Our friend V said there is lately significantly more attention to the campaign in his boss’s mind, and he will be most likely looking for ways to reach out to you pretty soon, understanding all the time sensitivity. I am more than sure that it will be resolved and we will get back to the original relationship with V.’s boss.’ The source close to Manafort confirmed that “V” is a reference to Victor, the Deripaska aide.”
“To which Manafort wrote back: ‘Tell V boss that if he needs private briefings we can accommodate.’
And just one week after Donald Trump officially received the Republican nomination, Manafort got another email from his friend Kilimnik. And as you will see, the emails are getting more and more cryptic.
The subject read: “Black Caviar.”
“I met today with the guy who gave you your biggest black caviar jar several years ago,” Kilimnik wrote.
“We spent about 5 hours talking about his story, and I have several important messages from him to you. He asked me to go and brief you on our conversation. I said I have to run it by you first, but in principle I am prepared to do it, provided that he buys me a ticket. It has to do about the future of his country, and is quite interesting. So, if you are not absolutely against the concept, please let me know which dates/places will work, even next week, and I could come and see you.”
Manafort agreed to the meeting saying, “Tuesday is best.”
