Manafort's lawyer pleads guilty to lying about contact with Russian agent during 2016 election

[Gold Dragon]

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4424937/Sentencing-Memorandum.pdf

Here is the court document outlining his guilty plea. Bold added by me.

As discussed below, among the topics about which the defendant lied were his communications with Gates, his communications with a Ukrainian business associate of Manafort and Gates (Person A), and his failure to produce an email between himself and the Ukrainian business associate—all important matters in the investigation.

Third, at the time of the interview as well as at the time of his destruction of pertinent documents, van der Zwaan was represented by experienced legal counsel. The defendant was expressly warned by the government that it is a crime to lie to the Special Counsel’s Office, that lying could constitute a federal crime, and that such conduct would carry with it the possibility of going to jail if he were convicted. van der Zwaan stated that he understood. He thereafter deliberately and repeatedly lied.

Instead of truthfully answering questions about his contacts with Gates and Person A, van der Zwaan lied. He denied having substantive conversations with Gates and Person A in 2016. When confronted with an email dated September 12, 2016, sent by Person A to van der Zwaan, the defendant again lied. The email was sent to the defendant’s email address at his law firm, though the Special Counsel’s Office had obtained the email from another source. The email said, in Russian, that Person A “would like to exchange a few words via WhatsApp or Telegram.” van der Zwaan lied and said he had no idea why that email had not been produced to the government, and further lied when he stated that he had not communicated with Person A in response to the email.

As the defendant was aware, he had withheld and otherwise destroyed documents requested by the Special Counsel’s Office through his counsel relating to his work with Manafort, Gates, and Person A. The email with Person A was one such document that the defendant had not produced to his counsel and that the government had obtained through other means. (His counsel had instructed him to collect all such documents.) Further, van der Zwaan in fact had a series of calls with Gates and Person A—as well as the lead partner on the matter—in September and October 2016. The conversations concerned potential criminal charges in Ukraine about the Tymoshenko report and how the firm was compensated for its work. The calls were memorable: van der Zwaan had taken the precaution of recording the conversations with Gates, Person A, and the senior partner who worked on the report. In van der Zwaan’s recorded conversation with Person A, in Russian, Person A suggested that “there were additional payments,” that “[t]he official contract was only a part of the iceberg,” and that the story may become a blow for “you and me personally.”1

Fourth, the lies and withholding of documents were material to the Special Counsel’s Office’s investigation. That Gates and Person A were directly communicating in September and October 2016 was pertinent to the investigation. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents assisting the Special Counsel’s Office assess that Person A has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016. During his first interview with the Special Counsel’s Office, van der Zwaan admitted that he knew of that connection, stating that Gates told him Person A was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the GRU.2

Mueller just connected a top Trump campaign staffer to Russian intelligence

 

[InTheLight]

I wonder if Manafort is lying in this clip? Does his body language, use of words, and smooth delivery of words give us any clues?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL

 

[church mouse guy]

This is old news. Mueller got Democrat Flynn on lying, also. Manafort lobbied for the Ukraine. The lawyer also lied to the FBI.

It looks as if Maxine Waters will be the next President, huh?

 

[Gold Dragon]

This is old news. Mueller got Democrat Flynn on lying, also. Manafort lobbied for the Ukraine. The lawyer also lied to the FBI.

The guilty plea was filed this week and confirmed that the connection was not some distant contact many years ago but happened during the 2016 election while he was still an active agent for Russian intelligence.

 

[church mouse guy]

Russian intelligence? Was that in the paper that I read?

 

[carpro]

Still no collusion.

The fishing expedition continues.

 

[Gold Dragon]

Russian intelligence? Was that in the paper that I read?

Last bolded section of the quoted portion of guilty plea in my OP.

 

[Gold Dragon]

Still no collusion.

True. Not yet and that may never be proven.

But there are lots of illegal activities and connections to Russian intelligence being revealed that are getting closer and closer to Trump. If he was smart he would have set up a ring around him to give him plausible deniability.

If most of his closest advisors are found guilty to being in the pockets of Russian intelligence, how realistic is it that Trump was completely unaware of this?

 

[777]

Seven degrees of separation, guilt by innuendo, grasping at straws, that's what this is all about. So what, you do enough business in Russia, you're going to meet Russian political operatives:

“The people I was working with had been briefed by Moscow to keep a very low profile regarding Moscow’s work with Tehran,” Campbell said in an interview. “Moscow was supplying equipment, nuclear equipment, nuclear services to Iran. And Moscow, specifically the leadership in Moscow, were concerned that it would offset the strategy they had here in the United States if the United States understood the close relationship between Moscow and Tehran.” A spokesman for former President Obama did not return multiple requests for comment.

Congressional Democrats have written a memo questioning Campbell’s credibility and memory while Republicans say his story calls into question the favorable treatment the Obama administration gave Russia. (Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...

that doesn't prove collusion, either, better go back to digging up strippers.

 

[carpro]

True. Not yet and that may never be proven.

But there are lots of illegal activities and connections to Russian intelligence being revealed that are getting closer and closer to Trump. If he was smart he would have set up a ring around him to give him plausible deniability.

If most of his closest advisors are found guilty to being in the pockets of Russian intelligence, how realistic is it that Trump was completely unaware of this?

We don't know that he needs to have "plausible deniability" about anything at all. What's coming is a perjury trap. Maybe he can do his best Clinton immitation and just not "recall" or "remember" about 130 different things. If his ego will let him.

Don't ya just know that the most obvious and easiest to prove association with the Russians is Hillary. Seems like Mueller might stumble across something on that, if he's not purposely looking the other way.

I think we all know how that will go.

 

[Calminian]

So the left doesn't mind Mexican nationals coming to our country and marching in our streets influencing elections. They don't mind anyone coming over from any country influencing things......... except Russians!

 

[carpro]

So the left doesn't mind Mexican nationals coming to our country and marching in our streets influencing elections. They don't mind anyone coming over from any country influencing things......... except Russians!

Democrats don't mind them either. Otherwise Hillary would not have engineered the sale of 20% of our uranium to them. They just don't like the idea of the Russians owing anyone but democrats..

 

[Gold Dragon]

Seven degrees of separation, guilt by innuendo, grasping at straws, that's what this is all about.
...
that doesn't prove collusion, either, better go back to digging up strippers.

There are about 75 million straws that Mueller has found linked to 1 degree of separation from Trump. Like most investigations you just need to follow the money. Yes, collusion is not proven yet. But the existence of an easy opportunity for collusion has been proven. And the measures to hide those connections suggest illegal activity of which collusion may be one reason.

Mueller' indictment of Manafort/Gates which details the money trail.

https://www.justice.gov/file/1038391/download

2. 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. During the first part of the scheme between approximately 2006 and 2015, MANAFORT, with GATES’ assistance, failed to pay taxes on this income by disguising it as alleged “loans” from nominee offshore corporate entities and by making millions of dollars in unreported payments from foreign accounts to bank accounts they controlled and United States vendors. MANAFORT also used the offshore accounts to purchase United States real estate, and MANAFORT and GATES used the undisclosed income to make improvements to and refinance their United States properties.

3. In the second part of the scheme, between approximately 2015 and at least January 2017, when the Ukraine income dwindled after Yanukovych fled to Russia, MANAFORT, with the assistance of GATES, extracted money from MANAFORT’s United States real estate by, among other things, using those properties as collateral to obtain loans from multiple financial institutions. MANAFORT and GATES fraudulently secured more than twenty million dollars in loans by falsely inflating MANAFORT’s and his company’s income and by failing to disclose existing debt in order to qualify for the loans.

4. In furtherance of the scheme, MANAFORT and GATES funneled millions of dollars in
payments into numerous foreign nominee companies and bank accounts, opened by them and their accomplices in nominee names and in various foreign countries, including Cyprus, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines (Grenadines), and the Seychelles. MANAFORT and GATES hid the existence and ownership of the foreign companies and bank accounts, falsely and repeatedly reporting to their tax preparers and to the United States that they had no foreign bank accounts.

...

7. In total, more than $75,000,000 flowed through the offshore accounts. MANAFORT, with the assistance of GATES, laundered more than $30,000,000, income that he concealed from the United States Department of the Treasury (Treasury), the Department of Justice, and others. 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.

 

[church mouse guy]

Collusion is not a crime.

 

[Gold Dragon]

Collusion is not a crime.

I agree. But as shorthand for conspiracy to defraud the United States or violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act or the host of other crimes that could be brought against Trump and his advisors, collusion is an appropriate summary term.

What Is Collusion? Is It Even a Crime?

 

[church mouse guy]

So are you one of those guys who says show me the man and I'll show you the crime?

 

[Gold Dragon]

So are you one of those guys who says show me the man and I'll show you the crime?

No. I like to base my statements on evidence which we have lots of with regard to crimes admitted to by Trump's advisors and their proxies in guilty pleas so far.

This is what I wrote about the possibility of Trump colluding with the Russians in June of last year.

Jeff Session's testimony, republican statements and highlights

I believe Sessions that there was no outright collusion between himself or the Trump campaign as a whole with the Russians. I am still open to the possibility that there may have been 1 or 2 individuals on the campaign directly connected to Russia with a direct tie to Trump but hopefully that is not the case.

Unfortunately the evidence that has come out since then has been all in one direction, towards the likelihood that there was collusion. Hopefully that is not the case but I guess we will see as more guilty pleas and evidence comes to light.

 

[church mouse guy]

Lying to the FBI? If you get mixed up while being questioned by the FBI, it is a lie to them. Not registering as a lobbyist for Ukraine? Apparently that is a technicality seldom enforced.

Comey lied to the FBI and everyone else and he is getting rich from his books.

 

[Revmitchell]

No one has been found to being "in the pocket" of Russians

 

[kyredneck]

his ego

...is ultimately the biggest threat to his success, methinks... sumthin like 'pride goeth before a fall....I'm afraid he's a hardhead, won't listen...