Translated material
You can believe Müller
Special prosecutor Robert Müller made criminal charges to the former head of the Trump Polo -Strp Trump Trump headquarters - however, not what was expected.
Along with Michael Flynn Manafort is one of the central figures of Rashagate. His name has not left the pages of the American press for more than a year. He was in doubtful relationship with the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, received $ 60 million from him in the form of loans and proposed to inform him in private about the course of the presidential campaign. In July last year, he participated in the meeting of Trump Jr. with Natalia Veselnitskaya, as if promising Hillary Clinton, who is located in the Russian authorities. As the head of the headquarters, he could not help but know about the conspiracy, if any.
However, other sins were also behind him. Therefore, Müller, appointed by the special prosecutor on May 17, immediately saw a light prey in Manafort. The apparatus of the special prosecutor did not make any statements and did not comment on the publication in the press. But it was known that Müller carefully studies Manafort's monetary cases. He turned to the tax service, the Department of the Ministry of Finance for financial crimes and the New York prosecutors, and on July 26, the house of Manafort, who was still in no way in bed, came the FBI agents and the order for the search. The search was followed by the testimony of witnesses to the large jury. The information received was enough for 12 points of the indictment . On the morning of October 30, Manafort considered the good, without waiting for an arrest, to voluntarily come to the Washington FBI office.
The claims of justice to Manafort and his “right hand” Rick Gates concern their activities in Ukraine, where they advised Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions since the 2006 election campaign. The income received by tens of millions of dollars did not declare, but brought into offshore and then laundered. One of the methods of legalization was real estate transactions. In 2006-2013, Manafort acquired three real estate objects in New York, including an apartment in the Trump-Tower skyscraper. Housing was bought by fake companies, its cost was completely paid, and then companies sold it to manifors, but already on credit. He took mortgage loans in American banks, thus exchanging dirty money for clean. This scheme was investigated by the prosecutor of the Southern District of New York, who shared information with Robert Muller. If all charges are proved, Manafort can be sentenced to imprisonment for up to 20 years.
In court, Manafort and Gates, where they were delivered for the official charges, did not plead guilty. The judge began to take them into custody and sent both under house arrest, appointing the first fine of 10, and the second of $ 5 million, which they will have to pay if they do not appear on the appointed day. The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
President Trump, who got up before dawn, spent morning in the residential half of the White House to view the morning information programs and did not appear in the Oval office at the usual time. At 10:25 on his page on Twitter a record appeared:
"Sorry, but all this happened years ago, before Manafort took part in the Trump campaign. Why are they not paying attention to the thieving Hillary and Democrats ?????"
After three minutes, he attributed: "And then, there is no conspiracy!"
Indeed, there is not a word about Russia in the indictment. But, apparently, this is only the first phase. The special prosecutor, probably, expects to persuade Manafort to cooperate with the investigation in exchange for refusing to persecute under the most difficult articles. Of course, the president has the right to have mercy on his former adviser at any stage of the trial, but only for federal crimes. And in New York, he violated the laws of the state. In this case, the last authority is the governor. It was for this reason that Muller needed the case materials about real estate fraud.
On the same day, Monday, the US Department of Justice, published the content of the pre -trial transaction with justice, which went to another former Trump adviser - George Papadopoulos. This is a much smaller figure than Manafort.
If Manafort is a seasoned political consulting veteran, then the papadopoulos is young and inexperienced. He began working at Trump's headquarters in March last year and immediately came to the view of the persons interested in establishing relations between the candidate of the Republicans and Moscow. Having met in the same March in Italy with a certain London professor who has “significant connections” in Russian ruling circles, the papadopoulos secretly informed him that Donald Trump would soon make him his adviser to international affairs. The professor immediately became interested in the papadopulos and, in turn, introduced him to a Russian lady with the "citizenship of one of the Mediterranean countries", which introduced himself as a niece of Vladimir Putin (later it turned out that it was a deception), and then with a man "with ties in the Russian Foreign Ministry."
Papadopulos Boyko talked with the whole trinity with the help of e -mail and Skype and rushed with the idea of meeting the candidate Trump and President Putin. With this proposal, he turned to the higher authorities, but it invariably rejected the plan. His attempts to establish coordination with Moscow were not successful. If coordination was, then in addition to papadopoulos was carried out.
Finally, in April, the professor who had just returned from the next Valdai forum wished to meet with papadopoulos and told him that the Russian leadership had an extensive electronic correspondence of Hillary Clinton, and there is “dirt” in it, which Russia can share with Trump.
When the FBI agents interrogated in January, he told them that he did not attach any importance to the performances of the professor. In July, he, without raising noise, was arrested. Papadopulos immediately began to cooperate with the investigation. On October 5, he signed a statement with the recognition that he lied in his testimony of the FBI.
Everything that happened to the papadopulos is some kind of bad joke. The people with whom he talked are similar to impostors or the people like himself, enthusiasts who have no influence on those who really make decisions. Documents are not called by the names of papadopoulos counterparties. The Washington Post suggested that the professor is the director of the London Academy of Diplomacy, Joseph Methsud. He really was a guest of the Valdai forum in 2016 and more than once gave the Russian press complimentary to the Kremlin interview . He confirmed the fact of his acquaintance with the papadopoulos, but denies that he made him some dubious proposals, and also that he has ties with the Russian leadership.
Putin’s linden niece has not yet been able to install WP, and a man with ties in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is an expert at the Center for Strategic Development, as well as Ivan Timofeev, a program director of the Russian Council for International Affairs. He refused to comment on the recognition of the papadopoulos, citing the statement that he made about the WP article published in August. “In the Russian Council for International Affairs,” he said then, “in the spring of 2016, the representative of the election headquarters of Trump George Papadopulos really turned. Such an appeal was in the form of informal emails, which his program director Ivan Timofeev answered the Papadopulos from the side of the RSMD about the possible arrival of Donald Trump or his teams or representatives of his team in Russia. Given the established practice, publicly accepted well -known politicians and public figures from the USA and other countries of the world, such an initiative from the American side was a routine phenomenon for the RSMD. ” But there was no formal request from Trump's headquarters, and the idea did not receive development.
All this so far looks very lightweight, and most importantly - as a personal initiative of an employee of a low rank. But the dashing trouble has begun. The special prosecutor got down to business seriously.