The Trump campaign team - Russia connection plot thickens
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Manafort bombshell deepens mystery in Russia probe
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 7:24 AM ET, Thu February 14, 2019
Jeffrey Toobin: It's doom for Paul Manafort
Washington (CNN)Paul Manafort's latest legal debacle deepened the core intrigue underlying special counsel Robert Mueller's probe: Why have so many of President Donald Trump's associates been caught lying about contacts with Russians?
In a significant new twist in the 2016 election saga, a judge ruled Wednesday that Trump's ex-campaign chairman "intentionally" lied to investigators, breaking a deal he had reached as a cooperating witness.
The lies, including about meetings with a suspected Russian intelligence asset, were about issues intimately linked to Mueller's wider inquiry, which includes a look into whether there were any links or coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian election interference effort.
Taken in isolation, the new Manafort bombshell would have rocked any presidency, given his senior role in the Trump campaign. But for a White House as cloaked in suspicion as this one, after two years of stunning revelations about Moscow's election interference, it is yet more bad news that will fuel a feverish atmosphere and further crank up pressure on Trump's inner circle.
Like many of the stunning reveals from Mueller, the latest Manafort drama also offered tantalizing glimpses into the special counsel's web of investigation but provided no resolution to the long-running Russia puzzle.
Mueller has yet to provide any proof of a conspiracy or cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russians, despite obtaining convictions and guilty pleas from a string of the President's former associates.
But Wednesday's developments will be seen in an even more foreboding light given the multiple lies, changes of story and obfuscations offered by other Trump confidants about contacts with Russian officials or private citizens.
These include former national security adviser Michael Flynn's calls with then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, Donald Trump Jr.'s shifting story about a meeting with Russians promising "dirt" on Hillary Clinton and the President's own misrepresentations about a proposed construction project in Moscow.
None of these activities are necessarily illegal, making it even more difficult to understand why there was an apparent need to cover them up.
"This is the million-dollar question in the entire investigation," Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who's a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time." "You just have to start asking yourself, why did all of them lie about their connections to the Russians?"
The judge's ruling represents a personal tragedy for Manafort, 69, once a high-flying uber lobbyist in an ostrich skin jacket who racked up millions in consulting fees and huge debts before joining Trump's team.
"It's doom for Paul Manafort," said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, referring to the likelihood that the increasingly frail former political operative's existing jail term for tax and bank fraud will now likely be extended. The end result could mean he dies behind bars.
But the wider legal and political ramifications of the ruling are also staggering and are likely to revive speculation about the reckoning that may eventually await Trump from Mueller's final report.
According to Judge Amy Berman Jackson, Manafort lied to the FBI, the special counsel and the grand jury about his contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, a political operative who is believed to have ties to Russian intelligence.
Manafort bombshell deepens mystery in Russia probe
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 7:24 AM ET, Thu February 14, 2019
Jeffrey Toobin: It's doom for Paul Manafort
Washington (CNN)Paul Manafort's latest legal debacle deepened the core intrigue underlying special counsel Robert Mueller's probe: Why have so many of President Donald Trump's associates been caught lying about contacts with Russians?
In a significant new twist in the 2016 election saga, a judge ruled Wednesday that Trump's ex-campaign chairman "intentionally" lied to investigators, breaking a deal he had reached as a cooperating witness.
The lies, including about meetings with a suspected Russian intelligence asset, were about issues intimately linked to Mueller's wider inquiry, which includes a look into whether there were any links or coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian election interference effort.
Taken in isolation, the new Manafort bombshell would have rocked any presidency, given his senior role in the Trump campaign. But for a White House as cloaked in suspicion as this one, after two years of stunning revelations about Moscow's election interference, it is yet more bad news that will fuel a feverish atmosphere and further crank up pressure on Trump's inner circle.
Like many of the stunning reveals from Mueller, the latest Manafort drama also offered tantalizing glimpses into the special counsel's web of investigation but provided no resolution to the long-running Russia puzzle.
Mueller has yet to provide any proof of a conspiracy or cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russians, despite obtaining convictions and guilty pleas from a string of the President's former associates.
But Wednesday's developments will be seen in an even more foreboding light given the multiple lies, changes of story and obfuscations offered by other Trump confidants about contacts with Russian officials or private citizens.
These include former national security adviser Michael Flynn's calls with then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, Donald Trump Jr.'s shifting story about a meeting with Russians promising "dirt" on Hillary Clinton and the President's own misrepresentations about a proposed construction project in Moscow.
None of these activities are necessarily illegal, making it even more difficult to understand why there was an apparent need to cover them up.
"This is the million-dollar question in the entire investigation," Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who's a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time." "You just have to start asking yourself, why did all of them lie about their connections to the Russians?"
The judge's ruling represents a personal tragedy for Manafort, 69, once a high-flying uber lobbyist in an ostrich skin jacket who racked up millions in consulting fees and huge debts before joining Trump's team.
"It's doom for Paul Manafort," said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, referring to the likelihood that the increasingly frail former political operative's existing jail term for tax and bank fraud will now likely be extended. The end result could mean he dies behind bars.
But the wider legal and political ramifications of the ruling are also staggering and are likely to revive speculation about the reckoning that may eventually await Trump from Mueller's final report.
According to Judge Amy Berman Jackson, Manafort lied to the FBI, the special counsel and the grand jury about his contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, a political operative who is believed to have ties to Russian intelligence.
(Continued in my first comment below)
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