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A New Mueller Filing Puts the Trump Campaign One Step Closer to the Russians

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 28, 2018 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 28, 2018 |


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A new memo filed by special counsel Robert Mueller makes a direct connection between the Trump campaign and a former Russian intelligence officer. The 30-page memo, filed last night, states that Trump’s deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates (pictured, next to Ivanka) had “frequent” contact with the intelligence officer only weeks before the election. The former Russian intelligence officer worked for Manafort and Gates, and Gates also knew about his links to the Russian intelligence community.

Although campaign chairman Paul Manafort was no longer with the campaign, his deputy Gates was, and Manafort still maintained contacts with Donald Trump. The communication between Gates and the Russian intelligence officer are said to be “pertinent to the [Meuller] investigation.”

From CNN:

That Gates and the unnamed person, who had lived in Kiev and Moscow and worked for one of Paul Manafort’s companies, were in touch in September and October 2016 was “pertinent to the investigation,” a court filing from prosecutors said Tuesday night.

The acknowledgment that Gates knew the person had Russian intelligence ties is alleged in a report prosecutors filed about the coming sentencing of a Dutch attorney. That attorney, Alex van der Zwaan, who worked with Gates and Manafort previously, pleaded guilty last month to lying to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators about his interactions with Gates and the unnamed person.

The Times has further identified the Russian official as Konstantin V. Kilimnik. Kilimnik has denied any connection to Russian intelligence.

The memo was filed in the sentencing hearing for Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who admitted to lying to the FBI. He will be sentenced on April 3rd.