Posted on 08/26/2017 2:40:21 AM PDT by Ray76
Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued grand jury subpoenas in recent days seeking testimony from public relations executives who worked on an international campaign organized by Paul Manafort, people directly familiar with the matter told NBC News.
According to one executive whose firm received a subpoena, Mueller's team is closely examining the lobbying campaign, which ran between 2012 and 2014. Some of the firms involved in the campaign received subpoenas for documents weeks ago, the executive said, and now the Mueller team is seeking testimony.
"We think they are trying to figure out, was this a legitimate project?" the executive said. "From our perspective it was — we did a lot of work. We took it seriously."
The executive said six firms participated in the public relations effort that Manafort coordinated, paid for by a Brussels-based non-profit called the European Center for a Modern Ukraine. The stated goal was to build support for Ukraine's entry into the European Union.
Two of the firms, Podesta Group and Mercury LLC, worked in Washington with Manafort partner Rick Gates, according to lobbying disclosure records. Three other firms worked in Europe, the executive said. NBC News could not confirm the identity of those three.
At the time, neither Manafort nor the firms had registered as foreign agents. The executive told NBC News that was because the non-profit said that it was not funded by a government or a political party.
Under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, people who lobby on behalf of foreign governments, leaders or political parties must file detailed disclosures about their spending and activities to the Justice Department. Willful failure to file the forms violation is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison — but such prosecutions are extremely rare.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
If I were a witch in DC, I’d go into hiding.
obvious jokes will follow this post :)
Note the Podesta Group involvement.
This taxpayer subsidized farce needs to be shut down NOW. They could Photoshop a picture of Putin buggering Trump in a hot tub, and it would elicit an across the board yawn. Lately, it’s the ‘Trump is a racist’ meme. Next week it’ll be how many illegal Mexicans died from Hurricane Harvey because Trump didn’t do something about global whining thirty years ago. Lookit, folks, these Antifa types and social agitators are about 1/10th of 1% of the domestic population, concentrated into about 1% of the continental land mass. Let them burn and loot their own urban jungles. When they spread into the countryside, make them suddenly ‘drop off the radar’, so to speak.
Citing the work of Ukrainian investigative journalist Sergil Leschenko and Reuters, the Daily Beast reported that the European Center for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU) — a Brussels-based nonprofit founded by members of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions — hired the Podesta Group and the International Government Relations Group to lobby in Washington on U.S.-Ukraine relations.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, requires lobbyists for foreign governments and political parties to disclose to the Justice Department detailed information about their activities on behalf of their clients. They have to disclose all contacts with U.S. government officials, any campaign contributions they’ve given, fees they receive from clients and expenses incurred in lobbying. They also have to disclose any “informational materials” (originally called propaganda) disseminated on behalf of their clients. Sunlight has digitized several years of filings under the act in the Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker.
The ECMU, however, is not a political party. It says its donors are private individuals not connected to the Regions Party; because of that, its lobbyists have the option of registering and disclosing their activities to Congress instead — revealing far less information about their activities. (Lobbyists for the Party of Regions and Ukrainian parliament members Yuriy Ivaniuschenko and Dmitry Shpenov are registered under FARA.)
Until 1995, agents of all foreign interests, not just governments and political parties, had to register and disclose their activities under FARA if they attempted to influence U.S. governments or public opinion. That year, Congress passed the Lobbying Disclosure Act, which gave foreign agents, except for those that represent foreign governments and political parties, the option to file disclosures with the House and Senate rather than the Justice Department.
(photo) Then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in Munich, Germany, on February 4, 2012. (Photo credit: State Department.)
19.01.2012 -
KYIV, January 19 /UKRINFORM/. The newly formed non-governmental organization “European Centre for Modern Ukraine” (ECMU) started its activities in Brussels in January 2012, an UKRINFORM correspondent in Belgium learned from ECMU director Inna Kirsch.
She said that the ECMU is chaired by Party of Regions MP Leonid Kozhara.
According to Kirsch, the new non-governmental organization is to inform about political life in Ukraine, taking into account the promotion of the country’s European integration aspirations, the introduction of contacts at the political, business and cultural levels between Ukrainian and European politicians and civil society, representatives of expert community.
“Among the many pressing issues the ECMU will pay special attention to the problems of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine (including an in-depth and comprehensive trade agreement), as well as the parliamentary election scheduled for October,” Kirsch said.
Additionally, the organization at the expert level will offer policy and legislative initiatives aimed at developing cooperation between Ukraine and the EU.
So now Mueller is looking at other firms who worked with Manafort two years before the Presidential campaign.
Next, they’ll be looking at neighbors of the associates of the firms who worked with Manafort who worked with Trump.
Im scratching my head how this would involve Russia, Russia, Russia.
We think they are trying to figure out, was this a legitimate project?” the executive said. “
Yeah, it’s called a fishing expedition.
Robert Mueller is corrupt and a disgrace.
Mueller needs cardiac arrest!
Manaforts home was raided in the pre-dawn hours by a swat team of Muellers. Interesting that Podesta gets a free pass for being involved in the same activities. The police state is here and thriving.
Think he’ll ever look into the people behind the Trump dossier?
Excellent point....it's only the ignorance of the MSM that permits wall-to-wall coverage of their incoherent activities and inane demands.
Sessions recused himself, too early, too hastily. If he wanted to appear ethical, I’m fine with the recusal, but that he didn’t do it simultaneously with a special counsel appointment in place, with a perfectly defined scope, is what got us here. Leaving it to Rosenstein to construct the Counsel’s authority, and supervise Mueller, is what puts us here today. Investigating Manafort’s business from years before the 2016 campaign, with nothing whatsoever to do with the 2016 campaign or Russia. Mueller could bankrupt anyone that ever spoke with Trump and say never mind.
Too bad Jeff Feckless "can't do anything" about this outrage.
It's not like he is the Attorney General, or anything.......If only he was the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the United States of America. Oh gee, well, he is.
But none of this concerns him. He is too busy with the D.A.R.E program and asset forfeiture.
Oh..OK...so now Bobby Muleface is trying to nail Manafort for little process errors in his pre-Trump biz days.
Yessirree, noboby in DC ever did that before!
Reason to appoint a SC and hound the President and his family with the threat of prison and impeachment.
https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325065042/http://www.pravda.com.ua:80/articles/2012/03/21/6961168/&usg=ALkJrhhDoNl7FSweCj3WS6iu65LGqTKDkQ
The Brussels secret of the Party of Regions
Sergey Leshchenko, Wednesday, March 21, 2012, at 22:24
Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions, whose reputation is destroyed by curtailing democracy in Ukraine, are trying to correct their image in Brussels.
A few days ago, Ukrayinska Pravda already wrote that the Azarov government decided to engage the American lobbyist company Apco . She should help negotiate with the International Monetary Fund after the "reformist government" failed them.
ТNow we have become aware of the details of yet another story, as the Party of Regions is trying to save its reputation in the West and incline its European establishment.
Recently, the Belgian Ministry of Justice issued a registration certificate for the organization under the solemn title "European Center of Modern Ukraine", which can be called one of the chains of rehabilitation of Yanukovych in Europe.
The reason for our searches was the publication on the website of the Party of Regions on the day of their Saturday congress, which came out under the title "The MEP: Our goal is to see Ukraine in the European Union."
This was a rather com pletive speech addressed to the regionals by the gentleman Robert van de Waeter , whose site the regionalists described as "European MP". A quick search on the website of the European Parliament proved that such a deputy does not really exist.
Instead, Mr van de Waert serves as an advisor to the Department of the Neighboring Countries of the Secretariat of the Social Democratic Party of the European Parliament. This is the middle section of the expert environment, and, of course, calling it an European deputy is misleading.
Robert van de Waiter
After the day's announcement hung on the regionals website, the author of these lines recorded the blogs of the "Ukrainian Truth" - only then Robert van de Waiter's post was corrected.
Sam text of the comment of Mr. van de Waiter surprised. After all, although he works for the socialists of the European Parliament, who have an agreement on cooperation with the Party of Regions, but recently the tone of even the European left on Ukraine has changed to the worse.
The sign of this is the absence of any, even neutral congratulations from the Social Democrats, to the Congress of the Party of Regions. Moreover, according to the "Ukrainian Truth", subordinates Azarov tried to get at least a symbolic message from Brussels. But it did not work out.
We became interested in the figure of Robert van de Waiter and accidentally came across interconnections, which may indicate that his warm response to the Regions is only a chain of a longer and more interesting game.
Consequently, Mr van de Waert has a wife named Ina Kirsch , who for many years worked as an administrator for external affairs in the European Parliament.
Another six months ago, Ms. Kirsch published on the Friedrich Ebert Foundation website a job about Ukraine, signed by her full name, Ina Cris Van de Waert.
But recently she uses only a shorter form of family name, although she remains married to Mr. Van de Waiter. The possible reason is that now Ms. Kirch heads an interesting non-governmental organization in Belgium - she is the executive director of the European Center for Modern Ukraine .
Brussels cell
The news about the opening of the "European Center for Contemporary Ukraine" was published on the website of the government agency UkrInform on January 19, 2012. Mrs Kirsch reports that Leonid Kozhara, deputy regional member, became the president of the organization.
"According to Kirsch, the organization aims to inform about political life in Ukraine, the establishment of contacts at the political, business and cultural levels between Ukrainian and European political forces ..."
"In addition, the organization at the expert level will offer political and legislative initiatives aimed at developing cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union," the report also said.
Although the newly created organization still does not even have a site, Mrs. Kirsch is already quite active in commenting on events in Ukraine.
From time to time, her comments appear on the news feed of the same government agency UkrInform. Moreover, their tone is unusual - if European experts are more likely to curtail the oppression of democracy to the Ukrainian authorities, then Mrs. Kirsch criticizes the Ukrainian opposition or ... the Europeans themselves.
Inna Kirsch
The author of these lines could not find any unpleasant Bank words from Mrs. Kirsch. Instead, in March, on the pages of the agency UkrInform, Kirsch accused European officials of double standards in relation to Kyiv - they say, having recognized the elections in Russia, they would never allow such a calm reaction, if this happened in Ukraine.
"The European Union once again showed that it has different approaches to different countries, in the presence of similar problems, (...) If the situation in Ukraine was the same, then the reaction would definitely be different," the expert said.
Another comment by Kirsch relates to the statements of representatives of "Freedom" about the singer Gaitana - and was critical of the opponents of the Ukrainian authorities.
"How can the so-called democratic opposition in Ukraine cooperate with such a" Liberty "party and share its place in the elections? How can the Yatsenyuk and Klychko parties cooperate with such a party?" For me, this is not compatible with European values , "said Mrs. Kirsch
In addition, it's interesting that she was present at the last congress of the Party of Regions - on his facebook, Mrs. Kirsch laid out a photo of Klyuyev with Levochkin and accompanied him with the words: "Returned home from the congress of the Party of Regions. Unexpectedly positive impressions. Never heard so much social. -Democratic ideology in Ukraine ".
We became interested and began to explore this issue further. As it turned out, Ms. Kirch registered the domain name for the "European Center for Contemporary Ukraine" - ecfmu.eu
According to the official register, the domain owner is Ina Kirsch van de Waiter, but she is not a Belgian non-governmental organization, and the British company Gloworth Limited.
It was created last year in Glasgow, it issued one share at a price of 1 pound sterling, and the nominee owner of the company is a native of the African state Malawi.
Our further investigations revealed new interesting facts. So, recently, First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin paid a visit to London, where he tried to convince the European community that the condemnation of Yulia Tymoshenko was justified.
Moreover, he once again voiced a dubious version of the fact that Tymoshenko paid for the murder of Yevhen Scherban
(About who and how they paid for Killers, read in our investigation .)
And, according to sources of the "Ukrainian Truth", Renata Kuzmina at these meetings in Britain was accompanied by Ms. Kirsch as a representative of one of the PR agencies. Moreover, Mrs Kirsch helped Kuzmin with the translation.
Normal European practice?
We contacted Mrs. Kirsch by email and asked to answer a number of questions. he declined to discuss the topic of her participation in meetings with Kuzmin in London, referring to the legislative norm on non-interference in private life.
Regarding other issues, Ms. Kirch said that she personally invited Kozhara to be president of the newly created "European Center for Contemporary Ukraine", since Kojara is "a well-known expert on European issues." "Our organization is trying to build bridges between Ukraine and Europe, and this can not be done without the involvement of Ukrainian politicians," she assured.
The second issue was whether the other Ukrainian politicians were members of the governing bodies of the "European Center for Contemporary Ukraine". Ms. Kirsch only stated that "in the future, we will strive to gain the interest of politicians from the European Union and Ukraine in terms of possible membership in the organization."
Another issue raised by us was a possible conflict of interest - because Ms. Kirsch's husband works for the Socialist Secretariat in the European Parliament and can influence the assessment of this political force in Ukraine, while she heads a private non-governmental organization headed by a regional deputy.
"For us in Europe this is a normal practice - as long as it is done openly and transparently. If you look at the personal relationship between many members of the European Parliament, European structures, PR agencies and commercial organizations, you will find that this is the most common practice. Fortunately, this was one of the main achievements of the international women's movement in the modern era ", - she assured.
"For the last 27 years I have made a professional career myself. My professional life has always been independent of the positions of my husband - both politically and financially."
The fourth issue was about who is the main donor of the new organization. Mrs. Kirsch responded with astonishment: "By this time, I mainly invested my personal funds in the development of this structure, but I hope that it will change in the future. We are currently in the process of raising funds and hope for success in this matter in the coming months ... Our membership fee is 100 euros a year, and anyone who shares our principles and statute can join, "said Ms. Kirsch.
The founders are not talking aloud
On this, our investigation should be completed. We have already established that a non-governmental organization has appeared in Belgium, whose leader often speaks with Ukrainian issues in tone that is in tune with the Party of Regions.
But an in-depth search in Belgian databases brought even more interesting results.
We managed to obtain a constituent document "European Center for Contemporary Ukraine", which somewhat shed light on the question where Mrs. Kirsch avoided a direct answer.
So, the charter of the organization was signed on December 29, 2011 in Brussels, and its founders are six people: it is Inna Kirsch , the lord Andrew Edgel, whom we did not manage to identify, and also Antonina Russeva , the press attache of the group of socialists Bulgaria in the European Parliament.
But the three other founders of the Belgian organization turned out to be much more interesting. This is already mentioned regional Leonid Kozhara , as well as two more deputies of the Verkhovna Rada - Vitaliy Kalyuzhny and Eugene Geller . All as one - members of the Party of Regions.
Remember, one of our questions to Mrs. Kirsch concerned whether other Ukrainian politicians are members of the governing bodies of the "European Center for Contemporary Ukraine"? She hid from specifics, and the charter gives a direct answer - why.
Treasurer of the organization appointed deputy regional Vitaliy Kalyuzhny . This 32-year-old deputy from Donetsk is notorious for readers. But his biography, before his election to the Verkhovna Rada, makes it clear that he answers the question of why he was appointed to this post.
Because Mr. Kalyuzhnyy from 2000 to 2005 worked in the structures of Boris Kolesnikov: originally a program engineer at Firma Yug, and then - a leading software developer of the "Production Association" Kyiv-Konti ", which also belongs to Kolesnikov.
The third Ukrainian participant of the "European Center for Contemporary Ukraine", also a native of Donetsk, Yevgeny Geller , was the president of the Shakhtar futsal club to the deputy. Now - owner of Luhansk football team "Zorya".
Both Kalyuzhny and Geller are members of the informal group of Rinat Akhmetov in the Verkhovna Rada, as well as those close to Borys Kolesnikov and Andriy Klyuyev.
These are the names that Mrs. Kirsch hid when we asked her about the people who created the "European Center for Contemporary Ukraine". Something suggests that the newly established Belgian organization will never have financial problems, but whether it will have confidence - now it's a big issue.
So apparently the Russians started colluding 3 years before Trump decided to run for President ?
“This taxpayer subsidized farce needs to be shut down NOW.”.......
I totally agree. This fiasco could, and will more than likely run on forever as ever pebble/grain of sand is turned over and over again. Nothing more than a witch hunt being run by a group of lawyers who perpetuate such “chases” just to keep themselves employed (at a healthy salary I might add). Is it any wonder our country has such an huge deficit?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
