Bernie Sanders' Strategist Named in New Cache of Mueller Evidence

PJ Media ^ | 7/19/2018 | Tyler O'Neil

[DoughtyOne]

It would depend on what the infraction was.

There are different lengths of statue of limitations, based on what the various charges are.

There must be an indictment, but I haven’t heard exactly what it was.

You may be able to Google it, if you can find it.

I’m sure the statute has’t run out, or Manafort would be a free man.

[A_perfect_lady]

I really believe they did. And that’s not accusing Bernie of anything. I’m just saying that of all the Presidential candidates of 2016, on both sides, he was the one anyone would logically think the Russians would prefer.

[VanShuyten]

From CNN (5/9/17):
“One of Washington’s most powerful lobbying firms did not disclose the wide extent of its lucrative political work for a Ukrainian group tied to both onetime Trump adviser Paul Manafort and to pro-Russian politicians, new records show.
The firm, the Podesta Group, said nothing in a 2012 lobbying report to Congress about at least 32 meetings, emails and other communications it had with the State Department, at a time when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scrutinizing Ukraine’s upcoming election, records show.
The new disclosures shed light on the web of contacts between Russian-leaning Ukrainians, Washington lobbyists and U.S. policymakers during the Obama administration. The Podesta Group filed new, detailed lobbying disclosures in April to augment lobbying reports from 2012 to 2014 that had given little detail.

From Politico (4/12/17):
Lobbying powerhouse the Podesta Group filed paperwork with the Justice Department today acknowledging that its work years ago for a European nonprofit benefited the same Ukrainian political party once advised by Paul Manafort, who later ran Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
The filings, obtained by POLITICO, appear to clean up the firm’s requirement to disclose its role in foreign lobbying that Manafort reportedly orchestrated. The Podesta Group said it believed its client was an unaffiliated European think tank. But the new paperwork suggests the Justice Department has information tying the think tank to the pro-Russian Ukrainian Party of Regions — a possible source of continuing legal trouble for Manafort, because he never disclosed his own role in the lobbying campaign.

[Ann Archy]

omg....TAD DEVINE is as DISGUSTING as they come....look p SMARMY and HDEOUS in the Dictionary and there is a TAD DEVINE with his CURLING LIP! YUK!

[Ann Archy]

Not sure if Manafort was a mole in the Trump campaign, but I BET that Page was one!! THAT would explain his WEIRD actions and that he isn't one bit afraid that the MULE is going to do anything to him!

They put Carter Page in the Trump Campaign in ORDER to SPY on Trump!

[PGR88]

Russia meddled in American politics 50 years ago - and sowed the damn seeds of corrupt, statist corruption - Just look at all the Communists nurtured in the 1960’s - Brennan, Sanders, Alinksy, Obama’s Parents, Ayers - we could make a list 10,000 names long

Yes, Soviet Russia meddled in the USA’s politics in a big way - and the tree they planted is still producing rotten fruit.

[stormhill]

Now THAT I fully accept!
The FISA warrant turned Page into a walking bug; everyone who came in contact with him automatically fell within the purview of the investigation by virtue of the two-step rule. He gave the FBI the pretext to spy on the entire Trump campaign while simultaneously claiming they weren't really spying on Trump himself; he just HAPPENED to be in propinquity to the "real" target (wink, wink!).

As Church Lady would say, "isn't that special!"

[heights]

Anyone that dared challenge the Globalist Whore Queen, is our course a Russian Agent. Insanity.

[Ann Archy]

It's the ONLY explanation for how he is acting!! PLUS he worked for the Intelligence Community to get some Russians spies years ago!

HE was PUT in the Trump Campaign by the LEFT to be GROUND ZERO!!!

[Chewbarkah]

Let’s assume that Putin/Russians can’t stand HRC, want to mess with US elections, want to compromise the candidates, and have backchannel access to the winner.
Speculations:
1) Means: Devine has long-standing connections to Russians.
2) Motive: Devine knows that HRC/DNC are cheating Sanders out of the nomination. He’s angry and wants revenge.
3) Means, motive, opportunity: Sanders’ allies within the DNC apparatus, also angry, copy compromising emails, and possibly collude with Devine before or after doing so.
4) Means: Someone has to get the emails to Wikileaks or other place where they can be published without he source being obvious. Devine calls upon his Russian contacts to assist in that.
5) Alternative, Wikileaks gets the data directly, and shares it with Russians, or they get it via Russia-based servers run by hackers who share data with Russian IC.
6) Russians possibly release some via Guccifer 2.0 and/or DCLeaks. Wikileaks releases in batches.
7) To cover the tracks, Devine/his allies help Russian hackers penetrate DNC servers as a cover for the prior file copying operation.
8) DNC/HRC know it was a Sanders’ inside job, but if they say so, 25%+ of the Dem voters will stay home in November. They push the whole Trump-Russian Collusion angle using Fusion/DoJ/FBI/CIA cabal.
9) FBI, and then Mueller ignore all other possibilities and chose to interpret all of this as a purely Russian initiative.

This might be a stretch, but fits known facts better than the “official narrative”.

[M-cubed]

Meanwhile, the reason Mueller has a job, is till coming up big zeros. <<

Mueller is a modern day Sisyphus*...He's tasked with a failed mission and will have to die in “office” or risk going to Jail himself.... it shows on his face... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus

[DoughtyOne]

I don’t know the story of Sisyphus, so this introduction was new. I’ve heard of him, but didn’t study him so it stuck with me.

It seems to me Sisyphus thinks at some point he’ll actually get the stone to the top.

My vies of Mueller is that he pushes the stone very slowly, knowing in his heart he isn’t interested in getting to the top.

He wants to look busy, and cause trouble along the way.

[M-cubed]

you might want to read a little deeper into the “moral” of the story....

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you. I’ll check it out in the morning.

[Liz]

"I gave $29 million to the Clinton Foundation and all I got was access to Howdy Doody."

Chelsea Clinton and Viktor Pinchuk who donated $29 million to Clinton Foundation in Kiev, Ukraine 8/21/16.

=====================================

http://observer.com/2017/01/ukraine-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-election/http://observer.com/2017/01/ukraine-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-election/

OPINION Ukraine Tried to Tip the Election in Clinton’s Favor
Evidence reveals that Ukraine intervened to tilt the election in favor of its national interests
By Michael Sainato • 01/12/17

Politico reported that the Ukrainian Government worked to aid Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential elections. The actions taken by government officials included disseminating “documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers.”

Those documents implicated Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who worked as an adviser for now-ousted Ukrainian President Viktor F. Yanukovych. However, the concerns that the documents raised weren’t in fact over any quasi-Russian ties, though partisan reporting pushed his narrative. Rather, the documents raised the question of whether Manafort declared the income that he had received from the position. The Podesta Group, a lobbying firm co-founded by Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta, also conducted work for Yanukovych.

However, the Manafort narrative not only painted Trump as pro-Russian, but also provided the Clinton campaign with a smear campaign while reaffirming its stance against Russia. It was in Ukraine’s best interest to tilt the election in support of Clinton, who strongly advocated for providing Ukraine with military aid and financial support in order to fight Russian separatists in the country.

Politico noted that Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American working as a consultant for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), met with top Ukrainian Officials in Washington D.C. about forcing Manafort’s resignation in order to perpetuate the narrative that Trump is connected to Russia. Both Chalupa and her sister Andrea have strongly pushed the anti-Russian narrative on social media, in addition to advocating that the electors of the electoral college defect from Trump. The report added, “Politico’s investigation found evidence of Ukrainian government involvement in the race that appears to strain diplomatic protocol dictating that governments refrain from engaging in one another’s elections.”

In addition to the Chalupas, the co-founder and CTO of Crowdstrike, the cyber security firm that the DNC hired to investigate the alleged hacks, Dmitri Alperovitch, also serves as a senior fellow to the Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council, which is an openly anti-Russian organization partly . The Atlantic Council is funded by Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk, who also happens to be one of the most prolific donors to the Clinton Foundation. The DNC denied multiple requests from the FBI to access their servers, effectively forcing the FBI to rely on CrowdStrike’s assessment of the hacks.

The Atlantic Council has propagated anti-Russian sentiment and advocated for bolstering NATO forces in anticipation of a military conflict between with Russia long before Wikileaks released emails from the DNC and Clinton Campaign Manager John Podesta. In 2013, the Atlantic Council awarded Hillary Clinton its Distinguished International Leadership Award. In 2014, the Atlantic Council hosted one of several events with former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who took over after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was removed in early 2014. In August, Politico reported that Donald Trump’s favorable rhetoric to Russia was concerning Ukraine. The article stated, “Russia wants Trump for U.S. president; Ukraine is terrified by Trump and prefers Hillary Clinton.”

In response to their preferred candidate losing the election, Ukrainian officials are now scrambling to revert from their lobbying for Hillary Clinton and the DNC. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko recently signed a $50,000-a-month contract with a lobbying firm to set up meetings with U.S. officials in the new administration. Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk wrote an op-ed on December 29 in the Wall Street Journal in which he argued that Ukraine needs make compromises to establish peace with Russia. After the election, reports surfaced that Pinchuk donated to Trump’s charity to try to gain the same favor and access that his donations to the Clinton Foundation afforded him. “The sole reason the Victor Pinchuk Foundation has reached out to President-elect Trump—as well as other world leaders—has been to promote strengthened and enduring ties between Ukraine and the West,” a spokeswoman for the Pinchuk foundation told ABC News.

While past elections in Ukraine have been viewed as proxy battles between the U.S. and Russia, it appears that the 2016 presidential election in the U.S. faced similar influence from two foreign countries attempting to influence an election outcome preferable to their own national interests.

[Liz]

nbcnews.com

Mueller Now Investigating Democratic Lobbyist Tony Podesta
by Tom Winter and Julia Ainsley / Oct.23.2017 / 4:30 AM ET / Updated Oct.24.2017

The Podesta Group amended its FARA registration to accurately reflect its work with ECMU only after the payments were reported by the media. Manafort’s firm also filed a FARA registration after media reports in June disclosed its work in Ukraine from 2012 through 2014.

A spokeswoman said the Podesta Group’s original filing was submitted after the advice of legal experts because the ECMU “had certified that it was neither funded nor directed by a foreign government or political party.”

After the media reports, said the spokeswoman, the Podesta Group reached out to FARA regulators who instructed how the firm should file.

The ECMU was reportedly backed by the Party of Regions, the pro-Russian and oligarch-funded Ukrainian political party for which Manafort worked as a consultant, and which paid his firm millions. Viktor Yanukovych of the Party of Regions, a Manafort client, was president of Ukraine during the ECMU campaign, which ran from 2012 to 2014. He fled the country in 2014.

Tony Podesta is the chairman of the Podesta Group and the brother of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman. John Podesta is not currently affiliated with the Podesta Group and is not part of Mueller’s investigation.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Podesta Group said the firm “is cooperating fully with the Special Counsel’s office and has taken every possible step to provide documentation that confirms timely compliance. In all of our client engagements, the Podesta Group conducts due diligence and consults with appropriate legal experts to ensure compliance with disclosure regulations at all times — and we did so in this case.”

Paul Manafort at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio on July 14, 2016.Rick Wilking / Reuters file
A spokesperson for Mueller’s office declined to comment.
In late August, NBC News reported that Special Counsel Mueller’s team sent subpoenas to six firms who were involved in public relations lobbying for ECMU.

The subpoenas sought testimony from public relations executives who worked on the campaign organized by Manafort, people directly familiar with the matter told NBC News.

One source with knowledge of the investigation said that federal investigators have now met with several former staffers of the various firms involved in the ECMU campaign.
Mueller’s team is closely examining the lobbying campaign, which ran between 2012 and 2014. Six firms participated in the public relations effort that Manafort coordinated, paid for by the Brussels-based ECMU. The stated goal was to build support for Ukraine’s entry into the European Union, the same source said.

Related: Mueller Seeks Testimony From PR Firms That Worked With Manafort

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.

Manafort, whose Alexandria, Virginia, apartment was raided by FBI agents in July, has emerged as a key figure in the Mueller probe. The inquiry into the lobbying campaign appears to be part of a larger investigation into his work for the Party of Regions, his offshore banking transactions, his tax compliance and his real estate dealings, people familiar with the probe have told NBC News.

The Associated Press first revealed the pro-Ukraine lobbying campaign in August 2016, while Manafort was still running the Trump campaign. Manafort left the campaign within days.
The report said the ECMU campaign was designed to sway public opinion and included attempts to solicit favorable press coverage in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mueller-now-investigating-democratic-lobbyist-tony-podesta-n812776