Recent developments in a Ukraine courtroom have shed new light on US special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Prosecutors in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev have filed a court motion against Viktor Yanukovych, a Ukrainian politician closely allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Yanukovych is also the subject of two criminal cases filed against Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, in Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Ukrainian authorities seek to arrest and serve Yanukovych with a 15-year prison sentence for crimes involving high treason, complicity in an aggressive war against Ukraine, and complicity in premeditated activities aimed at altering Ukraine’s state borders.
Yanukovych’s trial is scheduled to resume on September 13 in Kiev — three days before Manafort’s second trial is scheduled to begin. Yanukovych has remained exiled in Russia since he fled Ukraine in 2014.
Prosecutors for the District of Columbia will focus on Manafort’s work in Ukraine for Yanukovych, which began in 2005. As a senior advisor to his presidential campaign, Manafort helped Yanukovych win the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election. Manafort subsequently signed a $4 million annual advisory agreement to sell Yanukovych’s pro-Kremlin policies in the US.
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After Yanukovych fled Ukraine, Manafort’s spigot of cash ran dry. By 2016, Manafort needed to make money while retaining business prospects inside the Kremlin. There was a job available that would allow him to do just that: In March, Manafort joined the Trump campaign and became its putatively unpaid manager. He found himself working for a candidate who was supported by Putin and amenable to undermining ties with NATO and traditional US alliances.
Manafort was in debt to Deripaska for $19 million, after he failed to invest the oligarch’s money in a joint venture to acquire the Ukrainian company Black Sea Cable. Less than two weeks before Manafort signed on as Trump’s campaign manager, he promised Deripaska he would provide briefings of his campaign efforts. According to court documents, Manafort messaged Deripaska in April 2016, asking “How do we get to whole?”
Whether Manafort negotiated a pro-bono deal as Trump’s campaign manager in exchange for favorable relations between the US and Russia is unknown. Manafort’s reference to “get to whole” with Deripaska suggests he arranged a quid pro quo deal for electing Trump. But Manafort’s decades-long relationships with Russians closely allied with Putin help illustrate how joining Trump’s campaign in March 2016 was a lucrative deal for Manafort, the Kremlin, and possibly Trump.
The parallels between Yanukovych and Trump are striking. Both candidates’ campaigns were managed by Paul Manafort. Both candidates were abetted by Putin. Russian money was funneled into both campaigns, and both elections were tainted by outside propaganda and election tampering.
Yanukovych successfully advocated for the imprisonment of his former female political opponent; Trump pressures his Congress to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton to “lock her up.” Manafort’s role, his connection with the Kremlin, and Trump’s unabashed admiration for the Russian president have led many to believe the 45th President of the United States conspired with a hostile foreign government to steal an election.
Manafort joined the 2016 presidential campaign just in time to secure Trump’s nomination and prepare for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He helped gut the anti-Russia stance from the Republican platform, as to not chastise Putin for starting the war in Ukraine. He had a condo in Trump Tower, where besides Trump, many of his neighbors were members of organized crime.
Rubles flowed through the National Rifle Association to the Republican National Committee and into GOP candidates’ coffers.
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This is why Senator McCain delivered Steele’s dossier to the FBI, who opened a counterintelligence investigation into Manafort in 2014. https://t.co/AaEP6E29RV
— Gina Bradbury (@screaminggina) September 5, 2018
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