Tag: Russian intelligence

Manafort suspected of sharing polling data with associate linked to Russian intelligence

A major court filing error led to secret details of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s criminal case leaking out into the public sphere on Tuesday.

Defense attorneys filed a response contesting special counsel Robert Mueller’s allegations that Manafort lied to federal investigators on a variety of subjects, in breach of his plea agreement. But while portions of the filing were supposed to be redacted and shielded from the public, court watchers were able to view the filing in its entirety by copying and pasting the redacted sections.

The error resulted in Manafort’s attorneys disclosing that Mueller has accused Manafort of sharing polling data during the 2016 presidential campaign with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate who is suspected of ties to Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU.

Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina ordered to remain in custody after prosecutors argue she has ties to Russian intelligence

The following article by Tom Jackman and Rosalind S. Helderman was posted on the Washington Post website July 18, 2018:

The Russian woman arrested this week on charges of being a foreign agent has ties to Russian intelligence operatives and was in contact with them while in the United States, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Maria Butina, 29, also cultivated a “personal relationship” with an American Republican consultant as part of her cover and offered sex to at least one other person “in exchange for a position within a special interest organization,” according to a court filing.

After a hearing on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson denied Butina’s request to be released on bail, finding that no combination of conditions would ensure her return to court.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks

The following article by Julia Ioffe was posted on the Atlantic website November 13, 2017:

The transparency organization asked the president’s son for his cooperation—in sharing its work, in contesting the results of the election, and in arranging for Julian Assange to be Australia’s ambassador to the United States.

Julian Assange in May at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Mr. Assange confirmed on Twitter that he had been approached before the 2016 election by the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica. Credit Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Just before the stroke of midnight on September 20, 2016, at the height of last year’s presidential election, the WikiLeaks Twitter account sent a private direct message to Donald Trump Jr., the Republican nominee’s oldest son and campaign surrogate. “A PAC run anti-Trump site putintrump.org is about to launch,” WikiLeaks wrote. “The PAC is a recycled pro-Iraq war PAC. We have guessed the password. It is ‘putintrump.’ See ‘About’ for who is behind it. Any comments?” (The site, which has since become a joint project with Mother Jones, was founded by Rob Glaser, a tech entrepreneur, and was funded by Progress for USA Political Action Committee.)

The next morning, about 12 hours later, Trump Jr. responded to WikiLeaks. “Off the record I don’t know who that is, but I’ll ask around,” he wrote on September 21, 2016. “Thanks.” Continue reading “The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks”