Thread by @Otpor17

Already indicted on multiple charges and facing the likelihood of superseding indictments, Rick Gates appears to be cooperating with special counsel Mueller in the #TrumpRussia investigation amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/01/23…

Rick Gates worked for Tom Barrack, of the US-Russia nuclear scheme (upthread) literally until the day he was indicted
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

1 year ago today, Mike Flynn met privately in his West Wing office with FBI investigators interested in his communications with Kislyak, without a lawyer or the knowledge of Trump or WH officials.

Trump did not learn about the interview until 2 days later
nbcnews.com/politics/donal…

Excellent catch by @goodlittletiger: the Flynn interview was arranged by Andrew McCabe's office, and Peter Strzok was one of the two FBI agents who conducted it.

Hence the relentless attacks on them by Trump and his Republican lackeys.

What a truly bizarre coincidence.

Rick Gates' spokesman, Glenn Selig, was among the 22 people killed in the Kabul hotel attack last weekend
politi.co/2n5cR6v

Three lawyers for Rick Gates withdraw from Russia case (Tom Green, a lawyer known for negotiating federal plea deals who was recently brought on by Gates, remains)
#TrumpRussia
politi.co/2nxIZQz

Defense team for Manafort's co-defendant Rick Gates withdraws, leaving only the attorney known for brokering cooperation deals with the gov't 🐤 bostonglobe.com/news/politics/…

Chalk up the third known cooperating witness.

Former Trump campaign advisor Rick Gates is finalizing a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller's office, indicating he's poised to cooperate in the #TrumpRussia investigation
amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/02/15…

Grand jury returns indictment against Internet Research Agency, Concord Management and Consulting, Concord Catering, and 13 Russian Nationals over interference in US elections
justice.gov/file/1035477/d…

"US law bans foreign nationals from making certain expenditures and financial disbursements for the purpose of influencing federal elections."

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"The Internet Research Agency sought to conduct information warfare against the US":

Grand jury indicts 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian entities for alleged interference in the 2016 presidential elections, during which they boosted Trump's candidacy
cnbc.com/id/104996853

Grand jury indictment:
"Defendants and their co-conspirators encouraged US minority groups not to vote in the 2016 US election or to vote for a 3rd-party candidate"

Oct 30, 2016: Trump’s Digital Team Orchestrating Three Major Voter Suppression Operations
amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2016/1…

I wonder who that "third-party candidate" could be ...

Bernie Sanders silent on revelation that Russian actors sought to boost his presidential primary campaign and sink Hillary Clinton's in 2016
politi.co/2GlexQn

"Every time [Putin] sees me, he says, “I didn’t do that.” And I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it. But he says, “I didn’t do that”..

I think he’s very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country."
whitehouse.gov/briefings-stat…

"The small club of loyalists who gain Putin’s trust feast, as Yevgeny Prigozhin has, on enormous state contracts. In return, they are expected to provide other, darker services to the Kremlin as needed"

"Putin's cook" indicted for election interference
nyti.ms/2C1H8w5

"Prigozhin frequently met in 2015 and 2016 with Mikhail Bystrov, the top official in the St. Petersburg troll factory, which ran a disinformation campaign called Project Lakhta that by September 2016 had a monthly budget of $1.2 million"

Plausible deniability in Ukraine, Syria & the US.

"The Kremlin endorses projects like the troll farm without directly organizing them. This is done by somebody who receives large-scale govt contracts. The fact that he gets these contracts is a hidden way to pay for his services”

Federal grand jury in Virginia files 32-count indictment against Manafort and Gates, including tax and bank fraud charges (charges are in addition to previous case filed against Manafort and Gates in DC)
wapo.st/2CE4aoq

The 32-count indictment includes: false individual income tax returns (16), failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts (7), bank fraud conspiracy (5), and bank fraud (4).

Intriguing bit: "highly sensitive matters that would be embarrassing to Gates"

"The indictment alleges that Manafort laundered more than $30 million in income that he hid from US authorities.

Mueller's team disclosed the indictment in a filing in the criminal case pending against Manafort and Gates in the US District Court for DC" buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/ano…

"In intercepted communications in late January, Yevgeniy Prigozhin told a senior Syrian official he had “secured permission” from a Russian minister to move forward with a “fast and strong” initiative [by Wagner] that would take place in early February"
wapo.st/2ELlXjB

Prigozhin (named in Mueller's indictment last week for financing the Internet Research Agency "troll factory") was in frequent contact with Kremlin officials leading up to the attack on US troops, including Putin's chief of staff Vayno and deputy chief of staff Ostrovenko

Trump deputy campaign chair, member of the transition team and frequent visitor to the White House through at least June 2017.

Rick Gates to plead guilty in Mueller inquiry and cooperate
nyti.ms/2EX0jbx

"Gates' connections to Trump before and after the election include leading the campaign's operations at the Republican National Convention [**platform change**] and serving as a top deputy to Tom Barrack, who served as chair of the inauguration committee" abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump…

"Gates could provide Mueller with valuable information about the inner workings of Trump’s operation: he served as a senior figure in the campaign and had access to the White House as an outside adviser in the early months of the administration"
wapo.st/2FpjTL5

Gates to plead guilty to 2 charges: 1) conspiracy to defraud the US regarding the money he and Manafort earned and 2) lying to the FBI in a Feb. 1, 2018 interview about a 2013 meeting he’d had with Manafort and an unidentified lobbyist

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Excellent catch by @ironstowe: the charge that Gates lied to the FBI pertains to a discussion of a March 19, 2013 meeting between Manafort, an unidentified lobbyist, and a US congressman.

That would be Putin's favorite congressman, @DanaRohrabacher.

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Excellent catch by @ironstowe (via @aliasvaughn): Gates' false statement to the FBI Feb 1 pertains to a March 19, 2013 meeting between Manafort, an unidentified lobbyist, and a US congressman.

That would be Putin's favorite congressman, @DanaRohrabacher.

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Re-up on the Gates plea and @DanaRohrabacher back in the #TrumpRussia news. (h/t @WilDonnelly)

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Rep @DanaRohrabacher was repeatedly used as a liaison between the Kremlin and the Trump cabal. and is so distrusted by his Republican colleagues that they restricted his foreign travel and ability to hold hearings.

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Rick Gates pleads guilty to lying about a 2013 meeting between Paul Manafort and an unidentified U.S. lawmaker. Public filings show a meeting that day between Manafort and Kremlin lackey @DanaRohrabacher (h/t @MaxBoot)
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Federal grand jury returns superseding indictment against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, alleging he "secretly retained a group of former senior European politicians to take positions favorable to Ukraine, including by lobbying in the US"

“In 2012 and 2013, Manafort used at least 4 offshore accounts to wire more than 2 million euros to pay the group of former [European] politicians."

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"Alex van der Zwaan's guilty plea shined a light on a profitable line of business that Skadden mostly keeps quiet: its work for unsavory foreign figures and their Washington lobbyists"
nyti.ms/2F4gTpV

In 2012, Manafort hired Skadden to draft a report to justify his client Viktor Yanukovych's jailing of political rival Yulia Tymoshenko (sound familiar?), in an effort to shield Yanukovych from international condemnation.

But Mueller's interest in Skadden goes much further.

Independent Russian news agency @tvrain: Agata Burdonova, an English-language specialist who worked as a manager at Prigozhin's Internet Research Agency troll factory, has been living in the US with her husband since December 7
(h/t @Kris_Sacrebleu)
buzzfeed.com/kevincollier/a…

Link to @tvrain article (RU)
tvrain.ru/news/byvshij_m…

5 days before she left for the US, Burdonova posted a pic from a going-away party with her former IRA boss, Katarina Aistova, who was interviewed by @AdrianChen for his 2015 article on the troll factory nytimes.com/2015/06/07/mag…

Manafort’s daughter, Andrea, was hired as an associate at Skadden in Oct 2012, 1 month after the firm completed the Tymoshenko report. (^ @NatashaBertrand)

The same daughter who texted her sister: “Don't fool yourself - that money we have is blood money”

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Manafort charges entangle former European leaders: Italy's ex-PM Prodi, Austria's former chancellor Gusenbauer and Poland's ex-PM Kwasniewski deny wrongdoing as Ukraine lobbying faces scrutiny
(h/t @evanoconnell)
ft.com/content/51f1fe…

* Poland's ex-President Kwasniewski

"Documents filed with DOJ, emails reviewed by FT & interviews point to involvement of EU politicians including Romano Prodi, Alfred Gusenbauer & Aleksander Kwasniewski.. Each was registered with DOJ as engaging in lobbying in US on behalf of European Centre for a Modern Ukraine"

Manafort charges entangle former European leaders: Italy's ex-PM Prodi, Austria's former chancellor Gusenbauer and Poland's ex-President Kwasniewski deny wrongdoing as Ukraine lobbying faces scrutiny
ft.com/content/51f1fe…

"Documents filed with DOJ, emails reviewed by FT & interviews point to involvement of EU politicians including Romano Prodi, Alfred Gusenbauer & Aleksander Kwasniewski.. Each was registered with DOJ as engaging in lobbying in US on behalf of European Centre for a Modern Ukraine"

Mueller moves to dismiss charges against Rick #Gates following guilty plea #TrumpRussia

Link to filing: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4389…
theweek.com/speedreads/757…

"Agata Burdonova's English language skills and employment at the Internet Research Agency coincide almost exactly with some of the operations spelled out in the Special Counsel's indictment"

A suspected Russian troll in the U.S. tries to erase her past
cnnmon.ie/2tb5ZKk

Mueller is assembling a case for criminal charges against Russians who carried out the hacking and leaking of private information intended to hurt Democrats in the 2016 election, and enthusiastically promoted by Trump nbcnews.com/politics/2016-…

Any wonder why Manafort won't cooperate, despite facing a possible 305-year sentence?

After receiving permission from a judge to take his family to Boston during spring break, Rick Gates is canceling the trip due to threat invoking Russian mafia
cnn.com/2018/03/01/pol…

A man critically ill after being exposed to an unknown substance in Salisbury is a former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, convicted in Russia of passing state secrets to Britain news.sky.com/story/man-expo…

Former Russian spy is critically ill in a UK hospital after “suspected exposure to an unknown substance”; Sergei Skripal was one of 4 Russians exchanged in 2010 for 10 deep cover “sleeper” agents planted by Moscow in the US
theguardian.com/world/2018/mar…

Re-upping the 6-part Buzzfeed investigation into 14 assassinations on British soil that have been linked to Russia, including the gelsemium poisoning of #Magnitsky whistleblower Alexander Perepilichnyy

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Firefighters in hazmat suits decontaminate an area of Salisbury after a retired Russian military intelligence officer who once spied for Britain falls critically ill following “exposure to an unknown substance” nytimes.com/2018/03/05/wor…

UK counter terrorism division takes over as the lead agency in the #Skripal investigation, one emergency worker who treated him remains hospitalized cbsnews.com/news/sergei-sk…

UK police: a nerve agent was used to try to murder former Russian spy Sergei #Skripal; a police officer who was the first to attend the scene is hospitalized in serious condition
(h/t @AlexKokcharov)
bbc.com/news/uk-433238…

"The development forces the British government to confront the possibility that once again, an attack on British soil was carried out by Putin's government"

Former Russian spy Sergei #Skripal poisoned by nerve agent nyti.ms/2D8DpsK

"Two years ago, #Skripal's older brother died in Russia, and last year, his 43-year-old son Alexander died while on holiday with his girlfriend in St Petersburg. He had been rushed to hospital with liver failure" bbc.com/news/world-eur…

Scotland Yard: former Russian spy Sergei #Skripal was deliberately poisoned with a nerve agent in a case that police are now treating as attempted murder.

The condition of the police officer who was first to the spot where he was found has deteriorated theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/m…

UK police: a total of 21 people have received medical treatment after falling ill following the poisoning of Sergei #Skripal
independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/…

Mueller’s team has been asking about the Mayflower event attended by both Kislyak and Jeff Sessions, as well as how and why Republican Party platform language was changed to be more favorable to Russia, at Ukraine's expense #TrumpRussia reuters.com/article/us-usa…

Trump advisor J.D. Gordon had initially denied that the Trump campaign had anything to do with the GOP platform change, but later admitted that was false

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A Texas GOP delegate on the platform committee publicly stated that the GOP platform was changed to be more Russia-friendly at the behest of the Trump campaign

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