Manafort Notes From Russian Meet Contain Cryptic Reference to Donations

[HAB911]

Source: NBC NEWS

WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort's notes from a controversial Trump Tower meeting with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign included the word "donations," near a reference to the Republican National Committee, two sources briefed on the evidence told NBC News.

The references, which have not been previously disclosed, elevated the significance of the June 2016 meeting for congressional investigators, who are focused on determining whether it included any discussion of donations from Russian sources to either the Trump campaign or the Republican Party.

It is illegal for foreigners to donate to American elections. The meeting happened just as Trump had secured the Republican nomination for president, and he was considered a longshot to win. Manafort was the campaign chairman at the time.

Manafort's notes, typed on a smart phone and described by one briefed source as cryptic, were turned over to the House and Senate intelligence committees and to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. They contained the words "donations," and "RNC" in close proximity, the sources said.



Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/manafort-notes-russian-meet-contain-cryptic-reference-donations-n797816?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

[pnwmom]

1. Kaboom!

[HAB911]

4. One more today or are we done?

[pnwmom]

11. That's enough for me, for today.

This one is gong to reverberate!

[HAB911]

5. Benjamin Wittes‏

They always travel together. They are a bonded pair.

That said, as @adamgoldmanNYT might say, the day is young...

[Mrs. Overall]

2. RNC loves some Putin, too.

[Achilleaze]

20. Yes. RNC TreasonWeasels betrayed America

for money of course, the only value to which republicans remain true.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. "to either the Trump campaign or the Republican Party"

how about "every GOP member of Congress for $10k"?????

[ffr]

6. The dying shriveling up RNC hitched their wagon to tRump in a last gasp hope

It was a gamble they hoped would pay off. One last chance to loot the U.S. and state treasuries, while preventing Hillary Clinton from solidifying more people over to being democrats. After all, she had something like a 63% approval rating as acting senator from New York and an even higher approval rating under Obama, as Secretary of State. She's definitely more popular in office, than out, when RW'ers can talk up a good game and beat lies and falsehoods into the public light.
They get what they deserve.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. I'd love to see the end of the RNC/GOP

But your post seems like wishful thinking.

Right now, they control just about everything.

We won't defeat them by claiming they're about to croak all by themselves.

[ffr]

10. Hitched is past tense.

They're not about to croak. They were about to croak back then, but with Russia's help, managed to fool enough voters into the catastrophe we're in now. Had they not, Hillary's term as president, dare I say, popular term as the 45th president of the United States, would have certainly sealed the fate of the KGOP.

[Justice]

7. GOP accepted $7.35 million in contributions from a Ukrainian-born oligarch in 2015-2017

"Donald Trump and the political action committees for Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich and John McCain accepted $7.35 million in contributions from a Ukrainian-born oligarch who is the business partner of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs and a Russian government bank.

During the 2015-2016 election season, Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonard "Len" Blavatnik contributed $6.35 million to leading Republican candidates and incumbent senators. Mitch McConnell was the top recipient of Blavatnik's donations, collecting $2.5 million for his GOP Senate Leadership Fund under the names of two of Blavatnik's holding companies, Access Industries and AI Altep Holdings, according to Federal Election Commission documents and OpenSecrets.org.

In January, Quartz reported that Blavatnik donated another $1 million to Trump's Inaugural Committee.

Len Blavatnik, considered to be one of the richest men in Great Britain, holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and the U.K."

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/03/tangled-web-connects-russian-oligarch-money-gop-campaigns.

Mitch McConnell then gave 8.1 Million from his PAC to Burr for his re-election campaign.

[ffr]

12. This may be a better link.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj7yYXRkYLWAhXkwFQKHdm0DJEQFggmMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dallasnews.com%2Fopinion%2Fcommentary%2F2017%2F08%2F03%2Ftangled-web-connects-russian-oligarch-money-gop-campaigns&usg=AFQjCNG3gsQW79ZaArQjZGvVJPK-2sohfg

[lark]

9. Please oh please let it be about Russia donating to the RNC.

To truly have things change, the Repug party has to be held responsible on their illegal treachery. It's not enough to take down Drumpf. Pence, Ryan, McConnell and any other asshole who colluded to steal the election need to go down with the ship as well.

[ffr]

13. +1

Absa-freaken-lootly!

[Plucketeer]

16. Oh to dream......... nt

[RecoveringJournalist]

17. By any means necessary

Since I believe the list is quite large, I fear this won't happen without what I fear will be a true Civil War.

[Cosmocat]

18. Yep - 45 is the symptom, not the cause

He never got the air to be POTUS has the republican party not skull fucked every ounce of decency and intelligence out of 2/3 of the country.

[RecoveringJournalist]

14. But

Not surprised.

I hope any Trump/Republican voters who are fence sitters will begin to see all the shenanigans and be inclined to begin looking at their Elephantiasis votes with a more critical eye.

But those predisposed to believing anything that comes from RNC/Trump's mouth will look at this as just another attempt to smear him/them. Nothing new here. The left hates him/them and will stop at nothing to destroy him/them.

In the immortal words of the Captain, "Some men you just can't reach."

[gademocrat7]

15. Boom!

RNC and Russian money.

[Mr. Ected]

19. If Trump and Pence go down, and the RNC is implicated in collusion as well

Where does the line of succession go from Orrin Hatch?

[PSPS]

21. LOL "It is illegal for foreigners to donate to American elections."

Yeah, pull the other finger. I think it was McClatchy that revealed the russians were funneling in all kinds of cash to GOP campaigns via anonymous "dark money" channels made legal by Citizens United. Besides Trump, they mentioned the campaigns of others in the GOP who received this money including McConnell, Paul Ryan and Scott Walker.

[Ragrum]

24. super PAC affiliated with Mitch McConnell probably gave to every GOP'r

I think I saw that Burr got $22,500...small potatoes but enough to taint him and tar him...so many GOP'rs ...I'd bet they all took it.

[Tanuki]

22. Don Jr. tried to trivialize the meeting by saying Manafort was on the phone

most of the time. Now we know, per the OP, that he was not bored and disengaged, but typing notes about the meeting into his smartphone!

[SethH]

23. maybe it was donations to orphans