GOP Operative Made "Suspicious" Cash Withdrawals During Pursuit Of Clinton Emails

Source: BuzzFeed News

Peter W. Smith withdrew $4,900 in cash the day after he finalized a plan to work with “dark web” hackers.

In one of the most intriguing episodes of the 2016 presidential campaign, Republican activist Peter W. Smith launched an independent effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails to help defeat her and elect Donald Trump. His quest, which reportedly brought him into contact with at least two sets of hackers that he himself believed were Russian, remains a key focus of investigations into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.

Now, BuzzFeed News has reviewed documents showing that FBI agents and congressional investigators have zeroed in on transactions Smith made right as his effort to procure Clinton’s emails heated up. Just a day after he finished a report suggesting he was working with Trump campaign officials, for example, he transferred $9,500 from an account he had set up to fund the email project to his personal account, later taking out more than $4,900 in cash. According to a person with direct knowledge of Smith’s project, the Republican operative stated that he was prepared to pay hackers “many thousands of dollars” for Clinton’s emails — and ultimately did so.

Smith is dead, and his lawyer, former business partner, and wife did not respond to numerous requests for an interview. The White House did not immediately return a message seeking comment, but the president has frequently denied colluding with Russia and denounced Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe as a partisan witch hunt. Smith said in a press interview that he was not part of the Trump campaign and was working independently.

The money trail, made public here for the first time, sheds new light on Smith’s effort, in which he told people he was in touch with both Russians on the dark web and Trump campaign officials — particularly Michael Flynn, who was then a top advisor to the Trump campaign and later served as national security adviser before having to resign after misleading White House officials about his meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

Read more: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/peter-w-smith-hillary-clinton-emails-trump-flynn-money

Rick Gates has met with Muller *20 TIMES* since he struck his plea deal in February.

Important trial info about Manafort, Gates, $$ laundering, Cypress, Ukraine, Russians, Grenadines

Judge is taking a quick break. Rick Gates has been back on the stand. We saw examples of agreements that Gates said were between Manafort's Cypriot companies and various Ukrainian businessmen, incl. the amount of money to paid to the overseas accounts (in the millions of dollars)

Gates said that a Cypriot law firm would set up the various shelf companies (not "shell&quot for Manafort under different names, and they wouldn't have Manafort or Gates' names on them — they would have directors and board members, who were also members of the Cypriot law firm
https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1026846224081723392



Gates said that after Viktor Yanukovych left power, work dried up for Manafort, and we saw emails between Gates and their associate Konstantin Kilimnik about trying to collect money still owed (recall that prosecutors allege Manafort engaged in bank fraud to keep up his $ flow)

We got an explanation for the funny-looking invoices re: US vendors Manafort did business with — Gates said when they moved $ from Cyprus to the Grenadines, those banks needed more documentation to make wire transfers, so Gates would create invoices under Manafort's account names

That is, the US vendors would submit invoices to Manafort with Manafort's name on them, but to transfer money from Manafort-controlled entities in the Grenadines, the invoices had to have the name of that entity. So Gates would create one

Gates repeatedly said that he created the agreements with the Ukrainian businessmen and initiated and facilitated wire transfers from the overseas accounts at Manafort's direction (with the exception being the money that Gates said he stole from Manafort)

To be clear, when Gates says he embezzled from Manafort, what he's actually admitting to is embezzli

Republican operative who is screening Judge Kavanaugh's records actually worked for him in the WH

Donald Trump (in his own words) thinks traitors should be given the death penalty.

CNN confirms the Guardian's reporting, gets a Trump admin official to say a Russian spy working