President Trump has maintained that he didn’t collude with Russia during his 2016 bid for the White House. New information, inadvertently released in an improperly redacted court filing on Tuesday, makes clear that his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, probably did.
That puts Trump, who had previously defended Manafort and even considered pardoning him, in a tight spot with only one real option: distancing himself from his former ally and pleading innocence to Manafort’s shady dealings abroad.
Under the blacked-out portions of Tuesday’s filings, Manafort’s defense team acknowledges that he shared 2016 presidential polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, identified by the FBI as having ties to Russian intelligence. Another portion of the filing reveals that, while serving on the Trump campaign, Manafort also discussed a Russian-backed Ukrainian “peace plan” with the same individual on “several occasions.”
Put simply, Trump’s campaign manager indisputably shared sensitive data with an operative with links to a hostile foreign power’s intelligence agency. That information, shared personally by Manafort, seems likely to have included at least some internal data, not otherwise available, that would be potentially useful in Russian influence and misinformation campaigns or other intelligence priorities.
Needless to say, an American campaign official handing over election information — and as emails reported by the Washington Post show, offering private briefings — to Russian oligarch Oleg V. Deripaska, a billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin and Kilimnik, is a red flag of collaboration or, in other words, collusion.
As for the Ukrainian peace plan, there were few details on what exactly the proposed deal entailed, but it seems likely that it might have been some version of a Russian plan that would legally cede Crimea, a part of Ukraine illegally seized by Moscow, to Russia.
That too is concerning. Currently, the U.S. enforces sanctions on Russia for its actions in Crimea as a violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and international law. Changing that policy and advocating for an agreement that would literally hand over the territory to Russia is tantamount to selling out Ukraine and helping Moscow bully its way to territorial claims.
These revelations solidify Manafort’s reputation as a deceptive player in the dark world of Russian politics where he made his money working for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies. He was convicted on charges relating to those dealings and specifically his work for pro-Russian political parties in Ukraine, of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failing to disclose a foreign bank account in October 2017.
So far, none of that nastiness of selling out to Russia for a little cash directly touches Trump’s actions. He should keep it that way.
To prevent dragging himself down with his one-time campaign manager, Trump would do well to keep his mouth shut on the latest release and make clear that Manafort’s collaboration with Russia was unacceptable. He should also keep anything even remotely related to Manafort and his contacts as far from the Oval Office as possible.
And Trump should stick to that strategy even if it means trading his signature argument of “No Collusion” to “Not Me.”
Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/no-collusion-vs-not-me-and-why-trump-should-consider-a-new-talking-point
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