It’s strange that the media is not focusing on the Russia connection here. In the court filings, “Person A,” who was instrumental in carrying out Manafort’s witness tampering, has been identified as Konstantin Kilimnik. He is a long-time colleague of Manafort and has close ties to Russian intelligence services. Although some of the articles on the witness tampering mention Kilimnik, none of them seem to be diving into how significant his role is and how outrageous it is that he’s a known Russian agent. They’ve covered Kilimnik in the past, but today are not referencing their past research.
I’ve culled through several previously published reports on Kilimnik to bring forward and into focus today some of the telling facts about this shadowy figure.
What we know so far about Konstantin Kilimnik and his ties to Manafort, Russia, and Russian intelligence services:
(References are provided for each bulleted item – some are duplicates since the same article may document multiple facts.)
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Russian citizen who resides in Russia. (NYT)
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Between 1987 and 1992, studied at the Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, a known source of agents for Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (aka the GRU). (NYT / The Atlantic)
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Worked closely with Manafort for many years in the Ukraine acting as liaison between Manafort’s campaign consultancy and Russian-backed candidates. (Politico)
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Spoke on the phone with Manafort multiple times while Manafort was Trump’s campaign chairman. (NYT)
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Emailed Kremlin-connected Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska on Manafort’s behalf offering him “private briefings” about Trump’s campaign. (The Atlantic)
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Colleague of Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist, who attended the Trump Tower meeting along with Manafort, Trump Jr., and several Russians. This meeting is central to the Special Counsel’s investigation into Russia’s tampering with our election process and is the same meeting that the President lied about to the American people. (NYT)
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Referred to as “Person A” in multiple court documents filed by the Special Counsel. Excerpt from page 4 of Van der Zwaan sentencing memorandum: “Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents assisting the Special Counsel’s Office assess that Person A has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016.” (NYT)
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Coordinated with Manafort on the publication of an editorial ghost-written by Manafort and intended to influence public opinion on his trial, a violation of Manafort’s terms of release. (Chicago Tribune)
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Assisted Manafort with witness tampering. (WaPo / Court Filing - See “Person A”)
Kilimnik also faces these significant allegations:
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Accusations by former employees of the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit, that Kilimnik informed on them to Russian authorities. Kilimnik worked in the Moscow office of the IRI from 1995 to the mid-2000s when he began working for Manafort. (NYT / The Atlantic)
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Investigations by the Ukraine that Kilimnik, while working on Ukrainian campaigns, maintained “ties to Russian spy agencies.” (NYT)
The Ukraine has not filed charges against Kilimnik for his suspected ties with Russian spy agencies. However, a telling footnote here is that, until recently, the Ukrainian government was fully cooperating with Mueller’s investigation by supplying information about Manafort’s connections to the Kremlin and Russian intelligence services. However, following Trump’s decision to allow the sale of anti-tank missiles to the Ukraine, their government has cut off communications with Mueller. Some Trump critics are viewing this development as a quid pro quo between Trump and the Ukraine designed to impede Mueller’s investigation. At any rate, we cannot expect any further information about Kilimnik’s work with Manafort from the Ukrainian government. (NYT / New York Magazine)