Tuesday, November 27, 2018

HOT HOT BREAKING: Manafort Held Secret Talks with Assange

Update below: What it could mean
UPDATE 2 BELOW: Wikileaks Explodes and Denies

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, The Guardian is reporting.

According to to Guardian sources,  Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was working for Trump's campaign.

His lawyers declined to answer the Guardian’s questions about the visits.

More from The Guardian:
Manafort’s first visit to the embassy took place a year after Assange sought asylum inside, two sources said.

A separate internal document written by Ecuador’s Senain intelligence agency and seen by the Guardian lists “Paul Manaford [sic]” as one of several well-known guests. It also mentions “Russians”.

According to two sources, Manafort returned to the embassy in 2015. He paid another visit in spring 2016, turning up alone, around the time Trump named him as his convention manager. The visit is tentatively dated to March.

Manafort’s 2016 visit to Assange lasted about 40 minutes, one source said, adding that the American was casually dressed when he exited the embassy, wearing sandy-coloured chinos, a cardigan and a light-coloured shirt.

Visitors normally register with embassy security guards and show their passports. Sources in Ecuador, however, say Manafort was not logged.

Embassy staff were aware only later of the potential significance of Manafort’s visit and his political role with Trump, it is understood.
Manafort joined Donald Trump's presidential campaign team in March 2016, and was campaign chairman from June to August 2016.

-RW 

UPDATE

The Bill Palmer take:


  1. 1) It’s now fair to assume Mueller knew all along that Manafort met with Assange, and that this is the big thing Manafort lied about. So why Mueller’s ten day delay? To get Trump to lie in writing. Which in turn suggests Mueller has proof Trump knew about Manafort and Assange...
  2. 2) It’s also now fair to assume Ecuador is probably working with Mueller. If so, they’ll extradite Assange whenever Mueller wants. That would mean Mueller has had him in de facto custody all along - and Assange just didn’t know it.
  3. 3) Manafort’s bust last night is far bigger than any medium-fish arrest we were waiting for. This appears to involve Trump knowing that his campaign boss was plotting with Russia and a cyberterrorist to alter the outcome of the election in his favor. For Trump, that’s treason.
  4. UPDATE 2


Wikileaks fired back at a bombshell Guardian report that Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange in Spring 2016, calling one reporter a “serial fabricator” and denying the meeting ever took place.

“Remember this day when the Guardian permitted a serial fabricator to totally destroy the paper’s reputation,” Wikileaks tweeted shortly after the publication of the report. “[Wikileaks] is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor’s head that Manafort never met Assange.”

1 comment:

  1. Well, for one, the guy who says that's treason doesnt know what he's talking about. Treason is specifically limited in the constitution but people like to use it in all sorts of ways. It isnt treason even if this story turns out to be true.

    ReplyDelete