Oleg Deripaska Met Sergei Millian at the St. Petersburg Forum Michael Cohen Would Have Met Putin
In a piece puzzling through why Oleg Deripaska — who wrote a deceptive op-ed that was published at his outlet — would get polling data from Trump’s campaign manager [Note, NYT has updated reporting to specify that Manafort sent the data to Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov], Chuck Ross mentions something that has entirely new meaning given recent disclosures. Oleg Deripaska met with Sergei Millian at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in June 2016.
Deripaska has denied through intermediaries being a source for Steele, though he was spotted in June 2016 at an economic forum in St. Petersburg with Sergei Millian, an alleged source for the dossier.
Here’s a photo of the meeting, which Wendy Siegelman found.
Of course, Ross mostly cares about all this because Millian was allegedly a source for the Christopher Steele dossier, not for all the other events this one intersects with.
Consider the timeline of some key events below.
It shows that the email hacks paralleled Manafort’s increased responsibility on the campaign.
But even as Russia’s operation to release dirt on Hillary was proceeding (and Russians were reaching out to George Papadopoulos to dangle emails as well), Michael Cohen was negotiating a Trump Tower deal, via Felix Sater, which was premised on a meeting between him — and then later, Trump — and Vladimir Putin. On June 9 — the same day that Don Jr told Aras Agalarov’s representatives that the Trumps would revisit sanctions if Trump was elected — Cohen even started to book his travel for that meeting. He canceled those plans, however, on the same day Russia’s role in hacking the DNC became public.
But two key figures in the operation did meet at the St. Petersburg Forum: Deripaska and Millian. And Millian would pick up the Trump Tower deal after the RNC Convention, laundering it, at that point, through a junior staffer who had proven to be a useful go-between for the Russians.
We don’t know whether Deripaska, whom Steele was pitching as a viable partner to counter Russian organized crime, was a source for Steele’s dossier. We do know that Manafort is the one who pushed Trump to discredit the Russian investigation by attacking the dossier.
As I disclosed last July, I provided information to the FBI on issues related to the Mueller investigation, so I’m going to include disclosure statements on Mueller investigation posts from here on out. I will include the disclosure whether or not the stuff I shared with the FBI pertains to the subject of the post.
Timeline
January 12, 2016: Steele writes Bruce Ohr to say Oleg Deripaska may obtain a visa for later that year
January 20: Michael Cohen speaks with Dmitry Peskov’s personal assistant for 20 minutes about Trump Tower deal
January 21: Putin’s office contacts Felix Sater about Trump Tower deal
February 21: Steele sends Ohr Orbis reporting claiming Deripaska was not a tool of the Kremlin
February 29: Manafort drafts proposal to work for “free” for Trump
March 19: GRU hacks John Podesta
March 29: After the intervention of Roger Stone and Tom Barrack, Manafort joins the Trump campaign, initially only as Convention Chair
April: Manafort asks Kilimnik,”How do we use to get whole?”
April 18: GRU hacks into DNC via DCCC
April 26: George Papadopoulos learns Russians are offering election assistance in form of leaked emails
April 27: In first foreign policy speech Papadopoulos includes signal to Russians to meet
May 4: Cohen tells Sater he’ll do a trip to Russia before the Convention; Trump will do one after
May 5: Sater passes on Peskov invite to Cohen to attend St. Petersburg Forum to meet Putin or Medvedev
May 19: Manafort formally named campaign chair
May 21: Manafort forwards request for Trump meeting to Rick Gates, warning against sending a signal
June 3: Rob Golstone starts arranging meeting with Don Jr.
June 7: Manafort meets with Trump and Trump announces he’ll have an announcement about Hillary
June 8: GRU releases first emails via dcleaks
June 9: Trump Tower meeting presents dirt for sanctions relief; Cohen makes plans for trip to St. Petersburg Forum
June 14: WaPo reveals Russia hacked DNC; Cohen cancels plan for St. Petersburg trip
June 15: Guccifer 2.0 created
June 16-19: St. Petersburg forum (Putin does attend)
June 20: First Steele report, allegedly relying on Millian as one source
July 7: Manafort tells Kilimnik he’s willing to provide Deripaska private briefings; Ohr call with Steele about Deripaska
Week of July 15: Trump campaign prevents change making platform more belligerent to Ukraine
July 21: Sater visits Trump Tower
July 22: George Papadopoulos asks Ivan Timofeev to help prep for a meeting with Sergei Millian; Millian would eventually pitch Papadopoulos on Trump Tower Moscow deal
August 3: Manafort and Kilimnik meet in New York
August 17: Manafort fired from campaign
August: Manafort and Tom Barrack take boat trip, meet Kilimnik
October 18: Steele and Ohr discuss dispute between Ukraine and RUSAL
January 11 or 12, 2017: Manafort contacts Reince Priebus to tell him how to use the Steele dossier to discredit Russian investigation (remember, Manafort insists he didn’t lie about meeting with Trump officials, because those meetings happened before inauguration)
January 27: Papadopoulos agrees to meet FBI without a lawyer, in part in hopes of sustaining possibility of a job with Trump Admin and possibly a deal with Millian
January or February 2017: Manafort meets Kilimnik in Madrid
I think the title is missing the word “where” right before “Michal Cohen”.
Dear Ghu, there are a lot of connections right there, especially for people who keep claiming they’re not “colluding”.
NYT “corrected” their article about Deripaska getting the data:
1] https://twitter.com/amyfiscus/status/1083074303313305601
10:53 AM – 9 Jan 2019 We have corrected this article to say that Manafort, via Gates, directed Kilimnik to make sure polling data got to Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov, not Deripaska. I am deleting my earlier tweet to limit recirculation.
*
2] https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/1083070872754274305
10:39 AM – 9 Jan 2019 CORRECTION: PAUL MANAFORT asked KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK to pass TRUMP polling to the Ukrainian oligarchs SERHIY LYOVOCHKIN & RINAT AKHMETOV, & not to OLEG DERIPASKA, as originally reported. We have corrected the story & I deleted a tweet repeating the error.
What a strange thing to get wrong. It’s such a critical aspect.
My first reaction was WHAAATT?!?!?…very strange, but somehow not surprising…
[Hi Trip, and Happy New Year to All here at Marcy’s Place…a refuge in the storm!]
You too Harpie! Always good to see ya.
I keep waiting for Rohrabacher to pop up. His guilty tells are a confession.
The Comrade Collusion Corruption Club.
Ross missing the bigger picture with his fixation on the dossier reminds me of the Monty Python bit “News for Parrots” —
“No parrots were involved in an accident on the M-1 today when a Lorry carrying High-octane fuel was in collison with a bollard. That’s a BOLLARD and *NOT* a PARROT. A spokesman for parrots said he was glad no parrots were involved. The Minister of Technology today met the three Russian leaders to discuss a 4 million Pound airliner deal….None of them went in the cage, or swung on the little wooden trapeze or ate any of the nice millet seed. Yum, Yum. ”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=34qw4d37vAc
ROFLMAO!! Thanx for that BobCon. Monty Python gets more relevant every day.
“A source close to Rosenstein said he intends to stay on until Mueller’s investigative and prosecutorial work is done. The source said that would mean Rosenstein would remain until early March. Several legal sources have said they expect the Mueller team to conclude its work by mid-to-late February, although they said that timeline could change based on unforeseen investigative developments. The source said once Mueller’s work is done, the special counsel’s report to the Justice Department would follow a few weeks later, and Rosenstein would likely be gone by then.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/rod-rosenstein-plans-leave-justice-department-after-new-attorney-general-n956571
So, actual trial tracks mean nothing to these “sources”?
Really? Have any of these “sources” ever actually worked in a criminal court??
You are killing me.
NBC keeps drinking the Kool-Aid. Trump sources have been predicting the end of Mueller’s investigation for over a year. Rudy & Co. keep telling Trump that Lucy won’t yank that football, but she does it every time.
As bmaz says, the claim that Rosenstein will stick around until “Mueller’s investigative and prosecutorial work is done,” would mean that he ain’t leaving sooner than Donald Trump leaves the White House. February and March dates are laughable for both to be true.
That that “timeline could change based on unforeseen investigative circumstances” is gobbledygook. It’s a weak out for a prediction that will never come true. It’s fodder for the base. NBC is making itself as reliable as Donald Trump with this access stenography.
Normally I chalk these types of reports up to Giuliani et al trolling/gaslighting us, but this report said “A source close to Rosenstein…” which is different than the prior reports I’ve dismissed, and IMO warranted at least keeping a eye on…
So Mueller presents his indictments and then Rosenstein goes to work for the House Committee?
Um, no, that is not how it will work out.
Yeah, but I can dream.
I actually buy that Mueller is getting close, in part bc of today’s Rosenstein signaling, and in part bc of when Mueller got the Stone transcript.
There is a difference between Mueller “getting close” and wrapping up. Because it takes time for the cases to play out. Which it why the DowdTrumpRudy line has always been so absurd.
There was a lot of clarification yesterday that Rosenstein would stay, not only through investigations, but prosecutions as well. I’m not really sure what the point was in announcing his imminent departure.
I hope this doesn’t signal that there are only a small amount of prosecutions coming.
Do you have a source/links? AFAICS from google and my news feeds, the reports are that Rosenstein would be leaving in the next few months, soon after Mueller’s report and indictments and long before prosecutions were complete (assuming there were any).
No, and I don’t recall by whom, but it was reported by MSNBC at some point.
Aside: It’s miraculous, really, that Trump never fired Rosenstein. Especially around the time the “Rosenstein wants to use the 25th Amendment and wire up for the president” story came out.
I would like to think that Mueller is close, but doesn’t he need to talk to Andrew Miller (and others)? Your reporting indicates that Roger Stone is the lynchpin but as of yet, RS has not been indicted. Wouldn’t an RS indictment be the real signal that Mueller is ready to report?
As bmaz lays out, there’s a difference between Mueller wrapping up the investigatory phase of his work and completing prosecutions that might arise from it. The former he might do within a month or two, matching the asserted timing for Rosenstein’s departure.
If there are new prosecutions, they would be in their early stages by the end of February, not completed. Elaborate plea deals could easily take that long to complete and obtain judicial approval for them.
For the story to be true, Mueller would be wrapping up with no new prosecutions planned. (That does not include prosecutions launched by other prosecutors.) That would surprise me.
That’s the first time that I’ve read that Steele>Ohr re Deripaska summary (linked in the article). Pretty fascinating.
What concerns me about the possibility of the “full truth” ever really coming to light is the fact that both Deripaska and S!ter were clearly intelligence resources (for some combo of US/Russia/ROC) but if their ultimate allegiances were to US intelligence, then Trump presumably would not be President today (ie our intelligence community should have stepped in before a Trump was a front runner). Given that he is President, it makes me think that the US intelligence community may have been outmaneuvered in a complicated chess game. Deripaska’s involvement in the Levinson (B1rshtein) case only amplifies my concerns about him in that regard. And of course S@ter is connected to everyone under the sun (US/Russia/ROC) and basically lived within the Trump umbrella for 15+ years so he obviously knew that there was some extremely shady shi* going on in terms of the money flow and players involved with Trump Org well in advance of the 2016 election.
So the only thing that makes sense to me is that, at the end of the day, S!ter and Deripaska’s loyalties were more heavily weighted towards Russia (but that doesn’t make total sense to me either because S!ter’s current situation would likely be a little different) or, the wild/Tom Clancy-esque scenario but the one that seems to fit the logic puzzle best, is if them being heavily tied in with a transnational ROC org (M%gilev1ch or similar) and the US (or maybe both the US and Russian government jointly) was using the two of them and said ROC entity as an intelligence resource to try to stay a step ahead of terrorism/nuclear risks/etc (ie following the money of the black market).
Again, the latter is obviously the much wilder sounding version but it’s just so hard to reconcile the fact patterns without there been some sort of significant intelligence backstory. Who knows.
Quite a lot of effort for an operation that supposedly would have had no real effect on the election. I still doubt Putin’s strategy was to get better at next-gen marketing -and rub up against gun nuts – he was playing a full-court press, and there are sure things we’re not seeing yet.
Is this related to the transfer of the microtargeting data (Cambridge Analytica and other) from Trump’s IT people (Parscale) to Russian IT people to be used cor their social media Ads, Trolls and Bots? See:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/democrats-push-to-subpoena-trump-data-firms/
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/robert-mercer-breitbart-war-on-media-steve-bannon-donald-trump-nigel-farage
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/28/trump-assange-bannon-farage-bound-together-in-unholy-alliance
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/04/cambridge-analytica-democracy-digital-age
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/14/robert-mercer-cambridge-analytica-leave-eu-referendum-brexit-campaigns
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/12/14/democracy-and-the-machinations-of-mind-control/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/democrats-push-to-subpoena-trump-data-firms/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/a-groundbreaking-case-may-force-controversial-data-firm-cambridge-analytica-to-reveal-trump-secrets/
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/mueller-probing-whether-trump-team-aided-russian-trolls.html
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/09/jared-kushner-data-operation-russia-facebook
[Nice to see you again at emptywheel. Please use the same login information each time so the community gets to know you. Posting more than a link or two will cause your comment to go into moderation and delay its appearance on the site. /~Rayne]
You’re fantastic, Marci. Don’t know where to put this inquiry so that’s why it is a little out of place here.
RREEF Property Trust, located in Chicago and owned by Deutsche Bank, recently appointed new officers. It is a client of Alston & Bird, the firm recently connected to the secret Supreme Court case connected to Mueller’s grand jury involvement and trying to avoid a subpoena. Could this be the foreign company not yet identified? Money laundering? Justice Kennedy retirement? Etc.?
https://thediwire.com/rreef-property-trust-appoints-new-executive-officers/
The company appealing the grand jury subpoena is at least 50% directly owned by a foreign government. I don’t think RREEF Property Trust would qualify if it is owned by Deutsche Bank
RREEF Property is a REIT that is “owned” by its investors. RREEF, a unit of Deutsche, gets a fee for managing the money in the REIT. Investors give money to the REIT to purchase commercial real estate. Kind of wild to think that has any connection to Russia.
Deutsche is a huge bank with a lot of normal banking functions. It has long been a big lender in U.S. commercial real estate. Whatever money laundering is done is done through a select group, not everyone in the bank is doing something corrupt.
Nothing remotely “wild” about it to think that Russian money might be laundered through global REITs, via a “trusted” bank.
The corruption at DB is significant and apparently systemic. The first page of a search for fines paid by DB to settle alleged criminal conduct over the last few years: $7.2 billion for mortgage fraud, $2.8 billion for interest rate fixing, $95 million for a US tax fraud case, $630 million to settle a Russian mirror trades case, $204 million to settle another matter.
The corrupt group might be small, as you claim, but it is mighty, which suggests it has juice coming from the very top, in an organization of fundamental importance to the German government and economy. The amount and consistency of those fines suggest systemic fraud is essential to its business.
Earl, what you say has nothing to do with my point. A REIT is a bad way to launder money, the reporting requirements are immense. Everything they do has to be documented to the enth degree.
Laundering is done with private transactions with anonymous LLCs and cash payments.
Again, Deutsche is a big bank and the corruption is walled off with certain people.
NJrun, have you read the laundromat? (older articles) Fascinating. There’s an ongoing series.
https://www.occrp.org/en/laundromat/the-russian-laundromat-exposed/
https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/27-ccwatch/cc-watch-briefs/8701-us-probing-danske-bank-over-money-laundering-billions
Oops. My apologies to Marcy for misspelling her name. And thank you to Alan for the reminder about the company being owned by the foreign government. Deutsche Bank is shifty, regardless, and has Russian connections. Who knows the depths of their deceptions?
Hey there, you seem to have taken that the Madrid meeting happened after the election as a fact when it’s merely a claim from Manafort’s spokesperson. Here’s a tweet by a journalist that talked with Kostya throwing some doubt into that timeline: https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1083005620192796672
Yep, I posted that as well, in some other thread. Although we’d have to take Kilimnik at his word, so there’s that.
re
“May 21: Manafort forwards request for Trump meeting to Rick Gates, warning against sending a signal”
I don’t understand/remember what ‘warning against sending a signal’ means. Can anybody help me out?
I think this a typo for Aug. 2.
Aug 2 is salient in mind as I just watched Corsi on Ari Melber and the grilling over Corsi’s Aug. 2 email to Stone (~ Word is friend in Embassy plans two more dumps…).
I am not the one to go to for film references, but this will make for a nice cut-away- to- ‘caviar’-dinner scene someday; or maybe they’ll do it timeline-like with the running of a clock… Long story short, Jerry is not getting as much screen time as Manafort.
August 3 was the date (I think) that Deripaska’s private jet took off from Newark (NJ) Airport. It went back to Moscow and then Deripaska joined Prikhodko on the yacht in Norway, famously revealed by Navalny in his video, “Yachts, oligarchs, prostitutes: sex huntress denounces the bribe taker.”
White House counsel hires 17 new lawyers to prepare defense of Trump’s executive privilege
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-white-house-lawyers-trump-executive-privilege-20190109-story.html
Interesting tidbit: I didn’t know that Cipollone had any “relationship” with Trump prior to the election. Trump at least knew of him.
I don’t know if this Neal Katyal thread has been posted here, yet:
Thanks, great link (as usual).
This part is comforting:
Marcy‘s writing a thread right now about some of this:
6:16 AM – 10 Jan 2019 Some things missed in yesterday’s confusion over whether Manafort gave Kilimnik data for Pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs or for a Russian one. / […]
This is so true. Think about how long we’ve been conditioned to simply accept that 1) Trump would have an inappropriate blasé response to a national security issue, 2) that he would lie and 3) that we would come to expect no outrage or concern by the GOP to same.
We’re all mad here, really. This is nuts.
emptywheel @emptywheel
Paula ReidVerified account @PaulaReidCBS
Himself is also claiming he never said that Mexico would pay for that !@#$%^&*I(O!!! wall. Even though there are multiple recordings of him saying just exactly that.
He lies the way he breathes: constantly, automatically, and even when not doing so would be greatly to his benefit.
Important aside: Rudy said they (Trump & Manafort) had a joint defense agreement even while Manafort was “cooperating”.
since the president just added 17 lawyers to now have a total of 32 lawyers, and news said he may reach a total of 40 lawyers in his team, who pays for this? i’ve found unclear info on this. i guess some of it is confusing cause he has personal business involved. anyone know? here’s one article i found on this.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/11/15/taxpayers-pay-legal-bill-protect-trump-business-profits
i think i found my answer
It’s so fucking cynical that Trump would deign to frame the US border issue as a “humanitarian crisis”, while at the same time he is devoid of compassion for unpaid workers and citizens negatively impacted by the shutdown, he has threatened to take away FEMA money from CA fire victims and he jocularly tossed paper towels at victims of a devastating storm in PR where a large number of people died due to neglect.
Yeah, Trump is really concerned about a “humanitarian crisis”.
A pox on Mitch McConnell’s house.
If he was worried about a humanitarian crisis he’d have fired that Nazi witch Kirstjen Nielsen as SecDHS, fired whoever shot tear gas across the border, prevented the separation of families and halted his executive duties (ha) until children in border concentration camps and unauthorized adoptions were returned to their loved ones.
Trump is just a lie production machine in a shitty suit.
to add insult to injury, yesterday he hired an additional 17 lawyers to add to his team that now totals 32, and news said it may go up to 40. their main focus will be creating a strong defense based on executive privilege. add the shutdown, that he might declare a national emergency (as he visits mcallen, tx today), and his very supportive border patrol (18,000 largest law enforcement, paramilitary, non-transparent group), simply translates to authoritarianism, all at taxpayer expense.
Do you think that old nursery rhyme still holds true?
Trumpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the bling’s asses & all the bling’s men
Couldn’t put Trumpty together again.
@Savage Librarian
Very nice! Another arrangement of that old nursery rhyme from awhile ago:
Trumpty Dumpty sat on his wall
Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall
All Putin’s hackers and all of his men
Couldn’t put the bastard together again
@Trip [11:02]
Marcy just linked to this CNN article:
Exclusive: Robert Mueller met with Trump’s pollster
Murray/Polantz Updated 1:26 PM ET, Thu January 10, 2019
Seems like he’s an enduring dickhole:
I am so incredibly curious what other off the radar interviews have happened.
Wendy Siegelman 10:13 AM – 10 Jan 2019
@MsEnergyHealer 12:43 PM – 9 Jan 2019
Why does MSNBC have Republicans on who claim the Democrats are at fault too? They HAD a bipartisan deal that Trump agreed to and walked away from (because of propaganda TV). He is rigid, not negotiating on any terms.
Stop with the bothsides-isms. McConnell just refused AGAIN a vote to open up the government.
Don’t promote this shit!
Precisely. The GOP own this. They controlled both houses of Congress and the White House. They proposed a bill that Trump originally backed. When he got it, he said, “Naw, I changed my mind. (When do I not?) I don’t wanna play today.” That’s entirely on Trump.
They still control the Senate, which could agree with the House on a veto-proof funding bill. But it’s McConnell who doesn’t wanna come out and play. That’s entirely on the Senate, the GOP and Trump.
Leaping Lizard Lindsey Graham is on record as saying that since the GOP has gone all-in on Trump, they have to back him to the hilt. If they refuse to play along with his serial temper tantrums – regardless of the harm done to America and Americans – the GOP goes down with the sinking SS Trump. Lindsey says follow the leader. That’s entirely on the Senate, the GOP and Donald Trump.
What the Democrats are doing is refusing to cave and give toddler Trump whatever he asks for. That’s what they and any opposition party should be doing. It’s what the Constitution and a majority of Americans expect them to do.
That the mainstream press fails to see that is entirely on them.
Wow. I’ve always read this as: Let’s brainstorm about what I can offer Oleg to pay off my debt.
But now I’m hearing: “I’m in. Start sending me tasks, the bolder the better.”
Interesting note, but perhaps nothing… Viktor Vekselberg was also in attendance at SPIEF 2016. While I’ve yet to come across any evidence of a meeting with Millian during the forum, his presence is fairly interesting considering:
(1) The “chance” meeting of Andrew Intrater, Vekselberg’s cousin and CEO of Columbus Nova, US affiliate of Vekselberg’s Renova Group, in the fall of 2016, a few months after Cohen’s TTM negotiations are handed off to Millian and George (Bloomberg, 12/07/18);
(2) Vekselberg’s January 2017 (Renova/Columbus Nova) $250,000 inauguration fund donation;
(3) The January 2017 meeting between Cohen, Vekselberg, and Intrater at Trump Tower NY at which US-Russia relations were allegedly discussed;
(4) The post-inauguration $1 million contract between Cohen and Columbus Nova of which $500,000 was paid;
(3) The March 2017 meeting of Cohen, Vekselberg, and Intrater concerning a “potential investment opportunity” that Vekselberg “wasn’t interested in,” which allegedly involved a “US oil deal”; and
(4) The March 14, 2017 meeting between Vekselberg and Putin – apparently their first one-on-one since 2010.
Like I said, maybe it means nothing that Vekselberg was at the SPIEF 2016 when Deripaska and Millian met. But his dealings with Cohen in the months to follow still strike me as interesting.