The man cast as a linchpin of debunked Trump-Russia collusion theories is breaking his silence to vigorously dispute the U.S. government’s effort to brand him a Russian spy and put him behind bars.
In an exclusive interview with RealClearInvestigations, Konstantin Kilimnik stated, “I have no relationship whatsoever to any intelligence services, be they Russian or Ukrainian or American, or anyone else.”
Kilimnik, a longtime employee of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, spoke out in response to an explosive Treasury Department statement declaring that he had “provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy” during the 2016 election. That press release, which announced an array of sanctions on Russian nationals last month, also alleged that Kilimnik is a “known Russian Intelligence Services agent implementing influence operations on their behalf.”
Treasury‘s claim came shortly after two other accusatory U.S. government statements about the dual Ukrainian-Russian national. In March, a U.S. Intelligence Community Assessment accused Kilimnik of being a “Russian influence agent” who meddled in the 2020 campaign to assist Trump’s reelection. A month earlier, an FBI alert offered $250,000 for information leading to his arrest over a 2018 witness tampering charge in Manafort’s shuttered Ukraine lobbying case, which was unrelated to Russia, collusion, or any elections.
Treasury provided no evidence for its claims, which go beyond the findings of the two most extensive Russiagate investigations: the 448-page report issued in 2019 by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the 966-page report issued in August 2020 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Treasury has declined all media requests for elaboration on how it reached conclusions that those probes did not. Two unidentified officials told NBC News that U.S. intelligence “has developed new information” about Kilimnik “that leads them to believe” (emphasis added) that he passed on the polling data to Russia. But these sources “did not identify the source or type of intelligence that had been developed,” nor “when or how” it was received.
“Nobody has seen any evidence to support these claims about Kilimnik,” a congressional source familiar with the House and Senate’s multiple Russia-related investigations told RCI.
……His comments are backed up by documents, some previously unreported, as well as by Rick Gates, a longtime Manafort associate and key Mueller probe cooperating witness. (Gates pleaded guilty to making a false statement and to failing to register as a foreign agent in connection to his lobbying work in Ukraine.) The evidence raises doubts about new efforts to revive the Trump-Kremlin collusion narrative by casting Kilimnik as a central Russian figure.
……In September 2020, RCI asked the FBI and Justice Department whether it shares the SSCI’s judgment that Kilimnik is a “Russian intelligence officer.” A DOJ spokesperson replied that “the Mueller report speaks for itself,” and advised that the public “defer” to how Kilimnik was characterized in the Mueller report and the Special Counsel Office’s indictments. This strongly suggested, RCI reported, that the FBI has not adopted the SSCI’s view that Kilimnik is a Russian spy.
The FBI’s February “alert” offering $250,000 for information leading to Kilimnik’s arrest bolsters this reporting. It once again states that Kilimnik is “assessed by the FBI to have ties to Russian intelligence” – shunning the SSCI’s spy language and reverting to Mueller’s original, ambiguous characterization.
The wording of the FBI alert underscores that while the Senate Intelligence Committee and Treasury Department have declared that Kilimnik is a Russian spy, the nation’s top law enforcement agency has never adopted that assessment. When Manafort’s legal team asked the Special Counsel’s Office for any communication between Manafort and “Russian intelligence officials,” they were told that “there are no materials responsive to [those] requests.” In unsealed notes from early 2017, Peter Strzok – the top FBI counterintelligence agent who opened the Trump-Russia investigation – wrote: “We are unaware of ANY Trump advisers engaging in conversations with Russian intelligence officials.”
Asked whether the FBI has altered its characterization of Kilimnik in light of Treasury’s claim that he is a “known Russian Intelligence Services agent”, an FBI spokesperson declined comment.
Much more at the link.
Note that every time the FBI, the DOJ, and the Treasury are asked to show documentation to support their accusations, they decline. “No comment, “no materials available”. That’s because the false allegations had no verifiable proof. It was all propped up by a circus of unhinged Dem inquisitors with a TDS axe to grind.
The FBI admitted that the entire “Russian collusion” hoax fell apart the first month into President Trump’s tenure. The investigation was a conspiracy to oust a duly elected President on baseless grounds. The petty, vindictive Dem party wasted millions of tax dollars on their hate campaign against President Trump. It failed. Twice.
True to form, when a tool loses its usefulness, they will simply turn against it, as they did with Kilimnik, who at one point had contact with Obama officials prior to Biden’s trip to Ukraine, where Biden bragged about threatening to withhold a billion dollars in aid from Ukraine unless they stopped investigating the company on which his son Hunter was a board member.
None of the hoax perpetrators will ever be indicted or jailed for their malfeasance. There’s one set of rules for Dems, another set of rules for everyone else.
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