Paul Manafort appears to be in deep, deep trouble if all the reports coming out in the last week are true. Just a month ago, various associates of Manafort's were subpoenaed to testify for testimony related to Robert Mueller's special investigation. Oh, and just a few days ago news came out that Manafort had been wiretapped via a FISA warrant for years. Today, even more bad news for Manafort, this time in the form of a leak of emails showing that Manafort offered to send "private briefings" to a Russian billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin.
Whoops. That looks pretty damn fishy.
The Washington Post reports that Manafort reached this Kremlin connected billionaire just two weeks before Trump accepted the GOP nomination. Manafort allegedly sent an email to an "intermediary" asking that a message be sent to Oleg Deripaska. The July 7, 2016 message said:
“If he needs private briefings we can accommodate.”
This email, as well as tens of thousands of documents already handed over to Mueller's team, continue to show a pattern of contacts that are alarming in both their frequency, high level connection to the Kremlin and possible nefarious intentions.
There is no proof (yet) that Deripaska took Manafort up on his offer, but you better believe that Mueller is looking into it.
