As the Trump-Russia investigation comes to a close, the primary target of special prosecutor Robert Mueller seems to be Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort and his Russian translator Konstantin Kilimnik.
Manafort, says Mueller, is a “hardened criminal.” But what is Kilimnik?
The question goes to the heart of Mueller’s investigation. Is Kilimnik and active Russian spy and nexus of Russian influence operation aimed at the 2016 election and executed with help of the Trump entourage?
Or is he just schemer who hooked up with Manafort to cash in and who’s contacts with the Russians did not involve collusion?
Does Mueller have a case for collusion? Or does he have evidence of a lot of contacts that don’t add up to collusion?
Kilimnik gave the impression he might be a spy–which doesn’t mean he was one, says the New York Times.
….for the politicians and oligarchs who were Mr. Manafort’s clients, Mr. Kilimnik’s suspected intelligence connections suggested a seal of approval from Moscow. That was an important selling point, especially when combined with Mr. Manafort’s connections. The perception in political circles in Kiev was that hiring Mr. Manafort’s team would open doors in Washington and Moscow.
Mueller’s indictment hints that Kilimnik is a Russian intelligence operative. He denies it. The strongest evidence of an intelligence connection was his training as a translator at a school used by the GRU, as Russian military intelligence is known.
Kilimnik certainly cashed in during his time as Manafort’s fixer and translator.
Mr. Manafort, who was not known for spreading the wealth among his subordinates, paid Mr. Kilimnik $530,000 for “professional services and administrative overhead for Kiev operations” from June 2013 to January 2014, according to Justice Departmentlobbying filings, which show that Mr. Manafort’s company was paid $17 million over a two-year stretch around that time.
Kilimnik came to Washington for Trump’s inauguration but wasn’t interviewed by the FBI, much to the frustration of Peter Strzok, the agent who oversaw the bureau’s investigation of Russian interference in the election. Strzok was reassigned and later fired for sending text messages critical of Mr. Trump.
“Everything is completely falling off the rails,” Mr. Strzok wrote in a text to a colleague on Jan. 23, 2017 — three days after the inauguration — referring to the missed opportunity.
So Kilimnik was the target of the FBI agents most suspicious of Trump’s Russia dealings. If there was collusion, he was involved. But the case against him, so far, is not strong.
