Ball of Collusion

by Andrew C. McCarthy

  1. Jeff Horowitz and Chad Day, “AP Exclusive: Before Trump job, Manafort worked to aid Putin” (Associated Press, March 22, 2017).

  2. Oksana Grytsenko, “WikiLeaks: Regions Party partly composed of ‘criminals’” (Kyiv Post, Jan. 24, 2012).

  3. Glenn R. Simpson and Mary Jacoby, “How Lobbyists Help Ex-Soviets Woo Washington” (Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2007) (updated); Christina Sterbenz, “The Worst Gangster Most People Have Never Heard Of” (Business Insider, Dec. 1, 2014); on Sessions, see Michael Isikoff and Ruth Marcus, “Clinton Fires Sessions as FBI Director” (Washington Post, July 20, 1993).

  4. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Title 22, U.S. Code, Sections 611 et seq. See generally, Congressional Research Service, “Foreign Agents Registration Act: An Overview” (Feb. 15, 2019) (updated).

  5. Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice, “Audit of the National Security Division’s Enforcement and Administration of the Foreign Agents Registration Act” (Sept. 2016); Ken Silverstein, “I’ve Covered Foreign Lobbying for 20 Years and I’m Amazed Manafort Got Busted—That’s because foreign lobbying laws are so toothless that you can count on one hand the number of people prosecuted for what Manafort is accused of”” (Politico, Oct. 30, 2017) (Of the seven cases, one was convicted at trial, two pled guilty, two were convicted of non-FARA charges, and two saw their cases dismissed).

  6. Byron York, “In Trump–Russia probe, was it all about the Logan Act?” (Washington Examiner, Dec. 3, 2018); Stephen Mihm, “The Logan Act: Never Used, Often Abused” (“Bloomberg, Dec. 8, 2017); Dan McLaughlin, “Repeal the Logan Act” (National Review, May 5, 2018).

  7. “Donbas” (sometimes “Donbass”) is a large mining and industrial region. The name is derived from the region’s serving as the basin of the Donets River, where the vast coal fields of eastern Ukraine spill into southwestern Russia.

  8. Andrew C. McCarthy, “If Working with Moscow is ‘Collusion,’ It’s a Bipartisan Offense—D.C. has been delusional about the Kremlin since the 1990s” (National Review, Feb. 23, 2019); see also, e.g., “The Obama Administration’s Hypocritical Pretext for Spying on the Trump Campaign—Where was its concern about Russia during its eight years in power?” (National Review, May 29, 2018); “Putin’s Intentions Aren’t What Matter” (National Review, March 29, 2014); “Missile Malpractice” (National Review, Dec. 4, 2010); “Bush Derangement Syndrome: Russia as a Strategic Partner” (National Review, Aug. 15, 2008).

  9. Graham Stack, “Everything you know about Paul Manafort is wrong” (Kyiv Post, Sept. 17, 2018); Chuck Ross, “Former Fusion GPS Employee Shreds Firm’s Work on Paul Manafort” (Daily Caller, Sept. 18, 2018).

  10. Andrew C. McCarthy, “Collusion: The Criminalization of Policy Disputes” (National Review, Feb. 16, 2019).

  11. McCarthy, “If Working with Moscow is ‘Collusion,’ It’s a Bipartisan Offense—D.C. has been delusional about the Kremlin since the 1990s” (supra).

  12. Frankin Foer, “Paul Manafort, American Hustler” (The Atlantic, March 2018 ed.).

  13. James Kirchick, “Devils’ Advocates” (New Republic, Aug. 13, 2008); Mary Jacoby and Glenn R. Simpson, “McCain Consultant Is Tied To Work for Ukraine Party” (Wall Street Journal, May 14, 2008); Foer, “Paul Manafort, American Hustler” (supra).

  14. Kenneth P. Vogel and Matthew Rosenberg, “Agents Tried to Flip Russian Oligarchs. The Fallout Spread to Trump” (New York Times, Sept. 1, 2018); John Solomon, “Russian oligarch, Justice Department and a clear case of collusion” (The Hill, Aug. 28, 2018); see also Solomon, “Mueller may have a conflict—leads directly to a Russian oligarch” (The Hill, May 14, 2018); Lee Smith, “Was Christopher Steele Paid by Russian Oligarch Deripaska?” (Real Clear Politics, Feb. 13, 2018); Michael Isikoff, “Trump’s campaign chief is questioned about ties to Russian billionaire” (Yahoo News, April 26, 2016); Simpson and Jacoby, “How Lobbyists Help Ex-Soviets Woo Washington” (supra).

  15. Simpson and Jacoby, “How Lobbyists Help Ex-Soviets Woo Washington” (supra); J.E. Dyer, “A really big clue: The close Clinton connection of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson” (Liberty Unyielding, Dec. 22, 2017); Lee Smith, “Did President Obama Read the ‘Steele Dossier’ in the White House Last August?” (Tablet Magazine, Dec. 20, 2017).

  16. Jacoby and Simpson, “McCain Consultant Is Tied To Work for Ukraine Party” (supra).

  17. Oksana Grytsenko, “WikiLeaks: Regions Party partly composed of ‘criminals’” (Kyiv Post, Jan. 24, 2012).

  18. Vlad Lavrov, “Libel Warriors” (Kyiv Post, Feb. 11, 2011); Mark Rachkevych, “WikiLeaks: Nation’s businessmen tell tales on each other in chats with US ambassadors” (Kyiv Post, Sept. 15, 2011).

  19. CIA World Fact Book, Ukraine section (accessed January 2019).

  20. Taras Kuzio, “Oligarchs Wield Power in Ukrainian Politics” (Jamestown Foundation, July 1, 2008).

  21. Oksana Grytsenko, “WikiLeaks: Regions Party partly composed of ‘criminals’” (supra).

  22. Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Top Ten Fugitives—Global Con Artist and Ruthless Criminal Semion Mogilevich” (October 2009).

  23. United States v. Semion Mogilevich, Criminal No. 02-157 (Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 2002).

  24. Christina Sterbenz, “The Worst Gangster Most People Have Never Heard Of” (Business Insider, Dec. 1, 2014); Craig Unger, “Understanding Trump v. Bruce Ohr: Think Russia’s top crime boss, Semion Mogilevich” (Just Security, Aug. 30, 2018).

  25. WikiLeaks, State Department cable “Ukraine: Firtash Makes His Case to the USG” (Dec. 10, 2008); Tom Winter, “DOJ: Ex-Manafort Associate Firtash Is Top-Tier Comrade of Russian Mobsters” (NBC News, July 26, 2017).

  26. Seth Hettena, “Why a Powerful Russian Oligarch Was Furious with Paul Manafort” (Kyiv Post, May 7, 2018); Glenn Simpson and Mary Jacoby, “How Lobbyists Help Ex-Soviets Woo Washington” (Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2007).

  27. Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe, “‘Exhibit A’: How McKinsey Got Entangled in a Bribery Case—The consultancy’s report became key evidence in a battle over the extradition of a powerful Ukrainian oligarch charged in a scheme to help Boeing” (New York Times, Dec. 30, 2018).

  28. Garrett M. Graff, “Robert Mueller Chooses His Investigatory Dream Team” (Wired, June 14, 2017) (noting Lisa Page experience in international organized crime and investigation of Ukrainian oligarch Firtash, Manafort’s former business partner); Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Press Office, “Andrew G. McCabe Named Executive Assistant Director of National Security Branch” (Oct. 23, 2013) (noting that McCabe began his FBI career in the New York field office and was supervisor of the Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force); U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Six Defendants Indicted in Alleged Conspiracy to Bribe Government Officials in India to Mine Titanium Materials” (April 2, 2014) (noting indictment of Firtash and participation in the investigation by Justice Department’s Fraud Section); Jeff Carlson, “Little-Known FBI Unit Played Major Role in Disseminating Steele Dossier” (Epoch Times, Sept. 29, 2018).

  29. Kim Sengupta, “Viktor Yushchenko: ‘Every politician in Ukraine who turns to the West is in danger’” (UK Independent, Oct. 14, 2015).

  30. Kenneth P. Vogel, “Manafort’s man in Kiev” (Politico, Aug. 18, 2016); Clifford J. Levy, “Toppled in Ukraine but Nearing a Comeback” (New York Times, Jan. 14, 2010).

  31. Levy, “Toppled in Ukraine but Nearing a Comeback” (supra).

  32. Jessica Donati, “Ukraine’s Yulia Tymoshenko Courts Washington After Manafort Revelations” (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 8, 2018); Morgan Henson, “Yulia Tymoshenko & Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) Party” (geohistory, Jan. 9, 2009); Warsaw Institute, “Does Yulia Tymoshenko collaborate with the Kremlin?” (Ukraine Monitor, July 17, 2018).

  33. Stephanie Petrella, “Yulia Tymoshenko: Ukraine’s Candidate of Uncertainty” (Foreign Policy Research Institute, Eurasia Program, Jan. 28, 2019; Andrzej Szeptycki, “The Putin-Tymoshenko Gas Agreement and Politica
l Developments in Ukraine” (Polish Institute of International Affairs, Jan. 23, 2009).

  34. Tom Lasseter, “A Ukraine mystery: Who did Russian gas sales benefit?” (McClatchy, Feb. 11, 2009); Warsaw Institute, “Does Yulia Tymoshenko collaborate with the Kremlin?” (supra).

  35. Donati, “Ukraine’s Yulia Tymoshenko Courts Washington After Manafort Revelations” (supra); Lally Weymouth, “Yulia Tymoshenko and the fight for Ukraine: ‘We cannot accept peace on Putin’s terms’” (Washington Post, Sept. 19, 2018); Andrew Roth, “Russia announces sanctions against senior Ukraine figures” (The Guardian, Nov. 1, 2018); Yevgeny Kiselyov, “Putin’s Shrewd Endorsement of Tymoshenko” (Moscow Times, March 10, 2014); Warsaw Institute, “Does Yulia Tymoshenko collaborate with the Kremlin?” (supra).

  36. Taras Kuzio, “Yulia Tymoshenko’s policies sit uneasily with her image as a pro-European politician” (London School of Economics and Political Science, May 4, 2018); see also Petrella, “Yulia Tymoshenko: Ukraine’s Candidate of Uncertainty” (supra).

  37. Michael Isikoff, “Firm With Obama Ties Cashes in Overseas” (Newsweek, Oct. 19, 2009); Ben Smith and Kenneth P. Vogel, “Obama consultants land abroad” (Politico, Nov. 18, 2009); Robert Schlesinger, “Ukraine’s American Imports—American political consultants and lobbyists have been working on all sides of the tempestuous Ukrainian situation” (U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 21, 2014); Matthew Mosk, “Top McCain Adviser Has Found Success Mixing Money, Politics” (Washington Post, June 26, 2008); Seth Hettena, “Why a Powerful Russian Oligarch Was Furious With Paul Manafort” (Kyiv Post, May 7, 2018).

  38. Mueller Report, Vol. I, pp. 132-34.

  39. Kenneth P. Vogel and Andrew E. Kramer, “Russian Spy of Hustling Political Operative? The Enigmatic Figure at the Heart of Mueller’s Inquiry” (New York Times, Feb. 23, 2019); “Russian charged with Trump’s ex-campaign chief was key figure in pro-Russia strategy” (Associated Press, July 3, 2018).

  40. “Russian charged with Trump’s ex-campaign chief was key figure in pro-Russia strategy,” supra.

  41. Michael Isikoff, “Trump’s campaign chief is questioned about ties to Russian billionaire” (Yahoo News, April 26, 2016); Hettena, “Why a Powerful Russian Oligarch Was Furious With Paul Manafort,” supra.

  42. “Profile: Viktor Yanukovych” (BBC News, March 2, 2010).

  43. Ellen Barry, “Former Ukraine Premier Is Jailed for 7 Years” (New York Times, Oct. 11, 2011); “Ukraine ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko jailed over gas deal” (BBC News, Oct. 11, 2011).

  44. Lachlan Markay, “Robert Mueller Targeted Two Lobbying Firms. Thriving in Trump’s D.C.” (Daily Beast, July 30, 2018); Hettena, “Why a Powerful Russian Oligarch Was Furious With Paul Manafort,” supra.

  45. United States v. Gregory B. Craig (District of Columbia, 2019), Indictment (April 11, 2019); United States v. Alex van der Zwaan, No. 18 Crim. 31 (ABJ) (District of Columbia, 2018), Statement of the Offense (Feb. 20, 2018); Kenneth P. Vogel and Katie Benner, “Gregory Craig, Ex-Obama Aide, Is Indicted on Charges of Lying to Justice Dept” (New York Times, April 11, 2019);Hettena, “Why a Powerful Russian Oligarch Was Furious With Paul Manafort,” supra.

  46. “Where is Viktor Yanukovych?” (Kyiv Post, Feb. 23, 2014).

  47. Chuck Ross, “Manafort Meeting with Alleged Russian Operative Is at ‘the Heart’ of Mueller Probe, Prosecutors Say” (Daily Caller, Feb. 7, 2019); Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman, Carol D. Leonnig, and Adam Entous, “Manafort offered to give Russian billionaire ‘private briefings’ on 2016 campaign” (Washington Post, Sept. 20, 2017).

  48. Sharon LaFraniere, Kenneth P. Vogel, and Maggie Haberman, “Manafort Accused of Sharing Trump Polling Data With Russian Associate” (New York Times, Jan. 8, 2019) (the Times corrected the original version of its story, which incorrectly said the polling data was to be shared with Deripaska); Tom Winter, “Manafort kept working in Ukraine after Mueller indictment, transcript shows” (NBC News, Feb. 7, 2019); Jonathan Turley, “Could Robert Mueller actually be investigating Ukrainian collusion?” (The Hill, Feb. 21, 2019).

  49. United States v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., and Konstantin Kilimnik, No. 17 Cr. 201 (ABJ) (District of Columbia, 2017), Superseding Indictment (June 8, 2018); United States v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., and Richard W. Gates III, No. 17 Cr. 201 (Eastern District of Virginia, 2018), Indictment (Feb. 22, 2018); United States v. Richard W. Gates III, No. 17 Cr. 201 (ABJ), (District of Columbia, 2018) Superseding Criminal Information (Feb. 2, 2018); Andrew C. McCarthy, “Manafort’s Light Sentence in Washington Owes to How Mueller Charged Him” (National Review, March 13, 2019); McCarthy, “Mueller’s Investigation Flouts Justice Department Standards—Gates was charged with $100 million in financial crimes—and pled guilty to two minor offenses, one of them highly questionable” (National Review, March 17, 2018); McCarthy, “More Thoughts on the Manafort Indictment” (National Review, Nov. 1, 2017).

  50. United States v. W. Samuel Patten, No. 18 Cr. 260 (ABJ) (District of Columbia, 2018), Criminal Information (Aug. 31, 2018); Jon Swaine, “Manafort associate paid Trump inauguration $50,000 in Ukrainian cash” (The Guardian, Aug. 31, 2018); Mike Eckel, “Washington Operative Who Lobbied for Ukrainian Party Charged” (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Aug. 31, 2018).

  CHAPTER 4

  1. Shane Harris and Elias Groll, “Nothing Could Be Further From the Truth—As Washington awaits the release of the highly classified probe into the CIA’s torture program, John Brennan’s integrity is being questioned just when the agency needs it most” (Foreign Policy, Aug. 1, 2014); Gregory D. Johnsen, “The Untouchable John Brennan” (BuzzFeed, April 23, 2015) (“‘As far as the allegations of, you know, CIA hacking into Senate computers,’ CIA Director John Brennan told Andrea Mitchell of NBC News, shaking his head and rolling his eyes to demonstrate the ridiculousness of the charges, ‘nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, we wouldn’t do that.’”); Matt Apuzzo and Mark Mazzetti, “Investigators Said to Seek No Penalty for C.I.A.’s Computer Search” (New York Times, Dec. 19, 2014); Greg Miller, “CIA director John Brennan apologizes for search of Senate committee’s computers” (Washington Post, July 31, 2014); Andrew C. McCarthy, “Clinton’s Republican Guard” (PJMedia, May 7, 2013); Jonah Goldberg, “Truth and Consequences for Benghazi” (National Review, Sept. 20, 2013).

  2. U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, “How many U.S. Ambassadors have been killed by militants?”.

  3. Andrew C. McCarthy, “New Benghazi Indictment Still Doesn’t Mention Al-Qaeda” (National Review, Oct. 15, 2014); see also Declassified Defense Intelligence Agency Email (Sept. 16, 2012) (‘The attack was planned ten or more days prior on approximately 01 September 2012. The intention was to attack the consulate and kill as many Americans as possible to seek revenge for U.S. killing of Aboyahiye ((ALALIBY)) in Pakistan and in memorial of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings.”).

  4. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 (March 17, 2011); Caroline D. Krass, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Memorandum Opinion for the Attorney General, “Authority to Use Military Force in Libya” (April 1, 2011); Micah Zenko, “The Big Lie About the Libyan War—The Obama administration said it was just trying to protect civilians. Its actions reveal it was looking for regime change.” (Foreign Policy, March 22, 2016); CBS News, “Global Post: Qaddafi apparently sodomized after capture” (Oct. 24, 2011); Anthony Fisher, “Libyans Would Have Preferred Hillary Clinton Kept Her ‘Smart Power’ Away From Their Country” (Reason, Oct. 18, 2016); Andrew C. McCarthy, Faithless Execution (Encounter Books, 2014), pp. 113-14 & nn.; McCarthy, “Our Libyan Adventure” (Oct. 27, 2011). Secretary Clinton stated:

  Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation.

  5. See, e.g., McCarthy, Faithless Execution, supra, pp
. 116-18; see also McCarthy, “The 10 P.M. Phone Call—Clinton and Obama discussed Benghazi. What did they say?” (National Review, May 18, 2013).

  6. Stephen F. Hayes, “The Benghazi Lie in Black and White” (Weekly Standard, June 28, 2016); Andrew C. McCarthy, “Hillary’s Breathtaking Mendacity” (National Review, Oct. 24, 2015).

  7. Stephen F. Hayes, “The Spin Never Stops” (Weekly Standard, May 25, 2015) (assessing Morell’s The Great War of Our Time: The CIA’s Fight Against Terrorism—From al Qa’ida to ISIS (Twelve Books, 2015)); McCarthy, Faithless Execution, supra.

  8. Stephen F. Hayes, “The Benghazi Cover-up (cont.)—How the CIA’s No. 2 misled Congress” (Weekly Standard, March 3, 2014).

  9. The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, “Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event—Las Vegas, NV” (Sept. 12, 2012).

  10. Thomas Joscelyn, “Al Qaeda Responsible for 4 Attack on U.S. Embassies in September” (Weekly Standard, Oct. 3, 2012); Joscelyn, “Al Qaeda’s expansion into Egypt” (Long War Journal, Feb. 11, 2014); Andrew C. McCarthy, Faithless Execution, supra, pp. 118-19 &nn.; McCarthy, “Obama’s ‘Blame It on the Video’ Was a Fraud for Cairo as Well as Benghazi—More Proof” (National Review, Feb. 20, 2014).

  11. Hayes, “The Benghazi Cover-up (cont.)—How the CIA’s No. 2 misled Congress,” supra.

  12. Deroy Murdock, “How Hillary Lied to Parents of Benghazi Dead” (National Review, Aug 4, 2016); McCarthy, “Hillary’s Breathtaking Mendacity,” supra; The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, “Remarks by the President to the UN General Assembly” (Sept. 25, 2012).

  13. Rich Lowry, “The Benghazi patsy” (Politico, May 9, 2013); Editorial, “Obama’s Benghazi Scapegoat Gets Year In Prison” (Investor’s Business Daily, Nov. 9, 2012); Andrew C. McCarthy, “Amnesty, but Not for D’Souza” (National Review, Feb. 1, 2014); McCarthy, “Hillary’s Breathtaking Mendacity” (National Review, Oct. 24, 2015).

  14. Stephen F. Hayes, “John Brennan: Political Hack” (Weekly Standard, Aug. 17, 2018).