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[Joe]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/manafort-had-60m-relationship-russian-oligarch-n810541?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

According to company documents obtained by NBC News in Cyprus, funds were sent from a company owned by Deripaska to entities linked to Manafort, registered in Cyprus.

Combine that with this from March 2017:
Just Security | Following the Money: Russia, Cyprus, and the Trump Team’s Odd Business Dealings

Taken on their own, many of these transactions appear perfectly legal. Viewed together, they show patterns suspicious enough that they should qualify for investigation under U.S. laws aimed at combatting money laundering, tax evasion, and other hard to track financial misdeeds.

One particularly good example of this pattern involves Trump’s billionaire Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, and his former role as vice chairman of the Bank of Cyprus.

Once again, why was the American billionaire now-cabinet secretary invested in an obscure bank that was the backbone of the financial system of an island that is nearly synonymous with Russian money laundering? Why would that billionaire install a CEO with a reputation like Ackermann’s to be the chairman of a bank he was trying to clean up, as the recent Times article suggests? Why would that CEO take such a huge downsize in position? And finally, what was a savvy businessman like Ross’s plan to make money from his involvement in the bank, which is less valuable now than it was when he became involved?

Ross’s predecessor as vice chairman of the bank is a former KGB operative and suspected Putin associate Vladimir Strzhalkovsky. It’s worth noting that Strzhalkovsky once ran Intourist, Russia’s official tourism agency with a reputation for being staffed by the KGB and used as a source of kompromat on foreign visitors during Soviet times. In a possibly random twist of fate, Intourist’s former flagship hotel is now the Moscow Ritz Carlton, the hotel mentioned in the Steele Dossier as the place where the New York tycoon is alleged to have engaged in behavior that provided the Russian government compromising material on him.

Among the bank’s major shareholder oligarchs is at least one with both deep ties to the Kremlin and a connection to Trump. In addition to doing time in jail on murder-related charges, Dimitry Rybolovlev, famously bought a Palm Beach, Florida house from Trump for $95 million in 2008—a $53 million markup over what Trump bought it for in 2005—and when other Palm Beach County real estate fell by an annual rate of 19.2 percent. That is a 126% profit in the midst of the US housing crisis. Rybolovlev never even moved into the house, tearing it down in 2016 and selling parts of the property for millions of dollars less than he paid for it.

The sale would have also been an extremely helpful cash infusion for Trump, who at the time was trying to sue his way out of a $40 million debt.

All of this massive transfer of economic benefit seems especially strange given the fact that Trump claims the two have never met.

This isn’t even getting into the discussions among online amateur sleuths digging into Trump’s Russia ties about the fact that Rybolovlev’s business jet was arriving within hours of Trump at American airports in places like Concord, N.C., and Las Vegas, Nev., during the 2016 presidential election.

 

[KernelPanic]

https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/918979008389361664

Manafort didn't collude with the "Russian government".

Nothing about colluding with oligarchs close to Putin, which pretty much is the Russian government.

 

[FStubbs]

Manafort was the one who picked Pence too.

I hope they get Pence as well.

 

[Jabronium]

Combine that with this from March 2017:
Just Security | Following the Money: Russia, Cyprus, and the Trump Team’s Odd Business Dealings

Man, I remember reading that months ago and wondering why it wasn't getting more attention.

 

[Lightning_Roller]

Manafort was the one who picked Pence too.

I hope they get Pence as well.

Same. He's just as bad as Trump.

 

[DietRob]

Lock him up?

Mueller is not the type to write a book but oh my God if he did it would be the best all-time seller

 

[Shadow Puppetry]

Manafort was the one who picked Pence too.

I hope they get Pence as well.

Pence lied about Flynn as well.

 

[CHC]

Oh my fucking god.

It's like.... I set my expectations at 10 and then the reality is this:

 

[noquarter]

I love the revised statement:

“Recent news reports indicate Mr. Manafort was under surveillance before he joined the campaign and after he left the campaign. He has called for the U.S. Government to release any intercepts involving him and non-Americans in hopes of finally putting an end to these wild conspiracy theories. Mr. Manafort did not collude with the Russian government.”

It reads like he is afraid of making another excuse and proof being given that he is lying.

"Tell me what you know and then I can tell you why I'm not guilty."

 

[BoboBrazil]

Manafort was the one who picked Pence too.

I hope they get Pence as well.

We still don't know what's in Pence's emails. He was ordered to release them and refused.

 

[Pyrokai]

We still don't know what's in Pence's emails. He was ordered to release them and refused.

I want Pence to go, too. Ryan hopefully won't accept. Who's number 4? Lol.

Oh Orin Hatch! This is where the Hatch jokes come from lol

 

[Jorok Goldblade]

Manafort was the one who picked Pence too.

I hope they get Pence as well.

There's no way he didn't know what was going on, but he also seems like the player most likely to slip between the cracks of the investigation.


They're going to keep running this "poor dumb, ignorant Pence" routine.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Combine that with this from March 2017:
Just Security | Following the Money: Russia, Cyprus, and the Trump Team’s Odd Business Dealings

Cyprus you say? What was Mr. Browder going on about today? Oh right, money laundering!

 

[Messofanego]

Now can people shut up about there being no Russian collusion?

 

[Strike]

This rabbit hole goes deep.