Mueller Russia indictment sidesteps Manafort

WASHINGTON — The Friday indictment of 13 Russians on charges of illegal interference in the 2016 election has no direct impact on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s case against Connecticut-native Paul Manafort, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Friday.

“There’s no explicit link,” Blumenthal, D-Conn., said a former U.S. attorney in Connecticut and state attorney general. “But a criminal case is a mosaic and eventually every piece of the mosaic is linked to every other piece.”

The latest indictment is described as a concerted effort by Russian operatives to “sow discord in the U.S. political system” in the years leading up to the election, primarily through social media. They posted “derogatory information about a number of candidates,” and had exchanges with what the indictment described as “unwitting” people tied to the Trump campaign.

President Donald Trump claimed vindication, noting in a tweet that Russian interference efforts alleged in the indictment began in 2014 — “long before I announced that I would run for President.”

However, the Mueller investigation continues.

Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign manager between March and August 2016, is not named in the indictment.

Of far greater consequence to Mueller’s prosecution of Manafort as part of his wider probe of links between Russia and President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign is the possible cooperation of Manafort’s junior associate, Rick Gates.

Last October, Gates was indicted along with Manafort, scion of a family prominent in New Britain Republican politics. They were charged with 12 counts of money laundering, false statements and failing to register with the government as a foreign agent.

The charges stemmed from Manafort’s business dealings in Ukraine, which included representation of that nation’s pro-Russian Party of Regions. Money derived from their business activities got funneled into U.S. investments including purchases of expensive real estate in New York City, according to the indictment.

The two pleaded not guilty. But, according to a report earlier this week by CNN, Gates is cooperating with Mueller — something Manafort so far has declined to do.

But a full accounting by Gates to Mueller’s team could help build the special prosecutor’s case against Manafort, Blumenthal said.

“If Rick Gates is cooperating, that’s very bad news for Paul Manafort,” said Blumenthal, who stressed he has no independent knowledge of Mueller’s ongoing investigation. “There is no sign Manafort is cooperating, and Rick Gates is a close associate with intimate knowledge of Manafort’s activities.”

Blumenthal is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has tried unsuccessfully to bring Manafort in as a witness for its own probe of the Trump campaign’s Russia connections and possible obstruction of justice by the president himself.

In announcing the indictments Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — who oversees the Mueller probe — said, “There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charge conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.”

The indictment alleges that Russians working in concert with the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based troll farm, purchased Internet advertisements in the names of Americans whose identities they had stolen, staged political rallies while posing as American political activists and paid people in the U.S. to promote or disparage candidates.

The indictment says the Internet Research Agency was funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a St. Petersburg businessman dubbed “Putin’s chef ” because his restaurants and catering businesses once hosted the Kremlin leader’s dinners with foreign dignitaries. The company was also funded by companies Prigozhin controlled, according to the indictment.

“Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President,” Trump tweeted. “The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!”