New details on Manafort, Hicks
Connecticut delegation sorts through findings of Russia probe
WASHINGTON — While President Donald Trump and his team exulted in the release of the Mueller report, Connecticut Democratic lawmakers were culling through its 400-plus pages for unflattering details on its twin conclusions: insufficient evidence of Trump 2016 campaign coordination with Russia, and neither confirmation nor exoneration on whether Trump obstructed justice.
“What’s demonstrated in powerful and compelling detail in this report is nothing less than a national scandal,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal at a news conference in Hartford. “This report is far from the end of the inquiry that this country needs and deserves. It is the beginning of another chapter.”
Release of the report, with close to 160 pages partly or fully blacked out, capped a tumultuous nearly two-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller on whether Trump and his campaign staff conspired with Russian intelligence to disseminate hacked
emails aimed at denigrating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton — and thereby elevating Trump.
The report contained greater detail on the role of New Britain-born Paul Manafort in efforts to win Trump agreement to follow a pro-Russia “peace plan” in Ukraine, and the worry of Trump communications adviser Hope Hicks of Greenwich that emails on the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians were “really bad” and the result of news reports breaking on them would be “massive.”
While the Mueller report came to no conclusion on whether Trump was liable for prosecution on obstruction, Attorney General William Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded “the president was not.”
In the second of two volumes, the report delves into new details about Trump’s early efforts to derail Mueller soon after then Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself and Rosenstein appointed him to take over the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe in May 2017.
Trump had just fired then FBI Director James Comey, later admitting in a television interview that “this Russia thing” was among the deciding factors.
Trump wanted to fire Sessions immediately after Sessions recused himself, clearing the way for appointment of Mueller. And after Mueller’s appointment, the report states, Trump directed his legal counsel, Donald McGahn, to get Mueller fired because of a conflict of interest for which Mueller had already been cleared by the Justice Department.
McGahn agonized over the decision but ultimately decided not to follow through because it would be tantamount to the Watergate-era “Saturday Night Massacre” — in which President Richard Nixon fired his two top Justice Department officials before he found one who would fire special counsel Archibald Cox.
At the White House, Trump rejoiced over the report, telling reporters that he was having a “good day.” He also tweeted a photo declaring "Game Over" in a typeface mimicking the "Game of Thrones" logo.
The section of the report on Hicks has to do with emails preceding the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr., Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and a group of Russians, one of whom was described as able to provide derogatory information on Clinton “as part of Russia and its government’s support to Mr. Trump.”
Donald Jr.’s response: “If it’s what you say, I love it.”
Hicks is the former Greenwich High School lacrosse-team co-captain who pursued a modeling career and wound up as a close confidante of Trump during his campaign and later at the White House. The report shows her deep angst over the impending email revelations, describing them as “really bad.”
Hicks then played an important role in drafting a statement from Donald Jr., saying the meeting was “primarily” about Russian adoption. Ultimately Donald Jr. himself released the emails, after the New York Times ran a story about the meeting.
The section on Manafort mostly reiterates the New Britain political-family scion’s interactions with power Russian oligarchs and a Russian employee that the FBI deemed was connected to Russian intelligence. Manafort acknowledged turning over Trump campaign polling data to the operative, Konstantin Kilimnik.
Manafort is serving seven-and-a-half years for violating tax and foreign-agent-registration laws, and bank fraud. The case against him related to his representation of the Ukraine political party backing Ukraine’s pro-Russia leader, Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in 2014.