A Suspected Russian Spy, With Curious Ties to Washington
A longtime Republican operative has been in contact with a suspected Russian intelligence agent for nearly two decades. What does it mean for Robert Mueller's investigation?
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/a-dc-operatives-long-relationship-with-a-suspected-russian-spy/557438/
A longtime Republican operative with ties to the controversial data firm hired by President Donald Trumps campaign team also has a nearly two-decade-long friendship and business relationship with a suspected Russian intelligence agent, Konstantin Kilimnik, who has landed in Special Counsel Robert Muellers crosshairs.
The Washington-based operative, Sam Patten, would not tell me whether he has been interviewed by Muellers team as part of their investigation into Russias election interference and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. But Patten said that his relationship with Kilimnika former officer in Russias Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) who worked closely with Trumps campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, for over a decadehas been thoroughly explored by relevant government entities.
Pattens long friendship with Kilimnikwhich stems from their time working together at the International Republican Institute between 2001 and 2003would likely be enough to draw scrutiny from Mueller, who appears to have honed in on Kilimnik as a potentially significant link between the Trump campaign and Russia. The special counsels office alleged in a court filing late last month that Kilimnik still had ties to Russian intelligence services in 2016, and that his conversations with Gates in September of that year are relevant to the investigation. Manafort and Gatess arrival to the campaign team coincided with the most pivotal Russia-related episode of the election: the release of emails that had been stolen from the Democratic National Committee by hackers working for the GRU, Russias premier military-intelligence unit.
More emails to look over
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Gates and Manafortwho were indicted by Mueller in late October on charges including money laundering and tax evasionremained in touch with Kilimnik during the campaign, according to court documents and emails, even though both knew about Kilimniks background in Russian intelligence. Kilimnik later acknowledged in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that he and Manafort emailed each other about Trump and everything during the campaign. There were millions of emails, Kilimnik told RFERL in a text message. We worked for 11 years. And we discussed a lot of issues, from Putin to women.