Special prosecutor Robert Mueller revealed in June that he had evidence Paul Manafort directed an unregistered lobbying campaign in the U.S. at the behest of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
“Mueller’s team released two memos from 2013 detailing Manafort’s involvement in efforts to influence the debate in Congress and in the U.S. press about the imprisonment of Yanukovych’s main political rival, Yulia Tymoshenko,” Politico reported at the time.
Just months after the memos were issued, then-FBI Director Robert Mueller was meeting with the Ukrainian President to discuss “further cooperation with USA” regarding counterterrorism initiatives.
Robert Mueller is prosecuting Manfort for doing work in Ukraine for Viktor Yanukovych back in 2013
Here is Robert Mueller hanging out in Ukraine with Viktor Yanukovych back in 2013
What is going on here? pic.twitter.com/ZPey2k72UE
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 6, 2018
The Ukrainian Embassy in the U.S. posted another image of the meeting between Mueller and Yanukovych in their fairly muted announcement of the two forging a partnership.
Mueller thanked him for the nation’s assistance following the Boston Marathon bombings.
“I would like to focus on the most important issue for us – the issue of combating terrorism,” Mueller said. “I would like to say thank you for the assistance provided to us after the Boston Marathon.”
“Ukrainian-American cooperation efficiently develops in many spheres of mutual interest,” Yanukovych said in kind. “Your visit is very interesting for Ukraine and relations between our law enforcement bodies have established good traditions of cooperation and communication in the course of 20 years.”
Hmm… It’s easy to speculate just how far that cooperation went and whether or not it benefited Mueller as he’d go on to engage in his current legal battle with Manafort.
Reuters published the photo above in October of 2013, and the Ukrainian leader indicated that he was very close to signing an agreement with the European Union.
“There are some preparations left but I hope that we will fulfill everything and sign the Agreement,” Yanukovych said, though he never followed through.
That agreement, according to the Daily Beast, “was a key focus of Paul Manafort’s lobbying work for Yanukovych.”
Manafort would later be charged with tax evasion and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
Mueller’s role in the FBI dictates that a meeting with the Ukrainian President to discuss terrorism is perfectly understandable. And Manafort, should he be proven to have worked as an unregistered agent, would have been committing a crime by contrast.
What remains a mystery, however, is how a man like Manafort could promote Yanukovych as Mueller did in this meeting, and in doing so, it amounted to treason.
“The Mueller-Yanukovych meeting didn’t surprise numerous experts on the region,” the Daily Beast reported. “And it has likely benefited Mueller in his investigation.”
Did the Russia-friendly leader aide Mueller’s case against Manafort? Does that amount to colluding with a foreign power to take down a President?
