In May 2017, Paul Manafort met with then-incoming Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno to broker a deal that involved Chinese investment in Ecuador’s power system and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, The New York Times reported.
Manafort was reportedly primarily interested in earning some commission from China if he was able to pull off the arrangement — in order to pay off some legal bills — but the discussions quickly shifted to Assange’s fate. According to three people familiar with the conversations who spoke to the Times, Moreno suggested a possible swap in at least two meetings with Manafort; trading Assange — who’s been living in Ecuador’s Embassy in London for at least six years — for some type of financial break from the U.S.
Talks dissolved after it became evident that Manafort’s financial dealings were a focal point of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. There’s no indication that the meeting played any role in the Russia election interference investigation, according to the Times.
Manafort’s spokesman Jason Maloney did not dispute the Times report and told NBC News in a statement that while Moreno raised the possibility of an Assange deal, Manafort made no promises.
Manafort spox does not dispute NYT report that Manafort discussed deal between Ecuador and U.S. over Julian Assange pic.twitter.com/bmmL5yLTNN
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 4, 2018
Read the full Times report here.
Seems consistent with Flynn’s attempt to suborn murder or kidnapping of Fetullah Gulen on behalf of Turkey. Manafort/Flynn/Erik Prince cowboy shit.
Moreno suggested a possible swap in at least two meetings with Manafort; trading Assange — who’s been living in Ecuador’s Embassy in London for at least six years — for some type of financial break from the U.S.
So much for the, “Manafort was in league with Assange and the Russians!” narrative that polluted the Internet last week. Manafort, like Trump, is a grifter and a sociopath. He’d sell out his own daughter if it meant he could score a big fat commission on a deal…
I suspect there is more to this than meets the eye. We know that Manafort continued to be in touch with the Dotard in 2017. But these snippets from the Times article suggest that a deeper game was in play:
“In Quito, [Manafort] told Mr. Moreno’s team that he could arrange a major cash infusion from the Chinese fund in the Ecuadorean electric utility, and could ease any potential concerns from the Trump administration about such an investment, according to people involved in arranging the meetings.” And
“In both cases, Mr. Manafort assured the Chinese he could win support from Washington, despite Mr. Trump’s oft-expressed qualms about China.”
Clearly Manafort was trading on his relationship with Trump. Maybe he was just blowing smoke. And maybe he was operating with the Dotard’s approvall.
And then there’s the fact that the Ecuadorians’ plan was to send Assange to Russia. They even granted him citizenship for that purpose. It was only the British insistence on arresting Assange if he ever left the embassy that scuttled the plan.
Hard to separate the spiders from the flies in this tangled web…