In a 21st century version of the Cheshire Cat legend, Olga Polonskaya, known in intelligence circles as “Putin’s Niece,” specifically the niece that promised purported Coffee Boy George Papadopolous that she would set up a meeting between him and Putin, did a disappearing act online in the early morning hours Eastern Time Friday. She replaced her Facebook profile photo with one of her cat and ramped up her privacy protocols so that photos and posts are only visible to friends. Events are apparently getting too close for comfort and Polonskaya would just as soon forget that Papadopolous exists. Daily Beast:
After he first met the “niece,” Papadopoulos emailed the Trump campaign to report that he had talked with her about arranging “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump,” according to the complaint.
“Great Work,” a campaign supervisor replied. (The Washington Post identified the man as national campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis, though he wasn’t named in court documents.)
Mifsud [the Professor] last week suggested he was playing a different sort of matchmaker, telling an Italian newspaper “she was just a student, a very good-looking one” and that Papadopoulos’ “interest in her (was) very different from an academic one… That girl, she has nothing to do with the Kremlin or with Secret Service.”
But the criminal information sheet filed along with Papadopoulos’ guilty plea tells a different story. “I have already alerted my personal links to our conversation and your request [for a foreign policy trip to Russia],” Polonskaya allegedly wrote to Papadopoulos.
“As mentioned we are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump. The Russian federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced,” [she said.]
The woman is not actually Putin’s niece, any more than Papadopoulos was really a coffee maker for the Trump campaign, nor are those the issues. The issues are that the woman, who is really a manager for a wine making company, was among a myriad of contacts that Papadopolous had in Russia when he was exploring making connections between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin and he lied about same to the FBI. And Sam Clovis knew all about this and heartily approved.
Russians involved in the Trump Russia investigation seem to have a way of disappearing, their entire selves not just their smiles, or meeting with foul play. It will be interesting to see how Polonskaya fares.
[Cross-posted to thetrumpimpeachment.com]