Trumpty Dumpty sat on a wall and it looks like the Gates testimony could be what will cause Trumpty’s fall.
This is how the Gates testimony links up. Paul Manafort was essentially owned by Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska is Russian Mafia and close to Vladimir Putin. Deripaska sued Manafort for money owed. Generally speaking, these guys don’t sue, they throw your children in the river. Suddenly Manafort started briefing Deripaska on the 2016 campaign and bingo, lawsuit dropped. Patheos:
...the history of the relationship between Manafort/Gates and Russian oligarch Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska, head of one of the world’s largest aluminum companies, has enormous potential for taking this scandal from serious to world-shattering. We already knew that they worked for Deripaska and that they are charged with hiding that money and failing to pay taxes on it. But the new indictments filed are on a whole different level. Part of that is that they were faking income and asset documents to take out loans against Manafort’s properties, which resulted in new charges of bank fraud for both men.
And according to court documents, Manafort, shortly after joining the Trump campaign, sought to use that position to get out from under his debt to Deripaska. In a message to his former representative in Russia, Konstantin Kilimnik, Manafort asked, “How do we use to get whole? Has OVD operation seen?” OVD is, of course, Deripaska. Kilimnik then touched base with Deripaska and told Manafort that he had “several important messages” from Deripaska for him and that they should meet in person so he could deliver them. That meeting took place in New York. And Manafort began offering “briefings” on the campaign to Deripaska. And suddenly, guess what happened? The lawsuit was dropped. Deripaska stopped hounding Manafort to get his money back.
You don’t need to know much more than that to surmise what was going on. And what does it come back to, as I’ve been saying from the start? Sanctions. Deripaska stands to lose a lot of money because of the sanctions, though nothing like Putin already does. If Deripaska could use Manafort’s debt to influence Trump on sanctions, Putin would make tens of billions of dollars, bare minimum. Given their close relationship, if Deripaska could get that done for Putin, he would undoubtedly make vast amounts of money too.
Bottom line, Putin wanted Trump elected to reverse sanctions and allow him to not only make a fortune but to further infiltrate the country. Manafort was only too happy to sell us out to the Russians and if it can be proven Trump was as well — if that’s not a working definition of treason, what is?