A little peek into Mueller’s other evidence
by digby
The Mueller team dropped a little hint in the Manafort trial:
If there is one context in which Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, probably did not want his name to be mentioned, it is that of any legal proceeding involving the ongoing Trump-Russia scandal.
As the trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort draws to a close, however, Kushner is finding himself under that unwanted spotlight.
Kushner is reported to have told Manafort that he was “on it” after the former campaign manager asked him to consider appointing a banker friend to a high-ranking government post, according to ABC News. According to the exhibit submitted before the court as evidence on Monday, Manafort had sent an email to Kushner in November 2016 — not only after the election but months after Manafort had been pressured into stepping down from the campaign — asking that Stephen Calk, the CEO and founder of Federal Savings Bank, be considered for the position of Secretary of the Army.
As Manafort explained in his email to Kushner, “Calk was an active supporter of the campaign since April. His background is strong in defense issues, management, and finance.”
Recall that the Daily Beast reported in November of 2016 that Manafort was involved in staffing the new administration:
According to two sources with knowledge of the Trump presidential transition process, Manafort—whose formal association with the president-elect ended in August—is heavily involved with the staffing of the nascent administration.
[…]
“When they’re picking a cabinet, unless he contacts me, I don’t bother him,” one former campaign official who worked closely with Manafort told The Daily Beast. “It’s a heady time for everyone.”“I think he’s weighing in on everything,” the former official said, “I think he still talks to Trump every day. I mean, Pence? That was all Manafort. Pence is on the phone with Manafort regularly.”
I’m betting Pence wouldn’t like hearing his name mentioned in all this mess either. But it should be. Manafort picked him for a reason and I’m going to guess it had little to do with ideology.
The idea that Manafort was involved with the transition may be important to the larger case. He was supposedly thrown overboard in August. Yet in November, Jared Kushner was taking his calls and giving him reason to believe he’d come through for him. They went to great lengths to keep his lieutenant in the fold. Someone must be wondering why they would do that.
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