Thread by @tburages

What Paul Manafort wouldn't give up to Mueller's team:

He was never the campaign point person with Russia.

Jared Kushner was.

Shortly after the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, the Kushners made a trip to Russia. They spent 4 days there and hung out with oligarchs VERY close to Putin.

scmp.com/news/world/rus…

While there (Feb 2014) the Kushners attended a gala alongside the heads of Alfa Bank and LetterOne.

And according to this article, "Since that night, a cone of silence seems to have descended on many of the attendees, usually gossipy folks who now refuse to talk about it."

Most of the talking points around Trump collusion with Russia involve the Trump Tower meeting or Manafort/Kilimnik.

But what almost everyone misses is what Kushner was doing.

While Trump was publicly running down how he would execute Putin's wish list if he were President (e.g. "NATO is dead," "We don't need sanctions," "Let's move out of Syria) ...

KUSHNER went to a pro-Russia think tank to get advice on Trump's foreign policy team.

Why ON EARTH would Kushner go to Dimitri Simes for this?

Remember who Kushner interfaced with in Russia in February 2014?

The heads of Alfa and LetterOne.

THEY told him who to hook up with.

Kushner and Simes met THROUGHOUT the ENTIRE 2016 campaign. Kushner got advice on "how to address issues relating to Russia."

They literally WROTE Trump's first foreign policy speech WHILE Russia was attacking the DNC.

KUSHNER was the point person.

The head of LetterOne helped draft that speech.

LetterOne = Russian Mob.

KUSHNER.

They met in person. They talked by phone.

KUSHNER.

Manafort was just fluff. Kushner knew it. It was Kushner who finally told Manafort that he was fired.

And MANAFORT knew it.

In these text messages to Hannity, Manafort expresses that KUSHNER is who they were pressing him on.

Trump kept a distance from these direct contacts with Russians. But Kushner didn't.

And Manafort knows A LOT more about it than we do.