Thread by @aaronjmate

Manafort aide Konstantin Kilimnik has been accused of being a Russian spy who shared polling data w/ Russia in 2016.

In an exclusive interview w/ me, Kilimnik refutes the evidence-free claims about him, & shares evidence exposing a key Mueller falsehood. realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/…

In April, the Treasury Department -- with no evidence -- called Kilimnik a "Russian Intelligence Services agent" who gave Russian intelligence "sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy" in 2016.

These are "senseless and false accusations," Kilimnik says.

Kilimnik says that he shared general, mostly publicly available, outdated polling data with Ukrainian clients and US contacts -- not Russia. His account is backed up by key Mueller witness Rick Gates, who tells me that the Mueller team "cherry-picked" his testimony.

The Mueller report even quietly acknowledges that Gates (and Kilimnik's) account of the polling data is "consistent... with multiple emails that Kilimnik sent to U.S. associates and press contacts" in 2016. It even cites Kilimnik's emails in a footnote.

Kilimnik exposes a critical Mueller report falsehood.

To prove that KK has Russian intel "ties", Mueller claims he got a US visa "with a Russian diplomatic passport" in 1997.

But KK shared his passport & visa with me. It's a regular passport and visa -- not diplomatic.

This Mueller error is big. Mueller's claim about Kilimnik's passport is its first major "piece" of evidence to show KK's alleged Russian intel "ties."

Told about the Mueller error, a Justice Department spokesperson declined comment. Mueller & @AWeissmann_ did not respond to me.

Kilimnik also tells me that the Mueller team made another major error with his travel history: accusing Manafort of lying to them in denying that he met with Kilimnik in Madrid in Feb 2017. Kilimnik says no such meeting occurred. He made a travel booking but ultimately didn't go.

If Kilimnik's account is correct, then this raises questions about Mueller's allegation that Manafort broke their cooperation deal by denying the Madrid meeting. Kilimnik says they have no evidence.

DOJ declined comment. Mueller & @AWeissmann_ did not respond.

Incredibly, despite the explosive claims about him and his purported centrality to the Russiagate narrative, Kilimnik says that no US government official has ever contacted him.

"I never had a single contact with [the] FBI or any government official," he tells me. Why is that?

The failure by Mueller, FBI, SSCI, etc to contact Kilimnik echoes the curious disinterest in other central Russiagate figures. FBI had a brief chat w/ Joseph Mifsud, who supposedly sparked the entire Trump-Russia probe, then let him go. Mueller never tried to interview Assange.🤔

Claim that Kilimnik is a Russian spy who passed polling data is one of Russiagate's biggest conspiracy theories.

In early 2019, Mark Warner called it "closest we’ve seen yet to real live actual collusion." James Clapper said it has "a wisp of collusion."

Watch the insanity:

Two years and a Mueller report that found no evidence for it later, the Kilimnik conspiracy theory was revived in an evidence-free Treasury Dept. press release last month. Watch how leading Russiagate influence agents @Maddow and @AdamSchiff responded:

NYT's @MarkMazzettiNYT & @nytmike called Treasury's evidence-free claim "the strongest evidence to date that Russian spies had penetrated... the Trump campaign" & declared that it helped "confirm" their dubious 2017 report on Trump camp-Russian intel "interactions."

Contrast the widespread parroting of Russiagate conspiracy theories about Konstantin Kilimnik -- that he is a Russian spy who passed Trump polling data to Russia -- with his own words, and documents backing him up: realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/…