Thread by @MsMariaT

Meeting occurred at WH, 6/17: "The task was given to a former aide, who asked a loyal Ukrainian MP for help.

He in turn used personal contacts in a Jewish charity in NY state, Chabad of Port Washington. This eventually led to...Cohen....Cohen was paid $400K"

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"The meeting at the White House was last June.

Shortly after the Ukrainian president returned home, his country's anti-corruption agency stopped its investigation into Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort."

"A high-ranking Ukrainian intel ofcr in Poroshenko's admin described what happened before the visit to the WH.

Cohen was brought in, he said, because Ukraine's reg'd lobbyists and embassy in DC could get Poroshenko little more than a brief photo-op w/Trump....

"...Poroshenko needed something that could be portrayed as "talks".

This sr official's account is as follows - Poroshenko decided to establish a back channel to Trump. The task was given to a former aide, who asked a loyal Ukrainian MP for help."

"He in turn used personal contacts in a Jewish charity in NY state, Chabad of Port Washington. This eventually led to Michael Cohen, the president's lawyer and trusted fixer. Cohen was paid $400K.

There is no suggestion that Trump knew about the payment."

Uh-huh 🙄

"A second source in Kiev gave the same details, except that the total paid to Cohen was $600K

There was also support for the account from a lawyer in the US who has uncovered details of Cohen's finances, Michael Avenatti."

@MichaelAvenatti

"Avenatti said that Suspicious Activity Reports filed by Cohen's bank to the US Treasury showed he had recv'd money from "Ukrainian interests"

We spoke to Cohen & to the two Ukrainians said to have opened the backchannel for their pres-all three denied the story."

I'll bet! 🤣

"The sr intelligence official in Kiev also said Cohen had been helped by Felix Sater, a convicted former mobster who was once Trump's business partner. Sater's lawyer, too, denied the allegations. The Ukrainian president's office refused to comment."

"As was widely reported last 6/17, Poroshenko was still guessing at how much time he would have w/ Trump...

The WH sched said...Poroshenko would "drop in" to the Oval...while Trump was having staff meetings."

Smokescreen "talks"!

"That had been agreed through official channels. Cohen's fee was for getting Poroshenko more than just an embarrassingly brief few mins of small talk and a handshake, the senior official said. But negotiations continued until the early hours of the day of the visit."

"The Ukrainian side were angry, the official went on, because Cohen had taken "hundreds of thousands" of dollars from them for something it seemed he could not deliver.

Right up until the last moment, the Ukrainian leader was uncertain if he would avoid humiliation."

"Poroshenko's inner circle were shocked by how dirty this whole arrangement [with Cohen] was."

Poroshenko was desperate to meet Trump because of what had happened in the US presidential election campaign."

"In 8/16, the NYT published a document that appeared to show Trump's campaign mgr, Paul Manafort, getting millions of dollars from pro-RU interests in Ukraine..."

Interesting that Poroshenko was still focused on this, innit? 🤨

"It was a pg of the so-called "black ledger" belonging to the Party of the Regions, the pro-RU party that employed Manafort when he ran a political consultancy in Ukraine.

The pg appeared to have come from Ukraine's National Anti Corruption Bureau, which was investigating him."

"Several sources in Ukraine said Poroshenko authorised the leak, believing that HRC was certain to win the presidency.

If so, this was a disastrous mistake - Ukraine had backed the losing candidate....Regardless of how the leak came about, it hurt Trump, the eventual winner."

So if Poroshenko leaked it, it makes sense he'd want to try and go to save face w/tRUmp, make some concessions possibly? Like, not cooperating with Mueller's team re the Manafort investigations in Ukraine perhaps?

But of course, THEY HAD TO PAY...$$$$$...

"Ukraine was (and remains) at war with RU and RU-backed separatists and could not afford to make an enemy of the new US president.

So Poroshenko appeared relieved as he beamed and paid tribute to Trump in the Oval Office."

Whew! Glad he took our $$$, I think we're good! 🤣

"He boasted that he'd seen the new pres before RU's leader....He held a triumphant news conference in front of the...WH.

A wk after Poroshenko returned home to Kiev, Ukraine's National Anti Corruption Bureau announced that it was NO LONGER INVESTIGATING MANAFORT." 🚩🚩🚩🤨

"At the time, an official there explained to me that Manafort had not signed the "black ledger" acknowledging receipt of the money. And anyway, he went on, Manafort was American and the law allowed the bureau only to investigate Ukrainians."

"Ukraine did not terminate the Manafort inquiry altogether. The file was handed from the Anti Corruption Bureau to the state prosecutor's ofc. It languished there.

Last wk in Kiev, the prosecutor... Serhiy Horbatyuk, told me..."

(man, it sucks to be this guy!)

"There was never a direct order to stop the Manafort inquiry but from the way our investigation has progressed, it's clear that our superiors are trying to create obstacles."

"None of our sources say that Trump used the Oval Office meeting to ask Poroshenko to kill the Manafort investigation. BUT, IF THERE WAS A BACKCHANNEL, did Michael Cohen use it to tell the Ukrainians what was expected of them?

Perhaps he didn't need to.

"One source in Kiev said Poroshenko had given Trump "a gift" - making sure that Ukraine would find no more evidence to give the US inquiry into whether the Trump campaign "colluded" w/RU.

Poroshenko knew that to do otherwise..."would be like spitting in Trump's face". 🙄

"A report by a member of a Western country's intelligence community says Poroshenko's team believe they have established a "NON-AGGRESSION PACT" w/Trump.

Drawing on "senior, well placed" intelligence sources in Kiev, the report sets out this sequence of events…" 🔥🔥🔥

"[1.] As soon as Trump was elected, the report says, Ukraine stopped "proactively" investigating Manafort.

[2.] Liaison w/the US government was moved away from the Nat'l Anti Corruption Bureau to a senior aide in the presidential admin." ...

"[3] The report states that Poroshenko returned from Washington and, in 8/17 or 9/17, decided to completely end cooperation w/the US agencies investigating Manafort. He did not give an order to implement this decision until 11/17"....

"[4] The order became known to the US gov't after scheduled visits by Poroshenko's senior aide to see Mueller and the CIA director, in 11/17 and 12/17, were cancelled." ...

"[5] The report says that an "element of the understanding" between Poroshenko and Trump was that Ukraine agreed to import US coal and SIGNED A BILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT FOR AMERICAN-MADE DIESEL TRAINS." 🔥🔥🔥

"[6] Ukraine has ITS OWN locomotive maker and its own coalmines. These deals can only be understood as Poroshenko BUYING AMERICAN SUPPORT, the reports say. 🤑🤑🤑

[7] In 3/18, the Trump admin announced the symbolically important sale of 210 Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine"

"Even under Pres Obama, the US did not sell arms to Ukraine. A well known figure in Kiev, now retired from his old job in gov't, told me he didn't like what had happened with the Manafort inquiry; however, Ukraine was fighting for its survival."

"I want the rule of law," he said, "but I am a patriot."

He said he had kept in touch w/his former subordinates and had heard many of the details about a "COHEN BACKCHANNEL". 🧐

"He said that if Ukrainians came to believe that a corrupt deal had been done over Manafort: "This thing might destroy support for America."

Ukraine's domestic intel service, the SBU, did their own - secret - report on Manafort."

"IF FOUND THAT THERE WAS NOT ONE "BLACK LEDGER" BUT THREE 🙄🔥 and that Manafort had been paid MILLIONS OF DOLLARS MORE from Ukraine than had been made public.🔥

This info was given to me by a very sr police ofcr who saw the report. He said it hadn't been passed to...Americans."

AMAZING reporting by Paul Wood, at BBC.

I'm literally having to pick my jaw up off the floor, repeatedly.

Just, WOW. 😳😱😬

<eot>

Link back to the original reporting by Paul Wood, BBC:

Trump lawyer 'paid by Ukraine' to arrange White House talks

bbc.com/news/world-us-…

😬👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽