What Was Manafort Doing In Ecuador?
NYT: Manafort Tried to Broker Deal With Ecuador to Hand Assange Over to U.S.
There is no evidence that Paul Manafort was working with President Trump or other administration officials on the talks, which stemmed from 2017 discussions on Chinese investment.
What Was Manafort Doing In Ecuador?
Yesterday evening I eagerly read this new story from the Times about Paul Manafort’s discussions with the then-President-elect of Ecuador about the fate of Julian Assange. Remember that a week ago The Guardian published what seemed like a bombshell report that Manafort had met repeatedly with Assange and as recently as the Spring of 2016. If true, this would bring central elements of the conspiracy together more tightly than even many Trump/Russia maximalists might have suspected. But no other news outlets could independently confirm the report. Manafort, meanwhile, issued a broad, blanket denial. A couple days later some people were wondering if The Guardian had gotten burned or even been the target of a hoax. Now we have the Times picking up on this closely related but distinct part of the story - Manafort’s meeting with Lenin Moreno about Assange leaving the Embassy. But the Times article just doesn’t make sense. Or rather, it keeps the critical question unresolved.
Let’s discuss this...
NOTE: My own hunch is that Trump wanted to release Assange somehow, in accord with his Alex Jones base, but wanted to hide his plan from the GOP, since he did campaign on Assange being some kind of devil. That slip-up where documents were released, revealing strategies to prosecute Assange, was actually deliberate, in attempt to get Assange released based on a mistrial.
There is no evidence that Paul Manafort was working with President Trump or other administration officials on the talks, which stemmed from 2017 discussions on Chinese investment.
What Was Manafort Doing In Ecuador?
Yesterday evening I eagerly read this new story from the Times about Paul Manafort’s discussions with the then-President-elect of Ecuador about the fate of Julian Assange. Remember that a week ago The Guardian published what seemed like a bombshell report that Manafort had met repeatedly with Assange and as recently as the Spring of 2016. If true, this would bring central elements of the conspiracy together more tightly than even many Trump/Russia maximalists might have suspected. But no other news outlets could independently confirm the report. Manafort, meanwhile, issued a broad, blanket denial. A couple days later some people were wondering if The Guardian had gotten burned or even been the target of a hoax. Now we have the Times picking up on this closely related but distinct part of the story - Manafort’s meeting with Lenin Moreno about Assange leaving the Embassy. But the Times article just doesn’t make sense. Or rather, it keeps the critical question unresolved.
Let’s discuss this...
NOTE: My own hunch is that Trump wanted to release Assange somehow, in accord with his Alex Jones base, but wanted to hide his plan from the GOP, since he did campaign on Assange being some kind of devil. That slip-up where documents were released, revealing strategies to prosecute Assange, was actually deliberate, in attempt to get Assange released based on a mistrial.