over a year ago to helping manafort hide millions of dollars in a foreign bank account for work that they did as lobbyists for ukrainian politicians, and as part of the cooperation with mueller, he testified against his former mentor, manafort. so, asha, gates clearly had a lot of contact with and insight into a lot of the president s senior aides and what they were up to during the election. all that said, it s not clear how gates is still cooperating. should the president be worried? yes, he should be worried. so, you know, where gates can be especially helpful to mueller, in addition to all the things that you mentioned, is that he was a part of the meeting with manafort and kilimnik in the grand havana room in august of 2016 where they discussed the passage of polling data to konstantin kilimnik, who we know is affiliated with russian intelligence. and they also discussed a potential ukraine peace plan,
how the trump campaign may have clueded with the russians. it is a story of secret plans and a smoke-filled room high above fifth avenue. as we first learned monday, this was a meeting in august of 2016 that according to mueller s prosecutor goes to the heart of what the special counsel s office is investigating. it appears central to froofg campaign engaged in a conspiracy with the russians. the meeting took place in manhattan in an exclusive cigar club called the grand havana room who bills itself as an extremely modern setting. it was. in atmosphere that they sat down with the russian operative. all three have been charged in the investigation. rick gates is the one however, cooperating with prosecutors. one subject discussed was a proposed resolution, their word, to the conflict over ukraine.
something provocative. all kinds of things you can use to go after women and minorities. perhaps, we don t know. there was a reference at one point, a lawyer says the material that was turned over was not relevant. it was jibberish. he uses the word jibberish. and the judge says in this unredacted portion, exactly. that s why it is so interesting. it may be very sophisticated data. we don t know. on the one hand, you have a provision of date from the campaign and on the other you have a discussion of a ukraine peace plan. why is that important? because it leads to the number one agenda item of vladimir putin which is ending sanctions. that the west imposed because of the russian invasion. he wants to bring back at least what he can of the russian empire. and that begins with ukraine. as tom mentioned the grand havana meeting at the cigar bar is especially suspicious because
throughout, that was a great service and something that was virtually churchillian in that terrible hour. it s been downhill since and accelerating, i think. part of what s happened and it s tricky to explain to people who maybe haven t lived here, but basically this is the new york city tabloid political culture has gone south to washington. uh-huh. and it s a world of the new york post and 21 and lots of stake houses, lots of onion loaves, the grand havana room which is a great place, i think. it s the last cigar bar. let s not be too negative here, but it s this roy cone world of just punch. and presidents when they re in trouble, they usually try to send for a stabilizing figure,