sanctions on russia. it comes up in the context of manafort s lawyer saying no matter who won the election, there was no chance that sanctions would be lifted on russia. that s a very debatable statement. as you know there was every chance they were not planning to lift sanctions on russia and it goes to the heart of what robert mueller is investigating. in general, nicolle, what this special counsel seems to be saying in this document the lies they say manafort told were in part to obstruct their investigation. and that s why they re throwing the book at him and instead of getting a year or two in prison, which he could have had if he fully cooperated, he could get as many as 10 or 15 years, nicolle. talk about what it means they re getting from and asking of rick gates. it would appear rick gates is a witness both on the central question about whether there was a coordinated effort, a conspiracy with the russians, russians have already been charged with meddling in our election. we
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chance to skim it and my colleague tom winters is doing a deeper dive as we speak. there are a couple interesting nuggets in here. one is that remember it had been reported paul manafort turned over some internal polling data to oleg deripaska, the russian oligarch close to putin. we learned from this transcript rick gates, manafort s right-hand man, deputy chairman, was a source of information for prosecutors. there s also a lot of the argument in this hearing had to do with lies that manafort allegedly told about his relationship with a man named konstantin kilimnik, who as you know, nicolle, has been called a russian intelligence operative, somebody with connection to russian intelligence, by the mueller team. he was a translator, coordinated manafort s relationship with the russians and ukrainians paying him. there s a mention in here by manafort s lawyer that seems to suggest mr. kilimnik was advocating the lifting of
plug in, in the trump orbit. what does rick gates provide on the collusion question, conspiracy question and you just talked about obstruction. yeah, i mean that s the $64,000 question. what s clear is rick gates is an incredibly valuable witness for them. manafort went off the rails but gates probably knows almost everything that manafort knew. they worked very closely together. and gates brings them this other element, he was the bookkeeper for the inaugural committee, a whole separate investigation being conducted by new york prosecutors. that s the reason perhaps there s no sentencing date for gates, he s continuing to cooperate and it s clear from this document he provided important information that could be a linchpin for any kind of charge related to collusion. the idea paul manafort was handing over sensitive polling information to a russian oligarch, no way that could happen. if you skimmed this, god bless you, you re smart. stay up with us loosely.
jeremy bash in on this. jeremy, i remember you blew my mind, and i said at the time you blow my mind, you described paul manafort one time as possibly being a russian plant. i didn t think you were crazy because you re brilliant. but the idea blew my mind. you were suspicious. i don t think like a russian but i m starting to. i think it s time for rosetta stone class in russian. talk to me about not just development but take another run of explaining this development to my and my viewers, but this line in the investigation, what does it tell you mueller is seeking? the development seems fairly logical, first and foremost, rick gates is trying to get a lower sentence and save his own skin so he s dishing on things he saw inside the trump campaign. he obviously was privy to the fact paul manafort funneled polling data assumingly pro prioritiary analysis, not just public polling data, clue