The bipartisan report mainly confirms what has generally been common knowledge for years but adds new information as well.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/512613-five-takeaways-from-final-senate-intel-russia-report
Communications between several Russian figures and the campaign surfaced in other investigations by the House and Mueller, but the Senate probe uncovered additional information, including several cases where Russians had far greater ties to the Kremlin.
One such figure was Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer who Donald Trump Jr., former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner met at Trump Tower in June 2016 after being promised dirt on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Instead, Veselnitskaya steered the discussion toward Russian sanctions.
“The connections the Committee uncovered, particularly regarding Veselnitskaya, were far more extensive and concerning than what had been publicly known,” the panel wrote, noting she was not forthcoming with her ties to Moscow.
The report went further than other U.S. officials have in its description of Konstantin Kilimnik, Manafort’s former business partner, by labeling him a “Russian intelligence officer.”
Mueller’s prosecutors had characterized Kilimnik, a dual citizen of Russia and Ukraine who served as a translator for the Russian army, as an individual assessed by the FBI as having ties to Russian intelligence.
Kilimnik was also the “primary liaison” between Manafort and one of his clients, sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, according to the Senate report, which also alleges that Manafort “worked with Kilimnik starting in 2016 on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.”
The GOP-led committee said it “obtained some information suggesting Kilimnik may have been connected to the GRU's hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election,” a reference to the Russian cyberattacks that targeted the DNC in the runup to the election.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, hinted that senators have additional information, including “evidence connecting Kilimnik to the GRU's hack-and-leak operations,” but those elements are redacted.
“Taken as a whole, Manafort's high level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik and associates of Oleg Deripaska, represented a grave counterintelligence threat,” the report states.
Manafort’s case represented a drawn-out saga and one of the most consequential elements of Mueller’s investigation.
Manafort, who was charged and convicted on bank and tax fraud charges in Virginia federal court, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of a guilty plea to avoid a second trial in Washington, D.C. But months later, he was found to have breached his cooperation deal by lying to investigators, including about his contacts with Kilimnik. He is serving out a 7.5 year prison sentence.
Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich (N.M), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Kamala Harris (Calif.), Michael Bennet (Colo.) and Wyden pointed to Manafort as an example of Trump campaign officials coordinating with Russia, saying “this is what collusion looks like.”
