The right wing is lying again: this time about Mueller’s prosecution of Konstantin Kilimnik

There is a lot of sound and fury emanating from the right wing (think Hannity, for example) about this story by @jsolomonReports. But it signifies nothing. 1/13 http://tinyurl.com/y4z2mytt

Yesterday our lying Demagogue in Chief weighed in too: 2/13

None of the information reported by Solomon is new: it’s been out there for a long time.

The fullest coverage and assessment of Kilimnik is by Franklin Foer, and it’s still valid. 3/13 http://tinyurl.com/yyzjpunl

Furthermore, open court records show that Team Mueller has always been forthright that Manafort and Kilimnik had contacts with the State Department: and there are even footnotes in the Report referencing emails Kilimnik sent to the State Department. 4/13

Here, from an AP story by Rowan Scarborough that was carried by the Associated Press: 5/13 http://tinyurl.com/y2kwofko

Mr. Weissmann said: “There are definitely communications that Mr. Kilimnik has with people in the State Department. I don’t see how that is in any way relevant to this issue before the court.”

Although Manafort and Kilimnik have denied that Kilimnik was operating as a Russian spy (are you surprised?), Mueller asserts that the US government does regard Kilimnik as having been a Russian asset: 6/13

Note that Mueller doesn’t say “alleged ties.” He says “assessed ties.” 7/13

Scarborough says: 8/13

Mr. Weissmann said Mr. Kilimnik “is understood by the FBI, assessed to be have a relationship with Russian intelligence.” The prosecution hasn’t produced evidence of that supposed relationship in open court.

Of course Mueller didn’t “produce evidence of that supposed relationship” in OPEN COURT (!) because that would have divulged sensitive national security matters and sources and methods that cannot be litigated in open court. 9/13

The Scarborough article also says: 10/13

A legal expert not involved in the case told The Times that it is clear the defense is trying to undercut the Russian intelligence-link allegation by collecting evidence that Mr. Kilimnik was a U.S. asset.

“If the U.S. trusted Kilimnik, then they must not think he’s a Russian spy,” the legal expert said. “This blows another hole in the entire Russian collusion theory.”

First of all, this is nonsense. Other sources have stated unequivocally that the US officials didn’t really trust Kilimnik. That doesn’t mean they didn’t listen to him. Have these people never heard of double agents, or are they assuming that US officials have never heard of them? 11/13

Kilimnik could have been useful to Russian intelligence precisely because he was acting as a double agent for them. (A spy who has valuable access to people in the target country or agency is an extremely valuable spy.) 12/13

In any case, the fact that Solomon, Hannity, and others are willing to scurrilously attack US intelligence and law enforcement when their hands are tied behind their backs shows just how low they can go.

(We probably haven’t seen how low they can go yet.) 13/13