116TH CONGRESS
1st Session

SENATEREPORT
116-XX(U)REPORT
OF THE

SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE
UNITED STATES SENATEON

RUSSIAN ACTIVE MEASURES CAMPAIGNS AND INTERFERENCE
IN THE 2016 U.S. ELECTION
VOLUME 5: COUNTERINTELLIGENCE THREATS AND
VULNERABILITIESrCONTENTS(U) FINDINGS ·········································································································· ......... V(U) METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................... 1
A.
(U) The Committee's Authority and Focus ..................................................................... 1
1. (U) The Committee's Power to Investigate .................................................................... 1
2. (U) The Committee's Counterintelligence Focus ........................................................... 4
B.
(U) A Bipartisan Investigation ......................................................... ;.............................. 5C.
(U) Legal Issues Encountered ........................................'.. ............................................... 7
1. (U) Executive Privilege ........... .'....................................................................................... 8
2. (U) A Claimed Transition Privilege ................. :.............................................................. 9
3. (U) Obstruction, Attorney-Client Privilege, and the Joint Defense Agreement.. ......... 14
4. (U) Fifth Amendment and Immunity ............................................................................ 17
5. (U) Extraterritoriality .................................................................................................... 20
6. (U) Committee Access to Electronic Communications Data ....................................... 21
7. (U) Other Issues: First Amendment and Spousal Privilege .......................................... 23
8. (U) Transcript Review .............. , ................................................................................... 23
D.
(U) Working With and Around the Executive Branch .................................................. 24
1. (U) DOJ, FBI, and SCO ................................................................................................ 24
2. (U) Access to and Use of Classified Materials in the Report ....................................... 26
III.
(U) COUNTERINTELLIGENCE CONCERNS .................. :........................................... 27(U) Paul Manafort ......................................................................................................... 27
A.
1. (U) Introduction and Findings ...................................................................................... 27
2. (U) Limitations on the Committee's Investigation ........................................ :.............. 30
3. (U) Background on Manafort's Foreign Activities ....................................................... 32
4. (U) Manafort's Activities from 2014 until )oining the Trump Campaign .................... 47
5. (U) Manafort' s Activities While Serving on the Trump Campaign ............................. 53
6. (U) Manafort' s Activities For the Remainder of the Campaign ................ ;.................. 92
7. (U) Manafort's Activities After the Election ................................................................ 96
8. (U) Manafort's Associates' Ties to Russian Intelligence Services ............................. 137(U) Hack and Leak ...................................................................................................... 170
B.
1. (U) Introduction and Findings .................................................................................... 170
2. (U) Limitations on the Committee's Investigation ..................................................... 173
3. (U) Background on GRU Hacking Activities ...... '. ...................................................... 174
4. (U) The GRU Plans and Executes the Theft of Sensitive Political Documents ......... 178
5. (U) Russia "Weaponizes" Stolen Information with Fake Personas ............................ 182
6. (U) Russia and WikiLeaks Coordinate On Interference in the U.S. Election............. 199
7. (U) Efforts to Capitalize on WikiLeaks, Gain Advance Information on Releases ..... 221
C.
(U) The Agalarovs and the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting ............................... 259
1. (U) Introduction and Findings .................................................................................... 259
2. (U) Background on the Agalarovs .............................................................................. 261

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3.
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(U) Origins of the Trump-Agalarov Relationship ...... :............................................... 268(U) The Trump-Agalarov Relationship During the 2016 Presidential Campaign ...... 311(U) The June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting ............................................................. 322(U) Subsequent Events and Communications ............................................................. 373(U) Artem Klyushin, Konstantin Rykov, and Associates ...................................... _..... 395(U) Trump Tower Moscow ....................................... ,................................................. 407(U) Introduction and Findings .................................................................................... 407(U) Past Efforts to Conduct a Real Estate Deal in Russia with Felix Sater ................ 408(U) Trump Tower Moscow Projects During the 2016 Presidential Campaign .......... 419(U) Efforts to Mislead the Public and Congress about Trump Tower Moscow ......... 461(U) George Papadopoulos ...........................................................,.. .-............................. 464(U) Introduction and Findings ...................................................... :............................. 464(U) Limitations on the Committee's Investigation .......................................... :.......... 467(U) Joseph Mifsud and Other Central Figures ............................................................ 468(U) Papadopoulos Engages with Foreign Governments, Inflating Campaign Role ... 470(U) Counterintelligence Concerns about Papadopoulos' s Interactions ...................... 524(U) Carter Page .......................................................................:..................................... 527(U) Introduction and Findings .................................................................................... 527(U) Background on Page and Limitations on the Committee's Investigation ............ 528(U) Page and U.S. and Russian Intelligence Services ..... : .......................................... 530(U) Page and the Trump Campaign ............................................................................ 533(U) Page Returns to Russia, December 2016 .............. :............................................... 555(U) Page During the Transition ................................................................................... 557(U) _Page in the "Steele Dossier" ................................................................................. 558(U) Trump's Foreign Policy Speech at the Mayflower Hotel.. ................................... 560(U) Introduction and Findings .................................................................................... 560(U) The Mayflower Speech ........... :............................................................................ 561(U) Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin ................................................................... 568(U) Introduction and Findings .................................................................................... 568(U) Background on Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin ......................................... 570(U) Torshin and Butina Establish Relations with the NRA ........................................ 580(U) Torshin and Butina Leverage NRA Relationships ............................................... 586(U) Torshin and Butina Pursue Political Contacts with Russian Approval.. .............. 608(U) 2016 NRA Convention and Efforts to Pursue Contact with Trump ..................... 614(U) Efforts to Establish a U.S.-Russia Communications Channel.. ............................ 625(U) After the Election and the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast ................................. 630(U) Allegations, and Potential Misinformation, About Compromising Information .. 636(U) Introduction and Findings ................................................................. ,.................. 636(U) Threat Posed by Russian Intelligence Services' Collection of Kompromat ... :.... 639(U) David Geovanis and Potential Counterintelligence Concerns ............................. 641(U) Trump's Travel to Moscow in 1996 ..................................................................... 647(U) Trump's Travel to Moscow in 2013 ..................................................................... 655
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(U) Influence for Hire ................................................................................................. 663
1. (U) Introduction and Findings .................................................................................... 663
2. (U) SCL and Cambridge Analytica ............................................................................. 664
3. (U) Psy Group ................................. :........................................................................... 679
4. (U) Colt Ventures and VizSense ................................................................................. 694
K.
(U) Transition ........................................... ;............................................................. ~ .... 702
1. (U) Introduction and Findings ................................... :................... ,............................ 702
2. (U) Trump Transition Holds Meetings and Calls with Russian Officials .................. 703
3. (U) Kirill Dmitriev Pursues Inroads to the Transition Team ...................................... 718
4. (U) Robert Foresman .................................................................................................. 735
5. (U) Michael Flynn ..................................•............................... ,.................................... 752
L.
(U) Other Incidents and Persons oflnterest.. .............................................................. 777
1. (U) Peter W. Smith ................................................ :.................................................... 777
2. (U) The Alfa Bank Server Story ................................................................................. 787
3. (U) Changes to the RNC's Platform ........................................................................... 792
4. (U) Russia's Efforts to Support Third Party Candidates ............................................ 802
IV.
(U) EXECUTIVE BRANCH INVESTIGATIONS ........................................................ 811
A.
(U) The DNC Hack and FBI' s Response .................................................................... 815
1. (U) Introduction and Findings ...................................................... :............................. 815
2. (U) FBI's Role Responding to Nation-State Cyber Attacks on Private Entities ........ 816
3. (U) FBI's Role: The Victim-Driven Response ........................................................... 817
4. (U) Private Cybersecurity Vendors .......................................................... .'.................. 819
5. (U) Summary of Events ......................................... ,.................................................... 821
6. (U) Detailed Timeline ............................................................................................... ·.. 822
7. (U) .Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 842
B.
(U) The Steele Dossier: Its Origins and Handling ...................................................... 846
1. (U) Introduction and Findings .:.....................................................................•..........•. 846
2. (U) Examining the Steele Dossier's Creation and Sourcing ....................................... 853
3. (U} The Dossier's Origins ................................................................................ :.......... 856
4. (U) Examining the Dossier's Sources and Tradecraft ................................................ 865
5. (U) FBI's Handling of the Dossier .............................................................................. 893
6. (U) Other Recipients of the Dossier............................................................................ 908
V.
(U) RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................................... 931
VI.
(U) ANNEX A ................ ,............................................................................................... 938
VII. (U) ANNEX B ................................................................................................................ 939
VIII. (U) ANNEX C ...........·..................................................................................................... 940
Additional Views of Senators Risch, Rubio, Blunt, Cotton, Cornyn, and Sasse ........................ 941
Additional Views of Senators Heinrich, Feinstein, Wyden, Harris, and Bennet.. ...................... 943
Additional Views of Senator Wyden .......................................................................................... 949

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(U) FINDINGS(U) The Committee found that the Russian government engaged in an aggressive, multifaceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Parts of this effort are outlined in the Committee's earlier volumes on election security, social
media, the Obama Administration's response to the threat, and the January 2017 Intelligence
Community Assessment (ICA).
(U) The fifth and final volume focuses on the counterintelligence threat, outlining a wide
range of Russian efforts to influence the Trump Campaign and the 2016 election. In this volume
the Committee lays out its findings in detail by looking at many aspects of thecounterintelligence threat posed by the Russian influence operation. For example, theCommittee examined Paul Manafort' s connections to Russian influence actors and the FBI' streatment of reporting produced by Christopher Steele. While the Committee does not describe
the final result as a complete picture, this volume provides the most comprehensive description
to date of Russia's activities and the threat they posed. This volume presents this information in
topical sections in order to address coherently and in detail the wide variety of Russian actions.
The events explained in these sections in many cases overlap, and references in each section will
direct the reader to those overlapping parts of the volume. Immediately below is a summary of
key findings from several sections.

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYPaul Manafort ,(U) Paul Manafort's connections to Russia and Ukraine began in approximately late2004 with the start of his work for Oleg Deripaska and other Russia-aligned oligarchs in
Ukraine. The Committee found that Deripaska conducts influence operations, frequently incountries where he has a significant economic interest. The Russian government coordinateswith and directs Deripaska on many of his influence operations.
(U) From approximately 2004 to 2009, Manafort implemented these influence operations
on behalf ofDeripaska, including a broad, multi-million dollar political influence campaign
directed at numerous countries of interest to Deripaska and the Russian government. ProRussian Ukrainian oligarchs with deep economic ties to Russia also paid Manafort tens of
millions of dollars and formed strong ties with Manafort independent of Deripaska.
(U) Manafort hired and worked increasingly closely with a Russian national, Konstantin
Kilimnik. Kilimnik is a Russian intelligence officer. Kilimnik became an integral part ofManafort's operations in Ukraine and Russia, serving as Manafort's primary liaison to Deripaska
and eventually managing Manafort's office in Kyiv. Kilimnik and Manafort formed a close andlasting relationship that endured to the 2016 U.S. elections. and beyond.
(U) Prior to joining the Trump Campaign in March 2016 and continuing throughout his
time 6n the Campaign, Manafort directly and indirectly communicated with Kilimnik, Deripaska,
and the pro-Russian oligarchs in Ukraine. On numerous occasions, Manafort sought to secretly
share internal Campaign information with Kilimnik. The Committee was unable to reliably
determine why Manafort shared sensitive internal polling data or Campaign strategy with
Kilimnik or with whom Kilimnik further shared that information. The Committee had limited
insight into Kilimnik's communications with Manafort and into Kilimnik's communications withother individuals connected to Russian influence operations, all of whom used communications
security practices. The Committee obtained some information suggesting Kilimnik may havebeen connected to the GRU's hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election.

until

Beginning while he was Campaign chairman and continuing
sed with Kilimnik a eace lan for eastern Ukraine that

After the election, Manafort continued to coordinate with
Russian persons, particularly Kilimnik and other individuals close to Deripaska, in an effort toundertake activities on their behalf. Manafort worked with Kilimnik starting in 2016 on
narratives that sou ht to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in .the 2016 U.S.
election.
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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee found that Manafort's presence on the Campaign at;td proximity to
Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, andacquire confidential information on, the Trump Campaign. Taken as a whole, Manafort's highlevel access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with theRussian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik and associates of Oleg Deripaska,
represented a grave counterintelligence threat.
Hack and Leak(U) The Committee found that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russianeffort to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party and leakinformation damaging to Hillary Clinton and her campaign for president. Moscow's intent was
to harm the Clinton Campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the
Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine theU.S. democratic process.
- W i k i L e a k s actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russiani n f l u e n ~ e r y likely knew it was assistin a Russian intelli ence influence
effort. The Committee found si nificant indications tha

At the time of thefirst WikiLeaks releases, the U.S. Government had not yet declared WikiLeaks a hostileorganization and many treated itas a journalistic entity.
(U) While the GRU and WikiLeaks were releasing hacked documents, the Trump
Campaign sought to maximize the impact of those leaks to aid Trump's electoral
prospects. Staff on the Trump Campaign sought advance notice about WikiLeaks releases,
created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following
thdr release, and encouraged further leaks. The Trump Campaign publicly undermined theattribution of the hack-and-leak campaign to Russia and was indifferent to whether it and
WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort. The Committee found noevidence that Campaign officials received an authoritative government notification that the hack
was perpetrated by the Russian government before October 7, 2016, when the ODNI and DHS
issued a joint statement to that effect. However, the Campaign was aware of the extensive media
reporting and other private sector attribution of the hack to Russian actors prior to that point.
(U) Trump and senior Campaign offici.als sought to obtain advance information about
WikiLeaks's planned releases through Roger Stone. At their direction, Stone took action to gainvii

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE~ RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

inside knowledge for the Campaign and shared his purported knowledge directly with Trumpand senior Campaign offictals on multiple occasions. Trump and the Campaign believed that
Stone had inside information and expressed satisfaction that Stone's information suggested morereleases would be forthcoming. The Committee could not reliably determine the extent.of
authentic, non-public knowledge about WikiLeaks that Stone obtained and shared with theCampaign.
The Agalarovs and the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting(U) The Committee found that the connection between Trump and the Agalarovs began
in 2013 with planning for the Miss Universe Moscow pageant. Aras Agalarov is a prominent
oligarch in Russia, and his son, Emin Agalarov, is a musician and businessman in Moscow. The
connection evolved in 2014 and focused on an effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow thatnever came to fruition. During that time communications further extended to Agalarov
associates and family members and to Trump associates and family members. The relationshipwith the Agalarovs, which continued through the 2016 U.S. election, included business andpersonal communications, in person meetings, and gifts.

(U) The Committee found that Aras Agalarov was personally involved in pushing forboth the June 9, 2016 meeting between NataliaVeselnitskaya and senior m~mbers of theCampaign and for a second meeting following the election, also with Veselnitskaya, that did nottake plac·e. Agalarov likely did this on behalf of individuals affiliated with the Russian
government, judging from his ties with Russian officials who have pursued a repeal of the U.S.
sanctions under the Magnitsky Act.
··(U) The Committe~ found evidence suggesting that it was the 'i~tent of the Campaign· participants in the June 9, 2016 meeting, particularly Dortald Trump Jr., to receive derogatory
information that would be of benefit to the Campaign from a soui:ce known, at least by Trump
Jr.,. to have connections to the Russian government. The Committee found no reliable evidence
that information of benefit to the Campaign was transmitted at the meeting, or that thencandidate Trump had foreknowledge of the meeting. Participants on both sides of the meetingwere ultimately disappointed with how it transpired.
0(U) The information that Natalia. Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer, offered during theJune 9, 2016 meeting and planned to offer again at the follow up meeting requested by Aras .
Agalarov was part of a broader influence operation targeting the United States that wascoordinated, at least in part, with elements of the Russian government. That Russian effort was
focused on U.S. sanctions against Russia under the Magnitsky Act. The Committee assesses thatsome of the same information used by Veselnitskaya at the June 9, 2016 meeting was also usedin an influence operation earlier in 2016 by individuals in Moscow who have ties to Russian
intelligence and to Putin. The Committee found no evidence that the meeting participants from

viii

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the Campaign were aware of this Russian influence operation when accepting the meeting or
participating in it.
(U) The Committee assesses that at least two participants in the June 9, 2016 meeting,
Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin, have significant connections to the Russian government,
including the Russian intelligence services. The connections the Committee uncovered,particularly regarding Veselnitskaya, were far more extensive and concerning than what had
been publicly known, and neither Veselnitskaya nor Akhmetshin were forthcoming with theCommittee regarding those connections. Both Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin may have sought,
in some cases, to obfuscate the true intent of their work in the United States.

Trump Tower Moscow(U) During the 2016 U.S. presidential election cycle, Donald °Trump and the Trump
Organization pursued a business deal in Russia. Michael Cohen, then an executive vicepresident at the Trump Organization and personal attorney to Trump, primarily handled andadvanced these efforts. In September 2015, Trump authorized Cohen to pursue a deal in Russia
through Felix Sater, a longtime business associate of Trump. By early November 2015, Trump
and a Russia-based developer signed a Letter of Intent laying out the main terms of a licensing
deal that promised to provide the Trump Organization millions of dollars upon the signing of adeal, and hundreds of millions of dollars if the project advanced to completion.
(U) Cohen kept Trump updated on the progress of the deal. While these negotiations
were ongoing, Trump made positive public comments about Putin in connection with his
presidential campaign. Cohen and Sater sought to leverage Trump's comments, and subsequentcomments about Trump by Putin, to advance the deal.

(U) Sater told Cohen about high-level outreach to Russian businessmen and officials that
Sater claimed to have undertaken related to the deal. While Sater almost certainly inflated someof these claims, the Committee found that Sater did, in fact, have significant senior-level ties to anumber of Russian businessmen and former government officials, and was in a position, throughintermediaries, to reach individuals close to Putin.

ix

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) By the end of 2015, Cohen reached out to the Kremlin directly to solicit the Russian
government's assistance. Cohen made contact in January 2016 with a Russian Presidential
Administration aide to Dmitri Peskov, a senior Kremlin official and key advisor to Putin. Cohen
discussed the project in detail and reported to Trump that he had done so. As a result of thisdirect outreach to the Russian Presidential Administration and Sater' s separate efforts to conduct
outreach to individuals in Russia, the Committee found that senior Russian government officials(including, almost certainly, President Vladimir Putin) were aware of the deal by January 2016.
"'(U) Cohen and Sater continued negotiations through the spring of 2016. Theirconversations largely focused on efforts to travel to Russia to advance the deal, but theCommittee found no evidence of other concrete steps to advance the deal during this time. On
June 14, 2016, Cohen and Sater met in person in Trump Tower, and Cohen likely relayed that hewould not be able to travel to Russia at that time. During the summer, attempts to advance thedeal stopped.
George Papadopoulos(U) George Papadopoulos joined the Trump Campaign as part of a foreign policy
advisory team created to blunt criticism that the Campaign lacked foreign policy advisors.
Although Papadopoulos had limited-if any-influence on the Campaign's policies, he parlayed .
his association with the Trump Campaign to attempt to establish ties with foreign capitals as wellas advance his personal goals of having increased influence in foreign energy circles. Despite
efforts by certain individuals to remove him from the Campaign, Papadopoulos continued toassert his affiliation with the Campaign and remained in contact with senior staff such as Stephen
Bannon and Michael Flynn.

(U) The Committee found George. Papadopoulos used multiple avenues to pursue a faceto-face meeting between Trump and President Putin. Papadopoulos believed that he wasoperating with the approval-or at least not the explicit disapproval-of Campaign leadership,
who he kept apprised of his efforts. Papadopoulos never successfully scheduled a meeting
between Putin and Trump.
(U) The Committee further found that Papadopoulos' s efforts introduced him to several
individuals that raise counterintelligence concerns, due to their associations with individ4als
from hostile foreign governments as well as actions these individuals undertook. The Committee
assesses that Papadopoulos was not a witting cooptee of the Russian intelligence services, butnonetheless presented a prime intelligence target and potential vector for malign Russian
influence.
(U) The Committee found evidence that Papadopoulos likely learned about the Russian
active measures campaign as early as April 2016 from Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese academic withlongstanding Russia ties, well before any public awareness of the Russian effort. The Committee
XCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
further found Papadopoulos communicated the information he learned from Mifsud to a~ least
two separate foreign governments. The Committee could not determine if Papadopoulos
informed anyone on the Trump Campaign of the information, though the Committee finds it
implausible that Papadopoulos did not do so.

Carter Page
(U) Carter Page was likely a subject of interest to Russian officials during the 2016,
election, given that he was the only member of the Trump Campaign's foreign policy advisory
team publicly identified as a Russia expert. Page ,had previously lived in Russia and had worked
on Russia policy and energy issues. Russian intelligence officers pad in previous years
interacted with Page.
(U) The Committee found no evidence that Page made any substantive contribution to
the Campaign or ever met Trump. Prior to Page being added to the Campaign's advisorycommittee, he indicated to senior Campaign officials that he was in contact with individuals who
were close to the Kremlin and were· interested in arranging meeting between Trump and Putin.
Page later repeated the suggestion of a Trump-Putin meeting to senior Campaign staff. The
Committee was not able to corroborate Page's claimed contacts, and fourtd no indication that theCampaign took action on Page's offers.

a(U) In the summer of 2016, Page was invited to make two addresses in Russia, including
an address during the commencement ceremonies at Moscow's New Economic School (NES).
This invitation was extended because of the Russian sponsors' perception of his role in the
Trump Campaign. Page returned to Moscow and NES in December 2016, after his role with theCampaign had ended, but while he was seeking a position with 1the new administration. During
these visits, Page met briefly with a figure about whom the Intelligence Community has
counterintelligence concerns, and the Committee was unable to obtain a.complete picture fromPage or his document production about his itinerary-in Moscow. Page did not explain to theCommittee, for example, how he spent the bulk of several days. Many allegations in the media
regarding Page's activities in Russia in 2016 as well as almost all assertions about Page in the"Steele Dossier" remain unverified. In addition, P~ge's claims to the Campaign regarding his
activities and influence in Moscow remain unsubstantiated.

Trump's Foreign Policy Speech at the Mayflower Hotel(U) The Committee found no evidence that anyone associated with the Trump Campaign
had any substantive private conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during theApril 27, 2016, Trump speech held at the Mayflower J-iotel. Although Kislyak did meet Trumpand other senior officials associated with the Campaign, these short interactions consisted ofgeneral statements about improved relations with Russia. As the first major foreign policyxiCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

speech by the candidate, the event drew wide but typical attention, including' by the Russian
ambassador.
Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin(U) Starting in 2013, and continuing over a several year period, Maria Butina, founder ofa Russian gun rights organization who attended graduate school in the United States, andAlexander Torshin, a high ranking Russian banker, government official, and politician with
Kremlin ties, established a broad network of relationships with the leaders of the National Rifle
Association (NRA), conservative political operatives, Republican government officials, andindividuals connected to the Trump Campaign. They took steps to establish informal
communications channels to influence the U.S. Government's policy towards Russia. The
Committee did not find that either Butina or Torshin was able to establish consistent contact with
Trump Campaign officials or senior staff.

Influence for Hire
(U) The Committee found that highly evolved tools used to shape popular sentimentwere utilized in support of the Trump Campaign during the 2016 election season, and Russia has
made use of such tools in its influence operations, but a link between Russian efforts and theCampaign's use of these tools was not established. These commercially available servicesmany of which are based overseas-rely on an array of personal information to build targeted
messaging profiles. Russia applied these same ·technologies and methodologies to its influence·
campaign during the 2016 election and, in doing so, conducted foreign influence operations
against the United States with a speed, precision, and scale not previously seen. The
commoditization of these influence capabilities by for-profit firms working in the political andparticularly electoral space, coupled with deeply concerning foreign government and intelligence
service ties to some organizations, were troubling enough to warrant additional Committee
scrutiny.
Transition(U) Russia took advantage of members of the Transition Team's relative inexperience ingovernment, opposition to Obama Administration policies, arid Trump's desire to deepen ties
with Russia to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia could conduct
diplomacy. Russia was not alone in these efforts-U .S. allies and adversaries also sought
xii

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYinroads with the Transition. The existence of a cadre of informal advisors to the Transition
Team with varying levels of access to the President-elect and varying awareness of foreign
affairs presented attractive targets for foreign influence, creating notable counterintelligencevulnerabilities. The lack of vetting of foreign interactions by Transition officials left theTransition open to influence and manipulation by foreign intelligence services, government
officials, and co-opted business executives.
(U) The Transition Team repeatedly took actions that had the potential, and sometimes
the effect, of interfering in the Obama Administration's diplomatic efforts. This createdconfusion among U.S. allies and other world leaders, most notably surrounding negotiations over
a UN Security Council Resolution on Israel. Russia may have deferred response to the sanctions
the Obama Administration put in place in late December because of Flynn's intervention andpromise of a new relationship with the Trump administration.
(U) Also during the transition, several Russian actors not formally associated with theRussian Government attempted to establish contact with senior members of the Transition Team.
In mid-December, Sergey Gorkov, the head of a U.S. sanctioned Russian bank, met with Jared
Kushner and discussed diplomatic relations. Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO ofU.S.-sanctioned
Russian Direct Investment Fund, used multiple business contacts to try to make inroads withTransition Team officials. One such contact was Rick Gerson, a hedge fund manager and friendof Kushner's. Gerson and Dmitriev constructed a five-point plan on how to improve relations
between Russia and the U.S. and presented it to the Transition Team and the Kremlin,
respectively. Dmitriev also made contact with Erik Prince, who passed on the contents of the
discussions to Steve Bannon. Separately, Bob Foresman, an American businessman living in
Moscow who sought a position in the Trump Administration, conveyed brief messages between
the Trump Campaign and several Kremlin-linked individuals, including Putin confidant Matthias
Wamig, and provided other information relating to the U.S.-Russia relationship during theTransition.

Executive Branch Investigations(U) The Committee found that certain FBI procedures and actions in response to theRussian threat to the 2016 elections were flawed, in particular its interactions with the DNC
about the hacking operation and its treatment of the set of memos referred to as the Steele
Dossier.
(U) The Committee found the FBI lacked a formal or considered process for escalating
its warnings about the DNC hack within the organization of the DNC. Additionally, the FBI's"victim-driven" response paradigm, whereby hacked entities and organizations are treated as
victims and the FBI relies on their cooperation to access and navigate targeted computer systems,
hindered FBI' s ability to investigate the cyberattack with appropriate urgency. The Committee
understands that the FBI operates with limited resources and currently follows this victim-driven\

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYmodel when responding to cyber threats. However, the Committee found that the FBI could
have, and should have, escalated its communications to the DNC much sooner than it did, butalso that the DNC interlocutors did not assign appropriate weight to the FBI's warnings. To thispoint, the Committee found that communication on both sides was inadequate, further confusing
an already complex situation.
(U) Regarding the Steele Dossier, FBI gave Steele's allegations unjustified credence,
based on an incomplete understanding of Steele's past reporting record. FBI used the Dossier ina FISA application and renewals and advocated for it to be included in the ICA before taking thenecessary steps to validate assumptions about Steele's credibility. Further, FBI did noteffectively adjust its approach to Steele's reporting once one of Steele's subsources provided
information that raised serious concerns about the source descriptions in the Steele Dossier. The
Corhinittee further found that Steele's reporting lacked rigor and transparency about the qualityof the sourcing.

(U) The Russian attack on the 2016 U.S. elections presented a new, quickly-evolving,
and complex set of circumstances for the FBI. However, the Committee found that FBI overly
adhered to the letter of its procedures in dealings with the DNC, rather than recognizing the gap
between those procedures and effective the pursuit ofits mission, and did not follow its
procedures closely enough in the handling of Christopher Steele. During both of these matters,
FBI did not quickly identify the problem and adjust course when it became clear its actions were
ineffective.

xiv

II.

(U) METHODOLOGY

A. (U) The Committee's Authority and Focus(U) On January 24, 2017, the Committee formally initiated its inquiry into Russian
active measures in the 2016 elections and the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) relating
to Russian involvement in the 2016 elections. The Terms of Reference designated a Russian
Active Measures Working Group from Committee staff to conduct the inquiry on behalf of theCommittee. The five volumes of the Committee's Report capture the results of three years ofinvestigative activity, hundreds of witness interviews and engagements, millions of pages of
document review, and open and closed hearings. This Report presents the Committee's findings
and recommendations as a result of its investigation.
1. (U) The Committee's Power to Investigate(U) The. Committee's power to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 U.S.
elections derives from its jurisdiction over the Intelligence Community(IC) and Congress's
broad investigative powers. The Supreme Court has recognized that Congress has broad power
to investigate, because investigation is "inherent in the legislative process." 1 Congress's "powerof inquiry ... i~ as penetrating and far-reaching as the potential power to enact and appropriate
under the Constitution."2 Congress also plays a long-established "informing function" that theSupreme Court has described as "indispensable."3(U) The Senate created the Select Committee on Intelligence in 1976 to "provide vigilant
legislative oversight over the intelligence activities of the United States" and to ensure that
intelligence activities were "in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States."4The Committee is tasked with oversight of the IC, which includes 17 different intelligenceelements and numerous intelligence programs. An assessment of the IC's response to the foreign
intelligence threat from Russia, and by necessity the nature of that threat, fell within theCommittee's jurisdiction. The Report's five volumes-covering topics of election security,social media, policy response, the ICA, and counterintelligence concems5 surrounding the 2016

1(U) Watkinsv. United States, 354 U.S.178, 187 (1957).
(U) Eastland v. United States Serviceman's Fund, 421 U.S. 491, 504 (1975) (citing Barenblatt v. United States,
360 U.S. 109, 111 (1959)). See generally Garvey, Todd and Oleszek, Walter J., "Congressional Oversight andInvestigations," Congressional Research Service, December 1, 2014.
3(U) Watkins, 354 U.S. at 200; United States v. Rumely, 345 U.S. 41, 43 (1953). See, e.g., Final Report of theSelect Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, Report No. 93-981, 96th Cong., 2d Sess., June 1974, p.
XXIV.
4(U) S. Res. 400, 94th Cong. (1976).
5 (U) Executive Order No. 12333, as amended, defines counterintelligence as "information gathered and activities
conducted to identify, deceive, exploit, disrupt, or protect against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage,
2

1

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

elections-address areas of oversight and poteptial legislative action for the Committee orCongress. The Committee has already taken legislative action based on its investigation.
(U) The Committee understood obstruction of its investigation to also be within its
investigative purview, as efforts to obstruct the Committee could potentially stem fromadditional counterintelligence concerns, interfere with its oversight responsibilities, or form thebasis of additional legislative action. ·.

(U) The Committee reviewed relevant intelligence products, conducted voluntary
witness interviews, and compelled both testimony and the production of documents whennecessary. The Committee's investigative power was bounded by the tools available to theLegislative Branch and the statute governing the enforcement of Senate subpoenas, both ofwhich informed the Committee's approach to obtain voluntary cooperation wherever possible. 6
If a witness refused to comply with a subpoena without asserting ~my valid legal privilege, theCommittee could choose to pursue either criminal or civil contempt.
(U) As the Supreme Court has recognized, the power to compel testimony and evidence
is a necessary component to Congress's ability to fulfill its constitutional role. 7 However,holding a witness in contempt of Congress is a multi-step, time-consuming process, requiring
action both within Congress and the courts. To pursue civil contempt, the Committee would
begin by issuing a valid subpoena to a witness and providing the witness an opportunity to assert
legitimate privileges, along with legal authorities and rationale for any privilege assertions.
After a ruling by the Chairman and Vice Chairman that the witness had failed to comply or toassert a valid legal privilege, the Committee could override the objection and direct the witness
to comply. If the witness failed to comply, the Committee could then vote to report a resolution
to the Senate, accompanied by a report explaining the facts at issue, and the reasons theCommittee was pursuing civil contempt as opposed to criminal contempt. Reporting a resolution
to the Senate is considered a privileged motion, and would trigger a vote of the full chamber. If
the Senate agreed to the enforcement resolution, the Senate would direct Senate Legal Counsel torepresent the Committee before a federal court, seeking an order directing the witness to appear,
produce documents, or to answer specific questions. The federal court could then decide to
direct the witness to answer, and the court could impose sanctions to further compel compliance
if it determined them to be necessary. 8

or assassinations conducted for or on behalf of foreign powers, organizations, or persons, or their agents, orinternational terrorist organizations or activities." In this Report, the Committee has, at times, also used
"counterintelligence" to represent the broad range of threats presented by foreign powers, including intelligence
services and their agents, to U.S. elections, campaigns, .and national assets that are critical to the democratic process.
6(U) See 28 U.S.C. § 1365.
7(U) McGrain v. Daugherty, 273 U.S. 135 (1927).
8(U) For criminal contempt, the Committee would vote to report to the Senate (or the President Pro Tempore if the
Senate is not in session) a resolution referring the witness for criminal prosecution, which the Senate (or President

2

COMMITT~E SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Title 28, United States Code§ 1365 gives the U.S. District Court for the District ofColumbia original jurisdiction over civil enforcement of Senate subpoenas. 9 However, § 1365
does not apply-and the court would not have jurisdiction under the statute to consider anenforcement action-if the subpoena is to "an officer or employee ofthe executive branch of theFederal Government" and the refusal to comply is "based on a governmental privilege orobjection the assertion of which has been authorized by the executive branch of the Federal
Government." 10(U) This limitation had important.practical implications for the Committee's
investigation. During the Committee's investigation, if a subpoenaed witness was a government
official and asserted a claim of executive privilege, no matter how specious that claim appeared,
the Committee was effectively foreclosed from pursuing civil contempt under§ 1365.11 The
Committee interviewed several witnesses who refused to answer questions based on potential
claims of executive privilege during the presidential Transition, involving the White House
counsel's office (WHCO), which further complicated the potential for enforcement. For more on
the Trump Administration's novel theories of executive privilege during the Transition, see infra
Vol. 5, Sec. II.C.2.
(U) In some cases, the Committee's ability to obtain voluntary document productionincluding vast amounts of electronic communications, some of which would have been
encrypted-appeared to outstrip the tools of law enforcement. But in other cases, it was clearthat the limited tools available to the Legislative Branch hindered a more thorough effort. For
example, the Committee spent months trying to obtain email communications hosted on a
domain related to one of Paul Manafort's businesses, DMP International, LLC. Despite
subpoenas issued to individuals and corporate entities, including DMP International LLC and

Pro Tempore) concurred would be referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., "whose duty it shallbe to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action:" See 2 U.S.C. § 194. Despite this mandatory language,
the U.S. Attorney's Office regards its duty as discretionary and is not likely to prosecute an Executive Branch
official asserting privileges.
·
9 (U) 28 U.S.C. § 1365(a).
10 (U) Ibid.
11(U) Since the statute's enactment in 1978, the Senate has exclusively relied on 28 U.S.C. § 1365 in seeking civil
enforcement ofits subpoenas, although use of 28 U.S.C. § 1331 is not foreclosed. The House of Representatives,
which is not covered by § 1365, has been successful in relying on the general federal question jurisdictional grant
found in 28 U.S.C. § 1331 in two recent district court cases seeking subpoena enforcement in the face of executive
privilege or immunity claims. See Comm. on the Judiciary of the U.S. House ofRepresentatives v. Miers, 558 F.
Supp. 2d 53 '(D.D.C. 2008); Comm. on Oversight & Government Reform of the U.S. House of Representatives v.
Holder, 979 F. Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 2013). At the time of this writing, the issue of a court's role iri ruling on
information disputes between Congress and the executive branch is pending before an en bane U.S. Court ofAppeals for the D.C. Circuit. See Order, Comm. on the Judiciary of the U.S. House ofRepresentatives v. McGahn,
No. 19-5331 (D.C. Cir. March 13, 2020).

3

Rackspace (which hosted the DMP email server during the relevant time frame), the Committee
failed to obtain the email communications. Conversely, law enforcement would have been able
to-and did-use its criminal investigative authorities to access the content of those emailcommunications directly and without delay. 12(U) Locating witnesses also proved to be complicated in some cases. Witnesses werespread across the globe, and often used diffei;:ent names, or changed lawyers in a manner thatmade engagement with them increasingly challenging. The Committee is grateful to the U.S.
Marshals Service for its assistance in locating and serving several witnesses throughout-theinvestigation.

2. (U) The Committee's Counterintelligence Focus(U) The Committee's investigation focused on the counterintelligence threat posed by
the Russian intelligence services and whether the IC was appropriately positioned to meet thatthreat during the 2016 election cycle. The Committee's years of work on Russian active
measures, including its open and closed hearings, illustrate its focus on counterintelligenceconcerns. In presenting the factual record, the Committee did not apply the standard of proof
applicable to criminal trials, that of beyond a reasonable doubt, but rather, endeavored to convey
a detailed accounting of relevant events, and sometimes included conflicting information that theCommittee could not reliably resolve. 13(U) By comparison, the report by the Special Counsel's Office (SCO), "Report On The
Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election" (hereinafter "SCO
Report"), was focused oil criminal activity: to "explain[] the prosecution or declination decisions
reached." 14 As then-Acting Attorney General for the Special Counsel Rod Rosenstein stated in aJune 27, 2018 letter about the Special Counsel's appointment and authority: "Special Counsel
Mueller is authorized to investigate potential criminal offenses. Counterintelligence
investigations involving any current or future Russian election interference are not the Special
Counsel's responsibility." 15(U) When witnesses presented both counterintelligence and criminal concerns, theCommittee's priority was the counterintelligen_ce threat. 16 Where counterintelligence concerns

12 (U) For more on the Committee's approach to obtaining electronic communications metadata from providers, see
irifra Vol. 5, Sec. Il.C.6.
13(U) This approach is in keeping with prior congressional reports. See, e.g., Final Report of the Select Committee
on Presidential Campaign Activities, Report No. 93-981, 96th Cong., 2d Sess., June 1974, pp. XXIII-XXV.
14 (tr) 28 C.F.R. § 600.8(c).
15(U) Letter, Rosenstein to Grassley, June 27, 2018.
16(U) For example, the Committee's work with respect to Michael Cohen centered on whether Cohen was a vector'
for Russian influencerather than whether Cohen properly reported all of his taxable income.

4

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

and criminal activity overlapped, the Committee worked with law enforcement stakeholders tofind an appropriate way forward that would best serve the Committee's investigative purpose
without jeopardizing ongoing investigations or prosecutions. Where the two goals were in
conflict, the Committee accommodated law enforcement imperatives.
i.

(U) Referrals(U) The Committee did not specifically seek to investigate crime or facilitate the·apprehension of criminals: if the Committee became aware of information related to potential
criminal activity during the course of its investigation, that information was referred to theappropriate law enforcement entity for whatever action it deemed appropriate, to include further
investigation. In its referrals, the Committee expressed the view that crimes may have beencommitted and that further investigation might be warranted. The referral did ·not require law 1
enforcement authorities to undertake any further action-a decision left solely to their discretion.

(U) The Committee made referrals for potential criminal activity uncovered during the· ·course· of the investigation. A list of these referrals is provided in Annex A to this Report. 17

B. (U) A Bipartisan Investigation(U) To conduct the investigation, the Committee assigned a subset of its professional
staff members and counsel to an investigative team. Staff were assigned from the majm:ity andthe minority. Investigative decisions were made by the Chairman and Vice Chairman. Staff
jointly reviewed the information obtained in the course of the investigation, drafted document
requests, questioned witnesses, and drafted the Report. All of these practices helped to maintainthe bipartisan nature of the investigation, one focused on the goal stated by the Chairman andVice Chairman: delivering a factual record to the American people about Russian interference inthe 2016 U.S. elections.
(U) The Committee's practice was to initially seek witness testimony and document
production voluntarily, and some witnesses were immediately willing to cooperate with theCommittee. However, other witnesses were hesitant to cooperate and required extensive
assurances about a range of topics before they would agree to appear. These negotiations often
took weeks or months, and sometimes resulted in a witness not appearing until many months
after the request, which prolonged the investigation. In addition, on several occasions, witnesses
developed excuses for delaying or cancelling interviews. It was the Committee's practice not to
discuss witness engagements publicly and to ask witnesses to keep engagements confidential.

17 (U)

See infra Vol. 5, Sec. VI.

5

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY..
COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-: RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

However, the Committee was unable to prevent witnesses from disclosing their own informationor engagements to the media either before, during, or after their interviews.
(U) When credible safety issues were raised by a witness, proffers and in camera review
were considered as an alternative. In limited circumstances, either due to witness security
concerns, to conduct minimal follow-ups, or because of the limited nature of the Committee's
focus, written questions were used in lieu of in-person testimony. Generally, written questions
proved to be a poor substitute for a live interview. Responses were frequently cursory and left
out pertinent information; answers were channeled through counsel for additional edits rather
than coming directly from the witness; and the Committee was unable to ask follow-up questions
to challenge or probe the witness's responses.
(U) The Committee generally requested documents to be produced within 14 days of arequest, but provided reasonable extensions of that deadline. Even so, witness counsel often
prolonged document production for months by engaging in delay tactics. Because theinvestigation was focused on sometimes sensitive counterintelligence concerns, some document
requests were deliberately phrased in broad language to capture all relevant materials. At times
this created the need to negotiate over the scope of witness productions to avoid overproductionof irrelevant documents. Voluminous productions-which were not uncommon-arrived on arolling basis, but only after continuing pressure from the Committee. Some productions arrived
on the eve of witness interviews, in hard copy, which made it difficult to use the information
effectively during the engagement.
(U) The Committee's document processing presented its own challenges, in part due tothe varied nature of materials that Were produced, and because of the Committee's dedication tomaintaining documents in a restricted system to the extent possible. The most common mannerof producti~n consisted of emails or documents in PDF format. However, files were also
sometimes produced in native format, including Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Outlook Data
Files (i.e., .pst files). On some occasions, the Committee received an image copy of thewitness's hard drive. In addition, several witnesses produced documents through their attorneys
using e-discovery piatforms to which the Committee did not have access. The Committee
encountered messages and emails in foreign languages, mobile phone screenshots ofcommunications, and proprietary data productions from companies. Government records
presented additional complications. Intake of these materials with appropriate technicalrestrictions involved a significant, ongoing effort by administrative and technical staff.
Eventually, for review and drafting purposes, the Committee obtained licenses for analyticalsoftware to help synthesize and cull out relevant information from the voluminous investigative
fik.
'(U) Staff prepared for interviews using all available sources of information, including
witness document productions, government records, and publicly available information. Most
interviews were held in a closed setting, either in the Committee conference room or in its closed
6

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEN ITIVE - RUSSI INVE TITION ONLY(

hearing room. In some cases, the interviews were classified. ·On other occasions, staff traveledto accommodate the witness and conducted interviews off site, including locations outside of theUnited States. Outlines and exhibits were prepared and agreed upon ahead of time to guide theinterview. Staffdid not identify by political party during the interview, and questioning wasdone in a conversational manner, with multiple staff participating. Nearly all interviews weretranscribed. 18 The Committee gave all witnesses the opportunity to consult with counsel, or
respond to questions off the record. Following tl:ie interviews, witnesses were unable to identify
which staff worked for the majority and which worked for the minority. Although Committee
Members were gener~lly not present, transcripts and documents from all witness interviews weremade available for Members to review.
(U) The Committee conducted follow-up interviews with five witnesses: Michael Cohen,
Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., John Podesta, and Jonathan Winer. The Committee held thefollow-up interviews with Cohen, Kushner, and Trump Jr. in the Committee's closed hearing
room with Members present. At the Chairman's direction, investigative counsel asked questions
that had been prepared in advance and agreed upon by staff; Members also submitted questions
for witnesses to be asked by counsel. These three witnesses had been interviewed early in theCommittee's efforts, and the Committee developed additional information since the initialinterview that required clarification from the witnesses. All three of these follow-up interviews
occurred only after extensive negotiation between the Committee and the respective parties. In
the case of both Cohen and Trump Jr., the Committee issued a subpoena to secure this secon.d
day of testimony. Cohen appeared pursuant to the subpoena. Trump Jr. did not initially appear
in _response to the subpoena, but later changed his position and appeared when it became clearthat the Committee was considering a contempt resolution.
(U) When witnesses declined voluntary cooperation and an interview was essential to theinvestigation;the Committee exercised its subpoena authority to compel testimony and document·production. Subpoenas were usually served electronically, when agreed to by witness counsel.
On several occasions, however,_the Committee relied.on the assistance of the U.S. Marshals
Service to serve subpoenas on Some witnesses. Although the Chairman and Vice Chairman were
granted.authority by the Committee to jointly issue subpoenas for witnesses on which theyagreed; the whole Committee considered and authorized several subpoenas that were issued tosensitive witnesses who it believed might resist compliance. The Committee experienced some
additional limits to its authority, as discussed below.
C. (U) Legal Issues Encountered

18(U) For example, the Committee's interviews with former Secretary of State John Kerry and former FBI
employee Randy Coleman were not transcribed, due to the constraints of the spaces in which the interviews took
place and prior negotiation with witness counsel.
7

(U) Throughout the course of its investigation, the Committee encountered a spectrum ofcooperation: some witnesses testified voluntarily and provided useful document production in atimely manner, and- some witnesses stalled, forced the Committee to compel their appearances,and then asserted.privileges in response to sqme of the Committee's questions. Witnesses
claimed several common law and Constitutional privileges, including-traditional claims ofexecutive privilege; potential claims of executive privilege during the presidential Transition;
attorney-client privilege; First Amendment privileges (related to both freedom of the press andfreedom of association); and spousal privilege. The Committee was also confronted with certain
statutory limitations in its requests to communications service providers for digital evidence.
The Committee's strategies in navigating these .issues are detailed below but were generally
driven by its priorities to get the most information possible, to respect Committee and Senate
equities, and to move forward without engaging in time-consuming litigation.
1. (U) Executive Privilege(U) The time period for the Committee's document requests and interview questions forgovernment officials generally did not go beyond noon on January 20;2017, in part to anticipate
and minimize any potential claims of executive privilege. The concept of executive privilegewhich is not written anywhere in the Constitution, but de~ives from Constitutional
considerations 19-is itself amorphous, encompassing several varieties of potentially legitimate
governmental interests: the confidentiality of a president's communications and those of thepresident's senior advisors; sensitive military, diplomatic, or national security information;
sensitive law enforcement techniques or ongoing investigations; and internal deliberative
processes. There is considerable disagreement between Congress and the Executive Branch as tothe. nature of the privilege and when it may be claimed, and scant case law on the particulars of
its application to congressional requests. Importantly, in whatever form it may take, theprivilege is not absolute. 20 It gives way to a legitimate overriding need from Congress; it can bewaived; and it may not be used to withhold evidence of wrongdoing.or criminal behavior within
the Executive Branch.

(U) Executive privilege is the President's alone to assert. Accordingly-from the
Executive Branch's perspective-in order to withhold information on the basis of a valid claimof executive privilege, a witness will frequently refuse to answer a question or produce
documents on the grounds that it could implicate the privilege, thereby preserving theopportunity to assert the privilege for the President. Following notification from a witness that arequest has raised a "substantial 'question of executive privilege," the White House's approach in

19
20(U) See United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 708 (1974).
(U) Ibid., 713.

8

theory adheres to the procedures outlined in a_l982 memorandum from then-President Reagan. 21
Traditionally, the White House will seek an opinion from Department of Justice's (DOJ) Officeof Legal Counsel (OLC) substantiating its position that the privilege exists as related to thespecific subject matter in the question or document. If that determination is made, Congress andthe Executive Branch may engage in an "accommodations" process to resolve the dispute
through a proffer of the information or in camera review in lieu of spe~ific testimony or
document production. If, however, the process does not satisfy Congress's legitimate needs,
then Congress may contest the claim.
(U) ..The Committee anticipated that it could face ~xecutive privile~e claims from Obama
Administration officials who testified about actions they took as part of the National Security
Council or conversations they had with President Obama about Russian interference. In practice,though, Obama Administration officials freely shared their conversations with then-President
Obama· and each other rel~ted to the Russia threat. The. Committee heard testimony about
Principal's Committees (PCs) and Deputy's Committees (DCs) from Susan Rice, Denis
McDonough, Michael Daniel, Celeste Wallander, Jeh Johnson, Ben Rhodes, Samantha Power,
Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates, and Lisa Monaco, among others. This testimony provided useful
insights intq the history of interactions between the Obama Administration and the Russian
government, which informed the Committee's report. ·2. (U) A Claimed Transition Privilege(U) The Committee did not anticipate, however, the multitude of novel andunprecedented potential executive privilege claims from the WHCO on behalf of members of
President-elect Trump's Transition Team and the Transition itself, for communications before
Trump took office. The Committee was surprised by these assertions because they were madeinconsistently and because they have no basis in law. The Committee's experience demonstrated
the potential for abuse of executive privilege, particularly as it relates, to impeding a
Congressional inquiry.

i.

(U) Executive Privilege for the Trump Administration Began at Noon on
January 20, 2017(U) The Committee's position is that executive privilege for President Trump began
when he assumed Constitutional office, at noon on January 20, 2017. During the 2016-2017
Presidential Transition, President Obama was the person holding the Constitutional office of the
President, and therefore the only person who could assert a Constitutional privilege for that
period. When pressed for any legal precedent or any opinion from OLC that supported the21(U) Memorandum, President Reagan to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on Procedures
Governing Responses to Congressional Requests for Information,'November 4, 1992.

9

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

existence of executive privilege during the Transition, WHCO continually and solely relied on aletter from then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to then-House Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman Devin Nunes. 22 McGahn's letter cites important principles ofexecutive privilege pertaining to the President's communications with close advisers, mostly
found in United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974) and In re Sealed Case, 121 F.3d 729 (D.C.
Cir. 1997).23 McGahn:s letter argues that because the Presidential Transition Act ("PTA")
contemplates confidentiality during the Transition, and because Congress has tacitly implied arecognition that Administrations prepare to take office before Inauguration Day (by, for example,
scheduling confirmation hearings for national security cabinet official designates), executive
privilege pertaining to presidential communications must then apply during the Transition. 24(U) This argument contorts the PTA and-common understandings of executive privilege,
and the Committee could identify no additional basis to support it. The argument wasparticularly suspect as applied to an apparent foreign policy operation run by Transition officials
who can claim no Constitutional authority to be conducting American diplomacy. To date, theonly court to address the existence of a Transition privilege has rejected it. 25 Throughout theinvestigation, and still today, the Committee adheres to the view that a valid claim of executive
privilege can only exist once a President has been sworn into office.

ii.

(U) The WHCO's Approach was Inconsistent, and Waiver Could Have
Occurred(U) Throughout 2017, the Committee's engagements with former Transition officials
and entities representing the Transition elicited no assertions of potential executive privilege over
the Transition. For instance, the Committee interviewed Jared Kushner and Hope Hicks, bothsenior members of the Campaign, the Transition Team, and the Administration. These witnesses
testified to the Committee freely and without any assertions related to executive privilege during
the Transition period. During the Committee's initial document requests and conversations with
the Trustees of the Transition, 26 those representatives of the Trustees made no explicit mentionof executive privilege, instead using a boilerplate paragraph that acknowledged that "[a]ll
documents and information are produced by TF A subject to, and without waiving, any and all·applicable constitutional, statutory, and common law privileges."2722(U) Letter, McGahn to Nunes, February 14, 2018 (provided to Committee Counsel by White House Deputy
Counsel via email on March 29, 2018).
23(U) Ibid.
.
24(U) Ibid.; see also PTA, Pub. L. 88-277, as amended.
25(U) Fish v. Kobach, No. 16~2105-JAR-JPO, 17 WL 1920910, *5-6 (I>. Kan. May 10, 2017).
26(U) The Trustees of the Transition is the custodial entity that maintained Transition records once the President
took office.
27(U) See, e.g., Letter, Langhofer to Burr and Warner, December 8, 2017.

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) However, by March of2018 and beyond, the Committee's interview and document ·requests to K.T. McFarland, Sarah Flaherty,28 Stephen Miller, Avi Berkowitz, and Steve Bannon
were all met by "potential assertions" of executive privilege during the Transition. After
conversations with WHCO during these witness negotiations, the Committee inquired withTransition counsel about whether any of its documents had been withheld on a basis of executive
privilege concerns, rather than just attorney-client concerns. After months of discussion withboth WHCO and Transition counsel, in February, 2019, the Committee learned that theTransition Trustees had withheld documents based on a potential assertion of executive
privilege.29 .
(U) The Trustees of the Transition provided their documents to the WHCO for review, inorder to assess whether any documents could be candidates for an executive privilege assertion.
This process took approximately four additional months. McFarland and Flaherty similarly used
the WHCO to filter their document production to the Committee. Ultimately, 65 documentsfrom the Transition, 32 documents from McFarland, and one document from Flaherty were
withheld from production and proffered to Committee counsel, as described below. 30(U) Due to time constraints and the limits of the Senate's jurisdictional statute, as
described above, the Committee did not litigate these claims of executive privilege during theTransition. Despite the potential of waiver and the unusual position of the WHCO related to
executive privilege, the Committee worked with witnesses to scope questions in order to obtainthe most essential information, and participated in an accommodations process with WHCO.

iii.

(U) The "Accommodations" Process(U) Although the Committee strenuously disagreed with the White House's view on thevalidity of asserting executive privilege for Transition activities, there were strategic reasons foragreeing to an accommodations process for its requests. By obtaining a preview of the
documents, the Committee could assess whether it had obtained the purportedly privilegedmaterials through other means; gain information to further evaluate its interest in pursuing
litigation to obtain the withheld materials; and measure the strength of the executive branch's
argument in favor of applying the privilege. The Committee was also cognizant that the statutegoverning jurisdiction for subpoena enforcement-in particular, the clause which excludes
enforcement in the case of a government official asserting a government privilege--could limit
the possibility of prevailing in litigation, meaning that its best option to gather information was
through an accommodation. Finally, applicable legal precedent from the· D.C. Circuit suggested

28(U) Flaherty was an aide to Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn and McFarland, detailed to the Transition.
(U) Letter, Langhofer to Burr and Warner, February 22, 2017.
30(U) The 65 Transition documents include 32 documents that had. been withheld and separately proffered during
the.McFarland accommodations process.
29

11·COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

that even if the Committee disagreed with the White House's novel invocation of the privilege,
prior to initiating an enforcement proceeding, the Committee should "take cognizance of an
implicit constitutional mandate to seek optimal accommodation through a realistic evaluation of
the needs of the conflicting branches in the particular factual situation."31(U) The WHCO offered Committee counsel an opportunity to inspect some of thewithheld documents, and gave summaries at varying levels of detail for others. The process
proved useful in some limited respects. Most notably, the Committee found that certain
materials the White House sought to protect were already in its possession and also should nothave been subject to a privilege claim. This arose, for example, with respect to documents
produced by Sarah Flaherty. One of these documents was described to Committee counsel as anundated eight-paragraph memorandum with a sticky note dated January 9, 2017, from Flynn to
McFarland stating: "re: [a foreign nation] for your consideration." The paragraphs were further
summarized as follows:31•(U) 1: Discussion identifying foreign government internal personnel movements.

•(U) 2: Recitation of the author's assessment of the foreign government's view of areas,of long-term strategic concern shared with the U.S.

•(U) 3: ·Assessment of the foreign government's view concerning the effect ofpost-1992
U.S. policies for both countries.

•(U) 4: Discussion of the author's view of challenges facing the President (broad),
especially in the national security area:•(U) 5: List of issues for the U.S. involving the foreign government and the author's
observation regarding the degree of connection or non-conriection to the foreign
government:•(U) 6: Expresses a need for a plan to make progress on strategic matters, not specificallytied to the foreign government.

•(U) 7: Author's assessment that the foreign-government and the people of the foreign
nation have substantial goodwill towards the President-elect.

(U) United States v. AT&T, 567 F.2d 121 (D.C. Cir. 1977).

12•(U) 8: Suggestion/proposal for possibilities of engagement with the foreign
government. 32(U) According to the WHCO, the document was a candidate for privilege because it had
been "prepared for and shared among the President-elect' s senior advisors and concerns foreign
policy and national security."33 But the WHCO had taken this position without ascertaining key
facts. For example, it could not identify the author of the document; where and in what format
the document had resided when in Flaherty's possession; and whether the document was 1
prepared for the President-elect or at his request or was ever shown to him. At minimum, it
knew that the document did not contain any classified information.

(U) Based on the description, the Committee identified the memorandum as- a document
already in its possession, produced by Robert Foresman-who· was not a member of theCampaign nor the Transition Team-and written to Flynn. 34 The Committee also knew from its
investigation that Foresman had adapted a substantial part of the memorandum from anotherdocument shared by Allen Vine, who is an associate of the Putin-linked Russian oligarch
Suleiman Keriniov. 35 The Committee's position was that the document could not be privileged:
it was not drafted by a member of the Transition Team and had, in part, originated with a close
associate of a Kremlin insider. Committee counsel informed the WHCO of the general contoursof these facts (though not specific names or the details of how it had acquired the information).
WHCO subsequently dropped its claim of potential executive privilege and produced the
document to the Committee.

(U) As this experience illustrated, White House intervention significantly hampered andprolonged the Committee's investigative effort. Most importantly, some witnesses were directedby the White House not to tum over potentially privileged information-so they refused to
produce materials without first handing them over to the White House for a privilege review, or
refused to answer questions concerning the Transition without first consulting with the WhiteHouse. As a result, the White House had a chance to review and control the information
responsive to· Committee requests before the Committee did, even though the Committee wasseeking information from private citizens who could not the111selves assert the privilege, and who
were free to disregard the White House's directive.
(U) Witness testimony also proved to be a particular challenge. In addition to the noted
White House inconsistency with respect to privilege during interviews, witnesses declined torespond to questions relating to the Transition without first getting permission from WHCO,

32(U) SSCI Memorandum, January 23, 2019.
(U) Ibid
34(U) Memorandum, Foresman to Flynn (RMF-SCI-00003003-3004).
35(U) For a complete discussion of this document, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. m.K.4.iv.
33

13

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

sometimes even in the middle of an interview. The WHCO suggested that the Committee could
present its interview questions for consideration in advance. The Committee rejected this
proposal because doing so would have exposed the full scope of the Committee's investigation to
WHCO and compromised the Committee's commitment to confidentiality. Instead, interview
questions relating to the Transition were saved until the end of the interview, at which time they
were asked and then relayed by witness counsel pver the phone to the WHCO for its direction.
Then, the WHCO would advise witness counsel and Committee counsel of whether or not thewitness could respond.

3. (U) Obstruction, Attorney-Client Privilege, and the Joint Defense Agreement(U) Although there is no formal requirement for Congress to honor the attorney-client
privilege, 36 the Committee respected all legitimate and properly-supported invocations ofthe
privilege during its investigation as a matter of congressional discretion. Proper assertions of theprivilege did not prove to be obstacles to the Committee's work. However, the Committee
encountered dubious objections to its requests and questioning based on an undocumented andunproven 'joint defense agreement."(U) The existence of a joint defense agreement arose after Michael Cohen testified to theCommittee on February 26, 2019, that his former attorney, Stephen Ryan, had in 2017 circulated
drafts of Cohen's prior written statement to the Committee-a statement which included
numerous false statements for which Cohen later pleaded guilty37-to attorneys for other
witnesses in the Committee's investigation, and that these attorneys had been involved inrevising the statement. 38 At the Committee's request, Cohen subsequently produced several of
the communications in his possession, including six emails he had received from Ryancontaining or forwarding proposed edits and redlines to his draft statement from third parties,
between August 16 and August 25, 2017. 39

36(U) See, e.g., Glenn A. Beard, Congress v. The Attorney-Client Privilege: A "Full and Frank Discussion," 35
Amer. Crim. L. Rev., 119, 122-27 (1997) ("[C]ongressional witnesses are not legally entitled to the protection of theattorney-client privilege, and investigation committees therefore have discretionary authority to respect or overrule
such claims as they see fit."). See also Ethics Opinion 288, Compliance with Subpoena from Congressional
Subcommittee to Produce Lawyer's Files Containing Client Confidences or Secrets, Legal Ethics Committee,
District of Columbia Bar, February 1999 (opining that an attorney is permitted to produce client confidences orsecrets in response to a congressional. subpoena if a congressional subcommittee overrules objections based on
attoniey-client privilege and threatens fines or imprisonment for non-compliance).
37(U) See Information, United States v. Michael Cohen, 18-CR-850, November 29, 2018.
38(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Michael Cohen, February 26, 2019, pp. 21-23 ("Cohen Tr. II").
Following an initial citation, this Report refers to transcripts using a short form citation of"Witness Tr." Forwitnesses who were interviewed a second time, such as Cohen, citations to the transcript of the second interview are
identified as such by "Witness Tr. II."
3
~ (U) See, e.g., Email, Ryan to Cohen, August 21, 2017, attaching draft statement ("Attached please find thecurrent version of the Moscow statement., We sort of accepted the changes from Alan and Abbe."); Email, Ryan to"-.

14

COMMITT,--

VE

TION ONLY(U) Based on Cohen's testimony and document production, the.Committee pursued. further evidence of involvement by other witnesses in his obstruction of the Committee's
investigation. This issue was pertinent, if not central, to the Committee's work. The Committee
needed to evaluate testimony and evidence it had received, including determining the veracity ofthat testimony, as part of establishing a record of the matter under investigation.
(U) From the documents produced by Cohen, the Committee became concerned thatmultiple witnesses and/or their counsel could have been involved in or aware of Cohen's attempt
to mislead the Committee. 40 Indeed, at least two witnesses (Donald Trump Jr. and Felix Sater)
could have known that Cohen's statement falsely represented material facts about negotiations
over a. deal for a Trump Tower Moscow. Further, Cohen told the Committee that following his
initial testimony, he received a phone call from Sekulow, who told him that Trump "heard thatyou did great, and don't worry, everything's going to be fine. He loves ya." 41 Cohen also
testified that after his initial interview, Sekulow mentioned "pardons" or "pre-pardons" forCohen. 42(U) Accordingly, the Committee pursued additional communications made by Michael
Cohen or Stephen Ryan to these attorneys or their clients, and by third parties to Cohen 1;1nd
Ryan. Normally, these communications would not be protected by the attorney-client privilege
because they were shared with third parties, and hence no longer confidential.43 Nonetheless, theCommittee was informed that the materials it requested could not be·provided because they were
subject to a joint defense agreement (JDA). 44

Cohen, August 22, 2017 ("Felix would like 'salesmanship' instead of 'puffing'. He confirmed factually [sic]accuracy of doc. Sekulow liked doc. Suggested we change all 'project' references to 'proposal'- I think that is ok.
Alan G asked for a word version implying he had edits. No word from Abbe (picking a.jury for Menendez today)
and Alan F .").
,40
(U) Cohen,Tr.',II,,p. 21 ("The statement that was drafted was circulated through all of the various individuals.
They had read it. They knew the information was false.").
41(U) Ibid, p. 43.
42(U) Ibid, pp. 73-76.
43(U) See In re Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc., 756 F.3d 754, 757 (D.C. Cir. 2014) (the privilege "applies to aconfidential communication between attorney and client if that communication was made for the purpose ofobtaining or providing legal advice to the client") (emphasis added); Permian Corp. v: United States, 665 F.2d 1214,(D.C. Cir. 1981) ("Any voluntary disclosure by the holder of such a privilege is inconsistent with the.confidential .
relationship ipid thus waives the privilege.") (quoting United States v. AT&T, 642 F.2d 1285, 1299 (D.C. Cir.
1980».
.
44(U) See, e.g, Letter, Woodward and Brand to Burr and Warner, April 4, 2019; SSCI Transcript of the Interview
with Jared Kushner, February 28, 2019 ("Kushner Tr. II"); SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Donald Trump Jr.,
June 12, 2019 ("Trump Jr. Tr. II").

15

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Courts have recognized a narrow exception to the waiver rule when acommunication is made pursuant to a valid IDA. 45 However, it is the proponent's burden to
demonstrate both the existence of a IDA and that the IDA covers communications a party seeks
to-protect. 46 Further, a IDA does not provide a blanket immunity from congressional process.
That burden must be satisfied on a communication-by-communication basis (such as on a
privilege log), and not categorically.47 That is, a party seeking to demonstrate the existence of a
IDAmust do so "by proof, not proclamation," with sufficient information to "show that at a
specific time or times, 'a joint defense or strategy has been decided upon and undertaken by theparties and their respective counsel. "'48
(U) Because it is "in derogation of the search for truth," 49 the joint defense privilege
should be "narrowly construed."50 The mere practice of cooperation or information sharing
between parties does not, on its own, create a IDA. 51 Rather, there must be a "c_oordinated legal
strategy." 52 And, to be ethical, the strategy-·including the sharing -of confidential information
outside of the attomey-_client relationship-should also be known to and authorized by theclient. 53(U) The Committee questioned several witnesses and counsel to identify the nature of
the IDA. No showing to substantiate its existence was made by any proponent of the privilege.
All agreed that there was nothing written to document the IDA or any of its key features, such as
when it began, who was included, and the IDA'.s purpose. Even if the IDA were a verbal
agreement (valid under some case law), that would not excuse the participants from satisfying
their obligation to prove its existence.

45(U) See, e.g., United States v. Weissman, 195 F.3d 96, 99 (2d Cir. 1999).
(U) See ibid.
47(U) See, e.g., Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's v. Nat'! R.R. Passenger Corp., 162 F. Supp. 3d 145, 155 (E.D.N.Y.
2016) (privilege claimant must "establish factual predicate" for withholding doc~ents under common interest
doctrine); Denney v. Jenkens & Gilchrist, 362 F. Supp. 2d 407, 416 (S.D.N.Y. 2004) (privilege claimant "must showthat the particular communication at issue was disclosed in connection with the joint legal defense").
48(U) Jansson v. Stamford Health, Inc., 312 F. Supp. 3d 289,304 (D. Conn. 2018) (internal citation omitted).
49(U) United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 709 (1974).
50(U) Weissman, 195 at 100.
51(U) Minebea Co. v. Papst, 228 F.R.D. 13, 16 (DD.C. 2005). See, e.g., United States v. Krug, 868 F.3d 82, 87 (2dCir. 2017) ("The mere fact that the communications were among co-defendants who had joined in a joint defense
agreement is, without more, insufficient to bring such statements within the attorney-client privilege.").
52_ (U) Minebea, 228 F.R.D. at 16. ·53(U) See, e.g., Ethics Opinion 296,.Joint Representative: Confidentiality ofInformation, Legal Ethics Committee,
District of Columbia Bar, February 2000 (discussing need for attorney to obtain "clear authorization" to share one
client's information with another client, "even when the discussion involves the subject matter of [a] joint
representation," and noting that "[t]he guarantee of confidentiality of communication between client and attorney isa cornerstone oflegal ethics").
46

16

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA 1INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Several witnesses also appeared to be unaware of their participation in the purported
IDA or its purpose. 54 Yet, according to some of their attorneys, the mere fact of a client's
membership in the IDA was also privileged, frustrating even the Committee's basic efforts tounderstand its scope.~ 5(U) The Committee ·gained some clarity when, in response to a subpoena for documents,
Ryan's counsel provided the Committee with a privilege log containing 553 communications bymembers of the purported IDA. The log indicated that the purported IDA covered
communications beginning on or about June 20, 2017, with an email from Alan Garten to
Stephen Ryan, and continuing through at least October 27, 2017, with an email from Alan
Futerfas to Alan Garten, Stephen Ryan and Jay Sekulow. A notably flurry of activity
immediately preceded Cohen's submission of his August written statement, and an additional
burst of communications surrounded his October 25, 2017 testimony. Based on the. names of.
counsel identified in the log, membership in the alleged IDA appeared to include, at least,
Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr.; the Trump Organization, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Paul
Manafort, the Trump Campaign, Keith Schiller, Hope Hicks, Michael Flynn, and Felix Sater. 56
However, the Committee was provided with no competent evidence to.substantiate the IDA's ·existence by Ryan or anyone else.
(U) Due to time and resource considerations, the Committee opted not to further pursue
its inquiry into potentially obstructive conduct under this alleged IDA umbrella. Doing so would
have likely required initiating litigation over subpoena compliance, a process that may not haveresolved in time to be of investigative value.

4. (U) Fifth Amendment and Immunity

54 (U) For example, when Trump Jr. was asked whether he was a member of a IDA, his counsel interjected: ''I think

the discussions about the existence of a joint defense agreement should not be with Mr. Trump Jr. but perhaps
between the lawyers." Trump Jr. then responded: "The reality is I may or may not have. I'm not 100% sure how· -·that's done. You'll have to speak to counsel about it. ... I don't know the details ofit. ... Ifl'm sp'ecifically inthere, I'm not aware of that. ... I'm not sure." Trump Jr. Tr. Il, pp. 129-130. When McFarland was questioned
about her participation in a IDA, her counsel similarly objected as to whether the question could be·asked, andMcFarland ultimately did not respond. SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Kathleen Troia ("K.T.") McFarland;
March 8, 2018, pp. 220--222.
55(U) When Kushner was asked whether he was a member of a IDA, his counsel protested: "He can't answer thatquestion ... [b]ecause the existence of a joint defense agreement is part of a joint defense agreement." Kushner Tr:
II, p. 26. Counsel later asserted, without citing any factually relevant authority, that membership in a IDA isprivileged because disclosure of client's identity could in some other circumstances jeopardize confidential client
communications. Email, Counsel to Committee, April 19, 2019. Specifically, counsel cited In re Grand Jury
Investigation No. 83-2-34, 723 F.2d 447, 451--455 (6th Cir. 1983), which identifies three exceptions to the generalrule, none of which were applicable in this situation.
56(U) Privilege Log, Stephen Ryan, April 24, 2019.

17

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Some witnesses asserted their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incriminationin response to the Commit):ee's document requests, interview requests, or both. 57 In several
cases where individuals asserted that the act of searching for documents const_ituted a testimonial
act that could be self-incriminating-as was the case with Flynn, for example-the Committee
was able to subpoena documents from the individual's company because the Fifth Amendment is
not available to corporations. 58 In other instances, the Committee's direct investigative activity
stalled once a witness asserted his or her privilege against self-incrimination. The Committee
did consider limited grants of immunity to specific witnesses, but ultimately decided against
taking ihat step.

i.

(U) How Congressional Immunity Works(U) The modem immunity statutes, enacted in 1970, provide "use" and "derivative use"
immunity for witnesses-evidence proffered in a criminal prosecution of an immunized witness
cannot be either the direct or indirect result of the congressional testimony. 59 Once Congress, ora congressional Committee, subpoenas a witness, the witness has four options: (1) refuse toappear and risk being held in contempt; (2) appear, but refuse to answer-questions and risk
contempt;. (3) appear and testify; or (4) appear and refuse to answer by asserting his or her Fifth
Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Of course, immunity can compel otherwise
reticent witnesses to supply necessary information. 60(U) If the Committee is aware that the witness plans to assert his or her Fifth
Amendment privilege, the Committee may vote to grant the witness immunity prior to
subpoenaing testimony, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 6002 and 18 U.S.C. § 6005. The request must
be approved by two-thirds of the members of the full Committee. Specifically, the Committee
vote is a vote to grant immunity a:p.d a vote for Senate Legal Counsel to seek immunity orders

57(U) Interestingly, some witnesses testified before the HPSCI or House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, but
declined to testify in front of the Senate based upon assertions ofa privilege against self-incrimination (e.g., George
Papadopoulos and Roger Stone). It is unclear to the Committee whether the parameters for testimony in the House
were markedly different than those suggested by the Committee.
58(U) See, e.g., Braswell v. United States, 487 U.S. 99, 104-113 (1988) (reviewing development of the Fifth
Amendment's "collective entity rule").
59(U) See 18 U.S.C. §§ 6002, 6005. It is important to note that "use" immunity differs from "transactional"
immunity. A grant of transactional immunity protects the witness from any prosecution related to any transaction
the witness discusses. Congress's earlier transactional immunity statutes resulted in witnesses taking "immunity
baths" whereby they would use their Congressional testimony as a confessional to avoid future prosecutions.
Howard R. Sklamberg, "Investigation Versus Prosecution: The Constitutional Limits on Congress's Power to
Immunize Witnesses," 78 N.CL. REV. 153, 158 (1999). /ee also Kastigar v. United States; 406 U.S. 441 (1972)(holding that granting witnesses use immunity, rather than transactional immunity, was constitutional).
60(U) Congress can only hold a witness in contempt when that witness "refuses to answer any question pertinent tothe subject under inquiry." 2 U.S.C. § 194. By asserting a valid Fifth Amendment privilege, the witness avoids a . ·contempt charge.

18

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

from federal district court. As a prerequisite to the court granting immunity, the Committee must
provide notice to the Attorney General ten days in advance of the testimony, which allows the
Attorney General time to "can" any testimony or evidence, thus preserving it for any potential
future prosecution. 61 The Attorney General can waive this notice provision. 62 After the notice
period passes (or is waived), the Committee may then apply for an order of immunity from afederal district judge. The 'court must grant the order if the Committee has met the procedural
requirements for immunity, although DOJ can request an additional 20-day waiting period. 63
After the court approves the immunity order, the witness can no-\onger assert his or her Fifth
Amendment privilege. The court's role in Congressional immunity is purely ministerial; it must
grant the order if the statutory requirements are met.

ii.

(U) The Committee's Considerations and. Interactions with DOJ(U) The Committee attempted to interview Rick Gates, Mike Flynn, and George
Papadopoulos, and to reengage Paul Manafort and Sam Patten. 64 All five individuals asserted
their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in response to subpoenas and/or
voluntary requests for interviews. 65(U) In discussions prior to considering immunity in the fall of 2018, DOJ advised theCommittee that it "could not support" immunity for any of these witnesses. On December 21,
2018, the Committee sent a letter signed by all 15 Me.mbers requesting that the Deputy Attorney
General (who was also the Acting Attorney General for the Special Counsel's investigation
during the tenure of then-Attorney General Sessions) appear before the Committee to discuss the
Department's specific concerns. The Deputy Attorney General refused to appear, but indicatedthat he would send a letter outlining his concerns. On January 24, 2019, the Committee received
a substantive email from DOJ's Office of Legislative Affairs explaining DOJ's objections andagain promising an official letter from the Deputy Attorney General. On March 6, 2019, theCommittee received a letter from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd. The March 6, 2019(U) 18 u.s.c. § 6005.
(U) Ibid
63(U) Ibid
64(U) The Committee had a very limited engagement with Manafort prior to his indictment, and had an initialinterview with Patten which resulted in referring him for a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, for which he eventuallypleaded guilty. Manafort and Patten both refused any further Committee engagement without immunity.
65(U) DC Bar Ethics Opinions 31 and 358 advise that committee counsel may not force a witness who has
expressed his or her intention to assert a privilege against self-incrimination to appear if the sole purpose of thatappearance is "to pillory the witness." Ethics Opinion 358, Subpoenaing Witness When Lawyer for Congressional
Committee Has Been Advised that Witness Will Decline to Answer Any Questions on Claim of Privilege; Legal
Ethics Opinion 31 Revisited, Legal Ethics Committee, ·District of Columbia Bar, February 2000. While othercommittees have found that calling witnesses whose counsel have asserted their privilege against self-incriminationon their behalf can lead to useful testimony, here, the Committee agreed to accept written assertions from witness
counsel.
61

62

· 19

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

letter stated that granting immunity to any of the five individuals "would be harmful to theongoing SCO Russia and Department investigations, and prosecutions, in multiple ways." Theletter relied on case law on congressional grants of immunity and the heavy burden prosecutors
face in Kastigar hearings to prove that evidence is not derived in any way from immunized
testimony. Due to these concerns, the Department "urge[d] the Committee to wait'' to compel .
immunized testimony "until after the active criminal matters are completed," although there wasno date certain, or even estimate, for when that might be. 66(U) On March 14, 2019, the Committee held a business meeting to consider granting
immunity to Manafort, Gates, Flynn, and Patten. The vote failed, and the Committee did notconsider immunity again.

5. (U) Extraterritoriality(U) The Committee sought to interview several witnesses who lived abroad. While theCommittee did successfully conduct voluntary interviews abroad, there were limited options
available to compel witnesses largely residing outside of the United States.

(U) The Committee's subpoena power is a Constitutional power embedded in Congress's
inherent powers to investigate. However, subpoenas directed to non-U.S. persons locatedoutside the United States presented jurisdictional complications as to service and enforcement.
Accordingly, when necessary, the Committee sought to effect service of a subpoena during aforeign individual's u:s. travel, including through the assistance of the U.S. Marshals. 67(U) For individuals who did not travel to the United States, the Committee could haveattempted to obtain a foreign government's assistance through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty(MLAT) or letter rogatory, which enable a foreign court system to use its own compulsory
process to get'a witness to respond to the Committee's questions. These processes may require
coordination with the Department of State, the foreign government, and in the case of a letter
rogatory, a federal court. However, there is precedent for Congressional investigations to use
these tools. 68 Finally, the Committee could have attempted to leverage international treaty

66(U) Letter, Boyd to Burr, March 6, 2019.
(U) For example, the U.S. Marshals successfully served a Committee subpoena on Emin Agalarov, a Russian
citizen, on February 20, 2020, in Newark International Airport as he was heading to New York City. Agalarov
provided both documents and testimony pursuant to the subpoena.
68(U) The House Committee on Assassinations in the 1970s used letters rogatory, and the Iran-Contra SelectCommittee was authorized to use letters rogatory, though never actually did so. However, numerous Mutual Legal
Assistance Treaties are restricted to assistance in criminal cases, which would appear to preclude assistance in a ·congressional investigation.

67

20

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
obligations or ask a friendly government to assist in document production or service of process
as a matter of comity. 69(U) Ultimately, the .Committee did not pursue any compulsory action for witnesses
located outside of the United States. On.several occasions, the Committee was able to persuade
witnesses from overse~s to travel to the United States for an interview, to conduct a proffer
thro1:1gh their attorneys, or tq submit to an interview outside the United States. Despite theseaccommodations, several key witnesses remained outside of the Committee's reach.
6. (U). Committee Access to Electronic Communications Data
(U) On several occasions, the Committee's investigation required access to electronic
communications data, including ·subscriber information and transactional metadata fromelectronic communication.s service providers. These providers are generally ·restricted from.. disclosing such information to a third party under the Stored Communications A<;t (SCA), 18· U.S.C. §§ 2702-2703, unless there is a statutory ex9eption .. for certain government entities, the
SCA provides a companion mechanism to compel the production of information.. However, nocourt has addressed whether the Stored Communications Act restricts Congress's independent
authority to obtain such data as part of a duly autho.rized investigation. And, since the 1986
enactment of the SCA, the Committee was not aware of any congressional committee that had.
pursued the production of such data. 70 Accordingly, the Committee carefully considered whether
the SCA precluded providers from voluntary disclosure of non-content information to Congress.
Then, for those providers tp.at declined voluntary production, the Committee also considered
whether the SCA's procedures for compulsory pro~uction sµpplanted Congress's inherent·.
subpoena authority. 71··(U) The SCA establishes a hierarchy of protections for different categories ofcommunications data depending on the perceived privacy interests. With respect to the contents
of a communication, ~isclosure by a provider is generally prohibited to "any person or entity."72
In contrast, for non-content information, such as basic subscriber data, session logs, or to/fromaddressing information, disc'losure by a provider is only prohibited to "any governmental
entity."73 Specific statutory exceptions apply to each of these prohibitions.

69(U) In 1992, the House October Surprise Task Force secured cooperation from the French and U.K. governments
in its inquiry.
.
70(U) The Committee has become aware that other congressional committees have.since followed suit-in pursuiQgthese requests.
.
_
71(U) The Committee did not request the contents of any communications from providers, and therefore did not
examine the SCA's applicability to such requests.
·
72(U) 18 U.S.C. §§·2702(a)(l}--(2).
73(U) 18 U.S.C. § 2702(a)(3).

21.

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Based on the statutory text, the Committee determined that the SCA did not restrict
voluntary disclosure of non-content infoqnation. "Governmental entity" is defined by the U.S.
Code, Title 18, as "a department or agency of the United States or any State or politicalsubdivision thereof." 74 Indisputably, Congress is not an "agency of the United States.''"Agency" means "any department, independent establishment, commission, administration,authority, board or bureau of.the United States or any corporation in which the United States ,hasa proprietary interest, unless the context shows that such term Wa~ intended to be used in a rriore
limited sense. " 75(U) Nor is Congress a "department." "Department" is-defined as "one of the executive
departments ... , unless the context shows that such term was intended to describe the executive,
legislative, or judicial branches of the government. " 76 The context to make this showing-thestatutory text and related statutes-'must be "fairly powerful,"77 and it is not present here, Had
Congress sought to limit its own access to this information, it could have done so expressly. 78
Thus, the Committee'determined that there is no statutory prohibition againstvoluntary
disclosure by a provider of non-content information in response to a Committee request. This
interpretation was in keeping with the ICommittee's early experience with voluntary productions
ofinformation relating to Russian IRA troll accounts from companies like Facebook and Twitter,
information which is discussed irifra Vol. 2.

(U) Not all providers agreed to cooperate. Accordingly~· the Committee considered
whether the SCA's compulsory production mechanisms supplanted its inherent subpoena power.
As discussed above, the congressional subpoena· authority is an "essential and appropriate"
exercise of Congress's broad investigative power, itself a necessary component to Congress's
constitutional role. Appropriate exercise of the legislative function demands "the power ofinquiry-with process to enforce it."79 Congress does not strip itself of this authority lightly, andthe Committee determined that it did not do so in enacting the SCA.

\.

(U) The SCA provitles a specific path for a "governmental entity" to compel productionof data from providers, ranging from subpoenas, to court orders, to warrants based on probablecause. But, as with voluntary production, the statutory text does not encompass Congress(U) 18 u.s.c. § 2711(4).
(U) 18 u.s.c. § 6.
76(U) Ibid.
.
77(U) Hubbardv. United States, 514 U.S. 695 (1995)(holding that "context" in 18 U.S.C. § 1001, then pro)libiting
a false statement "in any matter within the jurisdiction of any depanment or agency of the United States," did notextend prohibition to legislative or judicial branches) (overruling United States v. Bramblett, 348 U.S. 503, 509.
(1955)).
78(U) See, e_g; 26 U.S.C. § 6103 (proscribing specific mechanisms to govern Congressional access to tax return
information).
79(U) McGrain v. Daugherty, 273 U.S. p5 (1927).
74
75

22

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

because Congress does not qualify as a "governmental entity." Moreover, the legal authorities
outlined by the SCA are ostensibly available only for law enforcement requesters as part of acriminal investigation; although Congress may issue a subpoena, Congress cannot apply for an
order or warrant from a court, as the SCA requires. In this regard, Congress is like a private
litigant which may use a civil subpoena to obtain data from a provider, and the Committee
proceeded under those guidelines.
(U) Based on these considerations, the Committee issued subpoenas to, and received
non-content data from, multiple providers-including social media platforms,
telecommunications companies, and internet service providers-none of which contested theCommittee's authority.

(U) As reflected in the Committee's report, many individuals related to aspects of its
investigation used a variety of electronic communications and phone calls to communicate with
one another. The data the Committee obtained offered insight into both general patterns of
behavior and pivotal moments involving key actors, provided new leads for further investigation,and gave the Committee the ability to corroborate or rebut information it received from othersources. Like any modem-day investigation,. the Committee was faced with a need for directaccess to digital evidence, and it undertook deliberate but measured steps to secure data withsignificant investigative value. However, the Committee chose to limit its use of.this tool anddid not, for instance, seek the personal telephonic toll records of Americans except in very
limited situations in which-other avenues for investigation had been foreclosed.
7. (U) Other Issues: First Amendment and Spousal Privilege(U) The Committee's document requests to Fusion GPS, Dan Jones, and Cody Shearer
were met with assertions of First Amendment privileges, rooted in both freedom of press andfreedom of association theories. While the Committee believed these assertions were overbroad,the Committee was able to obtain the necessary documents and responses it needed to continue
its investigation wiihout further litigating these issues.
. (U) The Committee also encountered potential spousal privilege claims from Bruce Ohr
and Nellie Ohr, both of whom were cooperative in discussing their conversations with eachother, law enforcement, and their respective employers. The Committee appreciates theircooperation with the Committee's investigation.

8. (U) 'Transcript Review(U) Senate Rule XI prohibits any "memorial or other paper presented to the Senate" tobe "withdrawn from its files except by order of the Senate." Standing Rule XXVI lO(a) on
Committee Procedure makes clear that "[a]ll committee hearings, records, data, charts, and files
shall be ... the property of the Senate." Thus, the Committee's transcripts are "Senate papers"
23

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

and prohibited from release without a Resolution passed by the full Senate. The Committee's
practices regarding transcript review had two goals: (1) to maintain an accurate record ofCommittee interviews; and, (2) to provide transparency to witnesses and to law enforcement
about how the transcripts would be shared.
(U) The Committee allowed witnesses, to the extent practicable, to review and edit
transcripts of their interviews at SSCI offices once completed. Witnesses appearing before theCommittee frequently relied on memory rather than documents, so the review allowed witnesses
to correct names or dates they may have misremembered, but did not permit substantive
amendments of the testimony. The Committee allowed witness counsel to be present during thereview, but not to take notes, and only the witness was permitted to edit his or her testimony.

D. (U) Working With and,Around the Executive Branch
1. (U) DOJ, FBI, and SCO(U) Although the Committee sought to be respectful of DOJ, FBI, and SCO investigative
equities, the Committee also had an investigative basis to review pertinent FBI holdings and tointerview the same witnesses or review the same documents. This led the Committee to engage
with DOJ and FBI as to how the Committee would obtain access to relevant information without
impeding law enforcement. During the course of its investigation, the Committee obtained
access to, among other information: the FISA applications for Carter Page; materials related toother confidential human sources; source validation and other documents i:elated to Christopher
Steele; and the case opening documentation for Crossfire Hurricane. However, the Committee's
access was complicated by the relationship between FBI and the SCO. FBI information
allocated to SCO was restricted and unavailable to the FBI writ-large, and hence could not be
conveyed to the Committee until the SCO investigation had concluded.

(U) With respect to certain non-SCO information, the FBI Counterintelligence Divisionagreed to brief the Committee periodically on specific individuals that the Committee identified.
These briefings were classified and conducted on the record in closed Committee spaces. As
reflected in this Report, some briefings provided new and relevant information to the Committee.
However, many of the briefings were not satisfactory due to SCO restrictions on access torelevant information. According to FBI Counterintelligence Division, SCO "equities" prevented
more comprehensive briefings and document production. Moreover, the Committee did not
obtain first-hand access to .the underlying FBI records used in these briefings, but rather had torely on briefers' characterizations of the underlying FBI records.
· (U) This limitation eventually compelled the Com.mittee to pursue direct access to SCO
files. In November 2018, the Chairman and Vice Chairman met with officials from the DOJ andthe SCO, including the Deputy Attorney General, to convey the Committee's need for the
restricted SCO information. The DOJ officials stated that it would consider a written request that
24

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

identified specific information, and the Committee provided such a list-on Dece~ber 7, 2018. 80
The request covered information related to the five witnesses who had asserted the Fifth
Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. DOJ never provided information in response,
despite repeated follow-up requests.
·(U) Instead, the Committee was left waiting until after the completion of the SCO's
written report. On March 29, 2019, following the public release of a letter from Attorney General William Barr discussing the SCO Report, the Committee transmitted a request to the
FBI Director "to be fully briefed, as soon as possible, on the SCO's holdings pertinent to
Russia's interference in the 2016.U.S. election, and on any FBI holdings previously withheld due
to SCO equities," and to be "provide[d] copies of any written results of the SCO's
counterintelligence work, and all supporting documentation underlying those findings, including
any documentation of counterintelligence activities conducted by the FBI supporting the SCO
investigation." 81 On May 9, 2019, the Committee followed up with a letter to the Attorney
General requesting that DOJ provide, or authorize FBI to provide, "all information previously
withheld due to SCO equities, all intelligence information and supporting documentatiqn related
to the SCO's investigation, and any documentation of counterintelligence activities conducted by
the FBI supporting the SCO investigation." 82(Uj Information arrived slowly and incrementally, but not in response to theCommittee's request. On May 29, 2019, the Committee received a less-redacted version ofVolume I of the Report-·which excluded grand jury information but had lifted all otherredactions-for review in Committee spaces. In June 2019, DOJ made available to theCommittee certain SCO investigative materials for in camera review following a subpoena fromthe House. SCO materials, which were produced by DOJ (and later FBI) on a rolling basis overthe following several months until February 2020, included FBI FD-302s documenting witness
interviews; FBI FD-1057s documenting and disseminating analysis of investigative information;
witness communications; and other related documents. Many documents included numerous
redactions, and documents referenced as being in associated attachments to the FBI records (i.e.,
so-called."lA" attachments to FBI files) were often not produced. The Committee was also notadvised of how much information DOJ was intending to provide or when, or how muchinformation was being withheld and why. Notably, at no point did DOJ and FBI agree toprovide information relating to ongoing cases, such as the prosecution related to the IRA or theprosecution related to the GRU hackers. Nonetheless, the Committee endeavored to incorporate
the available information in this Report, where relevant and appropriate. DOJ may continue toprovide information to the Committee after the publication of this Report, or to produce such

80(U) Email, SSCI to Department ofJustice, Office of Legislative Affairs, and SCO, December 7, 2018.
·82(U) Letter, Burr and Warner to Barr, May 9, 2019.
81 (U) Letter, Burr and Warner to Wray, March 29, 2019.

25

information publicly, which cannot be referenced ~ere but will inform the Committee's ongoing
legislative, oversight, and investigative activities.

2. (U) Access to and Use of Classified Materials in the Report(U) The Committee requested and, following negotiations with the ODNI, received
access to a classified space at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Headquarters building
where it was given pertinent, classified materials in the IC's possession not otherwise available
as part of regular Committee oversight. Access to those materials was highly restricted, evenamong investigative staff, and sometimes made available to staff directors only. A formal"Terms of Access" was agreed'to on April 12, 2017, setting forth conditions and procedures foraccess to documents, staff notes, computer access, and preservation of documents. 83 The
Committee also made use of classified materials otherwise available as part of its regular~~~~'Due to the inclusion of classified information in its report, the Committee
worke~e ODNI for classification review. Upon transmittal by the Committee, the ODNI
shared the·volumes first with the ■ a n d - and then disseminated selections for review byother departments or agencies that had classification equities over the information. The review
provided the ODNI and relevant executive branch entities with the opportunity to consider
whether information in the report was properly marked and, if classified, appropriately redacted
for public release.
'

83(U) The Committee's access to this information is also described infra Vol. 4.

26

C_OMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY'III. (U) COUNTERINTELLIGENCE CONCERNS

A. (U) Paul Manafort
1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) Paul Manafort is a former lobbyist and political consultant with ties to numerous
foreign politicians and businessmen, most notably in Russia and Ukraine. In March 2016,
Manafortjoined the Trump Campaign as convention manager. By May 2016, then-Candidate
Trump officially elevated Manafort to be the Campaign's chairman and chief strategist. On
August 19, 2016, following press articles related to his past-work in Ukraine for a pro-Russia
political party h~aded by former Ukrainian President Viktor Y anukovych, Manafort resigned
from the Trump Campaign.
(U) Manafort had direct access to Trump and his Campaign's senior officials, strategies,
and information. During the campaign, Manafort worked closely with his long-time deputy,
Rick Gates, who had similar access to Campaign personnel and information.
(U) While serving on the Trump Campaign, Manafort, often with the assistance of Gates,
engaged with ind~viduals inside Russia and Ukraine on matters pertaining to both his personal
business prospects and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The Committee scrutinized thesecontacts in order to determine whether these activities were connected to Russian interference inthe 2016 U.S. election..

(U) Manafort's connections to Russia and Ukraine began in approximately 2004. At thattime, Manafort and his political consulting firm began work for Oleg Deripaska, a Russianoligarch. Deripaska conducts influence operations, frequently in countries where pe has asignificant economic interest. The Russian government coordinates with and directs Deripaska
on many of his influence operations. From approximately 2004 to 2009, Manafort implemented
these influence operations on behalf ofDeripaska, including on a broad, multi-million dollar
political influence campaign directed at numerous countries of interest to Deripaska and theRussian government.
(U) At about the same time that he hired Manafort, Deripaska introduced Manafort topro-Russia oligarchs in Ukraine, including Rinat Akhmetov. These Ukrainian oligarchs had
deep economic ties to Russia and were aligned with a pro-Russia political party which wasbacked by the Russian government. Over the next decade, these oligarchs paid Manafort tens of
millions of dollars and formed strong ties with Manafort, independent ofDeripaska. Manafort's
work in Ukraine culminated with the 2010 election of Viktor Yanukovych to the presidency,
bringing Manafort into the inner circle of Ukrainian politics until Yanukovych's flight to Russia·
in 2014.
27

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTI~ATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) At the outset of his work for the Ukrainian oligarchs and for Deripaska, Manafort
hired and worked increasingly closely with a Russian national, Konstantin Kilimnik. Kilimnik isa Russian intelligence officer. Kilimnik quickly became an integral part ofManafort's
operations in Ukraine and Russia, serving as Manafort's primary liaison to Deripaska andeventually managing Manafort's office in Kyiv. Kilimnik and Manafort formed a close andlasting relationship that would endure to the 2016 U.S. elections and beyond.
(U) By the time he joined the Trump Campaign, Manafort' s work in Ukraine haddiminished and his relationship with Deripaska had long soured. In late 2015 and early 2016,
however, Manafort remained engaged in business disputes related to both. Manafort believed hewas owed millions of dollars by oligarchs in Ukraine for past political consulting ~ork andsought to collect on this debt. Separately, Deripaska initiated legal proceedings to recover a
multi-million dollar investment in a failed Manafort business venture. These financial disputes
came at a time when Manafort had no meaningful income.
(U) In the midst of these disputes, Manafort used personal contacts to offer his
services-unpaid-to the Trump Campaign as early as January 2016. The Campaign hired
Manafort in mid-March 2016 after conducting no known vetting of him, including of his, financial situation or vulnerability to foreign influence. Prior to the public announcement of
Manafort's new position on the Campaign, Manafort reached out to Kilimnik, with whom
Manafort had remained in contact, to notify him of the development. Once on the Campaign,
Manafort quickly sought to leverage his position to resolve his multi-million dollar foreign
disputes and obtain new work in Ukraine and elsewhere. Once Manafort's hiring was publicly
announced, Manafort used Kilimnik to send private messages to three Ukrainian oligarchs-at
least one of whom Manafort believed owed him money-and to Deripaska.
(U) On numerous occasions over the course of his time on the Trump Campaign,
Manafort sought to secretly share internal Campaign information with Kilimnik. Gates, who
served as Manafort' s deputy on the Campaign, aided Manafort in this effort. Manafort
communicated electronically with Kilimnik and met Kilimnik in person twice while serving on
the Trump Campaign. Manafort briefed Kilimnik on sensitive Campaign polling data and theCampaign's strategy for beating Hiliary Clinton. At Manafort's direction, Gates used an
encrypted messaging application to send additional Campaign polling data to Kilimnik.

Manafort also discussed with Kilimnik a peace plan for eastern
Ukraine that benefited the·Kremlin. At Yanukovych's direction, Kilimnik sought Manafort's
assistance with the plan. Manafort continued to work with Kilimnik on ~ a s tearl 2018. Kilimnik coordinated directly with Yanukovych on the p l a ~28

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee was unable to reliably determine why Manafort shared sensitive
internal polling data or Campaign strategy with Kilimnik. Manafort and Gates both claimed that
it was part of an effort to resolve past business disputes and obtain new work with their past
Russian and Ukrainian clients by showcasing Manafort's success.
(U) The Committee obtained some information suggesting Kilimnik may have beenconnected to the GRU's hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election .

•

•

•

While this information suggests that a channel for coordination on the GRU
hack-a~operation may have existed through Kilimnik, the Committee had limited insight
into Kilimnik' s communications with Manafort and, all of whom used sophisticatedcommunications security practices.
After the election, Manafort continued to coordinate with
Russian persons, particularly Kilimnik and other individuals close to Deripaska, in an effort toundertake activities on their behalf. After Kilimnik arran ed the meetin , Manafort met in Spain
with another to Deri aska aide who was also tied to

29

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Following the election, Manafort worked with Kilimnik on
e information showin that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S.

con~inue to pursue the pro-Russia Ukraine peace plan Kilimnik had first raised with Manafort
during their August
·
·
·
·
·
·
·n
-ring of 2018.
(U) The Committee found that Manafort's presence on the Campaign and proximity to
Trump created opportunities for the Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, andacquire confidential information on, the Trump Campaign. The Committee assesses that
Kilimnik likely served as a channel to Manafort for Russian intelligence services, and that thoseservices likely sought to . _exploit Manafort's access to gain insight info the Campaign. Taken as awhole, Manafort's high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals
closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik, reptese1;1ted agrave cc:mnterintelligence thre~t.
.

2. (U) Limitations on the Committee's Investigation(U) The Committee's investigation into Manafort's activities related to Russia andRussian interference was materially limited in several respects.
''(U) First, the Committee was unable to interview Manafort or Gates about most mattersrelated to its investigation'. 84 While the Cc;,mmittee initially received, through counsel, brief
written answers from Manafort responding to a small number of written questions and limited
document production, the statements included 'inaccuracies and omissions and the document
production was incomplete. The Committee received a limited set of documents from Gates in
2019, but these did not include many communications relevant to the Committee's
investigation. 85(U) Second, the use of careful communications security practices, particularly byManafort, Gates, and Kilimnik, further restricted the Committee's insight. During the 2016

84(U) By prior agreement with the Committee, Manafort provided testimony limited to the June 9, 2016 meeting in
Trump Tower, which is discussed infra Vol. 5, Sec.C.5. Subsequently, both Manafort and Gates asserted'their Fifth
Amendment rights in response to the Committee's inquiries..
·
85(U) Gates provided documents pursuant to a subpoena from the HPSCI. Gates produced these sai;ne documents
to the Committee but refused to produce further documents or submit to an interview with the Committee.

30

campaign,- Kilimnik flew to the United States in order to discuss sensitive topics with Manafort
in person, rather than rely on electronic communications. When they did communicate
electronically, Manafort, Gates, and Kilimnik used a variety of encrypted applications,eliminating a documentary record of many communications that almost certainly would have hadhigh investigative value. 86 Manafort, Gates, and Kilimnik also shared an email account in orderto practice foldering, a technique used to avoid detection when communicating. 87 The three used
coded language in other, less secure communications. 88 After he was indicted, Manafort
purchased a pay-as-you-go phone specifically fqr the purpose of communicating with Kilimnik
and Gates. 89 In 2017, as news media began publishing details from a small number ofManafort' s email communications with Kilimnik, Kilimnik admitted in private communications
to close associate Sam Patten that he was not worried about the publication of his emails with
Manafort because he and Manafort had long practiced communications security dating back totheir work irt Ukraine. 90

86(U) Manafort recalled using Viber, Signal, and WhatsApp with Kilimnik. FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/12/2018. In. addition, Gates recalled using Threema with Manafort and Kilimnik. According to Gates, it was Kilimnik who had
introduced some of these applications, including Viber and Threema, to Manafort and Gates. FBI, FD-302; Gates
1/31/2018. Gates explained that the group often changed which encrypted application they were using when
Kilimnik told them that a particular application had been compromised. FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/27/2018. Manafort
admitted to using WhatsApp, Wickr, Signal, Threema, Skype, Snapchat, Viber, Hushmail, WeChat, and Voxer atsome point in time with various associates. FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/20/2018. Manafort maintained a laptop
computer that he used in Ukraine but did not connect to the internet while overseas.· Gates and Manafort used
multiple email accounts and changed them regularly. Gates and Manafort also used Silent Phone briefly in Ukraine.
FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/31/2018.
87(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/12/2018. Foldering is a technique in which individuals write an email and save theemail as a draft in an email account accessible by both communicants, allowing them to communicate without
sending the email. Mana.fort and Kilimnik appeared to use foldering on a Kilimnik~controlled account while
Manafort served on the Trump Campaign. SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 130. Manafort, Gates, and Kilimnik later set up a
Hushmail account specifically for the purpose offoldering communications. FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/12/2018;
FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/31/2018.
88(U) For example, when one wanted to notify the other that a foldered message was ready to be viewed,.Manafort,
Gates, and Kilimnik would tell the others to check the "tea bag" or ·"the updated travel schedule." FBI, FD-302,
Gates 2/27/2018. The Committee only had access to the communications platfonns the group deemed less secure,and the Committee's access into even these less secure"communications platforms was incomplete.
89(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/12/2018. Manafort had previously used a similar technique with Gates andKilimnik in Ukraine. According to Gates, Manafort required new phone numbers to be issued after DMP was
allegedly hacked. Gates and Manafort referred to certain phones maintained by Gates, Manafort, and Kilimnik as"bat phones." The "bat phones" were normal phones, but had different phone numbers. FBI, FD-302, Gates
1/31/2018.
.
90(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, September 20, 2017 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000039-40). In response to press articles
which revealed communications between Kilimnik and Manafort, Kilimnik _advised Patten that he and Mariafort had
assumed that their "phones, hotel rooms, office, etc." were surveilled during their past work together and that as aresult, Manafort "is kind of used to this life."

31\

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
(U) Lastly, Manafort, who was interviewed by the SCO approximately a dozen times,
lied consistently to the SCO during these interviews about one issue in particular: his interactions
with Kilimnik, the Russian intelligence officerat the center of the Committee's investigation. 91
These lies violated Manafort's plea agreement, which obligated him to be truthful in his
cooperation with the government, and exposed him to a more severe prison sentence than theagreement contemplated. 92 Manafort's obfuscation of the truth surrounding Kilimnik wasparticularly damaging to the Committee's investigation because it effectively foreclosed direct
insight into a series of interactions and communications which represent the single most direct tie
between senior Trump Campaign officials and the Russian intelligence services. Manafort' s true
motive in deciding to face more severe criminal penalties rather than provide complete answers
about his interactions with Kilimnik is unknown, but the result is that many interactions between
Manafort and Kilimnik remain hidden.

3. (U) Background on Manafort's Foreign Activities(U) Starting in the 1970s, Manafort began working as a political consultant and lobbyist
for foreign governments and political parties around the world, business that he continued to
conduct for decades. 93 A review of Department of State cables showed that the nature ofManafort's work with foreign governments and politicians involved efforts to gain electoral
success for local clients, or in some cases, conduct business. 94

91(U) The federal court hearing Manafort's case in the District of Columbia found that Manafort's misleadingstatements about Kilimnik occurred in "multiple instances ... and they all follow a pattern." In particular, the court
found that "[c]oncessions come[] in dribs and drabs, only after it's clear that the Office of Special Counsel alreadyknew the answer." Transcript of Sealed Hearing, United States v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., Case Nq. 17-201-1-ABJ(DD.C. February 13, 2019), p. 29. Of particular note, Manafort misled investigators about m~eting with Kilimnik
in Madrid and Kilimnik's efforts to advance a Ukraine peace plan involving Yanukovych. Beyond these false or
misleading statements, the court found that Manafort engaged in '"multiple clusters of false or misleading or
incomplete or needed-to-be-prodded-by-counsel statements, all of which center around the defendant's relationshipor communications with Mr. Kilimnik." Ibid., p. 40. Additionally, Sam Patten, another key witness in theinvestigation due to his close relationship with Kilimnik, similarly engaged in conduct designed to obfuscate his
relationship with Kilimnik. Patten withheld and deleted documents related to Kilimnik that were relevant to theCommittee's investigation. During the execution of a search warrant on Patten's home, Patten used his wife's phone
to send a text message to Kilimnik and then deleted the message: FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018.
92(U) Plea Agreement of Paul J. Manafort, Jr., United States v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., Case No. 17-201-1-ABJ(D.D.C. September 14, 2018), p. 6.
93(U) As early as 1973 or 1974, Manafort was in Lebanon working t~ get business for a construction company in
Saudi Arabia. See SSCI Transcri t of the Interview with Tom Barrack Ma 31 2018
. 13-14.

Addit1ona ly,
open source information suggests Manafort or is firm conducte s1m1 ar foreign politica consu ting for otherforeign governments, such as in Zaire, Equatorial Guinea, the Philippines, Angola, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia. &eFranklin Foer, "Paul Manafort, American Hustler," The Atlantic, March 20.18.

32

(U) The Committee limited its investigation of Manafort and his associates to areas
related to Russia and Russian-aligned interests. The most significant ofManafort's Russianaligned interests centered on two overlapping areas: (1) Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and (2) ·politicians affiliated with the now-defunct Party of Regions (PoR) and its successor, theOpposition Bloc (OB), in Ukraine. In pursuing these relationships, Manafort conductedinfluence operations that supported and were a part of Russian active measures campaigns,
including those involving political influence and electoral interference. These past activities
resulted in relationships and levers of influence, including multi-million dollar financial disputes,
which persisted throughout Manafort'S time as the head of the Trump Campaign. Furthermore,
Manafort sought to secretly contact both Deripaska and Ukrainian oligarchs affiliated with the
OB in connection with his work on the Trump Campaign. Manafort reached out to both entities
before, during, and after his time on the Trump Campaign to provide inside information andoffer a~sistance to these Russian-aligned interests.

i.

(U) Manafort's Work with Oleg Deripaska(U) Manafort's relationship with Russian government-aligned interests began with his
introduction to Oleg Deripaska in approximately 2004 . Since at least that time, Deripaska has
acted as a proxy for the Russian state and intelligence services. Deripaska has managed andfinanced Kremlin-approved and -directed active measures campaigns, including information
operations and election interference efforts. Deripaska has conducted these activities in an effort
to install pro-Kremlin regimes, control local economies and politicians, and strengthen Kremlinaligned powerbrokers across the globe. 95(U) The Committee has limited insight into the origins of Manafort' s relationship with
Deripaska, but it likely began in 2004. 96•

95(U) For a complete description ofDeripaska's involvement in Russian active measures and ties to the Russian'intelligence services, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.A.8.i.
96(U) Open source information suggests that Manafort's work for Deripaska also involved Georgia as elll"ly as
2004. According to that information, Manafort undertook efforts related to the political reemergence of former
Georgian Minister of State Security Igor Giorgadze. Giorgadze had previously been removed from office after
being accused of organizing an attempted assassination of the then-Georgian president, Eduard Shevardnadze. See
Brett Forrest, "Paul Manafort's Overseas Political Work Had a Notable Patron: a Russian Oligarch," The Wall Street
Journal Au ust 30 2017.
97

33

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

r'

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) Michael Caputo, a former employee of a firm run by Manafort and several others,
including Roger Stone, told the Committee that in 2004, Manafort hired him on a
Deripaska-related project. In particular, Caputo told the Committee that he was retained
to organize U.S. media coverage that would be positive towards Deripaska in response to
Deripaska's failed efforts to obtain a U.S. visa. 98·(U) Manafort recalled that he met Deripaska through his business partner at the time,
Rick Davis. 99 Davis had met Deripaska in 2003 through Nathaniel Rothschild, a British
investment fund manager and scion of the Rothschild .banking,dynasty. 100 According to open
source information, Rothschild and Deripaska have had a relationship since at least 2003. 101
Press reports further suggest that the relationship between the two men helped Deripaska secure
the financing needed to cement his control of UC RUSAL in the eariy- to mid-2000s. 102
a. • (U) Manafort's Influence Operations in Ukraine

At the time he hired Manafort, in aroximatel 2004, Deripaska
These Russian influence efforts
were designed to influence the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election between PoR-candidate
Viktor Yamikovych and independent candidate Viktor Yushchenko in. Yanukovych's favor. 103
On November 21, 2004, after a runoff vote, Ukraine's Central Election Commission announced
Yanukovych as the winner. 104 The election, however, was widely viewed as illegitimate due to98(U) SSC! Transcript of the Interview with Michael Caputo, May 1, 2018, p. 33. Caputo claimed he was engaged
in this effort for only a 10-day period. Caputo recalled his instructions from Manafort related to Deripaska press-efforts: "We need stories. Focus on wires." Caputo further recalled that he "went out there and just, excuse my
French, humped every leg in journalism, and didn't get much results." Ibid, p. 48. The full scope ofManafort's
public relations activities on Deripaska's behalf remains unclear.
-.
·
99(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/20/2018.
'
100(U) Ibid
101(U) "Rothschild to earn millions from RUSAL float," The Telegraph, January 2, 2010.
102(U) United Company (UC) RUSAL is a Russian company that primariiy produces aluminum and related
products. According to other open source reporting, Rothschild and Deripa~ka were central figures in British
political scandals involving Peter Mandelson, a former Member of Parliament who served as European
Commissioner for Trade from 2004 to 2008. In 2008; Mandelson met with Denpaska on his yacht in the
Mediterranean, where they allegedly discus~ed preferential treatments on aluminum tariffs. In January 2005,
Mandelson traveled on private jets from Davos, Switzerland, to Moscow, Russia, and then on to a private Deripaska
retreat i~ Siberia. Rothschild was a participant in these meetings. See, e.g., "The Russiaq oligarch, the Old Etonian
billionaire and deeply disturbing questions about Lord Mandelson's integrity,". Daily Mail, February 11, 2012.
103(U) Prior to the election, Russian government officials had overtly supported Y anukovych and the PoR, andPutin personally visited Yanukovych five days before the election, praising his government. See, e.g., ''Putin, In
Ukraine, Praises Government Days Before Election," RFEIRL, October 26, 2004.
104(U) See Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Office for Democratic Institutions andHuman Rights (ODIHR), "Ukraine Presidential Election 31 October, 21 November and 26 December 2004:
OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report," May 11, 2005.
34

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

widespread fraud. Efforts to interfere in the election were systematic and included: intimidationof election monitors, fraud, ballot stuffing, multiple voting, government pressure on voters,
denial of media access, media control and manipulation, disruptions of public rallies, official
harassment, beatings and arrests of hundreds of students and activists, and a likely attempt on thelife of the front-running opposition candidate. 105·

had significant involve

.

.

.

·

·

Russian electoral interference in Ukraine generated severe blowback, leading toa series of popular protests known as the Orange Revolution, which reversed Yanukovych's
alleged electoral victory. Manafort in a memorandum at the time described the Oran e
Revolution and the defeat of Yanukovych as a "disaster." 110111(U) In the immediate aftermath of the Orange Revolution, Deripaska contacted Manafort
and directed him to begin work to rehabilitate Y anukovych and the PoR. Manafort briefed
Deripaska on how to recover from this defeat and influence Ukrainian politics in a manner
beneficial to both Deripaska and the Kremlin. 112

35

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Under Deripaska's guidance, Manafort outlined for Deripaska and Rothschild astrategy for a political influence campaign in Ukraine. Manafort referred to this influence
campaign as "our program." 113 Manafort described how the program would be a broad system
for influence with distinct political, lobbying, communications, and legal components. 114 The
Ukraine program was, according to Manafort's memorandum, undertaken "pursuant to thedirectives of Mr. Deripaska" and in support of "our mutual friend in Ukraine," 115 almost
certainly a reference to Rinat Akhmetov, to whom Deripaska had previously introduced
Manafort and his firm, Davis Manafort Partners. 116 Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest oligarch, wasthe primary backer of Yanukovych and maintained close ties to Deripaska and other Russian
government and organized crime figures. 117 Akhmetov and other oligarchs in Ukraine beganfunding Manafort's work there, while Deripaska provided Manafort other funding and strategic
guidance as part of a broader influence campaign. 118(U) Manafort's objective was to avoid future events like the Orange Revolution. To dothis, Manafort sought to sway the political direction of Ukraine to benefit the PoR without theheavy-handed tactics that Russia and Deripaska had used in 2004. 119 This involved a strategy to"subtly influence the perceptions" of Western governments and create "an acceptable
explanation for actions by governments not totally in concert with Western thinking." 120
Manafort outlined this goal in a 2005 memorandum to Deripaska and Rothschild:

113
114 (U)
115
116

p. 1

/, i .
Ibid.
SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 132; see also SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Bo Denysyk, June 12, 2018,.
.
.
.

(U) The exact funding structure at this time 1s unc ear, but y 2005, and proceeding thereafter, Manafort mademillions of dollars from Akhmetov, Deripaska, and other oligarchs.
119(U) Memorandum, Manafort and Davis, to Deripaska and Rothschild, June 23, 2005. In December 2004,
Kilimnik had written a separate ~emorandum to Manafort that similarly concluded that Russia's harsh tactics in2004 were not as effective as western tactics at playing the "modern game" of political influence where perceptions
matter more than reality. Kilimnik noted to Manafort in the memorandum that Russia would "lose if they don't
learn how to play this game." See "Russian charged with Trump's ex-campaign chief was key figure in pro-Russia
strategy," Associated Press, July 3, 2018.
120 (U) Ibid.

36

[W]e are confident that we can create the protections needed to ensure theavoidance of Orange Revolutions becoming acceptable in the West. The key is tounderstand the West and to use their tools to deal with the specific problems inways that the West believes is in concert with them. Rather than qttacking theWest, the correct strategy can be created to embrace the West and in so doing
restrict their options to ferment an atmosphere that gives hope to potential
advocates of a different way. 121
Consistent with the detailed plan for influence outlined by Manafort in his
briefing to Deripaska, Russia shifted its focus from direct and overt interference in Ukrainian
olitics toward a more subtle a roach. 122(U) Connections between Manafort's program in Ukraine and Russia's own influence
efforts there suggest that they were effectively part of the same campaign to undermine the
Ukrainian government and support pro-Russia candidates. Both involved Deripaska andsupported the PoR. Documentary information also suggests that Manafort intended to brief the
Kremlin on his activities in Ukraine and understood that his activities benefited the Kremlin. 124
In his memorandum to Deripaska, Manafort stated that "we are now of the belief that this model
can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate
commitments to success." 125 Manafort later explained that Deripaska needed specific talking
points for Putin related to the Ukraine program, which the memorandum provided. 126
b. (U) Manafort's Global Influence Operations For Deripaska

123
124
125

37

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION O~LY

(U) Manafort' s work for Deripaska went beyond Ukraine and extended to matters ofinterest to Deripaska "worldwide." 127 Gates recalled that Manafort and Deripaska used to meet
regularly and had a number of different projects ongoing. 128 This included a political influence
program which Deripaska financed. 129 As part of this program, Manafort worked on influence
efforts in Central Asia, Cyprus, Georgia, Guinea, Montenegro, and elsewhere in Europe. 130
Deripaska financially backed candidates in many of these countries and hired Manafort and his
firm to do the on-the-ground political consulting to support these efforts. 131 Deripaska used an
offshore entity to pay Manafort and his firm tens of millions of dollars for this and other work,
including at least $25 million in 2008 alone. 132. (U) According to Gates, whom Manafort hired to work on the Deripaska-directed
projects starting in approximately 2007, the aim of Manafort's influence work for Deripaska wasto install friendly political officials in countries where Deripaska had business interests. 133
However, Deripaska's work on behalf of the Kremlin included Deripaska's use of his,own
personal wealth for Kremlin-directed projects, blending Deripaska's interests and those of theRussian state. 134 Manafort' s influence work for Deripaska was, in effect, influence work for thp
Russian government and its interests.
·(U) An example of the overlap between Russian-directed influence efforts and thosewhere Deripaska had a personal interest-and employed Manafort to advance both-isMontenegro. Deripaska first became involved in Montenegro in a significant way through' hispurchase of a majority stake in Kombinat Aluminijuma Podgorica (KAP), Montenegro's largest
exporter, which at one point was responsible for approximately half of the country's economic
output. The sale occurred as a result of a 2005 Montenegrin government-con~olled privatization
and required Montenegrin government approval. 135 Deripaska's purchase, however; was not
purely a private business matter and was instead backed by the Russian government.

127(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Adam Waldman, November 3, 2017, p. 102. As noted above,
Manafort also undertook influence efforts in the United States on Deripaska's behalf, including assisting Deripaska
in obtaining a U.S. visa. See FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018. Gates recalled that a Manafort-controlled Cypriot
account, LOAV, contributed money to 501c(4) entity that supported the John McCain presidential campaign. Gates
stated that the money was from Deripaska. FBI, FD-302, ~iates 2/28/2018. Continued Deripaska influence efforts
in Guinea are described infra Vol. 5, Sec III.A.8.i.
'
128(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018.
129. "(U) Ibid. Gates recalled that art of the Deri aska
130(U) See, e. .,; FBI, FD-302, Gates
10/29/2018;
Gates 3/12/2018.
131(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2 2 2018.
132 (U) Ibid.
133(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 131.
134
(U) See also infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.8.i.
135(U) "Russia's Deripaska sues Montenegro for lost aluminum investment," Reuters, December 7, 2016.

38

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•••(U) Deripaska expanded his own influence in Montenegro and furthered Russian
government efforts to exert influence over the country, which Deripaska executed in part byhiring Manafort and his firm .

••(U) Deripaska hired Manafort and his firm to work on the Montenegrin independence
referendum. 140 Manafort's firm sent a team led by Manafort's partner Rick Davis toMontenegro. 141 Manafort and his firm worked with, and became internal consultants to,Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic but billed and reported to Deripaska. 142•(U) Manafort and his team kept Deripaska informed of operational details, andDeripaska provided direction to Manafort and coordinated with him on actions Deripaska
would conduct personally to assist in the influence campaign. For example, one
document prepared by Manafort stated that Deripaska should, as a "follow up" to recent

136
137
138
139
140

/bi .
.
(U) Ibid. Since that time, Deripaska has sought to control the Montenegrin government and influence its policies
toward Kremlin-aligned objectives. Most recently, this took the form of directly supporting a GRU-run coup attemptin the country in 2016, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.8.i.
141 (U)
142

39

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

activities undertaken by Manafort and his firm on the ground in Montenegro, "organize
negotiations with key opposition leaders." 143(U) These operations may have been directly related to the Russian intelligence services.

c. (U) Konstantin Kilimnik(U) Starting in likely late 2004, Konstantin Kilimnik began to work for Manafort in
Ukraine and elsewhere on Deripaska-related projects. 146 Kilimnik attended the Russian
military's language institute and served in the Russian military until at least 1995. From 1995 to2005, Kilimnik was an employee at the International Republican Insti,tute (IRI), serving in IRI's
Moscow office. 147 Kilimnik began working alongside Manafort in Ukraine secretly while still an
employee of IRI in Moscow. 148 Once this was discovered, IRI fired Kilimnik, and Kilimnik
became a formal employee ofManafort's firm. 149(U) Open source information also suggests that, in 2004, Kilimnik began working in
Ukraine for Deripaska in support of Yanukovych' s election. 150 According to that report,
Kilimnik traveled to Ukraine while he was still working at IRI. 151 Allegations that Kilimnik was

Lavrov was and remains the Russian Foreign Minister. Both men have been longtime members of Putin's inner
circle.
145
146(U) 11mm 1s a Russian mte 1gence o cer. See irifra Vo. 5, Sec. III.A.8.u.
(U) IRl Semi-Annual Report (IRI Production) ("Konstantin Kilimnik continues to serve in his role as acting
director of the Moscow office").
148(U) Email, Sibley to Nix, September 7, 2018 (IRI Production).
149(U) Ibid.
150(U) Maria Zholobova and Roman Badanin, "The Absolute Soviet Man. A Portrait of Konstantin Kilimnik,
Russian patriot and Paul Manafort's buddy," Proekt, August 22, 2018.
151(U) Ibid.
147

40

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

in Ukraine around the time of the elections are supported by IRl records, which suggest Kilimnik
was present in the country for approximately seven days during the first round of voting. 152-....,.,"'lo-.
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While the exact start of Kilimnik's relationship with Manafort and Deripaska is unknown, IRlfired Kilimnik for moonlighting for Manafort' s firm shortly after this travel. 153(U) Kilimnik began working for Manafort no later than early 2005, and likely as early aslate 2004. 154 Over time, Kilimnik became increasingly integral to Manafort's operation andhelped steer Manafort through the details and political environment in Ukraine. 155 Manafort
worked long hours with Kilimnik and often ate meals together. 156 Gates described Manafort andKilimnik as having a "close relationship." 157 Manafort sometimes went to Kilimnik' s house fordinner and knew Kilimnik' s family. 158

IRI-002668 (a travel agency booking for Kil imnik's travel from Moscow to Kyiv, booked October 21 , 2004)(pictured); see also IRI-002667 (an lRl travel form listing Kilirnnik's travel to Kyiv from October 27, 2004 toovember 3, 2004, which includes the first round of voting the in Ukrainian presidential election on October 31,2004); IRI-002675. Records suggest Kilimnik provided a variety of reasons to IRI for this travel, including
consultations with [RI officials and serving as an election observer. See IRI-002667; IRI-002675.
153 (U) Email, Sibley to Nix, September 7, 2018 (IRl Production).
154 (U) See "Russian charged with Trump's ex-campaign chief was key figure in pro-Russia strategy," AssociatedPress, July 3, 2018.
155 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Sam Patten, January 5, 2018, pp. 19-20.
156 (U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.
157 (U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/30/2018.
158 (U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/ 13/2018.
152 (U)

41

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Kilimnik has long maintained close ties to Deripaska and his inner circle. 159 Since atleast 2005, Kilimnik worked on Deripaska-related projects with Manafort in Ukraine,
Montenegro, and elsewhere. 160 A July 2006 memorandum from Manafort to Deripaska proposedthat Manafort's firm create an office in Moscow to be managed by Kilimnik. According to theplan, the Moscow office run by Kilimnik could transfer its public relations functions to a division
within one ofDeripaska's companies managed by Georgy Oganov, a top Deripaska aide. 161

d. (U) Pericles(U) Manafort's work with Deripaska also included a joint business venture known as
Pericles Emerging Market Partners L.P., a private equity fund designed to be focused on foreign
investment in eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine, Russia, and Montenegro. 163 Deripaska was
the sole investor in this fund through a ~ompany Deripaska controlled, B-Invest. 164 Manafort
formed the fund with Rick Davis, his then-business partner.

159(U) Gates believed Kilimnik may have had a direct line to Deripaska. See FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018.
Kilimnik retained this close relationship for years after Manafort's initial work with Deripaska ceased. According toPatten, Kilimnik has met with Deripaska and Deripaska associates, including Boyarkin. Patten understood that
Kilimnik was in continuous contact with Deripaska and his inner circle. FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018.
160(U) See, e.g., Work Proposal, "Keeping Guinea on Course" (SP_OSC_000990) (describing Kilimnik as having"managed successful political operations for Ukraine's ruling party, prime minister and president from 2005-2014,"
and having worked as a "senior member of campaign team for successful referendum for independence inMontenegro in 2006 and several other parliamentary and presidential campaigns."); FBI, FD-302, Manafort
9/13/2018.

42

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Gates recalled that Kilimnik assisted him on matters related to Deripaska, including
serving as Manafort's point of contact with Deripaska's side of the deal for Pericles. 165 Gates
recalled traveling to Russia with Kilimnik to meet with Deripaska's representatives there in
relation to B-Invest. 166 However, Gates stated that Manafort at one point did not want to tell
Kilimnik about Pericles because he was worried that Kilimnik would share information about
Deripaska's fund with other oligarchs. 167

Prior to the formation of Pericles, Deripaska introduced Manafort to Kypros
Chrysostomides, a Cyprus-based businessman known as "Dr. K" who specialized in theformation of offshore business entities. 168 Chrysostomides and his companies assisted Manafort
and Deripaska in setting up loans to disguise income in Cypriot businesses and avoid Cypriot
taxes; these efforts included Pericles. 169 Chrysostomides also helped Manafort set up bankaccounts and shell compan,ies 170 which formed the basis of Pericles. Manafort ultimately
controlled the accounts in Cyprus. 171

165(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/29/2018. Later, after the filing ofa winding up petition in which Kilimnik was named
as a participant in Pericles, Kilimnik claimed that when Pericles started in 2007, Kilimnik was working for Manafort
and living in Moscow and that he had "zero involvement in this thing, did not even manage translation of
documents." Email, Kilimnik to Patten, August 17, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000426-428).
166(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018. Kilimnik later privately disputed his involvement in Pericles. Email,Kilimnik to Patten, August 17, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000426--428).
167(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018.
168
FBI FD-302 Manafort 9/13/2018.
169
170(U) I id. C sostomi es used his company, Dr. K. Chrysostomides & Co LLC (DKCC) to create at least threeshell companies on behalf ofManafort, Gates, and Deripaska-Lucile Consultants Limited, Bletilla Ventures
Limited, and Yiakora Ventures Limited-all registered to 1 Lampousas Street, 1095 Nicosia, Cyprus. This wasdone to facilitate the transfer of money through the Cypriot accounts to Russia, Ukraine, and the United States.
171(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/12/2018.

43

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE-;- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) According to Gates, by 2009 Manafort's business with Deripaska had "dried up." 174Over the course of their business dealings, Manafort and his firm had made tens of millions ofdollars from Deripaska and Deripaska had loaned him millions of dollars more. 175 The disputethat arose from the Pericles investment lasted through Manafort'sjoining the Trump Campaign
in 2016.
ii. (U) Manafort's Work in Ukraine for the Party of Regions (PoR)

Manafort's work in Ukraine initiall occurred under the strate ic direction of, __,, However, Manafort's relationships with PoR figures, mostnotably Rinat Akhmetov, Serhiy Lyovochkin, and Viktor Yanukovych, increased over time andbecame independent ofDeripaska's involvement. The PoR maintained strong connections to
Russia,. received Russian assistance, and pursued a pro-Russia agenda. As a result, Manafort's
work became intertwined with other aspects of Russian influen~e. 177(U) In his support of the PoR, Manafort's activity in Ukraine furthered Russian influence
efforts in the run-up to the 2006 Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian legislature) elections. After
receiving support from Manafort and the Russian government, the PoR gained a significant
number of seats in the 2006 elections.

172. . . . .According to an FBI interview of Gates Alexander and Dmit
S e ~ e r e affiliated with Rinat Akhmetov.

Chera were the owners of Black(U) For example, by 2008 all ofManafort's income came from either Deripaska- or PoR-related work,suggesting his level of involvement in Ukraine had grown significantly. FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/20/2018.

44

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) Manafort and his firm led the Rada election effort for the PoR-Moscow' s preferredparty-and coordinated all aspects of the PoR's policy platform, party organization,
polling, and messaging. 178•(U) Manafort's work with the PoR continued following the 2006 Rada elections,culminating in the 2010 election of Y anukovych as president of Ukraine and the elevation ofthe
PoR as the majority party in government. According to Patten, by this time Manafort had
acquired a "mythic status" in Ukraine, and Manafort' s operations there expanded to include"large crews of expatriates, 10 or 15 Americans" in the country with teams "all over the place"
who were "flying around with a 747 with an advance team and things like that." 181 Manafort
also organized U.S.-based firms, particularly Mercury Public Affairs and the·Podesta Group, toconduct lobbying and public relations on behalf of the PoR and the Yanukovych regime. 182 To
manage these contracts and publicly distance them from the PoR, Manafort helped organize theirwork through a Belgium-based organization known: as the European Centre for a Modern
Ukraine (ECFMU). 183 The ECFMU was secretly backed and funded by the Yanukovych regime
and the PoR and reported to Manafort and Andriy,Klyuyev, then a senior Ukrainian government
official close to Yanukovych. 184(U) Kilimnik became a central part ofManafort's work in Ukraine. Kilimnik was placedin a managerial role within Manafort' s firm, eventually becoming head of the Ukraine office andhaving "power of attorney" as the office director. 185 Department of State personnel in the U.S.
Embassy in Kyiv who interacted directly with Manafort and PoR leaders viewed Kilimnik as"Manafort's man in Bankova" (Bankova is a reference to Bankova Street in Kyiv where the
Ukrainian Presidential Administration is housed) and understood that Kilimnik maintained

178; Kenzi Abou-Sabe, et al., "What Did Ex-Trump Aide Paul Manafort Really Do in
27 2017; Memorandum from Manafort and Davis to Deripaska, April 27, 2006.

179
180 (U)181

J i .

(U) Patten Tr., pp. 27, 67.
182(U) See FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/10/2018; Statement of the Offense and Other Acts, United States v. Paul J
Manafort, Jr., Case No. 17-201-1-ABJ (D.D.C. September 14, 2018).
·
183(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/10/2018.
184(U) Ibid. According to Gates, both Vin Weber of Mercury Public Affairs and Tony Podesta of the Podesta
Group were aware that the ECFMU was backed by Klyuyev. Gates also recalled that one of the ECFMU's key
officers Inna Kirsh was aid each month direct! b Kl u ev to fund the ECFMU.
185

45

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

access to the inner-most circles of Ukrainian politics. 186 According to Gates, Kilimnik had"unfettered" access to Yanukovych and Yanukovych' s office. 187 Gates recalled that Kilimnik
joined Manafort in most meetings with the oligarchs, and could not recall an instance where
Manafort conducted a meeting with oligarchs without Kilimnik presen~. 188
.

I

..

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) andreports from 2012 detail widespread vote-buying, misuse of administrative
resources, and the use of bribes or threats to press candidates not to stand for election. 191 Seniorleaders of the PoR, who paid Manafort and with whom Manafort maintained close personal
relationships, were reliant on corruption and organized crime. For example, Yuriy Boyko andDmytro Firtash two Ion -time allies and funders of the PoR who maintained close relationships
with Manafort(U) Manafort, Gates, Kilimnik, and others at Manafort's firm coordinated and managed
polling work, media and advertising, the hiring of consultants, preparation of talking points, andspeechwriting for Yanukovych and the PoR. The work also extended beyond elections.
Documents show that Manafort worked for Yanukovych and the PoR at times unrelated toelection campaigns and formed a continuous relationship with the PoR and Yanukovych. 193 This

18~
Email, Shultz to Tefft, et al., April 30, 2013 (CDP-2017-0001 lG-001383). At approximately thes ~ m n i k conducted side projects with Deripaska's deputy Boyarkin. For inst!lllce, in May 2011,
Kilimnik was seeking to meet with Boyarkin and emailed Boyarkin a doc~ment in Russian entitled "Regarding
Central Asia and International Projects." This document suggested a plan of action to protect and expand RUSAL's
business interests outside ofRussia. In particular, the document outlined a plan to minimize the risk of potential
political in foreign countries where RUSAL operated, including through a more effective use of a network of"friends" in Russia and abroad. Additionally, in June 2011, Boyarkin, Kilimnik, and several others were involved increating a website, www.russianintelligencer.com. The website included a newsletter, which included emerging
trends and leading indicators in political and economic matters related to Russia. As of Au ust 2011, Kilimnik wasproviding suggestions on the site.
187(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/29/2018.
188(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/31/2018.
189
See "Ukraine election 'reversed democrac ', OSCE says," BBC, October 29, 2012.

Firtash is separately under federal indictment in the Northern
District o I mms re ate to an a ege mternationa racketeering conspiracy. See Indictment, United States v.
Dmitry Firtash, et al., Case No. 13CR515 (N.D. Ill. Jun. 20, 2013).
.
193(U) See, e.g., Government's Response in Opposition to Defendant's Second Supplemental Motion.in Limine,
United States v. Paul Manafort, Criµi. No. 1:18-cr-83-TSE (E.D. Va., July 30, 2018).

46

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
included work related to foreign lobbying, public relations, and political consulting moregenerally. 194 Eventually, Manafort made more than $60 million from these activities in supportof Y anukovych and the PoR. 195·(U) The PoR did not have its own budget or centralized committee to pay for the work of
Manafort's and his firm, DMP, in Ukraine. 196 Instead the PoR engaged a series of oligarchs who
were tasked with paying for various portions of the PoR's political campaign work. 197 Over thecourse ofManafort's work in Ukraine, approximately 30 to 50 oligarchs chipped-in for the PoRrelated work. 198 Gates referred to these oligarchs as DMP's "paymasters." 199 Primarily,
however, Manafort and his firm were funded by Lyovochkin and Akhmetov. 200 Lyovochkinlikely provided funding to DMP on behalf of other oligarchs, particularly Firtash. 201
Akhmetov's account with Manafort and DMP was handled by Akhmetov's deputy,
Kolesnikov, 202 and Kilimnik was the primary conduit for arranging payments to DMP.203 In
particular, Gates recalled that Kilimnik would tell Gates to create invoices for certain amounts at
certain times and address them to certain corporate entities located offshore.204 When asked if
there was a quid pro quo agreement in which the oligarchs agreed to fund DMP's contracts in
exchange for something once the PoR-supported candidate was elected, Gates stated that he. never saw that firsthand, but he suspected that was the case.205
4. (U) Manafort's Activities from 2014 until Joining the Trump Campaign(U) Issues related to Manafort's historical involvement with Deripaska and the PoR
continued through Manafort's entry into the Trump Campaign in 2016. These connections
generally focused on business disputes and efforts to collect debts.

194(U) Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
196 (U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/29/2018.
197(U) Ibid.
19 8 (U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/31/2018.
199 (U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/29/2018.
200(U) Ibid.
201(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/31/2018.
202(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/29/2018.
203(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/31/2018.
204 (U) Ibid. Gates recalled that "pretty much all" of the Cyprus entities were used for PoR work. FBI, FD-302,
Gates 1/29/2018. These entities were often organized by which oligarchs were funding payments to the Cypriot
accounts. For example, Bletilla Ventures Limited in Cyprus was affiliated with payments related to Lyovochkin.
FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/31/2018. Over time, Manafort put Kilimnik in control of the majority ofManafort-related
accounts in Cyprus. FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/30/2018. Gates did not know why Kilimnik was in charge .of theseaccounts, but understood that Manafort wanted it that way. Ibid. These accounts included Global Highway Limited
and Lucicle Consultants Limited.
·
205(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/31/2018;
195

47

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYi.

(U) Former-PoR Associates in Ukraine(U) After Y anuk:ovych fled Ukraine for Russia in 2014, the PoR effectively dissolved.
Manafort, however, maintained close connections to the former PoR officials who remained in
Ukraine. The remnants of the PoR consolidated into a new political party, the Opposition Bloc
(OB). The OB was made up of a variety of pro-Russia politicians and former-PoR figures,causing it to be viewed as a rebranded version of the PoR.206 Lyovochkin, Yanuk:ovych's former
chief of staff, helped lead the consolidation of the OB with the backing of Akhmetov,Yanukovych's longtime sponsor.207·(U) Manafort, along with Gates and Kilimnik, worked to support the newly formed OB.
According to Patten, while Manafort was very expensive, Akhmetov viewed Manafort as a"lucky charm," and thus continued to pay him for consulting work. 208 Manafort remained themain political advisor to the OB, but Manafort's involvement was not at the same level as its ·previous peak under Yanukovych, likely due to the OB's own reduced political standing. 209
According to Gates, DMP's work for the PoR in 2014 was primarily related to a "micro-targeting
campaign."210 Manafort's continued involvement in Ukraine was noted by other observers at thetime. For example, an American IRI employee who attended a meeting with OB representatives
at the time noted that the OB representatives "did an EXCELLENT job pushing all the rightbuttons." The observer further noted:
Well, no wonder they performed well - Paul Manafort is their consultant, residual
consultant.from Yanukovych days. He was in our hotel with former /RI employee
Konstantin Klimenko {sic} and is on my flight today[] You would have thought
Manafort et al would have realized what a bullet they dodged when Yanukovych
left but I guess the contracts are too lucrative. 211(U) Kilimnik remained deeply involved in Manafort's efforts to assist the OB. Kilimnik
ostensibly ran the Kyiv office ofManafort's firm, DMP. However, Kilimnik appeared to havesignificant access within the OB independent ofManafort. 212 Kilimnik's ultimate source offunding and authority during this time also remains unclear. Patten, whom Kilimnik recruited to

206(U) For example, the American IRI employee observed that the OB was in fact a "Party of Regions (PoR) re. do." Email, Garrett to Green and Van Rest, October 29, 2014 (IRI Production).
207(U) Email, Purcell to Toko and Leclair, September 15, 2014 (CDP-2017-000llG-001489-1490).
208(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/30/2018.
.
209(U) Patten Tr., p. 27.
210(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/31/2018.
211
Email Garrett to Green and Van Rest October 29, 2014 IRI Production .
212

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come to Ukraine in 2014 to assist the OB and who reported to Kilimnik, recalled that although
Kilimnik worked from an office in Manafort's firm in Ky"iv, it was unclear to Patten whether
Lyovochkin or Manafort was paying Kilimnik. 213 Patten recalled one occasion during his firstmeeting with Manafort in Kyiv where Manafort had spoken highly of Kilimnik and called
Kilimnik a "powerful little dude." 214(U) While the scale ofManafort's work in Ukraine began to decline, Manafort
nonetheless stayed involved in Ukraine matters in thelead-up to his March 2016 entry into the
Trump Campaign. For example, a November 19, 2015 email from an associate of Gates relayedthat Manafort and Gates were actively involved in the "Mariupol race on 11/29," a likely
reference to a second round of elections in Mariupol on November 29, 2015. 215 The same email
also relayed Oates's perspective on the latest political developments on this race and Ukrainian·politics more generally, suggesting an active engagement.216 Travel records suggest_Manafort

213
Patten stated that he was hired by, paid by, and reported to Lyovochkin throughKi 1mn or 1s 20 wor m U aine. FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/30/2018. Patten further noted that Lyovochkin had
previously managed Manafort's account for Yanukovych. FBI, FD-302, Patten 9/6/2018. Kilimnik and Lyovochkinappear to have sought to exert influence over a diverse array of Ukrainian politicians behind the scenes. According
to Gates, Lyovochkin had a "cadre of candidates" whom he was running in various elections in Ukraine, andKilimnik was assisting him in this effort. FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/29/2018. Patten's Ukraine work with Kilimnik in
support ofLyovochkin is consistent with Gates's characterization. In early 2015, Vitali Klitschko, a former
opposition leader during the Maydan protests, hired Patten to assist in his Kyiv mayoral campaign. Kilimnik
arranged the meeting where Klitschko hired Patten. Lyovochkin, who was ostensibly.not a part ofKlitschko's
campaign or political party, paid Patten from an offshore account Lyovochkin controlled. Patten recalled one· 2015
meeting with Klitschko and Kilimnik in which Klitschko kicked Kilimnik out of the meeting and told Patten that
Patten worked for him (Klitschko) and not Lyovochkin. Klitschko told Patten that he kicked Kilimnik out because
Kilimnik was too close to Lyovochkin. Patten, who worked in support ofKlitschko for approximately a year, waspaid $800,000---solely by Lyovochkin. FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/30/2018. After 2015, Patten continued to work in'support ofKlitschko, and Kilimnik again began to support the effort directly. Kilimnik would later tell Patten that
Lyovochkin "will be making all decisions" for Klitschko as it related to which olitical consultants to hire. Text
messa e Kilimnik to Patten Au t 2 201

toeluding thosewhich have involved Kilimnik, Patten, and Manafort-usin(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/30/2018.
215(U) Email, Mermoud to Be~sh and Afendikov, November 19, 2015 (ORP3000009).
216(U) Ibid.
214

49 ·
)

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY'was present in Ukraine from September to late October 2015.217 During this trip,
communications reflect that Kilimnik was spending time with Manafort in Kyiv.218(U) During this time, Manafort believed the OB and its backers owed him money.
According to Manafort, at one point in 2014, the OB owed Manafort about $4 million. At theend of2014 and into 2015, the OB paid Manafort between $1 million and $2 million. 219
According to Gates, the Ukrainian oligarchs, particularly Akhmetov and Lyovochkin, continued
to owe Manafort approximately $2.4 million. 220 According to Patten, Manafort remained
involved in Ukraine because he was "trying to get paid."221(U) By 2016, Gates understood that Kilimnik was no longer receiving a paycheck from
DMP.222 Instead, Gates believed Kilimnik was being paid directly by Lyovochkin. 223 However,according to Gates, Kilimnik remained engaged with the OB in an effort to keep the party·
together as a viable opposition party and to obtain payment for Manafort's firm. 224 Gates
believed Kilimnik was still doing some work for the OB on behalf of DMP. 225

ii.

(U) Deripaska and Pericles Lawsuit(U) As noted above, Pericles's failure after the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009 led
to a souring of relations between Manafort and Deripaska. According to Gates, Manafort was· upset th_at Deripaska had not followed through on his originally promised investment of $200
million, while Deripaska was mad because he felt the asset was not well-managed. 226 Gates also
speculated that Deripaska was mad because he was not kept abreast of everything that happened
with the investment. 227 Manafort said he would call Deripaska, but Gates did not know if

s owmg a eparture froni N ewar L1 erty Airport on Septem er 20, 2015,
wit an amval at Boryspil Intematlona Airport in Ukraine the next day, and a return to the United States on October27, 2015).
218(U) See, e.g., Email, Kilimnik to Patten, September 24, 2015 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-001166).
219(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018; FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/29/2018.
220(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/29/2018. Patten stated that his understanding was that Akhmetov was "the last
Ukrainian businessperson who paid Manafort." Patten Tr., p. 75.
221(U) Patten Tr., p. 43; FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018.
222(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018.
223(U) Ibid.
224(U) Ibid.
225(U) Ibid. In 2016, Kilimnik worked primarily with Patten, who was not affiliated with DMP, on matters for both
Lyovochkin and other OB-affiliated politicians, including Klitschko.. Kilimnik used a DMP email address and listed
DMP as his employer on U.S. visa applications as late as December 2016. CDP-2017-00011-000087-89.
226(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018.
227(U) Ibid.

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Manafort ever did. 228 According to Kilimnik, at some point Manafort claimed to have reached
out to Deripaska in relation to the Pericles dispute. 229 Kilimnik told Patten years later that
"Manafort says he tried to make contact with him, but because he did not do it through me I haveno idea how he tried to get in touch. Maybe sent emails, which Oleg never reads."230 Gates had
heard that Manafort and Deripaska had sporadic meetings between 2009 and 2014, possibly,
about things unrelated to the investment deal, although Gates was not aware of their substance.231
Gates believed that between approxim~tely 2014 and 2016, Manafort asked Kilimnik tocommunicate with Deripaska, who contacted Deripaska's "chief of security," Viktor Boyarkin,presumably about Pericles. 232(U) In December 2014, Deripaska's attorney filed a winding up petition in the Grand
Court of the Cayman Islands in an effort to liquidate what remained of Pericles.233 It is unclear
why such a long period of time elapsed between the end of the Pericles deal in approximately
2008 and the lawsuit filed in 2014. 234 Gates later believed that the lawsuit was a public relations
stunt to help Deripaska obtain a visa. 235 The Cayman Islands court petition named Gates,
Manafort, Kilimnik, and several others as key individuals involved in Pericles and claimed that
Manafort and Gates had "simply disappeared." 236(U) After the start of the proceeding in the Cayman Islands, Adam Waldman,
Deripaska's U.S.-based lawyer, told the Committee that in approximately March 2015,
Deripaska asked him to "look into" the Pericles matter. 237 Waldman recalled that he sought tolocate Manafort, which "took some doing.',23 8 Waldman left Manafort voicemails in an attempt

228(U) Ibid.
(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, August 17, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000426-428).
230(U) Ibid.
231(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/30/2018.
232(U) FBI, FD-302,'Gates 2/2/2018; FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018;
233(U) Winding Up Petition, I,:z the Matter ofSection 36(3) of the Exempted Limited Partnership Law, 2014 and In
the Matter ofPericles Emerging Market Partners, L.P., Cause No. FSD 0131 of2014 (Grand Court of the Cayman
Islands December 9, 2014).
234(U) Gates in particular claimed he did not know why Deripaska waited so long to file suit. FBI, FD-302, Gates
1/30/2018.
235(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018.
236(U) Winding Up Petition, In the Matter ofSection 36(3) of the Exempted Limited Partnership Law, 2014 and In
the Matter ofPericles Emerging Market Partners, L.P., Cause No. FSD 0131 of2014 (Grand Court of the Cayman
Islands December 9, 2014).
237(U) Waldman Tr., pp. 85-86.
238(U) Ibid., p. 85.
229

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
to get in touch with him. 239 Email records from May 2015 suggest that Waldman was continuing
efforts to locate Manafort.240(U) Waldman ultimately received a response from Manafort, who directed Waldman toGates to discuss Pericles. According to Waldman, Waldman met with Gates, whom Waldman
described as "very nervous," at Waldman's Washington D.C. home. 241 Waldman recalled that
Gates told a "fairly complicated story about an approximately $26 million investment" from
Deripaska.242 According to Waldman, Gates described years earlier looking at numerous target
companies and ultimately landing on, "with Mr. Deripaska's team's assistance," Black Sea
Cable. 243 According to Waldman:[T]he story became very difficult to follow, because it wasn't entirely clear that
he'd actually invested in the Ukrainian cable company. It seemed that he'dinvested in something somebody owned relating to the cable company, some sortofrights relating to the cable company. This became extremely convoluted . ...
One o/the things that I learned was that the investment was $26 million, but thefees associated with the investment seemed to be about-seemed to be about $8
million. 244(U) In August 2015, an application was initiated in the Eastern District of Virginia
relating to the winding up petition in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, which sought tosubpoena testimony and documents from Manafort and Gates. 245 Patten understood that a"month or two" before Manafortjoined the Campaign, "Deripaska's lawyers were looking for
Manafort ... and they couldn't find him." Patten's general understanding was that at the time
"both sides were pissed at each other."246(U) Ultimately,·Gates was deposed in November 2015 and Manafort was deposed in.December 2015 in relation to the Pericles proceedings, while a dispute over access to, and use of,(U) Wa man.Tr., pp. 88, 90.
(U) Ibid., p. 90.
243(U) Ibid., pp. 85, 90.
244(U) Ibid., pp. 90-91..
245(U) In Re: Application Of Kris Beighton And Alex Lawson, In Their Capacities As Joint Official Liquidators Of
Pericles Emerging Market Partners, L.P., A Cayman Islands Limited Partnership, For Assistance Pursuant to 28
U.S.C. § 1782, Case No. 1:15mc20 (E.D. Va. August 12, 2015).
246(U) Patten Tr., p. 101.
242

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documents was not resolved until mid-February 2016-in the midst ofManafort's private
lobbying to obtain a position on the Trump Campaign. 247
5. (U) Manafort's Activities While Serving on the Trump Campaigni.

(U) Manafort's Entry into the Trump Campaign(U) At least as early as January 2016, Manafort was actively seeking a position on the
Trump Campaign. Manafort explained to Gates-who was still working for Manafort' s firm,
despite a lack of clients-that working for the Trump Campaign would be "good for business"
and a·potential way for Manafort's firm to be paid for work done in Ukraine for which they were
owed.248 Manafort used contacts with Roger Stone and Tom Barrack, both of whom were
longtime associates of Trump, to lobby for a position on the Trump Campaign.

(U) On January 30, 2016, during a meeting with Barrack, Manafort requested Barrack's
help in obtaining a position on the Trump Campaign.249 Prior to the January outreach, Barrack
had not heard from Manafort for an extended period.250 Barrack agreed to help Manafort
approach Trump in an effort to obtain a position for Manafort on the Trump Campaign.251. (U) By February 25, 2016, Barrack had spoken to Trump twice about the possibility of
Manafort joining the Campaign.252 According to Barrack, Trump initially was not interested in
the idea of hiring Manafort because Trump closely associated Manafort with Roger Stone, whom
Barrack described as having a "love-hate" relationship with Trump. 253 Despite this, Manafort
requested that Barrack continue to lobby Trump on his behalf. 254 Manafort sent Barrack a set ofnotes and talking points outlining Manafort' s qualifications and his commentary on the state of
the presidential campaign.255 Gates assisted Manafort in preparing these papers.256 In
Manafort's email transmitting one such set of talking points to Barrack, Manafort highlighted

247(U) Complaint, SurfHorizon Limitedv. Paul J Manafort, Jr., et. al., No. 650130/2018 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Co. May
17, 2018).
.
248(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018.
249(U) Email, Manafort to Barrack, January 30, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000004). Manafort had first reached out toBarrack earlier in January and expressed interest in reconnecting in person. When the two did meet, Barrack
recalled that Manafort had two specific requests; one of which was Barrack's help related to joining the Trump
Campaign. Emails, Mariafort and Barrack, January 17, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_000000l-3); Barrack Tr., p. 30.
250(U) Barrack Tr., p. 26. According to Barrack, the relationship between the two had been strained after Manafort
had delayed full repayment of a loan from Barrack.
251(U) Email, Manafort to Barrack, January 30, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000004).
252(U) Email, Barrack to Manafort, February 25, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000006).
253(U) Emails, Manafort and Barrack, February 25, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000007); Barrack Tr., p. 26.
254(U) Email, Manafort to Barrack, February 25, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_00000IO).
255·(U) Ibid. (CLNS_SSCI_00000I0-12) (with attachment).
256(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018.

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
that the role he envisioned for himself would be "convention manager, non paid."257 Barrack
later recalled that the issue of payment was important because "Trump wasn't interested inpaying anybody for those.positions."258 Barrack recalled that Manafort's offering to work forfree "were the magic words."259(U) On February 29, 2016, Manafort sent another set of talking points to Barrack for histransmission to Trump. 260 In addition to outlining his own qualifications, this document
described Manafort's belief that the Republican "establishment" had begun to organize an effort
to disrupt Trump's nomination and provided a set of recommendations to Trump~ 261 Later thatday, Barrack sent an email to Trump's assistant, Rhona Graff, but addressed the message to"Donald."262 The email described how the convention would be "critical" and that Manafort was"the most experienced and lethal of managers ... Paul handled all of the conventions and is a
killer, he would do this in an unpaid capacity .... I've attached a couple of Paul's thought pieces
for your consideration - PLEASE PLEASE take the time to read the attachments."263 Barrack
attached to the email both ofManafort's previous memoranda to him, totaling five pages.264
Barrack sent the same email and attachments to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, stating "I
think it is really, really important and Manafort is a genius killer but the opposite of Stone."265
Ivanka Trump responded that she would "print and show the attached and below to DJT
following Super Tuesday:"266 Corey Lewandow~ki, then the campaign manager, recalled thatr
257(U) Email; Manafort to Barrack, February 25, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_Q0000lO). In his email transmitting the.
talking point document, Manafort also highlighted his foreign political work and his knowledge of"modem
campaign technology": "I have spent the last 20 years running campaigns outside of the US. So, I am up to date on
modem campaign technology and the key players with expertise." The Committee has no further information about
this claim. At about the same time that Manafort and Gates joined the Trump Campaign, however, Gates reached
out to a political consultant with ties to Israel seeking Israeli social media influence technology. See infra Vol. 5,
Sec.III.I.
258(U) Barrack Tr., p. 32.
259(U) Ibid
260(U) Email, Manafort to Barrack, February 29, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000014--17) (with two attachments).
261(U) Ibid.
262(U) Email, Barrack to Graff and Marckstadt (blind copy), February 29, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000043) (with two
attachments).
263 (U) Ibid.
264(U) The 2-page document included: "I can channel my strategic skills, tactical abilities and knowledge ofmodem political campaign tools into the demands of this specific convention job but also will be available, if
desired, to apply these skills in helping to shape a national campaign working for the team that Trump has"- organized."
265(U) Email, Barrack to I. Trump and Kushner, February 29, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000055--60 (with two
attachments).
266(U) Email, I. Trump to Barrack and Kushner, February 29, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000085).

54

Ivanka Trump ultimately did share the email with her father along with a handwritten note at thebottom wh.ich read: "Daddy, Tom says we should get Paul."267(U) Following Super Tuesday, Barrack continued to email lvanka Trump and Jared
Kushner to press them to consider hiring Manafort. 268 Barrack forwarded these emails to
Manafort, saying "FYI. I am trying." 269 Barrack also told Manafort that he would talk to Trump"one on one" on March 11, 2016, and "lean hard."270 Later, on March 11, Manafort emailed
Barrack and inquired if Barrack was still getting "pushback'' from Trump. 271 Barrack responded
that he was continuing to get pushback. 272 Manafort then asked Barrack if he should "be patientor start moving on," noting that he had "kept my calendar open."273 Barrack responded that hewas continuing to "push subtly. " 274(U) Throughout this time, Manafort and Barrack both communicated with Stone. Stone
shared with Barrack his belief that Trump "needs Manafort" and lobbied Barrack to help
Manafort obtain a position on the Campaign.275 Stone wrote in an email to Barrack:

You are the only one who can do this. Donald sees you as a peer - the rest of us
are just vassals. he has )10 research or plan. his handlers reinforce his worst
instincts. ... I think lvanka and Jared and Don,Jr [sicJ and Eric have had theirfill of Corey. We will know Tues if we are headed to a brokered convention- if so
he needs Manafort or he will get robbed. 216(U) According to Barrack, Stone was also in touch with Trump directly to recommendthat Trump hire Manafort.277 Phone records support this claim, showing that from March 1,
2016, to March 16, 2016, Stone made or received calls from Trump-associated numbers at least

267(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Corey Lewandowski, October 18, 2017, pp. 72, 78. Hope Hicks had asimilar recollection of the memos being provided to Trump: "Tom had sent a bunch of emails, I think to Ivanka
Trump and to Rhona Graff.... I think there were some attachments from Paul outlining a strategy he might be able
to help execute on getting the delegates.for the convention." SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Hope Hicks,
October 16, 2017, p. 108.
268
, ,(U) Email, Barrack to I. Trump and Kushner, March 5, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000106).
269(U) Email, Barrack to Manafort, March 6, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000l 17).
270(U) Email, Barrack to Manafort, March 6, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000118). ·271(U) Email, Manafortto Barrack, March 11, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000134).
272(U) Email, Barrack to Manafort, March 11, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000134).
273(U) Email, Manafort to Barrack, March 11, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000137).
274(U) Email, Barrack to Manafort, March 11, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000138).
275(U} Email, Stone to Barrack,March 5, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000105); Barrack Tr., p. 33.
276(U) Email, Stone to Barrack, March 12, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000141).
277(U) Barrack Tr., p. 44. In a March 5, 2016 email, Stone told Barrack that he was working to. help Trump withcampaign strategy and that he and Trump "speak frequently." Email, Stone to Barrack, March 5, 2016
(CLNS_SSCI_0000105).

55

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYten times. 278 Records for that same date range also indicate that Stone either called or received
calls from Manafort's primary cell phone number eleven times. 279(U) By the evening of March 16, 2016, Trump appears to have hired Manafort. 280 In an
email to Barrack with "You are the Best!!" in the subject line, Manafort told Barrack that "[w]eare going to have so much fun, and change the world in the process."281(U) Manafort's hiring was not made public until March 29, 2016, when the Campaign
issued a press release. However, senior Trump Campaign officials became aware of the decisionprior to the public announcement, although .they were not aware with specificity as to its timing.
For example, Hope Hicks, a close aide to Trump on the Campaign, recalled attending a dinner at
Mar-a-Lago with Trump and Manafort on March 24. At the dinner, which had been scheduled
earlier in the week, Hicks understood that the decision to hire Manafort had already been.
made. 282

ii.

(U) Kilimnik's Awareness of Manafort's Hiring Before the Public
Announcement(U) Manafort likely made Kilimnik aware of the possibility the he would join the Trump
Campaign prior to its public announcement, judging by Kilimnik' s contemporaneouscommunications at that time.
(U) Patten believed Manafort may have provided Kilimnik advance notice of his joining
the Trump Campaign.283 In particular, Patten told the Committee that he and Kilimnik had
discussed the possibility ofManafortjoining the Trump Campaign before it became public.284

278(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures. These calls account for a total of78 minutes of call time.
(U) Ibid. These calls account for a total of 77 minutes of call time.
280(U) Email, Manafort to Barrack, March 16, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000153). On the evening of March 16, 2016,
the day that Manafort was most likely hired, a series of calls suggest that Stone, Manafort, and numbers associatedwith Trump were in communication at approximately the same time. At 4:42 PM, a number associated with the
Trump Organization contacted Stone and conducted an eight-minute call. Immediately after that call, Stone dialed
Manafort, who did not answer. Minutes later, Manafort returned Stone's call. Manafort and Stone spoke for 10 .
minutes. AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
281(U) Email, Manafort to Barrack, March 16, 2016 (CLNS_SSCI_0000153).
282(U) Hicks Tr., p. 108.
283(U) Patten Tr., p. 70.
284(U) Patten Tr., p. 69. In a press article authored by Patten in 2019, Patten claimed that in "late 2015,". Lyovochkin asked Patten "whether it was true that Trump was going to hire Manafort to run his campaign."
According to his article, Patten told Lyovochkin ''thafwas an absurd notion." Sam Patteri, "Kostya and Me: How
Sam Patten Got Ensnared in Mueller's Probe," Wired, .August 14, 2019. Given Lyovochkin's close relationshipwith Kilimnik, it is plausible that Lyovochkin's inquiry reflected Kilimnik's own awareness ofManafort's intention
to join the Trump Campaign. If Patten's public comment is accurate~ the timing of this question from Lyovochkin
279

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Patten recalled that he believed the idea that Trump would hire Manafort was "sort ofridiculous," while Kilimnik believed it was in fact likely. 285 Immediately after the publicannouncement, Kilimnik emailed the Campaign's press release announcing Manafort's hiring toPatten in order to show Patten that Patten was wrong. 286 Patten further told the Committee that
he knew Kilimnik and Manafort "were in contact" in the period prior to the announcement,
although he was not aware any specific communication relaying this information to Kilimnik. 287

would suggest Manafort and Kilimnik may have discussed the Trump Campaign significantly prior to Manafort's
eventual formal hiring.
285(U) Ibid.
286(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, March 30, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000834); Patten Tr., pp. 69-70.
287
Ibid.
28
See infra Vol. 5, Sec. 111.A.8.i for information about
Boyar m's connections to the GRU.
289
(U) Ibid. For a complete discussion of this information, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.A.5.iv. On March 10, 2016,
the GRU be ans e hishin email accounts of individuals associated with Hillary Clinton. SCO Report, Vol. I, p.
For a discussion of the GRU hack-and-leak operation, see

57

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Kilimnik's other two trips to the United States in 2016 (described below) appear to
be designed with the express purpose of meeting with Manafort. Nevertheless, the Committee
has no insight into Kilimnik's time in the United States in March 2016, nor does it haveinformation to suggest that the two met during the March trip.

iii.

(U) Manafort Announces His Position on the Trump Campaign; Extends
Private Offers to Russian and Ukrainian Oligarchs(U) The day after the public announcement that Manafort joined the Trump Campaign
on March 29, 2016, Gates sent Kilimnik an email with five attachments and instructions
regarding those attachments.294 Four of the attachments were personal memoranda from
Manafort and individually addressed to four recipients. 295 Gates drafted the four personal
memoranda, while Manafort reviewed and approved them. 296 Three of the intended recipients"SL" (Serhiy Lyovochkin), "RA" (Rinat Akhmetov), and "BVK" (Boris Kolesnikov)-wereUkrainian oligarchs affiliated with the OB. 297•

Serhiy Lyovochkin, a. longtime PoR and OB member, .iscommon y viewe as one o the party's more sophisticated and capable officials.
Lyovochkin co-owns Ukraine's most popular television company along with U.S.indicted oligarch and former Manafort business partner Dmytro Firtash. Lyovochkin was
a key financer for Manafort's workin Ukraine during Lyovochkip.'s time serving as thehead of Yanukovych's presidential administration, and later as a leader of the OB.
Lyovochkin is a close associate of Kilimnik, and Kilimnik has maintained frequent andclose access to him for years. In addition to Kilimnik L ovochkin has maintained othersi nificant ties to Russia and Russian-backed actors.

The Committee did not seek tointerview
294(U) Email, Gates to Kilimnik, March 30, 2016.
295(U) Email, Gates to Kilimnik, March 30, 2016.
296(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018.
297
Email, Gates to Kilimnik March 30, 2016.
298
299

58

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•

Rinat Akhmetov, described above, has generally maintained pragmatic
relationships with Ukrainian, Russian, and Western governments and had long been a
primary financier of Manafort's work in Ukraine. As Ukraine's richest oligarch,
Akhmetov was one of the PoR' s-and later the OB' s-most crucial backers. He has also
maintained si nificant ties to Russia and Russian-backed actors.

'-' As noted above, Manafort had worked for Akhmetov for over a decade,and at the time of this outreach, Manafort believed Akhmetov owed him over two million
dollars. 301•· Boris Kolesnikov, a pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarch from Donetsk, has been
~ o R and OB member-at one oint its co-leader-and is Rinat Akhmetov's
ht-hand man.

Manafort had a long history ofworking with Kolesnikov and had previously assisted him as early as 2005 on behalf of
Akhmetov and Deripaska related to Kolesnikov's arrest on extortion charges. 304
According to emails from U.S. Embassy Kyiv, Kilimnik acted as an in interlocutor andrepresentative to the Embassy for Kolesnikov and attempted to set up meeting for
Kolesnikov with U.S. ambassadors in Russia and Ukraine in 2014 and 2015. 305
0__ ,(U) The fourth memo, which unlike the other three used only the word "north" toidentify the document, was addressed to "OVD," a reference to Oleg Deripaska. 306

30

Email Purce to Pyatt, September 15, 2014 (CDP-2017-0001 lG-000809 ("I got an e-mail today from
Sas a's o contact Konstantin Kilimnik proposing that you [Pyatt] meet with Kolesnikov."); Email, Purcell to
Donahue and Kent, August 13, 2015 (CDP-2017-000llG-001347-1348) ("KK also made one request as a favor toKolesnikov. Kolesnikov would like to meet with Amb. Pyatt and/or his 'good friend' Amb. Tefft sometime when heis in Moscow (which seems to be fairly often).")306(U) "North" is used by Kilimnik and others to refer to Russia. See, e.g., Email, Kilimnik to Marson, August 18,
2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000414-416) ("people up north").

59

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Gates also sent the press release announcing Manafort'sjoining the Trump
Campaign so it could be translated by Kilimnik, and provided as an attachment to each of thefour memoranda. 307(U) These memoranda were short personal notes from Manafort highlighting his newly
announced position with the Trump Campaign. In the memoranda to Kolesnikov, Akhmetov,and Lyovochkin, Manafort also wrote that he was interested in Ukrainian politics and implied hemight be interested in assisting them:

I am watching intently at the prospects of a new Ukraine government potentially ·forming in the coming days. We should revisit this topic and think about how tobest position the OB as the next majority party in parliament. As you have seenfrom the US election, anything is possible with the will of the people. I lookforward to speaking with you soon. 308(U) The fourth memorandum, addressed to Deripaska, omitted the Ukraine language andinstead included the suggestion that Manafort could brief Deripaska on the Trump Campaign. "I
am hopeful that we are able to talk about this development with Trump where I can brief you in
more detail. I look forward to speaking with you soon."309 Gates believ~d that the purpose of
the correspondence with Deripaska was to confirm that Deripaska had dropped his lawsuit
related to Pericles. 310 Gates believed that the letter did not need to mention the lawsuit because
Manafort discussed the idea of getting Deripaska to drop the lawsuit with Kilimnik verbally. 311
According to Gates, Manafort never told him anything specific as to what Manafort was offering
Deripaska. 312 Gates thought that Deripaska wanted a U.S. visa and having Manafort in a position
inside the Trump Campaign might be helpful to Deripaska.313 Manafort's position could help
Deripaska develop relationships with Trump, which could have been helpful to Deripaska inother ways as well. 314(U) The Committee has no record of whether Kilimnik delivered these memoranda totheir intended recipients. Given Kilimnik's close access to the intended recipients and other

"DT

307

(U) The press release attachment included in the Gates email to Kilimnik sent at 6:57 a.m. was titled
PJM
press release .docx." Kilimnik forwarded a document titled, "DT PJM press release .docx," to Patten later that sameday. SSCI 2017-4885-3-000834.
.
308(U) Memorandum from Manafort to Kolesnikov, March 30, 2016; Memorandum from Manafort to Akhmetov,
March 30 2016· Memorandum from Manafortto L ovochkin March 30 2016.
309
310
311

(U) Ibid.

312(U) Ibid.
313(U) Ibid.
314(U) Ibid.

60

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
records showing that Kilimnik did in fact pass other information on subsequently, it seems likelythat Kilimnik would have delivered the memoranda as requested by Gates.315

iv.
(U) On the evening of April I0, 2016, Manafort emailed Kilimnik. In the email,Manafort inquired if Kilimnik had shown "our friends" media coverage related to Manafort. 316
Given the context, " our friends" is almost certainly a reference to the oligarchs affiliated with the
OB with whom Manafort and Kilimnik had longstanding ties. Kilimnik responded, "Absolutely.
Every article." 317 The next morning, Manafort asked Kilimnik how his role with the Trump
Campaign could be leveraged to collect the money owed to him by the OB, and whether
Deripaska had seen recent press articles relating to Manafort: 318>4/ 11/ 16, 10:20 AM> I, :t I. II ' J ,t :

1,

11 .1

1,

1" 11 , ,, ,• •1 b"Paul Manafort" <pmanafort~mpint. cono>

»How do we use t o get whole.
>>>>Has ovd operation seen?

(U) Kilimnik quickly responded in a lengthy email to Manafort.319 Kilimnik first told
Manafort that he had been "sending everything to Victor [Boyarkin], who has been forwarding
the coverage directly to OVD." 320(U) Kilimnik also wrote that he had " more hopes for OVD than for idiotic Ukrainians,
who seem to be completely falling apart." Kilimnik then provided a highly detailed insider' s
account of the current Ukrainian political scene and laid out potential scenarios for upcoming
developments in Ukrainian politics. Kilimnik alluded to Ukrainian political outcomes that hehad " outlined" in his " previous emails," suggesting that Manafort had already been engaging(U) Emat, Manafort to Kilimnik, April 10, 2016 (DJTFP000I0544).
317(U) Email, Kilimnik to Manafort, April 11 , 2016 (DJTFP000I0544).
Email, Manafort to Kilimnik, April 11, 2016 (DJTFP00010544).
3 19 (U) Email, Kilimnik to Manafort, April 11 , 2016 (DJTFP000 l 0543).
318 (U)
320(U) Ibid.

61

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

with Kilimnik on Ukrainian political issues in a substantive manner prior to this April 11, 2016
email.321 The Committee was not able to obtain these earlier communications. 322

The timing of thisis not known with precision, but occurred in close proximity to
Manafort reaching out to Kilimnik, either immediately prior to or after Manafort's April 11
email. 328

321(U) Ibid.
(U) The Committee only received the April 11, 2016, email described here because Manafort forwarded theemail in its entirety to Gates on Gates's Trump Campaign email account. The original exchange between Manafort
and Kilimnik used the email accounts pmanafort@dmpint.com and kkilimnik@dmpint.com. It is unclear why
Kilimnik was still using the @dmpint.com account, which he used for other business, including communications
with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and with his business partner at the time, Sam Patten. The Committee
issued a subpoena to the entity DMP International, LLC, but service through a registered agent did not yield any
response from DMP International. Manafort's retained counsel claimed to not be engaged for the DMP
International matter and would not engage with the Committee on its requests related to that matter. Efforts toengage Manafort directly while incarcerated also failed to elicit any substantive response. The Committee sought togain further insight into the DMP International email account by issuing a subpoena to Rackspace Inc., a hosting
company that at one point hosted the "dmpint.com" domain. By the time the Committee issued its subpoena to
Rackspace, however, Rackspace had already ceased hosting the domain and had no longer retained any data. The
Committee did not seek civil enforcement of its sub oena to DMP International.
322

323
324

I •

325

(U) Ibid.
326(U) Ibid.
3

y 10:20 a.m. Mo.
,
ilimnik, April
11, 2016 (DJTFP00010544). Kilimnik had confirmed to Manafort that he had "been sending everything to Victor,
who has been forwarding the coverage directly to OVD" by 10:40 a.m. Moscow time the same day. Email,
Ki
329

62

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

63

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

to the United. ilimnik. booked a. flight itinerary.
.
Airport to Washington Dulles International Airport.

64

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYOn April 21, 2016, at 2:42 a.m., Deripaska passed throughU.S. c u ~ L i b e r t y International Airport after arriving on a private flight. 350

34

In a series of emails to an associate on April 22,, Kt tmm sat
at Mana ort ts very smart and i Trump listens to his advice, Trump will become president.
Kilimnik also suggested that Manafort would become the National Security Advisor if Trump won the election andthat because Manafort knows Ukraine better than an one else such an outcome would not be so bad for Ukraine.
Additional aspects of this email chain areiscusse elow.
347(U) Ibid.
348 (U) Ibid.
349(U) Kilimnik would later make reference to the possibility that Manafort could have emailed Deripaska directly,
but suggested that Deripaska "never reads" his emails. Email, Kilimnik to Patten, August 17, 2016 (SSCI 20174885-3-000426-428 .
350
An April 25, 2016, Instagram
post y an account a 1 iate w1 Denpas a picture what appears to be Denpaska at United Nations (UN)Headquarters in New York and states in a caption that the Paris Climate Agreement w ~Friday at UN
Head uarters in New York. Deripaska traveled using his Russian diplomatic passport, _ _ I b i d . ; Deripaska has retained a number of individuals to assist him in obtaining visas tot e Unite States, w ich he has long struggled to routinely obtain. For more information on some of these
individuals, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. IV.B.

65

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYOn April 24, 2016, Deripaska departed the U.S. on a
International Ai ort. 353 Other t h a n _the Committee has no
information about whether Deripaska met or communicated with Manafort while he wasin New York. 354

v.

(U) Manafort and Kilimnik Meet in New York City; Discuss Ukraine,
Trump Campaign Strategy; Sharing oflnternal Trump Campaign
Polling Data with Kilimnik Begins

t ee other trips to the Umted States in 2016 prior to the election. According tcalllll
Deripaska arrived in Washington, D.C., on February 24, 2016, and departed
Unite States from San Francisco on February 27, 2016. Deripaska also arrived in Newark on May 29, 2016, anddeparted the.United States from San Francisco on June 2, 2016. Last! Deri aska arrived in Newark on Se tember
23, 2016, and de arted from Teterboro on Se tember 29, 2016.

re-

66

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee did not obtain the content of any direct communications between
Manafort and Kilimnik from April 11, 2016 to May 6, 2016. However, other communications
suggest that Manafort and Kilimnik may have discussed the U.S. elections and Manafort's
strategy to defeat Clinton in this time period. On April 22, 2016, Kilimnik told an associate that
Manafort had a "clever plan" for beating Clinton and expressed confidence that with Manafort' s
help, Trump would win. 358 After the associate expressed concern over Manafort and Trump,
Kilimnik told the associate in a subsequent email that Manafort is a very good strategist and that
there could be surprises, even in American politics.359 Kilimnik added that Manafort believes inTrump and claims that Trump will definitely win. Kilimnik reiterated to the associate that
Manafort said tqat they have a "clever plan.of screwing Clinton." 360·(U) By May 5; 2016, Manafort was aware that Kilimnik was "coming to DC thisweekend for a wedding." 361 On May 5, 2016,.Manafort informed Gates of this development andtold Gates that Kilimnik "wanted to meet up." 362 Manafort asked Gates to discuss Kilimnik's
visit the following day. 363

Kilimnik used the word "xmp1,1ii,"

e SCO as ed Gates w y K1 1mn1 referre toManafort's "clever pan" to efeat C inton mt 1s emai t \!a . Although Gates was not a participant on thesecommunications, Gates stated that he believed this referred to Manafort's strategy to attack Clinton's credibility.
The SCO asked Gates what was clever about such a plan, and Gates agreed that it was not clever and he did notknow why Kilimnik characterized it as clever. FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/12/2018. It is unclear on what basis Gates
held this belief, or whether Gates was confusing this reference with a subsequent plan to focus on Clinton's
negatives that Manafort shared with Kilimnik at an August 2; 2016 meeting that Gates also partially attended. See
infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.5.vii.a.
·361 (U) Email, Manafort to Gates, May 5, 2016 (DJTFP00021339). It is unclear how Manafort came to understand
Kilimnik was coming to the United States for a wedding and "wanted to meet up." Manafort's reference toKilimnik attending a wedding also remains unexplained. Given the other information developed about Kilimnik's
activities, the most plausible time Kilimnik could have attended a wedding was during the day on May 6, 2016,
when Kilimnik's whereabouts were not fully known. Patten, who was in contact with Kilimnik during his trip andmet with him while he was in the United States, was unaware of any wedding. FBI, FD-302; Patten 11/27/2018.
Given Manafort and Kilimnik's persistent use ofcoded language, nicknames, and other allusions, it is possible that"wedding" _could have some other meaning. It is also possible that Ma,nafort was incorrect about Kilimnik's plans,or that Kilimnik manufactiired an innocuous reason for his trip to Washington, D.C., when relaying his travel plans
to Manafort.
362 (U) Email, Manafort to Gates, May 5, 2016 (DJTFP00021339).
363 (U) Ibid.

67

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Kilimnik arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport on May
5, 2016, and passed through U.S. customs that evening.364 As Kilimnik arrived, Kilimnik andPatten exchanged phone calls and text messages. 365 Patten offered Kilimnik dinner that evening
at his home. Patten told the Committee that he recalled meeting with Kilimnik on his trip
"separately about our business," but that he did not see much of Kilimnik, who was busy withother matters. 366 Patten understood that the main purpose of Kilimnik' S trip was to meet with
Manafort. 367 .
··1· (U) On the evening of May 6, 2016, Kilimnik's communications suggest he met for "offthe record" drinks with Department of State employees. 368 Kilimnik was frustrated by thismeeting, stating that he met "Finer or whatever the fuck is his. name. In total space."369(U) That same everiing, Kilimnik worked with Gates and Manafort to arrange logistics .
for an in-person meeting between Manafort and Kilimnik. 37 From 9:25 p.m. to 9:40 p.m., Gates
and Kilimnik exchanged phone calls on Kilimnik's U.S. and Ukrainian phone numbers,
ultimately speaking for 12 minutes. 371 At 9:49 p.m., Gates and Manafort exchanged emails. about the meeting with Kilimnik, stating that the meeting would take place at 7:30 a.m. the nextmorning and that Kilimnik would take the train to New York from Washington, D.C. 372 At
10:03 p.tn., Kilimnik and Gates again spoke on the phone. 373 Gates then worked with a travel
agent to arrange Kilimnik's train tickets to New York, sending Kilimnik train tickets shortly
thereafter. 374 Gates and Kilimnik conducted a number of subsequent phone calls, including at°

364

Kilimnik passed throughon staymg at the Hyatt Regency hotel in
Patten recalled that Kilimnik stayedater elieved it might have been this trip.

cu
Washington, D.
with him for one(UJ Patten Tr., p. 80.
(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 11/27/2018.
.
.
368(U) Email, Kilimnik t o - May 6, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000686).
369(U) Ibid. At the time, J~an Finer was Chief cif Staff to then-Secretary of State John Kerry. Patten said heunderstood "[i]n total space" to mean "in outer space" and.therefore not well informed on issues involving Ukraine.
Patten Tr., p. 79; FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018.
.
.
370(U) The Committee does not have complete insight into the content of these communications, and it is possi_blethat other matters were discussed.
367

68

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

10:25 p.m. for approximately eight minutes, 10:40 p.m. for approximately three minutes, and11 :27 p.m. for approximately two minutes. 375(U) On May 6, 2016, Kilimnik used his kkilimnik@dmpint.com email address to write adraft email to himself related to his meeting the next day with Manafort. 376 The Committee did
not'obtain the contents of the email.
(U) On the morning of May 7, from approximately 3:00 a.m. to 7:00·a.m;, Kilimnik
traveled by train to New York to 'meet with Manaforl. 377 At approximately 7:30 a.m., Kilimnik
met with Manafort alone in New York at the Peninsula Hotel. 378(U) According to Manafort, Kilimnik discussed Ukrainian politics, and in particular, aplan by Boyko to increase election participation in the OB's stronghold in the eastern zone of
Ukraine. 379 Kilimnik had worked to gather information on Ukraine prior to.the meeting with
Manafort. As part of this effort, Kilimnik had spoken to Boyko after Boyko had traveled to
Moscow and likely met with high-ranking Russian government officials.38 Kilimnik also spokewith Lyovochkin prior to his trip to the United Stat_es. 381

°

375
376

Manafort and Kilimnik engaged in a technique called "foldering," by which
Mana ort an Kt imn would save drafts in an email account and read them without sending them, although it isunclear if this d ~ r p o s e . Later, Manafort read a draft written by Kilimnik and saved in thissame a c c o u n t . . - - - - Patten also engaged in foldering with Kilimnik. FBI, FD-302, Patten
5/22/2018.
,
Late on e evening of May 6, 2019, Kilimn' em.ailed Patten, writing that he.
was in "negotiations wt Manafort to get me a 6 am private flight and then 1-2 pm do Dulles." Email, Kilimnik to
Patten, May 6, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000686). The following morning at 6:02 a.m., Kilimnik emailed Patten
and stated that he was ·"leaving DC for NY" and that he would be "[h]aving breakfast with Manafort at Peninsula
hotel, then taking train bacl< to DC:" Email, Kilimnik to Patten, May 7, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000686). Patten
was under the impression that Kilimnik may have traveled using private air travel arranged by Manafort, potentiallyon the Trump-owed plane. FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018. Despite Patten's impressions, Kilimnik traveled via
train. Metadata associated with Kilimnik's hone indicates travel via a train route over a roximatel four hours
from 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.

K1limm 's an Manafort's phones were oth located in close proximity to
t e Peninsu a hote as of7:30 a.~: P one metadata associated with Gates's_phone reveals he was located in
Richmond, Virginia at the time of the meeting.
,
379(U) Ibid. Gates described Boyko as a pro-Russian former-PoR official who pretended to be pro-European.
Gates stated that Boyko had been an emissary between Yanukovych and Putin. FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018.
380(U) Ibid.; SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 138.
381(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018. Kilimnik appears to have been in close and continuous contact with
Lyovochkin for years, including during this time period.

69

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION .ONLY

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In addition to Ukrainian politics, Manafort and Kilimnik also discussed the Trump
Campaign, likely including details ofManafort's vision of Trump's path to victory and themargins by which he might win. 382 Manafort expected Kilimnik to pass this information back toindividuals in Ukraine and elsewhere. 383 Kilimnik later·shared with Patt~n what he had learned
about Manafort' s "campaign strategy" at the ·meeting, including a discussion of whether Trump"[has] a shot; if he has a shot, why." 384·- A t 10:59 a.m., after. the meeting with Manafort; KHimnik sent Patten
an e m a ~ s t got on the train" and that he would be arriving at Washington'sUnion Station at 2:25 p.m. 385 At 5:09 p.m., Gates asked Kilimnik to call hirri ifhe had not yet
departed on his flight. At 5:26 p.m., Gates and Kilimnik conducted a 13-minute phone call. 386
Kilimnik departed the United States on a flight scheduled to depart at 6:50 p.m. from
Washington Dulles. 387(U) Additionally, according to Gates, Manafort instructed Gates to begin sending
Kilimnik certain Trump Campaign polling data and other Campaign updates as a result of thismeeting between Manafort and Kilimnik. 388 Gates further stated that he periodically sent thedata via WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging application, and del~ted the messages to Kilimnik
daily. 389 Gates described the data as "topline" data, which included the results of internal polling
including state, dates, generic, decided. GOP, and other such numbers. Gates said that this was a
copy and paste from summary sheets provided by Trump Campaign pollster and longtime··(U) ..In addition to Manafort's own statements about the meeting, see sea Report, Vol. I, p. 138, an email sent
later by.Kilimnik to Patten provides some additional, but limited, corroboration that Kilimnik and Manafort
discussed the Trump Campaign at the meeting and may have discussed potential electoral outcomes. In that email,sent the day after the election, KilillllJ.ik stated, "It was close, and ifDT had been more disciplined things would
have gone as Paul said in May- bigger gap." Email, Kilimnik to Patten, November 9, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3000289).
,
383(U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 138.
384(U) Patten Tr., pp. 73-74.
385
Email Kilimnik to Patten Ma
382

ately
Patten appears to have flown toKy1v on May 8, 2016, to meet w1 Kt 1mmk an o ers. SSC! 2017-4885-3-000702; SP_SSCI_003001.
388(U) sea Report, Vol. I, pp. 136-137. Gates initially told the SCO that he started sending the information to
Kilimnik in April or early May 2016. Gates later told the SCO that he believed it was after the meeting on May 7,
2016, that he began sending the polling data to Kilimnik. Manafort did not acknowledge instructing Gates to send
the polling data to Kilimnik.
389 (U) Ibid.
.

70

L

Manafort associate Anthony Fabrizio. 390 Gates recalled that it was not the entire raw data set,nor was it cross tabs. 391(U) Gates did not know why Manafort wanted him to send Kilimnik the polling data.
Gates presumed that Manafort gave the instruction to share the information ·with Kilimnik so that
Kilimnik could share the information with Ukrainian oligarchs as a way of showing the strengthofManafort's position on the Campaign, although no direct evidence supports this conclusion.392
Gates also understood that Kilimnik would share the information with Deripaska. 393 Beyond
Oates's recollection, the Committee was unable to obtain direct evidence of what Kilimnik did
with the polling data and whether that data was shared further. For more information about thesharing of polling data, see tnjra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.vii.a.

(U) Other than Oates's admission that he began using WhatsApp to send polling data to
Kilimnik, the Committee has no material information about the content of communications
between Manafort or Gates and Kilimnik following the May 7, 2016 meeting until July 7, 2016.
On July 7, 2016, a reporter from the Kyiv Post sent a request for comment to Manafort regarding390(U) FBI; FD-302, Gates 2/15/2019.
(U) Ibid. A review of Fabrizio polling data sent to Manafort and Gates revealed a consistent format for such"topline" result documents, which were distinguished internally from "cross tabs" and "raw data." The documents
labeled "topline" took a consistent form throughout the campaign period. In general, these documents provided all
responses for each polled question on a questionnaire, which usually included approximately 100 questions. These
questionnaires tested a variety of questions related to Trump and Clinton. For example, on June 30, 2016, Fabrizio
emailed Manafort, Gates, and four other Campaign personnel "topline" data for eight of the Campaign's seventeen"Target States" (the remaining target states were also tested on different days). These eight topline documents
totaled 247 pages with detailed breakdowns of aggregated responses for each question tested as part of the poll.
Email, Fabrizio to Manafort, Gates, et al., June 30, 2016 (FAB007731-FAB007978) (attaching eight PDF
documents, each of which related to a different target state and titled "TOPLINE"). In response to Fabrizio's .
sharing these topline data documents with this group, Manafort replied that "I don't want these results shared withanyone outside of the recipients of this email." Email, Manafort to Fabrizio, Gates, et al., June 30, 2016
(FAB009360). Fabrizio repeatedly produced "topline" results throughout the campaign in a similar format, creating.dozens of documents with thousands of pages of text. It is unclear how much of this data Gates shared with
Kilimnik. Gates did not specify whether he copied text from inside the "topline" document or simply copied the
PDF itself and pasted it into WhatsApp. In describing other communications he had with a separate individual,
Gates said that while he used multiple encrypted applications to communicate, documents usually came throughWhatsApp. FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/10/2018.
392(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/31/2018.
393(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 136.
391

71

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
an upcoming article about Pericles. 394 Manafort forwarded this inquiry to Kilimnik, telling him"FYI" and asking ifthere was "any movement on this issue with our friend." 395 Given thecontext and Kilimnik's response, "our friend" almost certainly refers to Deripaska. 396 Kilimnik
responded that he was "carefully optimistic on the question of our biggest interest" and expectedthat "we" will get back to the "original relationship" with Deripaska. 397 For unknown reasons,
Kilimnik suggested that Deripaska was aware that there was "time sensitivity" involved in thematter. 398
Our friend V[Boyarkin] said there is lately significantly more attention to thecampaign in his boss' [Deripaska's] mind, and he will be most likely lookingfor
ways to reach out to you pretty soon, understanding all the time sensitivity. I am
more than sure that it will be resolved and we will get back to the original
relationship with V. 's boss. 399(U) Manafort responded by instructing Kilimnik to "[t]ell V boss that ifhe needs private
briefings we can accommodate."400 The following day, July 8, 2016, Kilimnik sent Manafort theresulting Kyiv Post story-"Trump's Campaign Manager Haunted by Past Business."401 In his
email to Kilimnik, Manafort again instructed Kilimnik that he "should cover V [Boyarkin] on
this. story and make certain that V understands this is all BS and the real facts are the ones wepassed along last year."402

394(U) Email, Kovensky to Manafort, July 7, 2016 (DJTFP00012834-12835).
(U) Email, Manafort to Kilimnik, July 7, 2016 (DJTFP00012834).
396(U) It is possible the reference is to Boyarkin, or to Deripaska and Boyarkin generally.
397(U) Email, Kilimnik to Manafort, July 7, 2016 (DJTFP00012834).
398(U) Ibid.
399 (U) Ibid.
400(U) Email, Manafort to Kilimnik, July 7, 2016 (DJTFP00012834).
401(U) Email, Kilimnik to Manafort, July 8, 2016 (DJTFP00012834); Josh Kovensky, "Trump's Campaign
Manager Haunted by Past Business;'' Kyiv Post, July 8, 2016.
402
Email Manafort to Kilimnik, Jul 7, 2016 JTFP00012834).
395

403

72

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In mid- to late-July 2016, Kilimnik appeared to have insider knowledge of the
Trump Campaign.

•(U) In mid-July 2016, in response to a comment by Patten related to Trump's recent
selection of Mike Pence as a presidential running mate and how that selection might
negatively affect foreign policy, Kilimnik wrote to Patten: "You know Paul - he isfocused on winning the elections and then dealing with foreign policy or whatever. The
choice of VP is purely electoral, as I understand." 411 Manafort later singled out the topic

404(U) For more information on Steele and his reporting, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. IV.B. Gates recalled that, at somepoint, Manafort had asked Kilimnik to talk to his sources about the Steele dossier and get more information about it.
According to Gates, Kilimnik's sources included Deripaska's people and numerous others. FBI, FD-302, Gates
10/25/2018. Given the context this re uest ma have occurred after the dossier's publication.
405
406
407

j id.
Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
411(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, July 17, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000499). While Kilimnik did not explicitly
state that this knowledge came from Manafort, the context for the comment-and Kilimnik's ongoing
408 (U)409 (U)41073

of why Trump chose Pence as his running mate as one of the "public" topics on which hemight have been willing to briefDeripaska.412 Manafort, however, claimed he neverbriefed Deripaska on it. 413 It is possible Manafort identified this topic because he hadalready discussed it with Kilimnik, his primary conduit to Deripaska.

vii.

(U) Manafort Meets with Kilimnik at the Grand Havana Room in New
York City; They Discuss Polling Data, Ukraine Plan, and Debts(U) On July 28, 2016, Kilimnik flew from Kyiv to Moscow. 418 Late that evening,
Kilimnik emailed Manafort under the subject line "Black caviar" and relayed two points.419 The
first point related to a press inquiry that Lyovochkin had received. 420 With respect to this point,
Kilimnik sought to determine whether Manafort wanted Lyovochkin to speak with the reporter. inan effort to provide the reporter a positive view ofManafort's prior work in Ukraine. 421 The
second point involved Kilimnik's request to discuss a matter with Manafort, the substance of
which Kilimnik sought to speak about only indirectly in the email:communications with Manafort at that time- suggests Kilimnik may have acquired this understanding based on aprior conversation with Manafort.
412(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/11/2018.
413
U Ibid.
414415(U) Ibid.

416(U) Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
418(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 138.
419(U) Email, Kilimnik to Manafort, July 29, 2016 (DJTFP00013334).
420(U) Ibid.
421 (U) Ibid.
417

74

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

1 met today with the guy who gave you your biggest black caviar jar several years
ago. We spent about 5 hours talking about his story, and I have several importantmessages from him to you. He asked me to go and briefyou on our conversation.
I said I have to run it by you first, but in principle I am prepared to do it, provided
that he buys me a ticket. It has to do about the future of his country, and is quite
interesting. So, ifyou are absolutely not against the concept, please let me know
which dates/places will work, even next week, and /could come and see you. 422(U) Manafort told the SCO that "the guy who gave you your biggest black caviar jar"
was Yanukovych. 423 Manafort explained that this was a reference to a $30,000 to $40,000 jar ofcaviar that Yanukovych had given him at a lunch following Yanukovych's 2010 election aspresident.424 Patten told the Committee that Kilimnik had relayed a similar explanation for thereference. Patten recalled:·

According to Konstantin, they [Konstantin and Manafort] were having brea]ifast
with the president, President Yanukovych ... Mr. Manafort complimented thecaviar. And {Yanukovych] said: Oh you like it; I'll get you more. And sort! ofsnapped his fingers, and he's given a big vat of it. 425·./(U) Within minutes of receiving Kilimnik's email, Manafort responded to Kilimnik,
telling him that "Tuesday is best."426 After Kilimnik asked for an alternate day, Manafort andKilimnik settled on the evening of Wednesday, August 2, 2016, in New York. 427 Kilimnik told
428
l Manafort that he needed "about two hours" because "it is a long caviar story to tell."According t o _ , on August 2, 2016, at7:43 p.m. Kilimnik
passed through U.S. customs at New York John F. Kennedy International Airport. 429 Manafort's

422(U) Ibid. _(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 139
424(U) Ibid.
425(U) Patten Tr.,.p. 83. Gates, however, recalled a similar story, but that the event was a party hosted by Rinat
Akhmetov, not Y anukovych, and that it was Akhmetov who was the man who gave Manafort his "biggest black
caviar jar." FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/12/2018.
426(U) Email, Manafort to Kilimnik, July 29, 2016 (DJTFP00013334).
427(U) Emails, Manafort and Kilimnik, July 29-31, 2_016 (DJTFP00013474).
428(U) Email, Kilimnik to Manafort, July 31, 2016 (DJTFP00013474); Kilimnik told Manafort that he had "ourfriends workin on m ticket."
423

42

75

COMMITT

-

.

I

.

ION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Campaign email account calendar had an entry for the Kilimnik meeting starting' at 9:00 p.m.,following a 5:30 p.m. meeting with Trump and Rudy Giuliani in Trump Tower.430(U) Manafort, Kilimnik, and Gates exchanged a number of calls and messages in thelead-up to the meeting. At 8:33 p.m., Kilimnik texted Manafort. 431 At 8:51 p.m., Manafort and-Gates had a 23-minute phone call, in the middle of which Kilimnik dialed Manafort. 432 From
9:30 p.m. to 9:32 p.m., Gates and Kilimnik exchanged three short phone calls. 433(U) Although it is unclear exactly when the meeting began, on the evening of August 2,
2016, Manafort and Kilimnik eventually met at the Grand Havana Room, a private lounge
located at 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City. According to testimony and records, Gates
arrived late to the meeting. 434 At least three topics were discussed at the meeting: internal Trump
polling information and strategy; a peace plan for ukraine; and past debts and business disputes
with Deripaska and the 0B. 435 At the end of the meeting, Kilimnik, Gates, and Manafort
deliberately departed using separate routes to avoid being seen together. 436 Late that evening,
between 11 :28 p.m. and 12:09 a.m., Manafort and Kilimnik also exchanged approximately ten
text messages. 437-

a. (U) Internal Polling Information and Trump Campaign Strategy

430- - Daily Schedule, August 2, 2016 (DJTF,1>00023323). The meeting is recorded as "Dinner w/ KK."
" ~ u e n t l y used moniker for Kilimnik. During the Transition meeting, Manafort texted 'Gates whata ears to be a reference to meetin with Kilimnik, statin onl " hat is when uest and I will be downstairs."(U) _l i .
(U) Ibid.
434(U) Ibid; FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/12/2918. Gates stated that there may have been1-topics discussed prior to Gates's
arrival. FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/12/2018. ··435(U) See SCO Report, Vol. I, pp. 139-141. The order in which these three topics are presented herein does notnecessaril correlate to the order in which they were discussed in the meeting.
436
Ibid, p. 141. Kilimnik de arted from Washin n D.C. on Au ust 4 2016 on a flightsclie u e to epart at 6:55 p.m. local time.
Pattenrecalled Kilimnik staying at Patten's house once K11mm traveled to Washington, D.C., after 1s meeting with
Manafort and Gates in New York. Patten's proximity to Kilimnik so near in time to the August 2, 2016 meeting
lends some credibili to his version of events as rela ed b Kilimnik.
433

76

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) At the meeting, Manafort walked Kilimnik through the state of the Trump
Campaign, including its internal polling data, and Manafort's plan to win. 438(U) As noted above, since approximately early May, Gates had been periodicallysending Trump Campaign polling data to Kilimnik via WhatsApp and then deleting themessages. 439 Subsequent communications between Kilimnik and his associates obtained by theCommittee also make reference to Kilimnik's awareness of Trump's internal polling, providing
contemporary documentary evidence that Kilimnik had access to it. 440 This polling data included
internal Trump Campaign polling data from Trump Campaign pollster and longtime Manafort
associate Anthony Fabrizio. 441 Fabrizio.had been hired by the Trump Campaign at Manafort's
urging after Manafortjoined the Campaign. Fabrizio had conducted past polling work for
Manafort, including as part ofManafort's work in Ukraine:442(U) Kilimnik was capable of comprehending the complex polling data he received. Alarge body of documentary evidence and testimony indicates that Kilimnik had significant
knowledge of, and experience with, polling data. In particular, for over a decade,-Kilimnik had
regularly helped formulate,and review polling questionnaires and scripts, hired and overseen
polling experts, ana~yzed and interpreted polling results, and presented the outcome of polls to

438(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018; SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 140; FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/11/2018.
(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 136.
440(U) Email, Kilimnik to Marson, August 18, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000414-416) ("Trump's internal pollingshows signs of strengthening of their positions among key target groups they care about.").
441(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/7/2018; FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018; SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 136. Fabrizio later
paid for some ofManafort's legal fees in an irregular arrangement. Manafort, who was not paid by the Trump
Campaign, arranged for Fabrizio to be hired by the Campaign, and Fabrizio was ultimately compensated for hisp,olling work by the Campaign directly. Further, Manafort helped setup a political action committee (PAC) run by Manafort' s and Gates' s close associate Laurance Gay. That PAC, one of the largest pro-Trump PACs responsible
for raising over $20 million, in turn, had a contract with a Fabrizio-controlled entity, First Media Services
Corporation (T/A Multi-Media Services Corporation) for election-related work. Gay received a percent ofcommissions as a result of this contract. See Declaration in Support of the Government's Breach Determination and
Sentencing, United States v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., Case No. l:17-CR-201 (D.D.C. January 15, 2019); Christina
Wilkie, "A mysterious payment to Paul Manafort's lawyer reveals a hidden chapter of Trump's 2016 presidential
campaign," CNBC, March 10, 2019. In June 2017, Gay asked Fabrizio to pay $125,000 ofManafort's legal fees via
wire transfer from First Media Services. Ibid. The Fabrizio-controlled entity wired the funds to the law firm thenrepresenting Manafort, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP. Email, Fabrizio to Manafort, September 21,
2017 (FABO 10402). Manafort offered numerous conflicting explanations for this arrangement, and a federal judge
found that Manafort had misled the SCO about the arrangement. Transcript of Sealed Hearing, United States v. PaulJ. Manafort, Jr., Case No. 1:l 7-CR-201 (D.D.C. February 13, 2019). While this arrangement resembles a kickback
scheme, Manafort claimed the payment from Fabrizio was just a friend helping a friend. FBI, FD-302, Manafort
9/13/2018.
442(U) Supplemental Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended, DMP
International, LLC, June 27, 2017.
439

77

politicians and colleagues. Further, Kilimnik was familiar with Fabrizio's past work and had
worked with him professionally.

(U) Open source information suggests that Kilimnik viewed the polling data as a key toManafort's success and believed his interpretation of the data'yielded valuable insights. In aninterview with a reporter in 2018, Kilimnik stated:
Manafort is a guy who can merge strategy and message into something that will
work for ,victory. He has done it all across the world and he has done it reallyjust very skillfully. .. ; I've seen him work in different countries and he really does-- takes very seriously his polling and he can spend two weeks going through thedata and he will come with the best strategy you can ever have.443(U) Information obtained by the Committee suggests that Fabrizio's polling data was ofsignificance to the Trump Campaign and was relied upon by the Campaign's data operation. The
Campaign's data operation, in turn, largely determined the Campaign's resource allocation andstrategy. Brad Parscale, who was in charge of the.Campaign's data operation, provided someinsight into how polling data was used. Parscale explained that while in some cases seniorCampaign aides would independently direct Campaign resource allocation, "98 percent" of theallocation was determined by the Campaign's internal polling data as provided by its pollsters. 444
This data was updated "every few days" or "every day almost during certain periods."445(U) While tp.e Trump Campaign employed three different pollsters over the course of the2016 campaign, information suggests that Fabrizio was the primary pollster during Manafort's
tenure and potentially beyond. For example, a graphic from an internal Campaign presentationfrom August 2016 depicts Fabrizio as the only pollster directly linked to the Trump Campaign
data operation.446.
(U) Christopher Miller, '"Person A' In His Own Words: On The Record With Shadowy Operative In Russia
Probe," RFE/RL, April 6, 2018 (from audio clip entitled "Kilimnik2").
444(U) SSC! Transcript of the Interview with Brad Parscale, November 20, 2017, p. 38.
445(U) Ibid.
446(U) Trump Data Team Presentation, August 22, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_000l 1768) (redactions in black andemphasis in red added).
.

443

78

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Trump Team

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(U) Parscale further explained that the polling data was ingested into a visualization toolwith the help of Cambridge Analytica developers.447 The visualization tool was available on an
iPad which Parscale carried.448
I wanted to be able to j ust f ly around with Trump and if he asked me, how are wedoing in western Michigan, I could op en [the data visualization tool} up and j ust
say: Okay, here 's where you need to fly to tomorrow. .. . That was based offdata
coming in.from p olling. 449(U) Manafort stated that he trusted Fabrizio' s numbers and judgment.450 Manafort' s own
communications to Fabrizio further underscore the importance Manafort placed on the internal
polling data. For example, in a May email to Fabrizio, Manafort discussed using RNC polling as
a baseline, suggesting that Fabrizio should "piggyback" off the RNC polling as much as

Separately, Patten worked for Cambridge Analytica, but not related to its Trump-related work. See infra
Vol. 5, Sec. lll.J.
448 (U) Parscale Tr., p. 64.
449(U) Ibid.
450 (U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/11/2018.

447 (U)79

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
possible. 451 Manafort underscored, however, that he and Fabrizio needed to be "in control" of
Fabrizio's polling data, including whatManafort described as "the sensitive stuff."452(U) At the meeting, Manafort walked Kilimnik through the internal polling data from
Fabrizio in detail.453 According to Gates, Kilimnik wanted to know how Trump could win. 454
Manafort explained his strategy in the battleground states and told Kilimnik about polls that
identified voter bases in blue-collar, democratic-leaning states which Trump could swing. 455
Manafort said these voters could be reached by Trump on issues like economics, but theCampaign needed to implement a ground game. 456 Gates recalled that Manafort further
discussed the "battleground" states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. 457(U) The Committee sought to determine with specificity what information Kilimnik
actually gleaned from Manafort on August 2, 2016. Information suggests Kilimnik understoodthat some of the polling data showed that Clinton's negatives were particularly high; that
Manafort's plan for victory called for focusing on Clinton's negatives as much as possible; andthat given Clinton's high negatives, there was a chance that Trump could win.
(U) Patten's debriefing with the SCO provides the most granular account of what
information Kilimnik obtained at the August 2, 2016 meeting:

451(U) Email, Manafort to Fabrizio, Gates, and Wiley, May 17, 2016 (FAB008947).
~ a n a f o r t did not elaborate further on what constituted "the sensitive stuff."453- - FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/12/2018; FBI, FD-.302, Gates, 2/15/2019; SCO Report, VoL I, p. 140; FBI,
FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018. Prior to the meeting with Kilimnik, Manafort sent Gates an email with the subject line
"Print for SCh meeting." Attached to the email was a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, prepared by Fabrizio's firm,
containing historical polling data and internal Campaign polling data derived from mid-July covering each of 137
designated market areas (DMAs) across Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Maine, Michigan,
Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The
spreadsheet included voting data from previous presidential elections for the purposes of comparison with current
internal Trump Campaign data for each DMA. Fabrizio first 'sent the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to Manafort andGates on July 15, 2016, and again on July 17, 2018. Email; Fabrizio to Manafort, July 17, 2016 (FAB005382-5445)( attaching the Excel file). Metadata analysis shows that the document that Fabrizio sent on July 15 and July 17 was
the same document that Manafort sent to Gates on the momin cif Au ust 2 2016 with instructions to rint the
document.
452

.

454

'

-

'

'

.

(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018
455(U) Ibid.
456 (U) Jbid.451 (U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/30/2018. Oates's memory on this point, however, was not exceptionally clear. Gates
at first believed that the meeting was in May and that Manafort had presented his plan for the primaries anddelegates to Kilimnik. After being reminded that the meeting was in August, not May, Gates corrected himself,
stating that Kilimnik and Manafort discussed the battleground states.
·

80

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Kilimnik told Patten that at the New York cigar bar meeting, Manafort stated thatthey have a plan to beat.Hillary Clinton which included Manafort bringing
discipline and an organized strategy to the campaign. Moreover, because
Clinton's negatives were so low [sic]-ifthey couldfocus on her negatives they
couldwin the election. Manafort discussed the Fabrizio internal Trump polling
data with Kilimnik, and explained that Fabrizio 's polling numbers showed that
the Clinton negatives, referred to as a 'therm poll, ' were high. Thus, bas~d onthis polling there was a chance Trump could win. 458(U) Patten relayed similar information to the Committee. In particular, he told theCommittee that Kilimnik mentioned Manafort's belief that "because or Clinton's high negatives,
there was a chance, only because her negatives were so astronomically high, that it was possible .
to win." 459(U) The Committee also sought to understand the purpose of sharing the .polling data, as
well as what, if anything, Kilimnik did with the information about internal Trump polling andstrategy. As noted, Gates understood that Kilimnik would share the polling data with Ukrainian
oligarchs affiliated with the OB and with Deripaska. However, Gates ultimately claimed that hedid not trust Kilimnik, that he did not know why Manafort was sharing internal polling data withhim, and that Kilimnik could have given the data to anyone.460 While the Committee obtained
evidence revealing that Kilimnik shared with Deripaska other information passed on by
Manafort-such as links to news articles-the Committee did not obtain records showing that
Kilimnik passed on the polling data. However, the Committee has no records of, and extremely
limited insight into, Kilimnik' s communications
As a result, thislack of documentary record is not dispositive.

458(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018.
(U) Patten Tr., p. 106. Fabrizio's firm conducted a large round of polling in mid-July. That polling covered theCampaign's seventeen designated target states and tested dozens of questions. However, documents suggest that theCampaign viewed a shift in "image" between Trump and Clinton as a key takeaway from this polling. In particular,a memorandum from Fabrizio to Manafort dated July 27, 2016, and marked "CONFIDENTIAL- EYES ONLY"
focused on a recent shift in the candidates' images revealed in the mid-July polling. According to the memorandum,
the recent polling showed "DJT's net image improv~ by 7 points with voters in our Target States" while Clinton's
image ''.eroded a net of 7 points." According to the memorandum, this change contributed to the "bounces" theCampaign saw in polling, and Fabrizio emphasized that this.shift should inform the Campaign's strategy going
forward. Memorandum, "Important Supplement to Yesterday's Memo," July 27, 2016 (FAB001244). While theCampaign clearly viewed a variety of factors as important in their victory, including those unrelated to Clinton's
image and favo.rability, these findings are consistent with Manafort relaying to Kilimnik that the Campaign had apath to victory given Clinton's negatives.
460(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/12/2018.

459

81

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee was unable to determine Kilimnik's actions after receiving the data.
The Committee did, however, obtain a single piece of information that could plausibly be areflection ofKilimnik's actions after the August 2 meeting.

(U) Despite these correlations, the Committee could not reliably determine whether thisinformation was ultimately connected to Manafort's sharing of internal polling data andCampaign strategy.

b. (U) Ukraine Peace Plan
(U) The second item discussed at the August 2, 2016, meeting was a plan for resolving
the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine. Information about that peace plan discussion, however,is limited to testimony from Manafort and Gates. As with his other interactions with Kilimnik,
Manafort provided inaccurate information about this topic to the sea.
(U) Gates, who arrived late to the meeting, 462 said that Kilimnik had relayed an "urgent"message at the meeting.463 The message came from Yanukovych and asked whether Manafort
would run Y anukovych' s comeback campaign. 464 Kilimnik relayed that Y anukovych had
reached out to Kilimnik through an "intermediary" and sent Kilimnik to present the plan toManafort. 465 Kilimnik was directed to present the proposal and Manafort's response inperson. 466(U) Manafort told the sea that Kilimnik outlined a plan to have Viktor Y anukovych
return to politics in eastern Ukraine, and to have eastern Ukraine declared an autonomous

461
462

the dining room. Gates estimated that he stayed for 45 minutes. FBI, FD-302, Gates l/30/2018.
463(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/12/2018. Gates believed the message was "urgent" because Yanukovych needed tostart rebuilding the OB immediately to prepare for his run.
464(U) Ibid.
465(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/30/2018.
466(U) Ibid. Gates stated that he did not know the identity of the intermediary.

82

region. 467 Manafort understood that the plan was a "backdoor" means for Russia to control, eastern Ukraine. 468 Manafort stated that Kilimnik ran the plan by someone in the Russian
government for approval. 469 Manafort admitted that Kilimnik did not need to state the obviousthat Manafort could benefit financially. 470(U) Manafort stated that he told Kilimnik the plan was crazy and that ended thediscussion. 471 Gates recalled that Manafort laughed and declined Yanukovych's offer to "run his
comeback campaign."472 Manafort claimed that had he not cutoff the discussion of this plan,
Kilimnik would have asked Manafort to convince Trump to come out in favor of the peace
plan.473(U) Despite Manafort's assertion that he cut the conversation short, Manafort andKilimnik took a variety of follow-on actions related to the plan .

••(U) As described below, this discussion was also not the last instance of Kilimnik andManafort discussing the plan.475 Manafort eventually admitted to'reading a folderedemail from Kilimnik describing the plan and steps for its implementation in December
2016. The plan was also discussed at a February 2017 Manafort-Kilimnik meeting in
Madrid.

•(U) Manafort continued working with Kilimnik on the plan, including efforts to draft apoll to test aspects of the plan as late as 2018.

467(U) Communications Kilimnik had with the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and other communications with his associates
reveal Kilimnik's longstanding focus on the issue ofresolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Committee
obtained records indicating Kilimnik was discussing a plan related to Yanukovych as early as May 2015. Email,Kilimnik to Purcell, May 21, 2015 (CDP-2017-000llG-000427) ("The launch of Pravda, or "Bring Yanukovich
Back" project may happen in the next few weeks, or so I am hearing. they are still thinking about the name, but thisis on top of the shortlist for names. :))").
468(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 140. '469(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/12/2018. Manafort later restated this by saying that he believed Kilimnik would
have run the plan by someone in the Russian government for approval.
470 (U) Ibid.
'
471(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 140.
472(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/30/2018.
473
SCO Re ort, Vol. I . 140.
474

83

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Separately, an email from Kilimnik suggests that he and Manafort may have also
discussed the formation of Russia and Ukraine policy on the Trump Campaign during the August
2, 2016 meeting. Approximately two weeks after the meeting, Kilimnik told an associate that he· had "seen Manafort last week" and "got a sense that everything that Trump says about Russia
and Ukraine is Trump's own emotional opinion, not campaign strategy." Kilimnik complainedthat Manafort was not influencing the Campaign's strategy on Russia and Ukraine, "otherwise
the message would have been much more balanced. " 476
c. (U) Manafort's Past Debts and Business Disputes with Deripaska and.the OB(U) In addition to Campaign strategy involving polling data and the Ukraine plan,
Manafort and Kilimnik also discussed two financial disputes and debts at the meeting.
(U) The first dispute involved Deripaska and Pericles.477 Gates recalled that Kilimnik
relayed at the meeting that Deripaska's lawsuit ha'd been dismissed. 478 Gates also recalled that
Kilimnik was trying to obtain documentation showing the dismissal. 479(U) The second involved money Manafort believed he was. owed by the OB for his workin Ukraine. 480 During the meeting, Kilimnik updated Manafort on what was happening with
Lyovochkin, Akhmetov, and their "other friends" in Kyiv. 481 Manafort understood that the"oligarchs" wanted "intel" on the Trump Campaign.482 The specifics of what was discussed at
this meeting are uriknown. Although his recollection was not specific to this meeting, Gates
recalled that during the campaign Kilimnik had said that Akhmetov had agreed to pay Manafort
for the money owed. 483 At one point, Kilimnik said Akhmetov was going.to pay, but he washaving trouble getting his money out ofUkraine. 484

viii.

(U) Possible Connections to GRU Hack-and-Leak Operations

476(U) Email, Kilimnik to Marson, August 18, 2016 (SSC! 2017-4885-3-000414-416). Kilimnik was emailing ajournalist from The Wall Street Journal, and given Kilimnik's repeated lying and obfuscation to the press, theaccuracy of the statement is difficult to assess.
477(U)
Report, Vol. I, p. 141. Manafort recalled that Kilimnik worked for him to keep the Pericles lawsuitfrom getting out of hand. FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/11/2018.
478(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/30/2018.
479(U) Ibid.
480(U)
Report, Vol. I, p. 141.
481
(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/11/2018
482(U) Ibid.
483(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/7/2018.
484(U) Ibid.

sea

sea

84

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Some evidence suggests Kilimnik may be connected to the GRU hack-and-leakoperation related to the 2016 U.S. election. This assessment is based on a body of fragmentary
information.

___., The GRU subsequently transferred thePodesta emails to WikiLeaks, which began publicly releasing the emails on October 7, 2016.

48486(U) Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
1488(U) The GRU gained access to Podesta's emails in March 2016. The GRU's first known outreach to WikiLeaksin relation to the assa e of these emails occurred in mid-Se tember 2016. See in ra Vol. 5, Sec. lli.B.
487

85

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY ·•.

.
mmik a eared to treat the plan confidentiall

tely thestatin that it was not in

I[(U) Ibid.
(U) See Email, Manafort to Fabrizio, February 19, 2018 (FAB010419); Email, Manafort to Fabrizio and Ward,·
February 21, 2018. (FAB010190-10194). A version of this Ukraine plan is reproduced infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.7.vii.
494
See in a Vol. 5 Sec. III.A.7.vii
·
493

86

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•On February 4, 2014, an audio recording of a phone call between then-U.S.
Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt and then-Assistant Secretary of State forEuropean and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland appeared on Y ouTube. 507 The video

503

5o4(U) Ii.
505(U) Ibid.
506(U) Ibid.
507(U) Available at: youtube.com/watch?v=MSxaa-67yGM#t=89. - - targeting of Pyatt and Nuland isnoteworthy because ofKilimnik's close proximity to both, When t h ~ e d , Kilimnik was acting as theprimary intermediary between U.S. diplomats and the PoRprior to Yanukovych's departure, and then again with the
OB after his departure. See, e.g., Emails, Kasanof, Zentos, Pfleger, et al., February 23, 2014 (CDP-2017-00011 G000877) (describing Kilimnik as the primary point of contact with the PoR for scheduling PoR-related meetings
with visiting Deputy Secretary of State in late-February 2014); Email, Pfleger to Pyatt, et al., November 15-18,
2013 (CDP-2017-0001 lG-001090- CDP-2017-0001 lG-001091) (describing Kilimnik as the primary point ofcontact in arranging a call between Yanukovych and the U.S. Vice President in November 2013). Kilimnik
personally attended meetings with Pyatt and Nuland when he accompanied Lyovochkin and other PoR/OB officials.
See, e.g. Email, Kilimnik to Pfleger, October 9, 2014 (CDP-2017-00011 G-000792) (describing Kilimnik' s
attendance at an October 2014 meeting between Nuland and Lyovochkin). Communications occurring in early 201587

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

initially received only limited attention in the firsrhours after publication. On February
5, 2014, an aide to then-Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin tweeted aYouTube link to the audio of the call. 508 B Februa 6', the leak had·received
wides read attention in Western media. 509•

made reference to a past instance where Kilimnik appears to have served as the interpreter for a meeting with
Nuland. Email, Purcell to Toko, et al., May 21, 2015 (CDP-2017-0001 lG-000433).

.

.

"'

.

88

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•Cyber Berkut is a GRU persona influence operation which has been active
since that time. 518 Cyber Berkut has leaked a wide variety of hacked material andconducted other computer network operations and influence campaigns on behalf of theRussian government. 519!-.I•(U) Manafort's involvement with the GRU hack-and-leak operation is largely unknown.
Kilimnik was in sustained contact with Manafort before, during, and after the GRU cyber andinfluence operations, but the Committee did not obtain reliable, direct evidence that Kilimnik
and Manafort discussed the GRU hack-and-leak operation. As noted above, however, thecontent of the majority of the communications between Manafort and Kilimnik is unknown.
Some of these communications involved in-person meetings; no objective record of their content
exists.
(U) Two pieces of information, however, raise the possibility ofManafort's potential
connection to the hack-and-leak operations.

89

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Yohai, who is no longer married to Manafort's daughter, pleaded guilty toconspiracy to commit wire fraud in 2018, and again in 2019, and was sentenced to 110 months infederal prison. 522 Manafort appears to have been in contact with Y ohai during key periods in2016. For instance, Yohai appeared on the call list Manafort maintained on his Campaign
Microsoft O ti k l d ··1 J2016 523 D · ! •• r i t 1 th·f
Y ohai
was involv
fort,

-5

522

(U) U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California, "Serial Con Artist Sentenced to More Than 9 Years inFederal Prison for $6.7 Million Swindle of Investors, Family and Friends," November 12, 2019.

90

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYno information to corroborate this report's account of
the Committee was able to corroborate most other aspects of this same report.

ix.

However,(U) The "Ledger" and Manafort's Resignation(U) On August 14, Steve Bannon was brought on to the Trump Campaign as CEO.
Bannon recalled that a condition of his joining the Campaign that he worked out with Trump wasthat Manafort would not be fired, which Bannon explained was because he did not want to haveany "bloodletting" related to the Campaign, which could be a distraction. 527 Instead, Bannon
understood that Manafort would "be able to stick around as a figurehead." 528 However, Bannon
recalled that later that same day, Manafort told him that The New York Times was nearing
publication on a story alleging Manafort was involved in cash payments in Ukraine totaling

528(U) SSCI Transcript oft e Interview with Steve Bannon, November 19, 2018, p. 58.
(U) Ibid.

91

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
millions of dollars. 529 That evening, The New York Times published the article with the headline· "Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Dor,iald Trump's Campaign Chief."530(U) Manafort told the FBI that he had previously briefed Trump on his past work in
Ukraine. 531 Manafort ~aid that he did this beqause·he wanted Trump prepared in cas~ Manafort's
Ukraine work or the Deripaska issue popped up. 532 Manafort re'called that he did not go irito
detail because Trump was not interested. 533 However, when inform~tion about Manafort's workin Ukraine came out, Manafort told the FBI that Trump was upset. 534(U) On August 18, 2016, Kilimnik told a journalist in private that he had "almost daily
contacts with Manafort these days on this 'Ukraine crisis."'535 Kilimnik also made reference tocommunications with Gates. 536 However, Kilimnik claimed:

What others do not see is that Manafort is building qparallel system of HQ,- pretty similar to what he has done in Ukraine/or PojR, which plays a crucial role ·in key moments. Whether he has titne to finish it is another story. 537(U) On August 19, 2016, Manafort resigned from the Trump Campaign. That same day,'
Kilimnik wrote to an associate that "Manafort will make billions on this free PR working for thesame people he used to' work. And probably get a lot of new clients with his newly foundfame."538

6. (U) Manafort's Activities For the Remainder of the Campaign(U) After leaving the Trump Camp~ign in August 2016, Manafort stayed in touch with
Trump, Kushner, and others on the Trump Campaign. ·Manafort also stayed i11 touch with
Kilimnik;. and Kilimnik-was aware of Manafort?s
continuing
communications with the
.
.'
,.

529

(U) Ibid. pp. 58-59.
_(U) ·Andrew E. Kramer, et aL, "Se~ret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump's Campaign Chief,'; The
New York Times, Augusrl4, 2016. ·
·
·
·
·
·
531
(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/11/2018.
532(U) Ibid.
533. (U) Ibid.
534(U) Ibid.
,
535(U) Email, Kilimnik to Marson, August 18, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000414-16). The Committee was unable
to obtain these·communications between Kilimnik and Manafort.
'
536 (U). Ibid.
537(U) Ibid. Gates relayed a very similar statemenfto the SCO, using the same term. ~tes explained that, in . ·Ukraine, Manafort had created a "parallel system" of people loyal to him inside PoR. According to Gates,:Manafort
did the same thing in the Trump Campaign with Parscale, Miller, Fabrizio, Dearborn, and others. Gates believed
Manafort maintained these connections when he left the Campaign. FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018.
538(U) Email, Kilimnik to Marson, August 18, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000414-416).
530

92

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVE TIGATION ONLY

Campaign. Some evidence suggests that Manafort may have been involved in outreach from the
Ukrainian government to the Trump Campaign during this time.
·i.

(U) Manafort's Continued Contact with the Trump Campaign;
Kilimnik's awareness of these contacts ··(U) After his resignation on August 19, 2016, Manafort stayed in touch with the Trump
Campaign through repeated contacts with Trump, Kushner, and others.

. (U) Manafort told the FBI that, after his resignation, but before the election, he andTrump had spoken "a few times. " 539 While Manafort claimed to have not recalled the substanceof these interactions, he did recall giving Trump advice on Trump's performance in the second
debate and giving Trump ideas for the third debate. 540 Separate records indicate that Manafort
and Trump spoke on the night of the election. 541(U) Manafort also told the SCO that from the time he left the Campaign until theelection, he .met with Kushner "once or twice" and spoke to Kushner on the phone "five or six
times." 542 Manafort said that both sides reached out to one another. 543 According to Manafort,
Donald Trump and others in his family were aware that Manafort and Kushner were in contact, ·and Kushner "thought it would be good" for Manafort to call Trump. 544 · Kushner told theCommittee that he and Manafort were in contact, but that this contact occurred "infrequently."
Kushner recalled Mana.fort telling him to "watch the Rust Belt; that's where you're going to havebig success .... looking at the demographics and the data, he felt very strongly that the Midwest
was an area that we should be very focused on."545 Kushner did not share any more of thesubstance of his discussions.with Manafort, although emails suggest Manafort continued toprovide input on Campaign strategy and encouraged the use of WikiLeaks information. For
instance, on October 21, 2016, Manafort sent Kushner an email with an attached memorandum
that provided strategy guidance recommending that the Campaign should depict Clinton "as thefailed and corrupt champion of the establishment," because "Wikileaks provides the Trump

539(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.
(U) Ibid.
541(U) Email, Manafortto Graf(November 18, 2016 (TRUMPORG_76_004856).
542(U) FBI, FD~302, Manafort 9/13/2018. Email communications suggest that Manafort and Kushner met inperson after Manafort was fired, but prior to Election Day. For instance, in a September 13, 2016 email, Fabrizio
told Manafort that he was aware that'Manafort was planning on "having breakfast with Jared tomorrow." Email,Manafort to Fabrizio and Gates, September 13, 2016-(FAB008949).
543(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.
544(U) Ibid.
545(U) Transcript of the Interview with Jared Kushner, July 24, 2017, p. 108.
540

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
campaign the ability to make the case in a very credible way - by using the words of Clinton, its
campaign officials and DNC members."546(U) On November 5, 2016, Manafort sent a document entitled "Securing the Victory" toat least Trump, Kushner, and Reince Priebus.547 The document predicted a Trump victory in theelection just days away. In the two-page memorandum, Manafort counseled that the Trump teammust prepare the public and media for this result or else face rejection and backlash. In
particular, Manafort voiced a concern that the Clinton Campaign would "move immediately todiscredit the DT victory and claim voter fraud and cyber-fraud, including the claim that theRussians have hacked into the voting machines and ~mpered with the results." 548 Manafort told
the SCO that that he had "no information" that Russia hacked voting machines.549 For a fullaccounting of Russian cyber activities against U.S. electoral infrastructure, including thepenetration of a state at this time, see infra Vol. I. . Manafort also sent the memorandum to Sean
Hannity, although he said he did not expect Hannity to talk to Trump about it. 550(U) Kilimnik was aware that Manafort remained in contact with Trump and theCampaign generally and took an interest in making use of the connection. Kilimnik told Pattenthat Manafort stayed in the background, but still maintained contact and stayed close to
Trump.ss1

ii.

(U) Manafort's Involvement in Ukrainian Government Outreach to theCampaign(U) With Gates's help, Manafort was involved in outreach from the Ukrainian Embassyin the Unite~ States to the Trump Campaign in September 2016. This outreach came throughFrank Mermoud, a former Department of State official who was involved in organizing the

546
547

(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 141.
(U) Email, Priebus to Bannon, November 5, 2016 (SKB_SSCI-0000961); FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.

While Manafort recalled in his interview with the SCO that he sent the memorandum to Trump's executive assistant,
the Trump Organization did not produce any such document as part of the Committee's request. Because of otherknown deficiencies in the Trump Organization's document responses, the Committee does not draw the conclusionthat no document was sent. Not all senior individuals in the Trump Campaign engaged in substantive interactions
with Manafort after his departure. For instance, while Steve Bannon was the recipient of short messages ofencouragement from Manafort and responded in kind, Bannon made clear internally that he thought further
interactions with Manafort would negatively impact the Campaign. In response to Priebus forwarding Manafort's
November 5, 2016 memorandum to him, Bannon responded, "We need to avoid manafort like he has a disease.
Dems will say that the Russians are helping us win." Email, Bannon to Priebus, November 5, 2016 (SKB_SSCl0000964) . .
548(U) Email, Priebus to Bannon, November 5, 2016 (SKB_SSCI-0000964).
549(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.
550(U) Ibid.
551(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/30/2018.

94

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYdiplomatic outreach for events surrounding the July 2016 Republican National Convention in
Cleveland. At the Convention, Mermoud had introduced Manafort to then-Ukrainian
Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly. 552 According to Mermoud, Chaly was "upset"about the changes to the Republican platform related to Ukraine. 553 Mermoud recalled that
Manafort and Chaly had spoken on the convention floor for several minutes about Ukraine,
which had appeared to "mollify" Chaly's concems. 554(U) On September 14, 2016, Mermoud reached out to Gates, who at the time was still
serving on the Trump Campaign, with "something of extreme interest."555 Earlier that day Chaly
had emailed Mermoud a request for help arranging a meeting between Poroshenko and Trump
during Poroshenko's upcoming trip to the United Nations General Assembly. 556 Later that day,Mermoud texted Gates, asking if "Paul" had anything to say about their earlier conversation
aboutthe meeting. 557 Gates responded to Mermoud's text, "Yes. Will call shortly. Going to try
and do it."558 Gates relayed a proposed day for the Trump-Poroshenko meeting throughMermoud, but Chaly responded that day would not work for the Ukrainian side. 559 Mermoud
and Gates discussed the possibility of a call between Trump and Poroshenko instead. 560 Gate~ ·told Mermoud that he supported the idea for a call, but instructed him not to "say anything tochalay about a call until I speak with Paul and our scheduler."561 The Committee did not obtain
information indicating that a phone call between Trump and Poroshenko occurred during the
campaign.
(U) Mermoud was under the impression from Gates that Manafort supported the idea ofa call or meeting and was involved in it, even though Manafort had already left the Campaign. 562
Mermoud explained to the Committee that it was his understanding that Manafort was "stilltalking to candidate Trump quite a bit." 563 Mermoud further stated that Gates told hiin that

552

(U) SSC! Transcript of the Interview with Frank Mennoud, November 29, 2017, p. 51.
(U) Ibid. For more on the RNC Platfonn Changes, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. ID.L.3.
554(U) Ibid., p. 53.
555 (U) Text Message, Mennoud to Gates, September 14, 2016 (ORP3000001).
556 (U) Email Chaly to Mennoud, September 14, 2016 (ORP5000103).
557(U) Text Message, Mennoud to Gates, September 14, 2016 (ORP3000001).
558(U) Text Message, Gates to Mennoud, September 14, 2016 (ORP3000001).
559 (U) Text Messages, Gates and Mennoud, September 15-16, 2016 (ORP3000001-2); Emails, Chaly andMennoud, September 14--16,. 2016 (ORP5000103) ("Paul Manafort, who I introduced you to on the Convention
floor in Cleveland, has been engaged in this effort to assist in getting your President to meet with the candidate ....
Paul will continue to help to promote that and facilitate efforts of communication behind the scenes.").
560(U) Text Messages, Gates and Mennoud, September 16, 2016 (ORP3000002).
561(U) Text Message, Gates to Mennoud, September 16, 2016 (ORP3000002).
562(U) Mennoud.Tr., p. 74.
563(U) Ibid. p. 74.
553

95

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYManafort was "still involved, particularly at this juncture, on political ,issues relating to thecampaign."564

7. (U) Manafort's Activities After the Election(U) Many ofManafort's activities during the post-election period remain unknown to theCommittee, making a complete account ofMa~afort's conduct difficult to reliably determine.
(U) However, the Committee was able to locate or substantiate numerous meetings andcommunications which, while representing only fragmentary and incomplete information, revealthat Manafort actively coordinated with both Kilimnik and associates of Deripaska on multiplelines of effort. Some of these lines of effort continued themes first raised during his tenure on
the Trump Campaign. These included a plan to return Viktor Yanukovych to power in Ukraine
and resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine in a manner beneficial to Russia. They also included· efforts to resolve the Pericles issue with Deripaska and return to a cooperative relationship,including on unspecified areas as the result of a discreet meeting in Spain in early 2017. Otherlines of effort took shape only after Manafort left the Campaign, including efforts involving
Kilimnik, Deripaska, and others to counter the ongoing allegations against them in the press andallegations against Russian interference in the U.S. election more generally.

i.

Kilimnik Seeks to Leverage His Relationshipwith Manafort; Coordinates(U) Immediately after Trump's victory, Kilimnik began considering how to leverage his
relationship with Manafort for influence. One example of this involved Patten, whom Kilimnik
appeared interested in getting appointed to a position inside the U.S. Government. The day after
the election, Kilimnik raised with Patten the idea of "talking to Paul" in order to find a job for
Patten in the incoming administration. 565 Kilimnik raised this idea again the following day,asking Patten "[s]hould I raise you with Paul, so that they could at least have somebody smart
there?" 566 Kilimnik simultaneou.sly claimed that he wanted to be able to continue to makemoney with Patten as part of their joint consulting business, which Patten's joining theadministration would prevent. However; Kilimnik continued to push the issue, telling Patten that"[y]our knowledge of the region is superb, and you could do your country a favor by runningpolicy not based on false perceptions, but on facts:" 567 Patten said he declined K:ilimnik's

564(U) Ibid. p. 76.
(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, November 9, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000289).
566(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, November 10, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000287).
567(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, November 10, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000286). Kilimnik also told Patten thathis "egoistic sense is against mentioning your name in response to Manafort's question." Ibid It is unclear what
. Kilhnnik:s mention of"Manafort's question" refers to, although it seems to suggest that Manafort asked Kilimnik
565

96

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

offer. 568 Kilimnik ultimately said he would tell Manafort that Patten was engaged in othermatters.
(U) Kilimnik also displayed interest in using Manafort to exert influence on politics
elsewhere. For instance, in December 2016, Kilimnik, who knew of Patten's continuing work onpolitical issues in Iraq, sent Patten a request for information about Patten's "Iraq solution" which
Kilimnik thought might be useful to share with Manafort. 569 Kilimnik explained to Patten that he
was interested in using Manafort as a means to influence both the Trump Administration and theRussian government to effect a certain political outcome. 570 Patten agreed that "PJM could be
instrumental in a solution if he will push it actively."571

For more information on Oganov's ties
see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.8.i.c .

•for recommendations for administration positions on Ukraine. Gates recalled that in January 2017, Manafort
claimed he was using intermediaries, including Kushner, to get people appointed to administration positions.
Additionally, Manafort said he had other people helping him, including Rudy Giuliani. FBI, FD-302, Gates,
11/14/2018.
568(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/30/2018.
569(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, December 21, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000234).
570 (U) Ibid. ("At some point I am very interested in a page on Iraq solution. It will be very timely in early January.
Again, not urgent, but pis think ifthere is anything new and how we can organize DT through PIM and Russia into
accepting what is in everybody's best interests. Except probably Iran, but who cares.").
571(U) Email, Patten to Kilimnik, December 21, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000234). Patten may have written a one
page Iraq solution proposal and provided it to Kilimnik, which Patten assumed would be provided to Manafort. At
the time of the December email, Patten knew that Kilimnik was in Moscow and it was possible that Kilimnik shared \this email with someone in Russia, but Patten did not know if Kilimnik did share it. FBI FD-302 Patten 6/12/2018.
572
World Polic Conference, "Geor O anov," 2019·

97

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY'--' The extent of coordination between Manafort's attorney and Oganov is•ii.

(U) Manafort and Kilimnik Communicate with Yanukovych in Russia
Related to Ukraine Plan; Attempt Communications Countermeasures(U) Kilimnik specifically sought to leverage Manafort's contacts with the incoming
Trump administration to advance Kilimnik's agenda, particularly with regard to the Ukraine
plan. Kilimnik thought that Trump could solve Ukraine's problems because of Manafort' s
connection to Trump. 579(U) Kilimnik and Manafort secretly coordinated on Ukraine matters, practicing
communications security through the continued use of foldering. On December 8, 2016,
Kilimnik drafted an email and saved it in his kkilimnik@dmpint.com email account. 580 Manafort
acknowledged reading this email, despite the fact that it was not sent. 581(U) In the email, Kilimnik stated that he had a meeting with "BG" today, a reference to
Yanukovych. 582 Kilimnik relayed that Yanukovych had asked Kilimnik to pass on several items
to Manafort. 583 Among them were messages about a plan to resolve the Ukraine conflict which(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/30/2018.
(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 140.
581
(U) Ibid.
582(U) Email, Kilimnik to Kilimnik, December 8, 2016
SCO Report, Vol. 1, p. 139. According
to Gates, both Manafort and Kilimnik sometimes called Yanukovych "big guy." FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/30/2018.
Other historical communications from Kilimnik refer to Yanukovych as the "BG." Email, Kilimnik to Kasanof,
November 27, 2013 (CDP-2017-0001 lG-001071).
583(U) Email, Kilimnik to Kilimnik, December 8, 2016
Kilimnik appeared to hide his
Ukraine-related efforts with Manafort from Patten, his associate and business partner. In late November
2016, Patten was working to coordinate the hiring of a new social media company and digital vendor for
580

98

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

involved Yanukovych, the same plan that Kilimnik had raised with Manafort during the August
2, 2016 meeting. 584 The email said:
Russians at the very top level are in principle not against this plan and will workwith the BG to start the process of uniting DNR and LNR into one entity, withsecurity issues resolved (i.e. Russian troops withdrawn, radical criminal elements
eliminated). The rest will be done by the BG and his people. 585(U) Kilimnik further wrote that "[a]ll that is required to start the process is a very minor'wink' (or slight push) from DT saying 'he wants peace in Ukraine and Donbass back in
Ukraine' and a decision to be a 'special representative' and manage this process." 586 Following
that, Kilimnik suggested that Manafort "could start the process and within 10 days visit Russia(BG guarantees your reception at the very top level, cutting through all the bullshit and getting
down to business), Ukraine, and key EU capitals." 587 The email also suggested that once thenUkrainian President Petro Poroshenko understood this "message" from the United States, theprocess "will go very fast and DT could have peace in Ukraine basically within a few months
after inauguration. " 588 Kilimnik promised to brief Manafort "in detail" when he next saw him. 589
I

I

I

I

work in Ukraine and asked Kilimnik, "[A]re we still actively not wanting PJM to find out, or does it not
rilatter?" 583 Kilimnik responded that "PJM is NOT part of this whole story, and we do not want him to findout under any circumstances." Emails, Patten and Kilimnik, November 27, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3000264). Days later, Kilimnik would draft the foldered email privately laying out a Ukraine plan for
Manafort.
584(U) Email, Kilimnik to Kilimnik, December 8, 2016
585
(U) Ibid.
586(U) Ibid.
587(U) Ibid.
588(U) Ibid.
589(U) Ibid. Kilimnik also told Manafort that Y anukovych believed the plan would be "hugely beneficial for you
personally because this will open way to a much higher status for you for fixing Ukraine problem and will also open
way to a lot of serious business deals."99

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYiii.

(U) Prior to Kilimnik's December 8, 2016 email, Manafort also communicated with
Kilimnik about setting up a meeting with a Deripaska representative.

Around this same time, Kilimnik and Manafort discussed the meeting via
encrypted chat. A
of some of these encrypted messages between Kilimnik andManafort taken fromand obtained by the Committee suggests the meeting was
designed to be about "re~endship" and "global politics." The below represents theexchange as captured b y - :,.
Kilimnik:3) V understands where you can potentially come and is working with hisboss to get a meeting organized. My understanding is that it will be about
recreating oldfriendship and talking about global politics, not about. money or Pericles.
Kilimnik:
Wonder if I can/should share this with V
Manafort:
Yes you should share. Say I am confused-Nothing to negotiate-No rush to finish

I need this finished before Jan 20. 593- O n January 8, 2017, hours after returning to the United States from atrip to ~ to Madrid, Spain. 598 Manafort met with Oganov in Madrid during
what he claimed was a one-hour breakfast meeting. 599 Manafort told the FBI that, at themeeting, Oganov told him that he needed to meet with Deripaska in person to resolve the
Pericles matter. 600 Manafort agreed but said he would not travel to Ukraine or Russia for the
meeting. 601(U) Manafort provided false and misleading information about the purpose, content, andfollow-up to the meeting with Oganov to both the Committee and the SCO. In particular,
Manafort told the Committee in a written response through counsel that he attended a meeting onor around January 17, 2017, in Madrid with "Georgy Organov." 602 The written response claimed
that the meeting was "regarding a private litigation matter involving Oleg Deripaska." 603 Despite
admitting his attendance at the meeting to the Committee in May 2017, Manafort initially denied.
Committee.

"limnik's first two points which presumably wereof this conversation was available to theetween Kilimnik and Manafort were unavailable to themost all messages on encryp

594

598
(showing Manafort's flight to
Ma n as sc e u e to amve m Ma n on January 9, 2017, at 10:25 a.m. oca time).
599(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/11/2018.
600 (U) Ibid.
'
601(U) Ibid.
602(U) Letter, Brown and Shapiro to SSC!, May 9, 2017. "Organov" is an apparent misspelling ofOganov.
603 (U) Ibid.

101

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

attending the meeting in his interviews with the SCO in the fall of 2018. 604 He eventuallyadmitted to attending the meeting with Oganov, and then repeated what he described in his letterto the Committee-that the meeting had been arranged by his lawyers and concerned only the
Pericles lawsuit. 605
Manafort's claims about the meeting were false. As theabove messages show, t e meeting was not designed to be about Pericles, but was also about
!.

•

!.

•

ed
to mvest1gators .

•I(U) Manafort returned to the United States from Madrid on January 12, 2017. 615 Threedays later, Manafort sent an email to K.T. McFarland, who at the time was designated to become

604
605

(U) SCO Report, Vol.I, p. 142.
Ibid.

606
607

(U) Ibid. It 1s unclear 1fKilimni gamed this knowledge from personally attending the meeting, or fromreceiving a readout from Manafort or Oganov immediately after the meeting.
6os (U) Ibid.
609 (U) Ibid.
610(U) Ibid
611 (U) Ibid.
612(U) Ibid613 (U) Ibid.
614 (U) Ibid.
615(U) Email, Manafort to McFarland, January 15. 2017

102

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

the number two official in Trump's National Security Council and was serving as Flynn's deputyon the Transition. 616 In the email, Manafort asked McFarland if she was in Washington D.C. thatweek and, ifso, if she was willing to meet informally.617 Manafort said he had "some important·
information I want to share that I picked.up on my travels over the last month." 618(U) Before responding to Manafort, McFarland forwarded Manafort's-i;equest to Flynn
and inquired whether she should. agree to meet with Manafort.619 Flynn responded byrecommending that McFarland not meet with Manafort "until we're in the hot seats," presumably. a reference to their taking official roles in the U.S. Government. 620 It is unclear what Manafort
hoped to speak with McFarland about, but he claimed to the SCO it involved matters related to
Cuba, not Russia or Ukraine. 621
iv.

(U) Kilimnik and Lyovochkin Travel to Washington D,C. for
Inauguration, Meet with Manafort and Discuss Ukraine·(U) Shortly after Manafort and Oganov's meeting in Madrid, Kilimnik and Lyovochkintraveled to the United States for the presidential inauguration in January 2017. On the trip,
Kilimnik and Lyovochkin secretly met with Manafort. The content of this meeting is almost
entirely unknown, although Manafort claimed that they discussed the Ukraine plan. 622

In early January 2017, Kilimnik asked Patten to obtain tickets to theinaugur~Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC). According to Patten, Kilimnik
made this request on behalf ofLyovochkiri. 623 Patten eventually obtained tickets through a straw· purchaser, intended for Kilimnik, Lyovochkin, and Vadim NoviIJ.sky, a Ukrainian businessmanand politician affiliated with th~ OB. 624 Only Kilimnik and Lyovochkin ultimately traveled to
the United States in order to attend. Kilimnik departed from Moscow and landed at Washington

616(U) Ibid(U) Ibid.
618 (U) Ibid.
619(U) Ibid
62o~bid
617

621
SCO Report, Vol. 1, p. 142. In particular, Manafort claimed that it deiilt with an effort
Mana ort un ertoo with Brad Z.ackson, who had arranged a meetin between Manafort and "Castro's son" inHavana Cuba. FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/11/2018; see also
- ( s h o w i n g Manafort and Zackson on same flig t ooking to Havana .
(U) SCO Report, Vol. 1, p. 142; FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/11/2018.
623(U) It is illegal fot foreign nationals to purchase tickets to the PIC's events.
624(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018.

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Dulles on January 19, 2017.625 That evening,_Patten, Kilimnik, Lyovochkin, and a pollster who
had worked with Kilimnik and Patten in Ukraine had dinner together. 626(U) The day of the inauguration, Patten, Lyovochkin, and Kilimnik had lunch inAlexandria, Virginia.627 Kilimnik told Patten that he was nervous that he would see Manafort
because Kilimnik knew that Manafort resided in Alexandria. 628 Patten believed Kilimnik wastrying to distance himself from Manafort in furtherance of his work in Ukraine. 629 Unbeknownst
to Patten, Kilimnik and Lyovochkin met with Manafort at the Westin in Alexandria during thistrip.630(U) According to Gates, Manafort had at some point mentioned the possibility of
returning to do work in Ukraine, and the only name Manafort had mentioned in this context was~yovochkin. 631 · As noted above, Lyovochkin had paid for Manafort,'s work in Ukraine in prioryears, and Kilimnik maintained an exceptionally close relationship with Lyovochkin throughout
2016 and 2017. While the Committee has no further evidence of direct communications between
Lyovochkin and Manafort after this meeting, Manafort continued to work closely on Ukraine
issues with Kilimnik:(U) According to Patten, he and Kilimnik watched the inaugurationin the lobby of the
Mandarin Oriental hotel in Washington; D.C., where Patten understood Kilimnik was staying. 632
That evening, Patten and Lyovochkin briefly attended an inaugural ball .. Kilimnik told Pattenthat he was staying in his hotel room. 633.,,.

Kilimnik departed from the United States on the evening of January
22, 2017, returning to Moscow. 634 .
·e.
(U) Emai s, Patten an,- ,(SSCI 2017-48 - ,,, Patten
5/22/2018.
627(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 11/27/2018. In a separate debriefing, Patten stated that the three had dinner at "EON"in Alexandria, but did not specify the date. This may have been a reference to Restaurant Eve, a now-closed
restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia.
628(U) Ibid
629(U) Ibid
630(U) SCO Report, Vol. 1, p. 142.
631
(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018. Gates also recalled that at some point around the inauguration, Manafort
had said that nobody would care about Crimea because Russia's takeover was already complete. According toGates, Manafort had previously done polling in 2014 regarding Ukrainians' views on Crimea.
632(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 11/27/2018; 5/22/2018.
.
.
633
FBI FD-302 Patten 11/27/2018.

104

v.

(U) Kilimnik and Manafort Meet in Madrid; Discuss Counter-Narratives
and Ukraine

On February 23, 2017, Kilimnik: flew from Kyiv to Moscow, where
he stayed for four days before flying to Madrid on February 26, 2017. 641 The Committee has no
insight into Kilimnik:'s activities in Moscow during this time. Kilimnik was scheduled to arrivein Madrid on the morning of February 26, 2017. 642 On February 25, 2017, Manafort departed
from New York City and arrived in Madrid on a flight scheduled to arrive on the morning of
February 26, 2017. 643(U) After arriving in Madrid, Kilimnik and Manafort met. The majority of what
Manafort and Kilimnik said during this meeting is unknown. 644 In his interviews with the SCO,
Manafort initially denied meeting with Kilimnik in Madrid. However,, once confronted with

635

1 i .
Ibid.
63s (U) Ibid.
639 (U) Ibid.
640
Ibid.
636 (U)

637 (U)

64

Manafort traveled on aboo mg ma e wit
The Committee did not engage
Hoyos-Aliff.
644(U) Manafort's account of the meeting, which came after repeated false statements about whether a meeting with
Kilimnik occurred, is the Committee's sole source information about the meeting.

105

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

travel records showing that Kilimnik was also in Madrid at the same time, Manafort ultimately
admitted that he met with Kilimnik in Madrid during the February trip. 645(U) According to Manafort, Kilimnik had been putting together background informationon the status ofinquiries by reporters and investigators about Manafort's activities inKyiv, atManafort's request. 646 Martafort claimed that Kilimnik came to Madrid to update him on the .
· work of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau relat~d to the ledger. 647 Manafort further claimed
that he met with Kilinmik for an hour and a half at Manafort's hotel, where Kilimnik told himthat the criminal investigation in Ukraine was "going nowhere." 648 Ma~afort claimed he did npt
ask Kilimnik to Madrid in order to talk about the peace plan, but he said Kilimnik would have'raised it. 649

Kilimnik was scheduled todepart Madrid a~d return to Moscow on a flight departing just after midnight early on February
27, 2017. 650 Manafort subsequently traveled.to Shanghai and possibly other locations, and did
not return to the U~ited States until over a week later.651
vi.

(U) Russian Influence Operations to Undermine Investigations into
Russian Interference·

The Committee observed numerous Russian-government
actorsat east January 2020 consistently spreading overlapping false
narratives which sought to discredit investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S.
elections and spread false information about the events of 2016. Manafort, Kilimnik, Deripaska,
and others associated with Deripaska participated in these influence operations. As part of these
efforts, Manafort and Kilimnik both sought to promote the narrative that Ukraine, not Russia,
had interfered in the 2016 U.s: election and that the "led er" namin a ments to Manafort was
fake. These efforts coincided with aand related efforts by Deripaska to discredit investigations into Russian meddling.
Similarities in narrative content, the use of common dissemination platforms, the involvement of
Kremlin agents Kilimnik and Deripaska, andall suggest that these influence
efforts were coordinated to some degree.

645(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.
(U) Ibid
647(U) Ibid
648(U) lb id
649
Ibid
646

650
651
652

106

(U) These influence efforts took place in the larger context of existing Russian
information operations targeting Ukraine and the United States.

(U) In August 2016, immediately after news articles regarding Manafort' s work in
Ukraine, Manafort and Kilimnik began discussing the Ukrainian government's supposed
involvement in the reporting. Manafort claimed that then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
was behind the media campaign to "smear" Manafort. 660 Manafort said Poroshenko had
fabricated the "black ledger" and was supporting Hillary Clinton. 661 Manafort recalled that, atsome point, Lyovochkin heard from Poroshenko that the U.S. Embassy was pressuring Ukraine's
National Anti-Corruption Bureau for information on Manafort. 662 Kilimnik promoted the653
654 (U)

I id.
Ibid.
656 (U) Ibid.
657 (U) Ibid.
65s (U) Ibid.
659 (U) Ibid.
660(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/2/2018.
661 (lJ) Ibid.
662(lJ) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 10/1/2018. Manafort did not specify if this came directly from Lyovochkin, or
through Kilimnik. Gates also recalled that Lyovochkin reached out to Manafort once or twice. The first time was to655 (lJ)

107

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYnarrative that the Ukrainian authorities had "artificially instigated" stories related to Manafort's
work in Ukraine, including the alleged black ledger.663(U) The day after Manafort resigned, Kilimnik was coordinating with Manafort tocounteract negative public media. For example, Kilimnik wrote an email to Patten in which hesaid that he was "talking to PJM" and suggested that they were considering suing reporters who
published negative articles about Kilimnik and Manafort.664

I(U) Kilimnik almost certainly helped arrange some of the first public messaging thatUkraine had interfered in the U.S. election. On August 23, 2016, Kilimnik exchanged emails
with Roman Olearchyk, a journalist with the Financial Times in Kyiv. 665 Five days later, theFinancial Times published an article by Olearchyk, entitled "Ukraine's leaders campaign against'pro-Putin' Trump." 666 The article quoted " a former Yanukovich loyalist now playing a lead rolein the Regions party's successor, called Opposition Bloc" who, according to the article, " letloose a string of expletives" and "accused western media of ' working in the interests of Hillary
Clinton by trying to bring down Trump. "'667 After the article was published, Kilimnik shared thearticle with Gates with the subject "FT - unbelievable." 668 In the email, Kilimnik explained toGates that "these idiots actually admit that PP' s government was deliberately trying todiscuss a story on Manafort for which reporters had contacted Lyovochkin for comment. This may be a reference toKilimnik's outreach in late July 2016, see infra Vol. 5, Sec.A.5.vii.
663(U) Email, Kilimnik to Marson, August 18, 20 I 6 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000414--416). Kilimnik appeared to beunder the impression that Trump believed that Ukraine interfered. Kilimnik made this statement in a private email
with a journalist, making the accuracy of the statement is difficult to assess. The Committee's efforts focused oninvestigating Russian interference in the 20 16 election. However, during the course of the investigation, theCommittee identified no reliable evidence that the Ukrainian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.
664(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, August 20, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000408). Although Kilimnik's reference tothese communications with Manafort were reflected in Kilimnik's communication to Patten, the Committee was notable to obtain the underlying communications between Manafort and Kilimnik.
665(U) Emails, Kilimnik and Olearchyk, August 23, 2016 (SSC! 2017-4885-3-000384).
666(U) Roman Olearchyk, "Ukraine's leaders campaign against ' pro-Putin' Trump," Financial Times, August 28,
2016.
667
(U) Ibid. The Committee did not obtain direct evidence that Kilimnik was involved in arranging this quote, but
given Kilimnik's communications with Olearchyk, his other efforts to promote the Ukraine interference messages,
and his intimate involvement with the OB and its leadership, his involvement seems likely.
668(U) Email, Kilimnik to Gates, August 29, 20 16 (Gates Production). Kilimnik also sent the article to Patten.
Email, Kilimnik to Patten, August 29, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000376).

108

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMlTTEE SENSITIVE. - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
destabilize T~mp's campaign."669 Kilimnik told Gates that "this article is actually helpful to us"
and said that he "hope[s] DT sees it." 670(U) Kilimnik also updated Manafort on the Ukrainian government's investigation into
Manafort and other related investigations, including their key players and progress. In late,;,November 2016, Kilimnik sent Manafort a summary of an interview with the head of Ukraine's
Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO). 671 In the email, Kilimnik explained toManafort that parts of the interview were "very relevant to us" and highlighted several
narratives, including around Ukrainian parliamentarian Serhiy Leshchenko' s role in the releaseof the "black ledger": ·The prosecutor who is investigating the. case is basically making a point that a).the_ scans ofalleged "black ledger;' appeared in public domain in violation ofexisting procedures and were used for a specific purpose by Leschenko andAvakov, b) there is no evidence than any of that stuff is .real, and have been noreal movement since the·beginningofinvestigation in august, and c) there areabsolutely no grounds to suspect anyone, especially PJM in this whole thing. 672(U) Manafort appears to have been involved in efforts to arrange a call between
Poroshenko and Trump after the election, which appears to have been motivated byManafort's own interest in countering these same Ukrainian criminal investigations.
•(U) On November 10, 2016, Kilimnik forwarded a foreign press article toManafort and Gates about the inv~stigations in Ukraine. The article discussed
Ukrainian politicians aligned with Poroshenko's political party who had reversed
course after Trump's victory and were now accusing Leshchenko of "falsifying
evidence'' in a Ukrainian criminal case related to Mariafort. 673 Kilimnik believedthat Leshchenko was "part of the group of deputies who launched [a] PR
offensive in coordination with HRC HQ and poured mud over us in the media,

669(U) Email, Kilimnik to Gates, August 29, 2016 (Gates Production).
Ibid Additionally, on September 5, 2016, Manafort and Roger Stone conducted three calls for a total calltime of26 minutes. AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures. The next day; Stone tweeted about the same
· Financial Times article, stating that ''the only interference in the US election is from Hillary's friends in Ukraine."
Internet Archive;Capture of twitter.com/rogerjstonejr/status/773162795240189952, October 17, 2016; Thomas Rid,
"Who's Really to Blame for the 'Ukraine Did It' Conspiracy Theory?" The Atlantic, December 5, 2019.
671(U) Email, Kilimnik to Manafort and Gates, November 19, 2016 (SSC! 2017-4885-3-000268-269), The head of
SAPO, Nazar Kholodnytskyy, would continue making allegations related to U.S .. involvement in the ~afort caseand the "black ledger" through 2019. See, e.g., John Solomon, "How the Obama White House engaged Ukraine togive Russia collusion narrative an early boost," The Hill, April 25, 2019.
672·(U) Ibid Arsen Avakov is the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs.
673(U) Email, Kilimnik to Manafort and Gates, November 10, 2016 (DITFP00024681).
670 (U)109

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

using false evidence and copies of something resembling 'black accounting bookof PR.' " 674•(U) After receiving Kilimnik's November 10, 2016 email, Manafortmessaged
Gates, writing: "This makes the Frank project even more timely. Let me know if
Frank [Mermoud] can do what we discussed." 675 According to Gates,-Manafort, had asked Gates to reach out to Mermoud to offer Manafort's assistanceto then.
Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly in repairing
relationships Manafort believed Poroshenko had damaged. 676--•(U) The next day, November 11, 2016, Mermoud emailed Chaly and asked for aphone call to discuss a matter which Mermoud that Chaly would find "of interestand value."677 Mermoud informed Gates that he had messaged Chaly "to ask fora phone call." 678 On November 13, 2016, Mermoud forwarded to Gates amessage which Mermoud had received from Chaly, stating: "Got it. [We] are incontact with ·his• executive assistant Ms. Rhona Graf. Still waiting for
confirmation of slot for a phone call by my President on Tuesday." 679 On
November 15, 2016, Trump and Poroshenko held their first call. 680•(U) After the call, Mermoud and Gates discussed arranging a meeting between
Manafort and Chaly. ·On November 22, 2016, Mermoud messaged Gates: "Ambojust called me .... Said he would welcome meeting with Paul. He has some
information to share."681 Gates responded, ''Interesting. I will share with P."
Several days later, Mermoud informed Gates that he would be meeting with
Chaly on a separate subject soon and asked if he had "any guidance" from
Manafort. 682 Gates responded that the·"[o]nly guidance is to reinforce the674(U) Ibidt(U) Email, Manafort to Gates, November 10, 2016 (DJTFP00024681).
676(U) FBI, FD-302,.Gates 2/2/2018.
677(U) Email, Mermoud to Chaly, November 11, 2016 (ORPS000l,03).
678(U) Text Message, Mermoud to Gates, November 13, 2016 (ORP3000003).
679(U) Text Message, Mermoud.to Gates, November 13, 2016 (ORP3000003).
680(U) "President Poroshenko had a phone call with President-electDonald Trump," President of Ukraine, Official· Website, November 15, 2016. Beyond a briefreadout of the call provided by the Ukrainian government, thesubstance of the call is unknown.
681(U) Text message, Mermoud to Gates, November 22, 2016 (ORP3000003).
682(U) Text message, Gates to Mermoud, November 28, 2016 (ORP3000003).
675

110

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
previous points" and to tell Chaly that Manafort had "helped organize the callbetween the two presidents." 683 Mermoud met with Chaly the next day. 684

I(U) While he was discussing Ukrainian investigations with Manafort, Kilimnik helped
write an opinion article under Lyovochkin's name that included similar themes. 691 Kilimnik andPatten circulated a draft of the article in January 2017, which included language suggesting thatUkraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) had "manufactur[ed] a case" against
Manafort. 692 The article further insinuated that Trump had no Russia ties, stating that there was

683(U) Text message, Mermoud to Gates, November 28, 2016 (ORP3000003).
(U) Text message, Mermoud to Gates, November 29, 2016 (ORP3000003). After the meeting, Mermoud asked
to s eak with Gates resumabl on matters related to Manafort.
685
In February 2017, Putin publicly alleged that
there was U raiman in uence in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Kremlin.ru, "Joint news conference with
Hun arian Prime Minister Viktor Orban," Febru
2 2017.
684

686
687
688 (U)

!bi .
Ibid.
690 (U) Ibid.
691(U) Emails, Kilimnik and Patten, January 26, 2017 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000211-213) (attaching draft opinion
article).
692 (U) Ibid.
689 (U)111

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY"no real fire behind all this smoke."693 The article ultimately was published by U. S. News &World Report on February 6, 2017.694(U) Manafort embraced and promoted the narrative of Ukraine' s alleged involvement in
the 2016 elections. For example, in a February 2017 meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Manafort
discussed how Ukraine, not Russia had meddled in the election. In an email to Trump Jr.,
Manafort shared a Politico article that seems to have underpinned repeated claims by others
helping advance this narrative. 695
From:
Sent:
To.
Subject :Paul Manafort [pmanafort@dmpint.com]
2/14/2017 4·15:07 PM
Donald Trump Jr. Vo=Exchangelabs/ou=Exchange Adm1n1strat,ve Group(FYOIBOHF23SPOLT)/cn=Recipients/m=3e47f0472653400d85d07849e0f57b42•djt jrl
Enjoyed our meeting

Don
It was great to reconnect. I am p ursuing the topics we discussed and w i ll be back t o you.
On a separate note, I have past ed below the Ken Vogel story in Politico that ran about 3 weeks ago. He lays out clearly t heconspiracy to Implement the disi nformation campaign on me between the DNC/Obama Administration and the Govt of
Ukraine.The Ukr aine Govt has now totally backed off saying that there 1s no interest ever in me and t he ledger was a falsified
document.
Of coarse, now with the Flynn resignation, all o f this w,11 be dragged up again, wi th no facts and no bas,s for anyt hing.
Best
Paul
hill jJ\\ \\W p,1h11co.uJJ]11,10J:::CJ.!.l.1L!1 l_il1k1a1nc:&i»WJ:!'•lnl!l)j>-hacllirc.:ll.• 1-1.!.>(U) As described above, in late-February 2017 Manafort met with Kilimnik in Madrid to
discuss the Russia-related investigations, including the one in Ukraine, which Kilimnik said was"going nowhere."696693 (U)694

Ibid.
(U) Serhiy Lyovochkin, "Ukraine Can Win in the Trump Age," US News & World Report, February 6, 2017.
Patten pleaded guilty to violating FARA based, in part, on his efforts drafting and placing this article with Kilimnik.
Criminal Information, United States v. W Samuel Patten, Case No: 1:l 8-cr-260 (D.D.C. August 31 , 2018).
695(U) Email, Manafort to Trump Jr., February 14, 2017 (TRUMPORG_76_001 248) ; see also Emails, Manafort
and Trump Jr., February 2-6, 2016 (indicating that Manafort planned to meet Trump Jr. in Trump Jr. ' s New York
office on February 7, 2016). The Politico article Manafort sent would be used by others close to Manafort to makethe case that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the U.S. elections. For example, on August 22, 20 17, Kilimnik's
alias Twitter account, @PBaranenko, retweeted a story by Sputnik reporter Lee Stranahan who used the Politico
article as a basis to legitimize his claims that DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa and the Ukrainian government was"THE REAL 2016 Election Interference." Tweet, @PBaranenko, August 22, 2018 (Retweet of @stranahan).
696(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/ 13/2018.

112

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it is likely that some coordination occurred
between Deripaska-directed efforts and those undertaken by Kilimnik and Manafort. 697•• - O n March 22, 2017, the Associated Press published an article~ in the mid-2000s proposed a confidential plan to influencepolitics, business dealin s, and news covera e to " eatl benefit the Putin
Government. " 701

As of February 2017, Waldman sought to engage Vice Chairman Warner related totwo separate c 1ents: Julian Assange, on a potential deal with the U.S. Government related to an investigation into
Assange and Assange's possession of documents later known as "Vault 7"; and Christopher Steele, about his
involvement in re arts that had recent! been released related to the Trum Cam ai n Manafort and others. ■According to Wal man's
communications, as of mid-February 2017, Wa man was aware that t e WikiLeaks release of Vault 7 documents
would severely damage U.S. national security and the CIA. Text message, Waldman to Warner, February 16, 2017
(AW 00000075 .
70rump Job, Manafort Worked to Aid Putin," Associated
702

113

•

(U) Shortly thereafter, on March 25, 2017, Waldman discussed with Vice Chairman
Warner the possibility of a potential Committee engagement with Deripaska. 704
Waldman said that he raised the idea with Deripaska, who would be in London in the
coming days, and that Deripaska was potential~y interested in;the engagement.705•(U) On March 28·, 2017, Deripaska took out several large advt1rtisements in major U.S.
newspapers offering to testify before the SSCI and the HPSCI. Waldman later explainedthat he understood that Deripaska intended to testify not about potential election
interference, but rather about Manafort. 706(U) As of June 2017, Kilimnik continued to engage with Manafort on Ukrainian
investigations related to Manafort. Kilimnik emailed Manafort about statements from Ukraine's
SAPO, including a statement claiming that Manafort was not a subject of SAPO's investigation
into the "black ledger" because of a lack of evidence. 707 Kilimnik told Manafort that thestatement was "a big deal" and suggested that "[y]our people should see this."708(U) Also in mid-2017, other Russian-government proxies and personas worked to spreadthe false narrative that Ukraine interfered in the U.S. election. On July 12, 2017, Cyber
Berkut-which had been dormant for months-alleged on its blog that Ukraine had interfered in
the 2016 U.S. elections.709 In the post, Cyber Berkut claimed that hacked emails revealed a setof financial transactions between Viktor Pinchuk and the Clinton Foundation. 710 On July 13,
2017, @USA_Gunslinger, a long-running false persona account of the Internet Research Agency(IRA), tweeted about "Clinton and her campaign team's collusion with Ukraine to interfere in.
the US election."711·'

On July 24, 2017, Ukrainian parliamentarian Andrii Derkachainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko to ask Lutsenko to investigate

703(U) Ibid(U) Text Messages, Waldman and Warner, March 23-25, 2017 (AW_000()0082).
10s (U) Ibid.
706(U) Waldman Tr., p. 109.
.
707(U) Email, Kilimnik to Manafort and Gates, June 5, 2017 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000118).
708(U) Ibid
709(U) CyberBerkut was a fake persona controlled by the GRU. Chris Bing, "Russian hacker group 'CyberBerkut'
returns to public light with allegation against Clinton," CyberScoop, July 12, 2017.
710(U) Ibid
711(U) IRA handles (June 2018); 4332740714-tweets.txt; Thomas Rid, "Who's Really to Blame for the 'Ukraine
Did It' Conspiracy Theory?" The Atlantic, December 5, 2019. ·· ·
704

114

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
"interference" in the 2016 U.S. elections, articular! as it related to NABU's role in thisinterference. 712(U) Kilimnik also worked to conduct messaging to U.S. Government officials and the
media to undercut other Ukrainian government investigations related to Manafort. 716 In
September 2017, Kilimnik sharec:J a letter with Patten that Lyovochkin and his OB associates.
drafted allegedly on behalf of Oleksandr Lavrynovych:7 17 Lavrynovych is a former Ukrainianjustice minister who was involved in_Manafort's 2011 hiring of U.S. law firm Skadden, Arps,
Meagher & Flom LLP for Ukraine-related work, and who had come under investigation by
Ukrainian authorities. 718 Lyovochkin wanted to use Kilimnik to push this letter to embassies andthe media. 719 ·. Kilimnik also noted that Lyovochkin separately wanted to write a similar letter to
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich and U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine
Negotiations Kurt Volker on the matter. 720·•(U) Ibid.
Ibid.
716(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, September 19, 2017 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000038).
717(U) Ibid.
718 (U) See, e.g., Kenneth P. Vogel and Andrew E. Kramer, "Skadden, Big New York Law Firm, Faces Questions
on Work With Manafort," September 21, 2017. Separately, when the Skadden work came under public andgovernment scrutiny, Manafort, Gates, and Kilimnik talked about purging documents related to a report Skadden
produced for the PoR. Manafort said to purge all evidence of the coordination with Skadden attorneys. After this
discussion, Gates deleted some emails. Gates deleted more emails in 2016 after he learned about inquiries from
DOJ's FARA unit. FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/31/2018.
719(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, September 19, 2017 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000038).
720(U) Ibid.

11s (U)115

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I

I

I
I
I

721
722
723
724
725

(U) Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
727(U) Ibid.
728(U) Ibid.
726

116

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•

• - O n May 14, 2018, Solomon published an article in The Hill
~ e a Conflict-And It Leads Directly to a Russian Oligarch,"which outlined, including Deripaska's alleged
cooperation with the FBI on matters related to Robert Levinson and im 1 in that his~the FBI might create a "conflict" for the SCO. 734- S o l o m o n appeared on Hannity's television show that evening to discuss the· same allegations. 735·

729(U) Ibid. Waldman's contact with Jones is discussed infra, Section 4.B.6.vi.
(U) Ibid.
731 (U) Ibid.
732 (U) Ibid.
733 (U) Ibid.
734(U) John Solomon, "Mueller May Have a Conflict~And It Leads Directly to a Russian Oligarch," The Hill,
May 14, 2018.
735"Transcri t: Conflict of interest for Robert Mueller?" Fox News, May 14, 2018.
730

736

117

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) On March 20, 2Ql9, Solomon published an article from an interview he conductedwith former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. In the interview, Lutsenko
made the false claim that, in 2016, the then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie
Yovanovich, passed him a list of individuals who should not be prosecuted. 739 The day
Solomon's article was published, Trump retweeted it. 740

•
...I
A su

•

osed coof the list turned u in an online forum.

(U) On the same day, Solomon published a second article derived from the sameinterview with Lutsenko. 745 That article repeated Lutsenko's .claim that he had "opened aprobe into alleged attempts by Ukrainians to interfere in the 2016 U.s: presidential

738(U) Ibid(U) John Solomon, "Top Ukrainian justice official says US ambassador gave him a do not prosecute list," The
Hill, March 20, 2019. Lutsenko's claim that he was given a "list" of individuals to not prosecute was false; he laterrecanted it.
740(U) Tweet, @realDonaldTrump, March 20, 2019. On May 7, 2019, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Yovanovitch
was recalled earl from Ukraine.
739

741
742 (U)743/. id(U) Debatepolitics.com, "The names of 'improsecutable' Ukrainians from the Yovanovitch list got out," March
25, 2019.

744

see a so Ben Nimmo, "UK Trade Leaks and Secon ary Infektion: New Fin mgs
an Insights from a Known Russian Operation," Graphika, December 2019.
745(U) John Solomon, "Senior Ukrainian official says he's opened probe into US election interference," The Hill,
March 20, 2019.

118

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

election."746 Kilimnik, using an alias Twitter ac~ount registered under a false persona,
retweeted the story. 747•

Kilimnik had previously reached out to Lutsenko jn late 2016
in an apparent ef ort to propose that Lutsenko pursue political office with the assistanceof Kilimnik and others. In November 2016, Patten and Kilimnik arranged for a pollingcompany to test the viability of a new political party which would include KHtschko,
Lutsenko, and two other Ukrainian political figures. 748 The poll work was likely fundedby Lyovochkin. Email communi,cations suggest Patten reviewed the proposal, andKilimnik planned to deliver the ro osal to Lutsenko in December 2016
L ovochkin's instructions. 749(U) Starting in 2017, and continuing at least until late 2019, Kilimnik used an alias
Twitter account registered under a false persona to push a variety of false information, much ofwhich centered on efforts to discredit the Russia investigations and assert that Ukraine, notRussia, had intervened in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. 751

746(U) Ibid(U) Tweet, @PBaranenko, March 20, 2019 (Retweet of@JackPosobiec).
748(U) Slide deck, "Ukraine November Survey Presentation," December 4, 2016 (SP_OSC_000702-759); Email,Kilimnik to Patten, et al., December 18, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-000237) (responding to a email with a document"Lutsenko vote and coalitions").
.
149
Ibid
747

750
751
(U) K11mn tweets un er ea 1as Petro Baranenko @PBaranenko). Twitter, @pbaranenko (accountinformation showing account creati9n email ofborattulukbaev@yahoo.com). While the @PBaranenko account was
registered in February 2017, the earliest tweet the Committee obtained was from August 1, 2017. A separate
account in true name, @k_ kilimnik, is no longer active. This account could have been affiliated with Kilimnik, but
the Committee could not confirm that it was. In 2018 and 2019, Kilimnik used his @PBaranenko account to tweet avariety of pro-Russian themes, including false information about NotPetya, Bill Browder, Malaysian Airlines flight
MH-17, and the 2014 Maydan protests. For example, Kilimnik retweeted a claim "[t]he stakes are rising as they try
to keep the truth about Browder from coming out." Tweet, @PBaran.enko, September 15, 2018 (retweet of@TFL 1728). Kilimnik also retweeted a tweet disparaging Bellingcat and Eliot Higgins; using #Bellingcrap and#MRI 7 and attaching an image purporting to show that part of Bellingcat' s analysis of the MH-17 BuK launcher
was "made up." Tweet, @PBaranenko, September 17, 2018 (retweet of@Deus_ Abscondis). On September 23,·2018, Kilimnik retweeted the same account, which purported to show that the serial number depicted in images of
missile parts related to the MH-17 shootdown was a "forgery." Tweet, @PBaranenko, September 23, 2018 (retweet
of@Deus_Abscondis). Kilimnik also repeatedly pushed false information claiming that those Maydan participants
killed in the protests where shot by "Georgian snipers" as part of a "false flag." Tweet, @PBaranenko, March 18,
2019 (retweet of@elenaevdokimov7).

119

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY,-,COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) Kilimnik repeatedly tweeted information related to the Bidens and Ukraine, much ofwhich originated from Solomon. For example, on April 1, 2019, Kilimnik retweeted
Solomon's own tweet linking to his article in The Hill titled, "Joe Biden's 2020
Ukrainian nightmare: A closed probe is revived." 752 On May 14, 2019, Kilimnik
tweeted, "Ukraine's Prosecutor General Lutsenko is ready to provide payment orders
concerning Hunter Biden, says there are payments for millions USD" and attached a linkto an article about the issue.753•(U) On September 16, 2018, Kilimnik retweeted a tweet by Donald Trump which stated,"The illegal Mueller Witch Hunt continues in search of a crime. There was neverCollusion with Russia, except by the Clinton campaign;"754•(U) On August 22, 2018, Kilimnik retweeted Sputnik reporter Lee Stranahan' s tweet
related to allegations that Alexandra Chalupa, a former DNC contractor, was involved ininterfering in the U.S. elections and that the "real" election interference had been between
the DNC and Ukraine. 755 Kilimnik retweeted Stranahan or others restating Stranahan'sclaims on this theme dozens of times. In January 2019, Kilimnik used his persona's
account to send a single direct message to Stranahan. 756

752(U) Tweet, @PBaranenko, April 1, 2019 (Retweet of@jsolomonReports).
(U) Tweet, @PBaranenko, May 14, 2019.
754(U) Tweet, @PBaranenko, September 16, 2018 (Retweet of@rea!DonaldTrump).
755(U) Tweet, @PB aranenko, August 22, 2018 (Retweet of @stranahan).
753

756
757

120

l

vii.

(U) Manafort's Continued Efforts with Kilimnik on Ukraine; Kilimnik's
Own Continued Activities(U) After the U.S. presidential election, Kilimnik and Patten began developing ideas forpeaceful settlement to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Kilimnik and Patten drafted a paper
outlining the plan, which was to decentralize power, limit Kyiv's role in running the country,
engage in direct bilateral talks between Poroshenko and Putin, and focus on local electjons. 763

762
763

4885-3-000014-18) (attaching an document entitled "Re-Framing the Russia-Ukraine Conflict in Pursuit of an
Outside the Box Pathway to Peace" edited by both Patten and Kilimnik).
·

121

r

The plan included having the United States serve as an honest broker and work directly with
Russia at the highest levels to resolve the conflict.764 Patten recalled Kilimnik discussing exiled
former PoR members living in Moscow-including Yanukovych-whom Kilimnik collectively
called "the refugees."765 Kilimnik was interested in these refugees and their possible return topolitics in Ukraine.766 -··(U) Kilimnik used his work with Patten to test the viability of a Y anukovych return.
Patten recalled conducting at least one poll with Kilimnik in 2017 as part of their ongoing workfor the OB. 767 In mid-2017, Kilimnik and Patten organized a survey at Kilimnik's urging to, inpart, discreetly measure voters' openness to Yanukovych's return?68 According to Patten,
Kilimnik thought that ifYanukovych returned to politics in eastern Ukraine, it would help the
OB because Yanukovych would bring strong leadership back to the OB. 769 The poll revealed
that Yanukovych was not viable at that time. 770 While Patten was.aware thatKilimnik would
periodically mention Y anukovych, Patten claimed he never got the sense that Kilimnik wastrying to push Yanukovych's retum. 771 Patten also believed that Kilimnik was attempting to
distance himself from Manafort in furtherance ofKilimnik's own ongoing work in Ukraine. 772
As described infra, emails, testimony, and records show that Kilimnik had, in fact, engaged in aneffort to return Yanukovych to Ukraine since 2016 and extending to at least 2018.
(U) Kilimnik separately continued to push the Y anukovych peace plan with Manafort
and others. By early 2018, Kilimnik was again working with Manafort-who was undercriminal indictment in the United States-in an: attempt to organize a poll in Ukraine that would
quietly try to gauge voter sentiment on Y anukovych. Kilimnik and Mariafort planned to use thepoll, which tested other Ukrainian political issues and OB politicians, to gauge voter sentimentfor"the peace plan involving Yanukovych without overtly revealing the purpose of the poll.
Manafort worked with Fabrizio's company in an effort to create a questionnaire for the poll.
Kilimnik, meanwhile, directly coordinating these efforts with Yanukovych in Russia.

764(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/30/2018.
(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 11/27/2018.
766(U) Ibid
767(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/30/2018.
_.,,
768(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten and Garrett, July 31, 2017 (SSC! 2017-4885-3-000024--26) ("I would also
discreetly measure Y anukovich"). Patten recalled that the poll tested a wide variety of issues, but included questions
designed to test voters' sentiment ofYanukovych. FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/30/2018. See also Email; Kilimnik to
Patten and Garrett, July 11, 2017 (SSC! 2017-4885-3-000054) (responding to focus group testing, Kilimnik asked if
respondents were "open to Yanuk return" which he believed was an "important question.").
769(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/30/2018. The OB had been suffering from internal personality conflicts, which
Kilimnik had long worked to resolve.
770(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 11/21/2018.
771 (U) Ibid
772
(U) Ibid
765

122

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE..:.. RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) At approximately the same time, Manafort shared a draft of the Kilimnik-authoredplan with Fabrizio and his firm for their use in creating polling questions to test its viability. 777
The draft plan, which aimed to gamer Trump's support, was obtained by the Committee and isreproduced below.
A New Initiative to Settle the Conflict in South-East of Ukraine
The beginning of 2018 has seen an increase in violence in the conflict zone of theSouth-Eastern Ukraine. Each day brings news about casualties on the [sic] bothsides, while the Minsk agreements are stalling because the [sic] both sides of theconflict lack desire to achieve peace. 'The leadership of Ukraine represented by President Poroshenko is not interested
in the [sic] peaceful settlement, and has been using the conflict to justify its failed
economic policy. The toxicity of the leaders ofDNR and LNR is complicating
their participation in the negotiations' process, and in fact is depriving millions of
the region's residents of the right to be represented in the [sic] international
politics. Neither Kyiv, nor DNR/LNR want Donbass back in Ukraine. Thisnullifies the efforts of the international community aimed at stopping the conflict.
Continuation of the conflict in Donbass leads to uncontrolled scenarios, andpresents a risk of the violence getting out to other countries of the region. In

776 (U)

1 id.

777 (U) Email, Manafort to Fabrizio and Ward, February 21, 2018 (FAB010190).

123

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY'--'

order to preventit a new approach to settlement of the conflict and return of thecountry to peace and civic accord is needed.
The proposed approach envisions:
1) Cr~ation of a new entity- The Autonomous Republic ofDonbass (ARD), which ..
will be an autonomous region of Ukraine. The ARD will be created within theborders ofDonetsk and Luhansk oblasts that existed prior to April 2014, when thearmed conflict began. A decision to create the ARD should ideally be passed by aprotocol ofNormandy format meeting.
2) Passing of a special law by Verkhovna Rada, which will determine the legal
status and timeframe of incremental reintegration of the ARD into Ukraine. Thismeasure will immediately unblock the peaceful process and.create conditions for
implementation of a joint plan ofceasefire. If the Rada does not pass this law,
President Poroshenko should approve it by his Decree and disband the
Verkhovna Rada as an obstacle to implementation ofpeace agreements.
3) Election of the Prime Minister for the transitional period based on theguidelines of a temporary Constitution of the ARD. The Prime Minister of the
ARD shall be elected by the Parliament (People's Assembly) of the ARD and willlead the process ofnegotiations to settle the conflict between the ARD and
Ukraine. The Prime Minister ofthe ARD shall be a legitimate and plenipotentiary
representative of the ARD in talks with international structures within theframework ofprograms to rebuild the economy and overcome the consequencesof the armed conflict. An optimal candidate for this job is Victor Yanukovich.
Based on his experience and respect in the region he is able to create thenecessary conditions for peaceful settlement and restoration of the politicalbalance in Donbass.
A key driver that will bring back the dynamics into the peaceful settlement
process can be an initiative of the President of the United States Donald Trump
proposing to create the ARD and involve Mr. Yanukovich into the peacefulsettlement process; This initiative then can be raised by representatives of theUnited States during their contacts with their Russian counterparts. In case ofagreement ofRussia and Mr. Yanukovich such initiative will make it possible toquickly develop a road map for settlement of the conflict and approve it soonest at
a Normandy format meeting.
Another key condition ofsuccess of this plan is practical effort by the UnitedStates, aimed at convincing Ukraine's President Poroshenko to announce his
support of initiative to create the ARD and start a new stage ofpeaceful124settlement. Thisplan will be beneficial for the Ukrainian government, because
Poroshenko will be able to implement his election promise of2014 and end thewar. Election of Mr. Yanukovich as head of the ARD with consent of the UnitedStates and Russia will sign.ificantly increase chances ofpeaceful settlement of theconflict. Support of this initiative by the United States will be a fair anddemocratic decision with respect to Mr. Yanukovich, who did everything possible
for peaceful settlement in 201 land sign.ed a plan ofpeaceful settlement with the
Opposition on February 21, 2014. This plan subsequently was blown up by theradicals. This fact failed to obtain a proper reaction by the EU officials, whoguaranteed it with their signatures, and led to serious deterioration of thesituation in Ukraine.
Implementation of the plan will make it possible to create new dynamics in theprocess ofpeaceful settlement and can in fact become a starting point for returnofpeace into Ukraine, where the United States should play a leading role inrestoring peace and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Personal participation of the US President will lead to stopping the bloodshed,returning political balance and stability in Ukraine, creating a stable andeffective pro-European legislative majority, able of implementing effective
reforms. 778

about the possibility of conducting a poll in Ukraine.
Fabrizio, Fabrizfo's polling firm, andManafort began organizipg the details of the Ukraine-related polling work.
(U) Manafort wanted to use Evgeny Kopatko to conduct the survey and fieldwork, which
would be coordinated through Kilimnik. 78 Kopatko is a Ukrainian, pro-Russian sociologist andpollster who has recently been awarded Russian citizenship by Putin. 781 Manafort provided adraft questionnaire to Fabrizio and his company. The questionnaire focused broadly on
numerous candidates and parties in Ukraine, but also sought to test the idea of Yanukovych's
return in eastern Ukraine. In particular, question 72(a) directly asked for respondents' reactions
I
'

°

778

(U) Document, "New Initiative for Peace copy.docx" (FAB010192-10194).
(U) Emails, Manafort and Fabrizio, February 5, 2017 (F AB010524) (setting up a telephone call); Email,Manafort to Fabrizio, February 12, 2018 (FAB010513) ("It looks like we are going to move forward on the poll that
I discussed with you about 10 days ago.").
780
19 2018 (FAB010509).
(U) Emails, Manafort and Fabrizio Febru
781 (U)"Ukrainian sociologist Kopatko received Russian
citizenship," Ukrop News 24, April 26, 2017.
779

125

to a statement that Donetsk and Luhansk need to "be led to unite into one republic and bringback Yanukovych as their leader."782 Kilimnik and Manafort, however, requested that thisquestion be redesigned to test sentiment about a Yanukovych comeback without explicitly
revealing the plan through the question. Manafort instructed Fabrizio's partner, Bob Ward, to"remove VY as the player in this plan" and instead referenced only "someone who is part of east
and a leader in the PoR during the VY years."783 Kilimnik had separately pointed out to thegroup that Yanukovych' s associations with the peace plan was "not in the public domain."784
After removing an explicit reference to Yanukovych as the potential leader, Manafort directed
Ward to test "VY as an acceptable player to the Ukrainian people (vs. leadership) to assist in
bringing peace to DONBASS." 785(U) In addition to these instructions, Manafort sent the above-described Kilimnik peaceplan document to Fabrizio and Ward. 786 Fabrizio's firm created another questionnaire based on
Manafort's guidance and the Kilimnik-authored peace plan.787~3.

I am going to describe a plan that ha,·e been proposed 10 resolve the conflict in Donbas.
Crea te an Autonomous Republic of the Donb11, from lhe Donetsk and Lulmnsk oblasts wluch would
elect a new pnme nuniste1. someone with real go,·emmenr experience and , rarure from the region thatcan engage in reasonable discussions wirh Kie,·. Russia and the United State, and implement a plan for
d1sbandmg and grantmg amnesty to the Donbas militia. res101i11g order. and reopen rhe borders wirh therest of Ukratne. Like C'nmea before the conflict. this amonomous republic would be pan ofUkn11ne.
elect depuues ro rhe \·erklloma Rada. ,·ore for presidem ofL1'Tame. bur elect 11s own leadership andgoYem itself locally Its terri101ial 1111egrity would be defended by the Uk.rnuuon aimed forces.
Based on this. 1s rim a plan you , trongly supporr. somewhat suppon. somewhat oppose. or su-ongly
oppose'.>782(U) Email, Fabrizio to Ward, February 19, 20 18 (FABO I 041 9-1 0461) (attaching a 120-question questionnaire).
(U) Email, Mana fort to Ward and Fabrizio, February 21. 2018 (F ABO 10190).
784(U) Email, Manafort to Fabrizio, February 19, 2018 (FABO I 0419) ("This is what I received from KK. His
answers are in red."). On February 23,2017, RFEIRL published an article which included quotes from Kilimnik andincluded Kilimnik 's admission that he had drafted a peace plan, referred to as the "Mariupol plan," which would
involve the return ofYanukovych to bring peace to eastern Ukraine. Christopher Miller, " Who is Paul Manafort' s
Man in Kyiv? An Interview with Konstantin Kilimnik," RFEIRL, February 23, 2017. Patten later told a journalist
privately that his understanding was that Kilimnik thought his conversation with the RFEIRL journalist was off-therecord. Email, Patten to Helderman, June 7, 2017 (SSCJ 2017-4885-3-000 I 07).
785(U) Email, Manafort to Ward and Fabrizio, February 21, 2018 (F ABO IO 190-10194) (attaching "New initiativefor Peace copy.docx").
786 (U) Ibid.
783

787

(U) Email, Ward to Manafort and Fabrizio, February 2 1, 2018 (FABO I0406-104 I 7) (attaching a draft survey
questionnaire).

126

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY\\,11ich of these outcomes do you suppon the most'?
Which of these outcomes do you think 1s the easiest to get agreemeut on !
Which of these outcomes do you tlllilk 1s in the best interes1s of you ,md your conunmlity':'[USE SA.•\ IE CARD FOR EACH]

n:::-rn. and L:::-."R recei\·e special stams with broad autonomy. and can chose any leader. as longas there IS a p lan for reintegra tion back lJl Uknune
D:--.'R and L"-."R become an independent state3

D:--."R an d Ll\"R rerum to Ukrame as nonual obla ts as they we1e befo1eD:NR and L:--."R become part of Russia

5
6

not sure (do not read)refused (do no! read):~~'!!"""!"!""'!!!"""!!'~""!"""!!'!~~~~~~~~~~~~~'!'!"!!!!!!"""'!!'!!!!""~~~!!""!'!"!'~~ !

-------------------------------------1,,,ome haw ug11,esred that fonner Ukramrnn President \'1ctor YanukO\-ych. a someone from the
Donbas and who can deal with Russia. can play a cousu11cti\·e role 111 ending tl1e coufuct in the Donbas
and help bnng stabilHy to the region Do you agree or disagree with this \"iew'? (IF CHOICE YiADE.
ASK ) l s that stiongly (agree disagree} or .111 t somewhat (agree disagree)'?

(U) Through Manafort, Kilimnik provided Fabrizio and his firm feedback on thequestionnaire. In his feedback, Kilimnik asked Fabrizio and Ward to "get a deeper
understanding of attitudes toward Y anukovich/Azarov and what they can do for Ukraine to getback. Implement a peace plan, rebuild Donbass, bring back good ties with Russia, etc." 788 The
draft with Kilimnik edits included questions about Mykola Azarov's viability with the same
peace plan.
(U) Azarov, the former Prime Minister under Yanukovych who had also fled to Russia,
had long been involved in potential efforts to return to Ukraine and establish a pro-Russia
government. Azarov almost certainly had the backing of the Russian government.

•
As early as 2015, a nationalist Russian788 (U) Document, "KK Note on Dr 4" (FAB010356).

Kilimnik also raised the possibility of measuring "the toxicityof the Party of Regions. It still technically exists, and there are constant conversations about its revival.
Understandin how toxic the olitical arties are there could be a chance."
789

127

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYpress outlet suggested that Azarov could help run a "national salvation government" in
Ukraine.790 Shortly thereafter, Azarov announced a government-in-exile from his
Moscow-based hotel.
•

Azarov's press spokesperson both during his time serving as Prime Ministerin Ukraine and when he announced his government-in-exile from Moscow, was SerhiyZavorotnyy, an SVR officer involved in influence operations. 791•(U) Work on the poll continued with Fabrizio's firm until at least March 10, 2018. 794
Fabrizio's firm did not ultimately field the poll, although it is unclear why.

(U) Kilimnik, however, continued efforts to reestablish Yanukovych as part of a peace
settlement. Kilimnik worked with associates inside Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere to affect
U.S. perceptions of the conflict in Ukraine. These plans blended Kilimnik's efforts to bringabout Yanukovych's return-including his exoneration related to the violence in the Maydan in
February 2014---with the aforementioned themes promoting the narrative that Ukraine, notRussia, had interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections .

•790

identifies
as Zavorotnyy as a mem er of military unit 33949, whic
wi t e SVR. For more information about
unit 33949 and its affiliation with the SVR, see Sergey Kanev, "Everyone knew the traitor," Novaya Gazeta,
November 20, 2010 (Russian language). Zavorotnyy now appears on ro-Kremlin media in Russia and fre uently
omotes the views and riorities of the Russian ovemment.
19111(U) Email, Manafort to Fabrizio, et al., March 9, 2016 (FAB010231) (attaching ten documents, including "Ukr
Qu Dr 4 KK.docx" and "KK note on Dr 4.docx" .
195

128

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

•

I

)

129

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUS~IA INVESTIGATION ONLY

•

I

130

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

131

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I
I
example, in late May 2019, Telizhenko claimed that the "blac
was a forgery solicited by the Obama administration. 819

814
815

818

Kilimnik tweeted and retweeted about Portnov.
For examp e, on May 31, 201 Ki 1mnik tweete , "Portnov 1s one of the best Ukrainian lawyers. Also author of
totaly [sic] Western-supported Criminal-Procedural code (one of many achievements ofthe Yanukovich
Administration). He was prosecuted by Poroshenko on totally fake charges and has a moral right to do what he isdoing." Tweet, @PBaranenko, May 31, 2019.
819(U) Josh Dawsey and David Stem, "Giuliani meets with former diplomat as he continues to press Ukraine
inquiries," The Washington Post, May 24, 2019.

132

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYI

I(U) Ibid.
(U) Ibid 825(U) Ibid
826(U) Ibid
824

133

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I

I

821 (U)

Ibid.
Ibid.
829 (U) Ibid.
830 (U) Ibid.
831 (U) Ibid.
832 (U) Ibid.
833 (U) Ibid.
834
Ibid.
828 (U)

134

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIAJNVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
/

I

I

I

135

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYI -Telizheriko participated in a documentary film that aired on a U.S.
~ l e d "One America News Investigates - The Ukraine Hoax:
Im eachment, Biden Cash, and Mass Murder with Michael Ca uto." 848I848{U) One America News Networ , '"One America News Investigates -The Ukraine Hoa)!::"lmpeachment, Biden
Cash, and Mass Murder with Michael Caputo' To Air This Saturday And Sunday At 10 PM ET, 7 PM PT," January
21, 2020.
,

849

136

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

viii.

(U) Manafort and Gates Communications Regarding Investigations(U) Until Gates entered into a plea agreement with the SCO in February 2018, Manafort
and Gates remained in close contact and regularly discussed the investigations into both of theiractivities. 858•(U) Manafort and Gates discussed the possibility of a presidential pardon. 859 Manafort
recalled that Gates suggested Manafort should ask an attorney for Trump about a.
pardon. 860 Manafort claimed he had no discussion with the White House or anyone withaccess to the White House about a pardon. 861•(U) Manafort was aware that the RNC had raised money for a defense fund. Manafort
asked John Dowd, then a lead attorney for Trump, if Manafort and Gates were eligible
for money from this fund. 862 Dowd said yes. 863•(U) In early 2018, Manafort asked Laurance Gay, a friend of Manafort and Gates, todissuade Gates from accepting a plea agreement. 864•(U) Manafort and Gates continued to remain in contact while Gates was proffering to the
SCO. 865 According to Manafort, Gates had denied that he was proffering to the SCO. 866
8. (U) Manafort's Associates' Ties to Russian Intelligence Services

857
858

(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9 12 2018.

859 (U)

Ibid.
Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
862(U) Ibid.
863(U) Ibid.
864(U) Ibid.
865(U) Ibid.
866 (U) Ibid.
860 (U)
861

137

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYi.

(U) Oleg Deripaska and His Aides(U) The Committee-found that, since at least the time he hired Paul Manafort inapproximately 2004, Oleg Deripaska has acted as a proxy for the Russian state and Russian
intelligence services. Deripaska has managed and financed influence operations on the
Kremlin's behalf. Deripaska's activities include Kremlin-approved and -directed active
measures-including information operations and election interference efforts-conducted to
install pro-Kremlin regimes and strengthen Kremlin-aligned powerbrokers across the globe.
Deripaska's right-hand-man for the implementation of Russian active measures is Viktor
Boyarkin, a GRU officer working for Deripaska.

a. (U) Deripaska's Kremlin Ties

138

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

~ Deripaska also has a Russian diplomatic passport and has

used diplomatic credentials to attend the UN General Assembly as a representative of Russia. 873

b. (U) Deripaska's "Chief of Staff': Viktor B.oyarkin

w en tee e a a usmess re at1ons 1p w1enpas aoug

infra Vol. 5, Sec. IV.B.

139

enpas a s attorneys.

or more information, seeCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Oleg Deripaska primarily implements Russian active measures through Russian
national Viktor Boyarkin. Boyarkin is a Russian intelligence officer· affiliated with the GRU.
The Cominittee found reliable evidence suggesting that Boyarkin is part of a ca~re of individuals
ostensibly operating outside of.the Russian government but who nonethdess implement
influence operations that are directed by the Kremlin, 1:md funded by key Russian oligarchs,
particularly Deripaska. The Committee bases its assessment that Boyarkin is a Russian
intelligence offic~r on the following information:

•

I

I

883(U)li.
884885(U) Ibid., p. 10.
(U) Ibid., p. 7.

140

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

886
887

141

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Boyarkin appeared to coordinate with other Russian nationals operating seemingly
outside of the Russian government but who nonetheless undertook influence operations on its
behalf.

•I(U) Boyarkin also coordinated sensitive operations on Deripaska's behalf. For example,
Nastya Rybka, a former Deripaska mistress, was arrested in Thailand and claimed that she was"the only witness and the missing link in the connection between Russia and the U.S. electionsthe long chain of Oleg Deripaska, Prikhodko, Manafort, and Trump." 893 Rybka also suggested
that she was in possession of more than 16 hours of audio recordings she made ofDeripaska's
conversations with business associates and Russian political leaders, namely Russian Deputy
Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko. 894

■
■
■
■
892

(U) Ibid.
(U) Anton Troianovski, "A self-described sex expert says she will spill information on Trump and Russia to get
out ofa Thai jail," The Washington Post, February 27, 2018. Rybka's true name is Anastasia Vashukevich.
894(U) See, e.g., Nataliya Zotova and Oleg Boldyrev, "Nastya Rybka: Model who got caught up in the TrumpRussia row," BBC, January 31, 2019; Richard Paddock, "Escort Says Audio Recordings Show Russian Meddling in
U.S. Election," The New York Times, March 5, 2018.
893

142

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) Prior to her arrest in Thailand, Rybka's social media posts had been the subject of alawsuit filed by Deripaska against Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny. In
February 2018, Navalny posted to his website a 25-minute video outlining alleged
connections-including a romantic relationship-between Rybka and Deripaska. The
video includes a number of vignettes apparently collected from Rybka's social media
accounts and focuses on an August 2016 meeting between Deripaska and Prikhodko
aboard Deripaska's yacht near Norway. 896 Almost immediately after the video appearedon Navalny's website, Deripaska sought, and was granted, a court order demanding theremoval of a number oflnstagram posts and YouTube videos. Russia's communications
regulator, Roskomnadzor, issued an order to Russian internet service providers blocking
access to Navalny's website on February 15, 2018. 897•(U) Following her arrest, Rybka told reporters she was afraid to return to Russia, andoffered to tell her story to American investigators in exchange for asylum. Her colleague
Alexander Kirillov allegedly requested, in a letter to the American consulate, politicalasylum for those arrested with Rybka. 898 Her arrest also apparently attracted the attention
ofDeripaska and his business associates. A recording available on YouTube purports to
reproduce a conference call conversation between "Georgy" (presumably Georgy
Oganov), Tatiana Monaghan, 899 and William Sein about this matter. 900•(U) See, e.g.;" ava y We site Blocked in Russia Over 'Rybkagate' Report," RFEIRL, February 16, 2018;
YouTube, http://youtu.be/RQZr2NgKPiU.
897(U) Ibid.
898(U) Richard Paddock, "Escort Says Audio Recordings Show Russian Meddling in U.S. Election," The New YorkTimes, March 5, 2018. It is the Committee's understanding that U.S. Government investigators sought to interview
Rybka in Thailand, but were not granted access. The Committee did not seek its own interview with Rybka.
899(U) Monaghan is a close Deripaska associate who serves as President of the Russian National Committee of theInternational Chamber of Commerce. Monaghan is also connected to Boyarkin. In March and May 2016,
Monaghan and the ICC hosted roundtables touting RUSAL's efforts to develop an Ebola vaccine. Monaghan
appears to have co-hosted the March event with Boyarkin, and both appear to have attended the May event.
900(U) YouTube, https://youtu.be/zqU2L_05yUI. The Committee does not have any independent verification of thesourcing or content of this call.

143

I

I

904(U)li.
905(U) Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
907(U) Ibid.
908(U) Ibid.
909
Ibid.
906

91

144

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY••(U) In statements to the media in August 2018, Rybka suggested she sent copies of herrecordings to Deripaska, and expressed her hope that he would help secure her releasefrom prison. 920 In January 2019, Rybka was released from Thai custody and deported to
Russia.

The Committee assesses that Boyarkin handled other influence operations 'funded ~ordinated with Deri aska-with the a roval and direction of the Kremlin. ■

914

1 i .
(U) Ibid.
917(U) Ibid.
918
Ibid.
915 (U)
916

919
920

ink Russians and Trump. She is Losing," The

Ne

.

921
922
923
924

pr

Ibid.
Ibid. Ac.

to Bo arkin, this included securing the assistance U.S. law f i r m - to
case.

925

145

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

c. (U) Deripaska's Strategic Advisor: Georgy Oganov~ O g a n o v is a longtime advisor to Deripaska and is affiliated w i t h Oganov attended the Moscow State Institute for International Relations.
Waldman described Oganov as speaking seven or eight languages. Waldman also assessed that,as a senior advisor to Deripaska, Oganov had direct access to him. 927 Waldman also understoodthat Oganov maintains ties to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs "at the deputies level" and"[c]ertainly he and the foreign minister know each other."928-

Oganov was ostensibly a diplomat.

d. (U) Deripaska's Role in Russian Active Measures in Montenegro

926(U) World Policy Conference, "Georgy Oganov," 2019.
(U) Waldman Tr., pp. 57, 59.
928
Ibid. . 59-60.
927

929
930
931

(U) Ibid., p. 22.

146

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) While Deripaska's influence operations on behalf of the Kremlin span the globe, theactivities ofDeripaska, Boyarkin, and their associates in Montenegro provide a clear example of
Deripaska' s malign influence efforts .

.CU) As noted above, Deripaska first became involved in Montenegro when he purchased
a controlling share in KAP, a deal that was likely done in coordination with the Russian
government to extend Russian influence in Montenegro. Deripaska hired Manafort, whose
company began working in Montenegro on Deripaska's behalf as early as 2005. 934

By 2016, Deripaska was involved in funding andexecuting an aggressive Russian-directed campaign to overthrow the Montene rin ovemmentand assassinate the Prime Minister in a violent cou

934(U) See infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.3.i. Open source information indicates that Paul Manafort was in discussions toparticipate in political consulting in Montenegro on behalf of the DF in the lead up to the October 2016 election inMontenegro and the coup attempt. See Simon Shuster, "Exclusive: Russian Ex-Spy Pressured Manafort Over Debts
to an Oligarch," Time, December 29, 2018. The Committee does not have further information about his potential
involvement.
935
936
937

147

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

•

I
I

I
I

(U) T is is a Russian term which is now used for activities which used to be referred to by the Russian
government as "active measures."941
942

Treasury, "Treasury Targets Russian Operatives over Election Interference, World Anti-Do ing
Agency Hae mg, and Other Malign Activities," December 19, 2018;

148

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

•

•

I

149

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

,

I

I

954 (U)955!bi .

(U) Ibid., p. 34.
956(U) Ibid., p. 33.
957(U) Ibid.
958
Ibid., . 34.

150

ION ONLY

I

I

Mishakov is also an associate and business partner of Andrey Rozov, the developer with whom Michael Cohen andFelix Sater worked on a potential Trump Tower Moscow deal during the 2016 presidential campaign. See infra Vol.
5, Sec. D.ii.a.
960

Jbi .
(U) Ibid., p. 36.
963(U) Ibid.
964(U) Ibid.
965(U) Ibid., p. 37.
966
Ibid.
. 35 37.
961 (U)
962

967

151

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE --- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYa lawsuit against the Montenegrin government seeking hundreds of millions of Euros, claiming
unlawful expropriation of his KAP investment. 969

969(U) Dusica Tomovic, "Russian Billionaire Sues Montenegro Over Lost Investment," Balkan Insight, DecemberI.
7, 2016.
970(U) Aleksandar Va:scovic and Ivana Sekularac, "Serbia's Vucic confirms domination with presidenJial win,"
Reuters A ril 1 2017.
97

975
976
977

(U) Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
979(U) Ibid.
980(U) Ibid.
978

' 152

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

e. (U) Deripaska's Involvement in Other Russian Active Measures

activ

Deripaska has conducted numerous other Russiani n o erations, includin those that interfere directly in

Kili

Other Deripaska employees beyond Boyarkin and
enc
·
·
·
·
are

.

proxi

•

. .

Deripaska's companies, including RUSAL, areovemment influence efforts, economic measures,(U) In approximately 2008 or 2009, Manafort worked on a project for Deripaska in
Guinea where Deripaska had a large interest in bauxite mining and alumina refinery
facilities. 986 Boyarkin managed the project for Deripaska. 987 Gates recalled meeting with

981
982
983
984

(U) Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
986(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018. Deripaska's business interest primarily involved the Friguia Bauxite andAlumina Complex, which had been privatized in 2006. The Friguia complex is one of the largest employers in
Guinea. See "Friguia Bauxite and Alumina Complex," RUSAL.com.
987(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/18/2018.
985

153

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYBoyarkin, Kilimnik, and Manafort about the project. 988 Boyarkin had intelligence
regarding politicians in Guinea and contacts within the Guinean government. 989
Deripaska's strategy was to use American campaign techniques in Guinea to get theperson he supported elected president. 990 Gates recalled that aft~r working on the projectfor several months, the presidential candidate Manafort's firm was supporting was
shot. 991 After the shooting, Boyarkin moved· a Russian military ship to Guinea as a showof force to anyone who was trying to impede Deripaska. 992 Gates believed the work in
Guinea ended shortly thereafter, work for which Manafort's firm was paid over $1
million. 993
\

•

I

988

(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018. At the time of the meeting, Gates recalled that it was clear that Kilimnik
and Manafort already knew Boyarkin. FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/18/2018. According to Gates, Boyarkin behaved
deferentially to both Manafort and Deripaska. FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018.
989(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/18/2018.
990(U) Ibid.
991(U) Ibid.
992(U) Ibid.
993
Ibid.
994
995

(U) Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
997(U) Ibid.
998(U) Ibid. In addition to the Guinea work, Kilimnik worked on a number of projects for Deripaska and Boyarkin
and frequently sought to involve his business partner Patten. Patten participated in a number of pitches andproposals on Deripaska-related work, but claimed his work on the underlying projects never came to fruition. For
example, Patten was offered a project working for Deripaska in Montenegro. Patten stated that he declined the offer
to work on the Montenegro project because the project went beyond politics, violence would emanate from the
project, and Patten thought it was better for Montenegro to be aligned with NA TO. (As noted above, 996

154

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Patten told the FBI that he recalled having a Skype call with
Boyarkin and Kilimnik on May 24, 2015, about the Guinea project. 1004 Patten told theCommittee during his interview that he did not know a "Viktor Boyarkin." 1005 Patten
later told the SCO that he did not lie to the Committee because at the time he only knew
Boyarkin as "Viktor," a Russian associate ofKilimnik's who worked for Deripaska. 1006•.) Another potential

100(U) Ibid.

Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
1003 (U) Ibid.
1004(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018. As noted above, Patten told the SCO that the proposals he worked on with
Kilimnik related to Guinea, Kazakhstan, and others were for Deripaska. FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018. Emailevidence obtained by the Committee provides some reflections of this work. For example, one project involving
RUSAL's interests in Kazakhstan occurred three months after the Skype call with Boyarkin about Guinea. Patten
and Kilimnik took steps to hide their work on this Kazakhstan project by using foldering on Hushmail. For
example, on August 23, 2015, Kilimnik emailed Patten to tell him that Kilimnik had had a "very good andinteresting meeting with Victor" and that "[t]here is real interest in KZ [Kazakhstan], but we need to change theformat of the memo a bit- make it short and basically tie it to the program I outlined earlier." Shortly thereafter,
Kilimnik told Patten to "Pis check hush." Patten's subsequent response appeared to suggest he had received
Kilimnik's edits. Emails, Kilimnik and Patten, August 23-24, 2015 (SSCI 2017-4885-3-001216). A document in
Patten's possession offered a proposal to support RUSAL in Kazakhstan's markets, as well as possibilities for"impacting" Kazakhstan's "political machinations." The proposal continued: "Like in Ukraine in 2005, RUSAL's
shareholders can play a crucial role by assigning an 'anti-crisis political team,' which will ensure electoral successand international acceptance for the right party and leader, contributing to internal political stability and protectionofRUSAL's assets against uncontrolled scenarios and deterioration in business and rule oflaw environment."
Memorandum, "Where Will Kazakhstan's Devaluation Lead?" (SP_OSC_ 000988) (referencing Kazakhstan's
currency free float "last week," suggesting the document was written in late-August 2015). Kilimnik and Patten
appeared to continue using Hushmail to edit documents. See, e.g., Emails, Kilimnik and Patten, December 21, 2015(SSCI 2017-4885-3-001010).
1005(U) Patten Tr., p. 172.
1006
(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018.
1001 (U)
1002

155

(

I

1r

1007----1008~
1009 (U)
1010

Ibid.

.

(U) Ibid.

1011 (U)

Ibid.
Ibid.
1013 (U) Ibid.
1014 (U) Ibid.
101s (U) Ibid.
1016(U) Ibid.
1017
U Ibid.
1012 (U)101

156

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYf.

(U) Deripaska's Connections to Hacking Operations

157

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

J

)

ii.

(U) Konstanti°: Kilimnik-'- T h e Co~ittee found that Konstantin Kilimnik is a R~ssian intelligence officer.
The Committee found reliable evjdence suggesting that Kilimnik-like Boyarkin-.is part pf acadre of individuals ostensibly operating outside ofthe Russian government but who nonetheless

158

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

implement Kremlin-directed influence operations. These operations are funded by both theRussian government and by key Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska. The Committee bases
this assessment on a body of information it obtained in the course of its inv~including
electronic communications; interviews· law enforcement information; a n d - ,andThe following information was relevant
in making this assessment:

•

1025

-1026

159

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY'••

~ T h e SCO Report found that Kilimnik had "ties" .to the Russian intelli enceservices. 036 However

•

•

•

160

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYI•(U) Kilimnik was trained in languages at the Russian Military Institute of the Ministry of
Defense (VKIMO), an institute that Kilimnik himself admitted to colleagues was used byboth the GRU and KGB. Kilimnik, however, downplayed and mischaracterized the typeof career these intelligence officers followed compared to his own and claimed that hisformer classmates were not involved in intelligence matters. 1046 In particular, Kilimnik
claimed in private correspondence to his close associate and business partner Sam Patten
that, because he was not a military attache, he could not be a GRU officer. Kilimnik also
claimed to Patten that "GRU does not have agents abroad. Not its business after thereforms." 1047 Kilimnik further claimed:
Never had any contacts later with military, KGB . ... NONE of[my classmates] stayed in the military . .. all do top jobs attelecoms, consulting, standard and poors, accounting etc. ... we
do not talk because have [sic] time to keep in touch. 1048

1043
1044
1045

(U) See infra Vo. 5, Sec. IV.B.
(U) Patten told the Committee that although he was not an expert on the Russian intelligence services, he did
not believe Kilimnik was a Russian intelligence officer. Patten Tr., pp. 98-99.
1047(U) Email, Kilimnik to Patten, August 20, 2016 (SSC! 2017-4885-3-000408).
1048(U) Ibid.
1046

161

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYThis information suggests
Kilimnik intentionally downplayed and mischaracterized-including in private to his
associates like Patten-the profile of Russian intelligence officers and his connections tothem in order to distance himself from these apegations. 1051·•·(U) Kilimnik sought to counter an.d deny Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. elections

and push pro-Russia narratives. In 2017, Kilimnik denied in private communications
with Patten that there was Russian interference in the U.S. elections. 1052 Patten recalled
Kilimnik claiming that the Russia intervention "narrative" was "hugely, if not entirely,
exaggerated." 1053 In an email to Patten responding to the public revelation ofKilimnik's
campaign correspondence with Manafort, Kilimnik suggested that the Russians were"idiots" who were "too disorganized" to conduct such interference and that they
"distrusted" Manafort too much to use him in any election meddling. 1054 For years,
Kilimnik was defensive about Russian interference in Ukraine with U.S. Embassy inKyiv officials; he would admit some Russian interference by well-known Russian agentslike Medvedchuk, but attempt to distance himself and the OB from Russia. 1055 Kilimnik
would later push false counter-narratives about the Maidan protests that were similar in(U) K1 1mm appeare to mis ea Patten a out a vanety o matters eyon t ose escribed above. For
example, Kilimnik hid his work and meetings with Manafort in 2017 and 2018 from Patten.
1052(U) For example, Kilimnik emailed Patten a Financial Times article on Russian interference in the U.S.
elections, suggesting that the U.S. intelligence community "must be having very little sleep chasing those squirrels
who they think exist." Email, Kilimnik to Patten, September 12, 2016 (SSC! 2017-4885-3-000347).
1053(U) Patten Tr., p. 109.
1054...
mail, Kilimnik to Patten, September 20, 2017 (SSC! 2017-4885-3-000039).
1055
See, e.g., Email, Purcell to Pyatt, et al., April 24, 2015 (CDP-2017-000llG-001378); Email, Purcell to
Pyatt, et a., May 19, 2015 (CDP-2017-0001 lG-001380 . Se arate information su ests that Kilimnik was incorrectthat the OB was not su orted b the Russians.

162

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
nature to Russian counter-narratives on the topic. 1056 As described infra, Kilimnik used
his @PBaranenko alias account to tweet a variety of pro-Russian themes, including false
information aboutNotPetya, Bill Browder, MH-17, and the 2014 Maidan protests.
•

In the spring of 2014, during Russia's invasion of Crimea, Kilimnik
contacted Jonathan Hawker, a British national who was a public relations consultant at
FTI Consulting and worked with Manafort on Y anukovych-related work. Kilimnik
offered Hawker an opportunity to conduct a public relations campaign for an unspecified
Russian government entity that would attempt to tout the Russian invasion as a liberationof Crimea. 1057 In an email to Hawker, Kilimnik stated that the purpose of the project was"to build a framework for clarifying and promoting Russia's position on Crimea andUkraine in the Western and Ukrainian media using existing contacts and modem
mechanisms." 1058 Kilimnik then. facilitated a meeting be.tween Hawker and an individual
believed to be affiliated with the Russian government. 1059 Hawker ultimately attended ameeting in Russia and said he presumed the person he met with was a Russian operative.
Hawker later explained that he submitted a proposal but with an overly high pricebecause he did not want to engage in the work. 1060•

(U) Patten told the SCO that after he had left IRI, an IRI employee who worked at IRI's
Belarus desk, Trig Olson, made a claim that Kilimnik leaked information to Russian
intelligence. 1061 Olson based his assessment on a situation where information provided ina meeting that Kilimnik had attended was leaked to Russian intelligence. 1062 Patten
ultimately confronted Kilimnik about Olson's allegation, and Kilimnik denied he was thesource of the leak. 1063·•

-Kilimnik has repeatedly claimed that in April 1995 he stopped his Russian~ service at the rank of Lieutenant after having been assigned to teach Swedish at
VKIMO and traveling on several "Russian trade delegations" to Sweden. Kilimnik
further claimed that after leaving the Russian military, he was hired at the International1056. F o r example, according to Manafort, Kilimnik believed that "Georgian mercenaries hired by the West"
committed the violence in the Maydan in February 2014, not the Yanukovych regime. Kilimnik shareddocumentaries to this effect with Manafort FBI FD-302 Manafort 9/13/2018
105
105

I

105
106 (

)

' ,

1061

(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018.
1062 (U) Ibid.
1063(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018. Patten said he was skeptical of Olson's allegations about Kilimnik's ties.to
Russian intelligence in part because he believed Olson had a score to settle with Manafort because Olson had been
fired from the McCain Campaign by Rick Davis, Manafort's former business partner.

163

Republican Institute (IRI). A review oflRI re9ords confirmed Kilimnik's employment at
IRI no later than mid-1995 .1064 Kilimnik, however, a ears to have not com letel
broken ties with the Russian government by 1995.
-reflect that an official Russian diplomatic passport for "Konstantin Viktorovich
Klimnik," born April 27, 1970, in Ukraine, was issued a diplomatic type B1/B2(temporary visitor) visa in Moscow on October 28, 1997, over two years after he began
working for IRI. The visa was valid until October.27, 1998. 1065•

(U) Kilimnik was hired by IRI "fresh out of Russian Ministry ofDefense." 1066 At IRI,
he was placed as a program manager in charge of the NGO program. Russia has a long
history of focus on foreign NGO activity, particularly IRJ. 1067•

(U) Despite claiming both publicly and in a statement sent to the Committee throughManafort's attorneys that "Ukraine is rriy country," the Committee found Kilimnik in fact
maintains deep ties to Russia, which he attempts to obscure. 1069 In particular, Kilimnik
maintains a permanent residence with a family in Moscow, has a Russian passport, and isa Russian citizen. When U.S. media published Kilimnik's name in August 2016,
Kilimnik returned to Russia, allegedly for protection. When asked to explain why
Kilimnik would choose Russia to return for protection, Patten explained to theCommittee, "He's a Russian citizen, he owns a house there. Often we go home when wewant to get out'of a bad situation." 1070\
(U) IRI internal memorandum, Kilimnik to Griffin, July 12, 1995 (IRI-001039). The SCO Report misstates
when Kilimnik first became affiliated with IRI; it was 1995, not 1998.
1065(U) The Committee considered alternative explanations for this discrepancy, including the possibility that forreasons of convenience or error Kilimnik maintained a diplomatic passport despite not having a government
affiliation for over two years. Because such alternative explanations are credible, the Committee did not weigh thispil:lce information heavily as evid~nce ofKilimnik's ongoing Russian government ties. Nonetheless, the information
remains anomalous and is included because it is only one of many such anomalies which,-taken as a whole, havegreater weight.
1066(U) Email Mefford to Holzen and Kondraciuk, July 8, 2016 (IRI Production).
1067(U) At IRI, Kilimnik was exposed to a wide variety of government officials, some of whom went on to senior
positions in the Russian government. See, e.g., IRI, "Participants to Regional Networking Conference" February 2427, 1999 IRI-000054 .
1064

1068
1069
1070

(U) Patten Tr., pp. 47-48.

164

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) Gates told the FBI that he joked about Kilimnik being a Russian spy because he did
not know for sure if Kilimnik was a Russian intelligence officer. 1071 Gates stated,
however, that he suspected Kilimnik was a Russian intelligence officer. 1072 Gates statedthat Kilimnik was well connected in Russia and Ukraine and could obtain information
easily. 1073 Gates characterized Kilimnik as an "odd guy" and that Kilimnik was always
gathering information about everything. 1074 Gates also did not believe that Kilimnik
could afford his lifestyle solely cm his DMP salary. 1075 Gates recalled visiting Kilimnik's
home in Kyiv where he noticed an Audi AS in his garage, which Gates had never seen
Kilimnik drive to work before. 1076•

-According to Manafort, some people in the PoR thought Manafort worked for
the CIA and Kilimnik worked for the KGB. 1077 Gates recalled that occasionally Manafort. would intentionally make a false statement in Kilimnik's presence to test ifKilininik wassharing information with others. 1078 At one point in time, Manafort told Yanukovych that
Yanukovych should have Kilimnik checked out so that they would not have to hold backduring "sensitive" conversations in Kilimnik's presence. 1079 Manafort relayed this advice
to Yanukovych through Lyovochkin in 2010. 1080 Manafort recalled that Yanukovych
subsequently told him that the SBU had cleared Kilimnik. 1081 However, at this time the
SBU was wide! com romised b the Russian intelli ence services.

1011 (U)1072

FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/29/2018.
(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2 12 2018.
1073(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/29/2018.
1074(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/12/2018.
1075(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018.
1016 (U). Ibid.
1077(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.
1078 (U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018. Manafort, like others who dealt with Kilimnik, at some point harboredsuspicions that Kilimnik had ties to intelligence services. Manafort was undeniably aware----often from first-handexperience----ofsuspicious aspects ofKilimnik's behavior and network. Nevertheless, Manafort later asserted to the
SCO that Kilimnik was not a spy.
1079
(U) Ibid; FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.
1080
U FBI, FD-302 Manafort 9/13/2018.

165

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

"'""'" Despite his status as a Russian national, Kilimnik had "unfetteredaccess" to Yanukovych and Yanukovych's office. 1084
-Several other pieces of information about Kilimnik-while not as probative inisolation-are consistent with Kilimnik's affiliation with the Russian intelligence services
because they closely align with Russian intelligence tradecraft. For example, Kilimnik
conducted broad engagement with dip~omats and embassies, especially in Kyiv; 1085 used multiple
encrypted applications to enhance his communications security; 1086 used coded and vague
language when d i s csensitiveu s sto- ics·nin writin · used "folderin "in emails; 1087 and used1089
seudon ms , such as'" 1088 '
"
and'
'
'
1090
"
for use in electronic communicatio(U) Kilimnik also worked to undermine investigations into those close to him byinterfering with witness testimony.
•(U) In June 2018, the SCO charged Kilimnik and Manafort with conspiring to obstructjustice. Starting in February 2018, Manafort and Kilimnik had attempted to persuade two

1083(U) SSCI Memorandum, "Trip Report- Ukraine, Turkey, Austria," April 2014 (2014-2915).
(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 1/29/2018.
1085(U) Kilimnik "regularly met with all manner of embassies, diplomats, so forth and so on." Patten Tr., p. 79.
See also Email, Kilimnik to Purcell, January 21, 2016 (CDP-2017-000llG-000276) (Kilimnik stating that he sentnotes to the German and French embassies in Kyiv).
1086. . . . .Kilimnik used at least Viber, Threema, and WhatsApp with Patten. This was at least in partb e c ~ w a s in his own view, most like! a re ular sub· ect of surveillance. Patten Tr.
. 119--120, 167168.
1084

ering with Kilimnik.
108

108

1091_

166

individuals with who they had previously worked on Ukraine matters to influence their
testimony. 1093 Manafort later admitted to this conspiracy with Kilimnik. 1094•

(U) On May 31, 2018, the day Patten was scheduled to testify before a grand jury,
Kilimnik asked Patten if there was "anything I can help you with on the GJ [grandjury]." 1095 Patten expressed concern to Kilimnik about his testimony related topurchasing inauguration tickets for Lyovochkin and money from Lyovochkin transferred
to Patten for that purpose. 1096 Kilimnik offered Patten an "explanation," suggesting toPatten a fabrication he could offer to the grand jury:
How about they sent it to us for a poll they wanted to do, andbecause they (as they typically do) canceled the poll you decided touse it for inauguration tickets. Do your client a favor. One failed tocome, no one actually attended other than you and SL. Businessdevelopment for us. 1097

(U) Given Kilimnik's work as a Russian intelligence officer; the Committee also sought
to understand Kilimnik's engagement with the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv during this time period.
Beginning in the Y anukovych administration and continuing through at least late 2016, Kilimnik
was in regular contact with personnel serving in the Embassy's political section. 1098/

(U) Kilimnik, first as an employee ofManafort's in Kyiv, and later as Patten's partner,
served in several roles, most notably as an advisor to the presidential administration and inparticular to Yanukoych's then-chief of staff, Lyovochkin. Kilimnik's access to these PoR
politicians, and to the oligarchs that backed them, made Kilimnik an important contact of thepolitical section. Kilimnik's ability to navigate the Maydan-led ouster of Yanukovych, and histransition to power broker within the OB made him a valuable resource to the Embassy.

1093(U) Superseding Indictment, United States v. Pau/J Manafort, Jr., et al., Case No. 1: 17-CR-201 (D.D.C. June
8, 2018).
1094 (U) Plea Agreement of Paul J. Manafort, Jr., United States v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., Case No. 17-201-1-ABJ(D.D.C. September 14, 2018).
1095(U) Text Message, Kilimnik to Patten, May 31, 2018
1096
(U) Text Message, Patten to Kilimnik, May 31, 2018
1097
(U) Text Message, Kilimnik to Patten, May 31, 2018
In September 2018, Kilimnik offered
to arrange for Patten to receive money from Lyovochkin even after Patten's work for Lyovochkin had ceased andPatten's cooperation with the Government was public. Kilimnik asked Patten about the possibility of"sending a
post-factum invoice for lobbying to~ilimnik further stated that SL i s - "to
r do
e it"
ad
as compensation for
Patten's legal costs. Text Message, K1hmnik to Patten, September 16,201
1098(U) The political section of the Embassy in Kyiv serves as the chief point of contact etween embassy officials
and representatives of the host government, and reports to the Department of State on issues affecting therelationship between the United States and Ukraine, including domestic political events.

S~-:•

167

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Among the issues Kilimnik discussed with the Embassy were Lyovochkin' s
analysis of the Minsk Accord implementation 1099 and OB polling data. 110 Kilimnik also worked
to arrange meetings between Department of State officials and senior Ukrainian politicians, mostnotably Lyovochkin. 1101 Kilimnik's re ortin was wide! discussed within the olitical section,and on at least one occasion°(U) Despite the widespread discussion and use ofKilimnik's reporting, which over thecourse of four years appears to have generated hundreds of pages of emails, and support for his
visa applications, it is clear to the Committee that most Department of State personnel wereappropriately skeptical of Kilimnik, occasionally dismissive of his reporting, and sometimes
noted the need for caution when dealing with Kilimnik. Examples of the political section's
skepticism of Kilimnik include:

1099

•

(U) Expressions of doubt about Kilimnik' s reporting about Boris Filatov .1104•(U) In March and July 2014 email exchanges, multiple officials calling into question thepolling results Kilimnik was providing, and expressing concern about bias. 1105•

(U) In September 2014, an Embassy officer suggesting to another that he needed
Kilitnnik's input on a subject, while noting the need to "be careful with that
relationship." 1106

(U) Email, Kilimnik to Purcell, January 21, 2016 (CDP-2017-0001 lG-000276).

uoo (U) Email, Kilimnik to Purcell, February 28, 2016 (CDP-2017-000llG-000262-263); Email, Kasanofto Kyiv

POL Core Section (CDP-2017-000llG-000810-830); Email, Kasanofto Pyatt, et al., April 10, 2014 (CDP-2017000llG-000834-836 .
1102
1103
1104

(U) Ema1 , Purce t

uos (U) Email,. toand(CDP-2017-0001 lG-000834) ("WTF? Of course K is going to show [sic]us doom and gl~lls that are not in favor of the current government.").
1106(U) Email,_ t o - and LeClair, September 16, 2014 (CDP-2017-000llG-000804).

168

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) Statements by one ofKilimnik's key Embassy interlocutors, made to another
Department of State official in July 2015, discussing the degree to which a third official"knows I dislike and distrust Kilimnik." 1107•

(U) Also in July 2015, then-Ambassador Pyatt's statement "Frankly, I have zero respect
for KK's advice." 1108·

(U) The Embassy's view is perhaps best summed up in an August 2014 email from an
Embassy official. In that email, the Embassy official reminds other Embassy employees thatthey should take Kilimnik's claims "with as much salt as you think appropriate" because "KK
has his own history and agenda." 1109

1107 (U)Email,1111 t o - - July 9, 2015 (CDP-2017-0001 lG-000403).
(U) Email, Pyatt to P ~ u l y 8, 2015 (CDP-2017-0001 lG-000405).
1109 (U) Email, Purcell to Donahue, et al., August 7, 2014 (CDP-2017-000llG-001446).
1108

169

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

B. (U) Hack and Leak(

1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) Beginning in March 2016, officers of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, the
GRU, successfully hacked computer networks belonging to the Democratic National Committee(DNC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and the email
accounts of Clinton Campaign officials and employees, including Campaign Chairmap.John
Podesta. Over the following months, these hackers carefully established persistent access inconfidential areas of the victims' systems and stole massive amounts of politically sensitive dataand personal communications. The data was subsequently leaked by GRU personas and
WikiLeaks at strategic moments during the 2016 election, as part of a coordinated hack--and-leakoperation intended to damage the Clinton Campaign, help the Trump Campaign (the·1110"Campaign"), and undermine the U.S. democratic process.
/(U) The Committee sought to understand the nature of the Russian hacking operation,
including its origins and intent. The Committee further examined the relationship between the
GRU's operation and WikiLeaks, including when, how, and why WikiLeaks was provided withthe hacked DNC and Podesta documents, and what it sought to achieve. The Committee also
investigated the relationship between WikiLeaks and the Campaign, including the Campaign's
treatment of WikiLeaks and any attempts to contact or coordinate with it. 1111
(U) The Committee found that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed the hack-andleak campaign targeting the DNC, DCCC, and the Clinton Campaign. Moscow's intent was todamage the Clinton Campaign and tarnish what it expected might be a Clinton presidential
administration, help the Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican
nominee, and generally undermine the U.S. democratic process. The Committee's findings are
based on a variety of information, including raw intelligence reporting.

1110(U) This conduct earned twelve GRU officers a criminal indictment from the SCO for violating the Computer
Fraud and Abuse Act, committing aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and conspiracy. Indictment, UnitedStates.v. Viktor Borisovich Netyksho, Case No. 1:18-cr-00215-ABJ (D.D.C. July 13, 2018) (hereinafter "Netyksho
indictment").
·
1111(U) As part of its work, the Committee reviewed a variety of information relating to the Russ.ian hacking of the
DNC, DCCC and various officials and associates of the Clinton Campaign during the 2016 U.S. election. This
included intelligence community reporting relating to GRU hack-and-leak activities and Russian cyber operations
more broadly; information and analysis by computer forensic experts conducting incident response at the DNC and
DCCC; and information gathered during the SCO's investigation, as reflected in the SCO Report and the Netyksho
indictment, as well as the 2019 criminal trial of Roger Stone. ·170

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The hack-and-leak campaign was conducted by the GRU through specialized cyberunits, executed using established GRU infrastructure, and planned and coordinated by GRU
headquarters elements. Starting in March 2016, the GRU used spearphishing techriiques to gain
unauthorized access to the email accounts of individuals associated with the Clinton Campaign,
including Campaign Manager John Podesta, and stole thousands of emails. In April 2016, theGRU leveraged stolen credentials ofJsome of these individuals to obtain further unauthorizedaccess to the networks of the DNC and DCCC, where it identified and carefully exfiltrated tensof thousands of politically sensitive documents from April through June 2016. 1112 The GRU .
continued to conduct hacking operations to obtain additional material from accounts associatedwith the Clinton Campaign until at least September 2016.
(U) The GRU quickly integrated the materials it stole during its hacking operation into
an influence operation that relied on two primary fake personas-Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks-to
promote and disseminate the hacked documents. The influence activities using these personas
spanned June 2016 through the election, and included attempts to obscure Russia's responsibility
for the hacking operation. 1113 In addition to publishing the stolen documents, the Russian
personas used social engineering to seed information with specific individuals associated with
the Trump Campaign. The GRU also relied on U.S. social media platforms and media attention
for its influence operations.
- W i k i L e a k s actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russianc a m p a i ~ k n e w it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort. The
Committee found significant indications that Julian Assan e and WikiLeaks have benefited from
Russian overnment su art

1112(U) For the Committee's discussion ofFBI's role in the incident response and communications with the DNC,
see infra Vol. 5, Sec. IV.A.
1113(U) Additional attempts to obscure Russian government involvement in these activities are discussed infra Vol.
5, Sec. III.A.7.vi.

171

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The GRU transferred the information stolen from the Clinton Campaign and DNC to
WikiLeaks, likely because WikiLeaks offered a more effective platform to disseminate stolen
documents than the GRU' s own organic methods. The GRU communicated with WikiLeaks
using its fake personas throughout the summer of 2016. It transferred data to WikiLeaks throughelectronic means, and may also have transferred data to WikiLeaks through human couriers.
(U) As described in Volume 3 of this Report, the Committee notes that views on
WikiLeaks remained conflicted within the U.S. Government and in'the media at this time. The
media also conducted its own outreach to WikiLeaks, Guccifer 2.0, and DCLeaks. Views on
WikiLeaks's status only began to shift late in the summer of 2016.
(U) After receiving the GRU' s materials, WikiLeaks timed its document releases for
maximum political impact.. WikiLeaks released the GRU-hacked materials obtained from the
DNC on the eve of the Democratic National Convention. It released materials stolen from
Podesta's email account starting on October 7, 2016, and continued to release Podesta's emails
up until the election.
'(U) While the GRU and WikiLeaks were releasing hacked documents, the Trump
Campaign sought to maximize the impact of those materials to aid Trump's electoral prospects.
To do so, the Trump Campaign took actions to obtain advance notice about WikiLeaks releasesof Clinton emails; took steps to obtain inside information about the content of releases once
WikiLeaks began to publish stolen information; created messaging strategies to promote andshare the materials in anticipation of and following their release; and encouraged further theft of
information and continued leaks.
(U) Trump and senior Campaign officials sought to obtain advance information about
WikiLeaks through Roger Stone. In spring 2016, prior to Assange's public announcements,
Stone advised the Campaign that WikiLeaks would be releasing materials harmful to Clinton.
Following the July 22 DNC release, Trump and the Campaign believed that Roger Stone had
known of the release and had inside access to WikiLeaks, and repeatedly communicated with
Stone about WikiLeaks throughout the summer and fall of 2016. Trump and other seniorCampaign officials specifically directed Stone to obtain information about upcoming document
releases relating to Clinton and report back. At their direction, Stone took action to gain insideknowledge for the Campaign and shared his purported knowledge directly with Trump andsenior Campaign officials on multiple occasions. Trump and the Campaign believed that Stone
had inside information and expressed satisfaction that Stone's information suggested morereleases would be forthcoming.

172

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In August 2016, following the Campaign's tasking, Stone obtained information
indicating that John Podesta would be a target of an upcoming release, prior to WikiLeaks
releasing Podesta's emails on October 7. Stone then communicated this information to Trumpand other senior Campaign officials and affiliates, including Manafort and Gates. After the
October 7 release, Trump, Manafort, Gates and others found Stone's information to be correct.
Stone likely received this information from Jerome Corsi, who informed Stone in early Augustthat WikiLeaks would be releasing Podesta' s emails.
(U) The Committee could not reliably determine the extent of authentic, non-publicknowledge about WikiLeaks that Stone obtained and shared with the Campaign. Corsi madecontradictory statements about whether he acquired this information from a source or deduced iton his own. Corsi also coordinated with Stone on a cover story for Stone's information anddeleted communications relating to the issue. Separately, Stone communicated with Randy
Credico between August and October 2016 in an attempt to obtain advance information about
WikiLeaks, but Credico denied having any non-public knowledge, despite having someconnections to Assange.
··(U) Obtaining Clinton-related emails was a primary focus of the Trump Campaign's
opposition research effort. While it was seeking advance information about potential WikiLeaks
releases, the Campaign. created a messaging strategy to promote the stolen materials. When the
hacked emails were released, the Campaign used the contents of the emails to attack Clinton. In
addition, Trump publicly requested
that Russia find and release.
. the "missing" emails from
Clinton's server, and hours later, GRU hackers attempted new spearphishing attacks against the
Clinton Campaign. Trump also directed individuals in, and associated with, his Campaign toseek out Clinton's "missing" emails. 1114
(U) Trump and the Campaign continued to promote and disseminate the hacked
WikiLeaks documents, even after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and theDepartment of Homeland Security released a.joint statement officially attributing the hack-andleak campaign to Russia as part of its interference in the U.S. presidential election. The Tf1:1mp
Campaign publicly undermined the attribution of the hack-and-leak campaign to Russia, and was
indifferent to whether it and WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort.

2. (U) Limitations on the Committee's Investigation(U) The Committee faced several limitations to its inquiry. Most importantly, several
witnesses implicated in the SCO's investigation refused interviews and document production, on
the basis of their Fifth Amendment rights. These witnesses included Roger Stone, Paul1114

(U) One effort to locate these "missing" emails is described infra, Vol. 5, Sec. L.1.

173

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Manafort, 1115 Rick Gates, Randy Credico, and Jerome Corsi. In addition, the Committee
requested but did not obtain an interview with Julian Assange. Ongoing criminal investigations
and prosecutions further limited the Committee's access to materials in the possession of FBI
and the Department ·of Justice, such as the criminal cases against Roger Stone and the GRU
hackers. Finally, the Committee faced limitations on its legal authorities, including the inability
to compel evidence from entities outside the United States.
3. (U) Background on GRU Hacking Activities,_,.__, The ICA states, with high confidence, that
Putin ordered the 2016 influence campaign against the U.S. presidential election. 1121

1115(U) As noted elsewhere, Manafort did agree to a limited interview on the June 9, 2016 meeting in Trump
Tower.

I i .
(U) NIC, "Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections," January 6, 2017 (hereinafter
Declassified ICA).
1120 (U)1121

174

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I

I

I

1122
"1123
1124
112s
Seven GRU officers belonging to Unit 26165 werecharge wit a conspiracy to commit computer mtrusions an publicize stolen information in order to undermine
and retaliate against efforts by anti-doping agencies involved in exposing Russian athletic doping programs, among
other crimes. Indictment, United States v. Aleksei Sergeyevich Morenets, No. 2:18-cr-263-MRH (W.D. Pa. October
3, 2018 .
,

1126
1127
1128

1129
1130

175

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) FPN 26165 was given primary responsibility for the technical work associated withthe hack-and-leak operation: hacking into the DCCC, DNC and accounts of individuals
affiliated with the Clinton Campaign. 1132 This operation was further parceled out tospecialized sub-units that separately focus on developing malware, spearphishing, andbitcoin mining. 1133•

(U) FPN 74455 had primary responsibility for the influence side of the hack-and-leakoperation: it assisted in the release of stolen documents, promotion of those materials,
and, among others, the publication of anti-Clinton content on GRU-operated social media
accounts. 1134 As described in Volume I of this Committee's Report, FPN 74455 also
separately hacked computers belonging to state boards· of elections, secretaries of state,
and U.S. companies involved in administration of U.S. elections. 1135•

(U) Although the 2016 hack-and-leak campaign was by far Russia's most significant
election interference operation targeting the United States, the GRU's effort was, in hindsight, asurprise but not an anomaly. It reflects a growing trend of Russia's increasing use ofhack-andleak operations over the past several years to target its foreign adversaries. In addition, many of
the techniques that the GRU had honed in its earlier campaigns reappeared in 2016, although at alarger scale and with more sophistication: the use of fake personas on social media; the postingof stolen materials directly on GRU-operated websites for public consumption; and the use of
specific individuals and existing outlets to push narratives about the documents that wereadvantageous to Russia.

1131

Netyksho m 1ctment; sea Report, Vo . I, pp. 36-37.
1132(U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 37.
1133(U) Ibid, pp. 36-37.
1134(U) Ibid, p. 37.
1135
U Ibid For a full discussion of Russian activities involving election infrastructure, see Vol. 1.
113

176

See also

- T h e GRU has conducted- significant hack-and-leak operations
around~d since 2014, including: the 2016 U.S. elections ( u s i ~ i f e r 2.0
and DCLeaks , as well as o erations conducted throu h the p e r s o n a "Cyber Caliphate," and "Cyber
Berkut."these operations took place prior to the 2016 U.S. election interference;others occurred contemporaneously or soon afterwards:

•

I

113
. . . . . . . Public reporting from the United Kingdom attributes a variety of threat actors to the GRU,i n c ~ Bear, APT 28, CyberCaliphate, Cyber Berkut, and others. See U.K. National Cyber Security
·
·
··
·
·
service exposed," October 3, 2018.

1139 (U)I. i .
Ibid.
1141 (U) Ibid.
1142 (U) Ibid.
1143 (U) Ibid.
1140 (U)177

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I
4. (U) The GRU Plans and Executes the Theft of Sensitive Political Documents(U) In March 2016, GRU hackers began a coordinated, multi-month hacking effort
against email accounts and computer networks associated with the Clinton Campaign and the
Democratic Party. During the intrusion, the GRU identified and stole thousands of emails andsensitive political materials that it would later release and promote through fake online personas
and WikiLeaks.
i.

(U) Initial Stages(U) In March 2016, GRU hackers began using research and targeting efforts to learn
about Democratic Party websites, including the domains they ultimately hacked. Among otherthings, the hackers conducted technical queries for the IP configurations of victim domains andto identify network-connected devices, as well as metadata associated with those devices, such as
the active operating systems, with the aid of the search engine "Shodan." 1146 They also
conducted open-source research to learn about the DNC network, the Democratic Party, andHillary Clinton's campaign. 1147 These searches permitted the hackers to identify technicalvulnerabilities in the potential targets, craft effective spearphishing emails, and to assess theinformation their expected victims might possess. All of this activity took place before the GRU
had successfully gained access to the victim systems. 1148

1144(U) Ibid(U) Ibid.
1146(U) Netyksho indictment, 'I) 23
Shodan is a search engine for internet-connected
devices; it allows users to discover which devices are connected to the Internet, where they are located, and how
they are configured. See, e.g., J.M. Porup, "What is Shodan? The search engine for everything on the internet,"
CSO, October 18, 2018.
1147(U) Netyksho indictment, 'I) 23.
1148
U SCO Re ort Vol. I, . 37.
1145

1149

178

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Beginning on or about March 10, 2016, GRU officers sent hundreds ofspearphishing emails to the work and personal email accounts of employees and volunteers of
the Clinton Campaign. 1157 Ninety spearphishing emails were directed to accounts hosted athillaryclinton.com.11 58 By March 15, the GRU also began targeting Google and dnc.org email
accounts used by Clinton Campaign employees. 1159 On April 6, the GRU successfully
spearphished a DCCC employee. 1160 In total, over 300 accounts were targeted. 1161
(U) The GRU used multiple techniques to fool recipients of its spearphishing emails.
Some of the emails it sent contained a fake link purporting to let the recipient reset an accountpassword, but in reality stole their credentials. 1162 Others, sent by a spoofed account thatappeared to be from a known member of the Clinton Campaign, included a fake link purporting
to direct the recipient to a spreadsheet about Clinton's ratings. 1163 GRU hackers used a URLshortening service to obfuscate the link's malicious nature. 1164 A user who was tricked into

1150(U) Ibid(U) Bitly provides a URL-shortening service and link management platform. See, e.g.,
www.bitl .com/ a es/features/link-shortenin .
1151

1157
,I

(U) SCO Report, Vo . I, p. 37.

115s (U)

Ibid.

1159

(U) Ibid.
1160(U) Netyksho indictment, , 24.
1161(U) Ibid.,, 21.
Ibid.
Ibid.
1164
(U) Ibid.
1162 (U)I 163 (U)179clicking on the links and sharing his or her credentials gave the GRU control over the accounts,
including the ability to steal the accounts' contents. 1165

Go g eSomeone has your password
ttV'wkft
S.,,,....,.~-l'IM-IO'Yl>"'9'111IO)'Ol,<fGoogltAccounl

Oelalls:
T-~. 22 Marci\, 14 9 2!, UTC
IP _.._ 13-t 2411312311~uu-~--INIIQIHl~V...--..,,,.,,--...,,,_.,.,(U) The most recognizable victim of this spearphishing effort was John Podesta, thechairman of the Clinton Campaign. On March 19, 2016, Podesta's account received aspearphishing email purporting to be from Google. The email claimed that someone had tried toaccess his Google account and recommended that he change his password immediately by using
a link embedded in the email. 1166 Based on an apparent mistake by a security specialist statingthat the email was "legitimate" rather than "illegitimate," Podesta's assistant clicked the link,
giving GRU hackers access to the account. 1167 On March 21, 2016, within two days of first
accessing Podesta' s account, the GRU hackers stole 50,000 of Podesta's emails. 1168

1165(U) Ibid Pictured is a publicly-available sample ofone of the spearphishing emails sent by the GRU. Eric
Lipton, et al., "The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S.," The New York Times, December
13, 2016.
1166(U) Netyksho indictment, ~ 21 .
1167(U) Jim Sciutto, "How one typo helped let Russian hackers in," CNN, June 27, 2017; Ellen Nakashima andShane Harris, "How the Russians hacked the DNC and passed its emails to WikiLeaks," The Washington Posl, July13, 2018. According to media reports, the security contractor meant to respond that the spearphishing email was" illegitimate."
1168(U) Netyksho indictment, ~ 21.

180

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

ii.

(U) Compromise of the DNC and DCCC Networks(U) These initial compromises provided the jumping-off point for subsequent large-scale
intrusions, starting with the DCCC. On April 7, 2016, the day after successfully spearphishing a
DCCC employee, a GRU officer searched for technical information about the DCCC' s network
configurations to help identify connected devices and, presumably, vulnerabilities. 1169 The GRU
then established its presence.on the DCCC network on April 12, 2016, when hackers leveraged
stolen credentials from the compromised DCCC employee to access the DCCC network. 1170
GRU hackers gained access to 29 computers on the network over the following weeks, including
by stealing network administrator credentials through the use of keystroke loggers. The GRU
compromised the network credentials belonging to at least 18 users. 1171
(U) Once established on the network, the hackers moved quickly toward identifying andstealing politically-sensitive materials. On April 14, 2016, just days after the intrusion began, the
GRU hackers installed rar.exe, a tool often used by hackers to compile and compress large
amounts of data for easier exfiltration. 1172 The same day, they began to scour the system forpolitical intelligence, using search terms like "Hillary," "Cruz," and "Trump," copying entire
DCCC folders (including one labeled "Benghazi Investigations") and targeting computers that
hosted opposition research and field operation plans for the election. 1173

(U) Then, on April 18, 2016, the GRU gained access to the DNC network through avirtual private network (VPN) that connected the DNC and DCCC networks. 1174 The VPN was
intended to give certain DCCC employees access to databases on the DNC network. 1175 The
GRU had used malware called "X-Agent" to take screenshots and capture the key strokes of a
DCCC employee who had authorization to access the DNC network. 1176
(U) On April 19, the day after it had gained access to the DNC, the GRU established an
external set of proxy computers, which the GRU referred to as the "middle servers," to interact
with its malware. 1177 The GRU used these proxy servers to help mask the involvement of

1169
1170

(U) Ibid,~ 23.
(U) Ibid,~ 24; Crowdstrike, Draft Incident Investigation Report, DCCC, August 8, 2016 (hereinafter

Crowdstrike DCCC Report), p. 6. .
1171
(U) Crowdstrike DCCC Report, pp. 6, 10; SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 38.
1172
U Crowdstrike DCCC Re art, . 19· SCO Re art, Vol. I . 40.

DNC Report, pp. 5-7; SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 38.
1176(U) Netyksho indictment,~ 26.
1177(U) SCO Report, Vol I., p. 39.

181

Russian government actors. The "middle servers" in tum connected to a second-set of GRUcontrolled computers, known within the GRU as the "AMS Panel," which the-GRU used tomonitor and control its malware operations. 1178 The AMS Panel, which was housed on a serverin Arizona leased by the GRU, also served as a repository for data obtained via keylogging
sessions. 1179 Other servers the GRU used were located elsewhere in the United States and allover the world. 1180

thj(U) The GRU quickly capitalized on its access to
DNC. On April 22, it exfiltrated an
initial set of documents. Between May 25 and June 1, 2016, it again accessed the mail serverand stole thousands of emails and attachments. 1181 By June 8, 2016, GRU hackers gained accessto over 30 computers on the DNC network, including the mail server and shared file server. 1182
(U) Within days of establishing its network of proxy computers, the GRU had-also
identified relevant materials to take from the DCCC. On April 25, the hackers began collecting
and compressing over 70 Gigabytes of election-related documents on the DCCC network for
exfiltration, which they separated into smaller parts, likely to avoid detection. 1183 On April 28,
they used additional malware known as X-Tunnel to create an encrypted connection between the
DCCC computers and GRU-controlled proxy computers for secure, large-scale data transfers,
and then exfiltrated the over:-70 Gigabytes of compressed data to a remote, GRU-controlled
server. 1184 Consistent with GRU techniques and "methods of persistence" identified bycomputer forensic investigators in other intrusions, the hackers again used X-Agent to log
keystrokes, take screenshots, and gather system data; used a lateral-movement tool called
RemCom; and used Mimikatz, a credential-harvesting tool. 1185 The GRU also destroyed
evidence of its activities by deleting logs and computer files that reflected its presence on the
DNC and DCCC network, and the AMS paneI. 1186
5. (U) Russia "Weaponizes" Stolen Information with Fake Personas(U) Shortly after gaining access to the DNC network, and months before it released any
materials, the GRU prepared infrastructure to leak stolen information. Consistent with priorinfluence campaigns, the GRU used multiple fake personas on social media platforms-

1178(U) Ibid, Vol I., pp. 39-40; Netyksho indictment,~~ 24-25.
(U) SCOReport, Vol I., pp. 39-40; Netyksho indictment,~, 24-26.
1180(U) See SCa Report, Vol I., pp. 39-40; Netyksho indictment,,, 21, 24, 25.
1181(U) sea Report, Vol I., pp. 40-41.
1182(U) Ibid, p. 38.
1183(U) Crowdstrike DCCC Report, p. 6; SCO Report,.Vol I., p. 40.
1184(U) Crowdstrike DCCC Report, pp. 6, 10; sea Report, Vol I., p. 40.
1185(U) Crowdstrike DCCC Report, pp. 7, 10; sea Report, Vol I., p. 38.
1186(U) Netyksho indictment, , 31. The GRU sought to maintain access to the DNC and DCCC networks even after
it had exfiltrated these materials. See ibid, ,, 32-34.
1179

182

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE~ RUSSIA INVE TIGATION ONLY·

including a persona known as "Guccifer 2.0" and others associated with the fake outlet"DCLeaks"-to promote and disseminate its information, including, by providing content inadvance to media organizations and targeted U.S. persons. This influence campaign was. used topromote the stolen documents and associated narratives, pusl:1. back on early attribution of theattacks to the Russian government, and create plausible deniability for individuals who sought touse the stolen information.
i.

(U) GRU Operation of the DCLeaks Site and Related Personas(U) To launch its influence operation, the GRU created a website, dcleaks.com, which
was operational from June 2016 to March 2017. 1187 The GRU used this website and affiliatedsocial media personas to promote and disseminate stolen documents from the DNC and DCCC,
while obscuring the GRU's involvement in the influence campaign.

The DCLeaks website was registered by the GRU's Unit 26165
on April 19, 2016, the day after the GRU had gained access to the DNC and before an
documents had been exfiltrated from the DCCC or DNC. 1188

(U) DCLeaks was not the GRU's first attempt to create a fake outlet related to the U.S:
election. In fact, one week prior, around the same time it had first gained access into the DCCG
network, the GRU had also tried to register the website "electionleaks.com." 1190 At that time, theGRU was only in possession of stolen emails from Campaign officials and others associated with
the Democratic Party, including John Podesta. This information indicates that the GRU had been
anticipating a "leak" campaign while it was still in the early stages of its intrusion ..

(U) The GRU launched the DCLeaks website publicly on June 8, 2016. 1191 On thewebsite, the GRU falsely presented DCLeaks as an independent transparency-focused platform,run by Americans for Americans. For example, on its "About" page, DCI,eaks stated that its"aim is to find out and tell you the truth about U.S. decision-making process as well as about the
key elements of American political life." DCLeaks also claimedJo be "launched by the.
-(U) sea Report, Vol I., pp. 41-42.
(U) Ibid, Vol I., p.41. As discussed, however, the Russians had already stolen emails from John Podesta andother individuals.
1187
1188

1189
1190
1191

(U) Netyksho indictment, ~ 36.

183

American hacktivists who respect and appreciate freedom of speech, human rights andgovernment of the people" 1192 :D C LEAKS /OCleak.c; s a new level pro eel aimed to anatyze and publish a large
amount of erna ls from top- ank1ng officials and their influence agents allover the world
The pro ect was launched by the Amencan hackt1v1sts who respect andappreciate freedom of speech human nghts and government of thepeople We believe that our pol1t c ans have forgotten that In a democracy
the people are the h ghest fo1m of poli1cal authority so our atizens havethe r ght to partic pate in govern ng our nation. The authorrt1es are Just
lobbying intere ts of Wall Street fat cats ndustnal barons andmultinational corporations representatives who swallow up all resources
and subJugate all markets
We bel eve US c taens have the nght to know how don-.e5t1c and foreign
policies of th United States are shaped and who the real policy maker 1s
Our aim Is to find out and tell you the truth about US decision making
process swell as about the key elements o American political life
There are no borders or cen'"orshtp fo DCleaks We are open forcooperation and ready to get valuable 1nformat1on check ,ts vaLid1ty and to
make t ava• abl to u,e pub! c(U) The website offered visitors links to different sets of hacked materials, which wereindexed by sender and recipient identities and contact information. The emails initially released
by DCLeaks on June 8 appeared to originate from personal email accounts of Campaign
employees, advisors, and volunteers, rather than the compromised DNC or DCCC networks. 1193
The GRU controlled access to document releases by password-protecting the pages it wanted torestrict, and would invite select journalists or U.S. persons to preview restricted material before it

1192
1193

(U) Internet Archive, Capture of dcleaks.com/index.php/about, July 20, 2016.
(U) SCO Report, Vol I., p. 41.

184became public. 1194 The site received over one million page views before it was shut down inMarch 2017.11 95- I n addition to creating a false narrative about DCLeaks, the GRU tooka v a r i e ~ r e the Russian government's identity as the website operator. For
example, the GRU paid for the re istration with bitcoin it had mined and used an anon mizin
service to re ister the site. 1196

(U) In connection with its releases, the GRU created a corresponding :OCLeaks Twitter
account, @dcleaks_, on June 8, 2016. In doing so, the GRU hid itself behind US-based proxies.
The Twitter account was registered under the Gmail address dcleaksproject@gmail.com andfrom an IP address that resolved to a U.S. webhosting company based in Williamsville, New
York. 1198 In keeping with broader attempts to avoid attribution, the GRU used Polish andUkrainian phone numbers. 1199 The GRU used the DCLeaks account to communicate privately
with targeted individuals and organizations. From June 14, 2016, to November 8, 2016,
Committee analysis of the DCLeaks Twitter account shows that it sent 259 direct messages toother Twitter accounts, including WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, as _further discussed infra. 1200
1(U) Also on June 8, 2016, the GRU used a preexisting Facebook account under the name
"Alice Donovan" to create a DCLeaks Facebook page. 1201 The DCLeaks Facebook page wasused to promote products on the DCLeaks website, along with other personas that purported tobe-administrators of the DCLeaks site, like the Donovan persona. These additional administrator
personas included "Richard Gingrey" and "Jason Scott.': 1202 The first activity associated with the
DCLeaks Facebook page occurred on June 8, with the posting of hacked private correspondence
involving NATO's approach to Russia and a link to the DCLeaks website. 1203 On June 14, theDCLeaks page posted for the first time about stolen DNC documents with a link to the DCLeaks
website: "Check restricted documents leaked from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign

1194
1195

(U) Ibid., pp. 41-42.
(U) Netyksho indictment, '1] 36.

1196
1197

1198

(U) Twitter,
CLe s (registration onnation). The Committee reviewed publicly available Whols IP
address infonnation to identify the webhosting company.
1199(U) Ibid Phone numbers were associated with countries based oil their country codes.
1200(U) Twitter, @DCLeaks (direct messa in metadata) .
1201.
(U) Facebook, Account ID
CLeaks re istration infonnation); Netyksho indictment, 'I] 38.
The Facebook ID associated wi
1202(DCLeaks registration infonnation); Netyksho indictment, '1] 38.
(U) Facebook, Account ID
1203(DCLeaks post on June 8, 2016 at 13:48 UTC).
(U) Facebook, Account ID

185

COMMITTEE.SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
staff." 1204 This was the same day that The Washington Post first reported the Russian
government's suspected hack of the DNC. 1205 The GRU posted additional materials to the
DCLeaks Facebook page on June 14, 2016; July 11, 2016; August 3, 2016;. and September 5, 15,
22, and 30, 2016, which included "status updates" and "shares" of existing media. The·
Facebook page itself did not appear to generate significant activity on the platform-·831,
engagements across all posts 1206-suggesting that the GRU was either not well postured to, or
1 7
did not focus on, distributing. the hacked documents through Facebook. .20 .

(U) In a limited way, the GRU tried to bolster the DCLeaks Facebook page with other,more established GRU personas. The use of these additional personas was likely intended to ·generate a broader· i;i.udience and lend an aura of credibility to the DCLeaks entity. However,technical information demonstrates that the accounts were all controlled by the GRU. For
example, on multiple occasions, the GRU used the same IP address to log in to the different
administrator accounts for DCLeaks on the same day, within minutes or hom:s. 1208'•

(U) The individual administrator accounts used to manage the DCLeaks Facebook pagewere created more than a year prior to the creation of the DCLeaks page. The Donovan
and G i n ~ r e both registered on January 13, 2015, from the ·same IP
address, - - D o n o v a n at 11 :27:58 UTC and Gingrey at 11 :03 :54 UTC. 1209
The Scott account was registered on February 2, 2015, using IP a d d r e s s _ ,· which was .also used to log in to the Gingrey account that same.day and the Donovan
account several days earlier. 1210
/

•

1204

(U) All three administrator accounts displayed significant activity, including public
postings and private messaging, well before the GRU created the DCLeaks Facebook
page. For instance, Committee analysis of messaging metadata indicates that the .

(U) Facebook, Account I D - - - (DCLeaks post on June 14, 2016 at 14:58 UTC).

1205(U) Ellen Nakashima, " R u s ~ a c k e r s penetrated DNC, stole opposition research.on Trump,?' The
Washington Post, June 14, 2016.
·
1206(U) Facebook, Account I D - - - (DCLeaks page information).
·
1207(U) See Renee DiResta, S h ~ t e m k i n Pages & Personas: Assessing GRU Online Operati~'ns,
2014-2019, Stanford Internet 0 ~ .
.
1208(U) Facebook, Account I D - - - (DCLeaks administrative logins by Donovan, Gingrey, andScott).
·
1209(U) Facebook; Account I D s - - - (Donovan registration information);--(Gingrey registration i n f o r m a t i o ~ resolves to the U.S. subsidiary ofa m ~ o s t i n gprovider.
1210(U) Facebook, Account IDs(Donovan login information),(Gingrey login
information),(Scott login information).

186

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Donovan account engaged in hundreds of chat "threads" with other individual users andgroups, sending almost 1,500 private messages. 1211 .
•(U) The GRU caused some of the administrator accounts to communicate with eachother. For example, on March 3, 2015, the Donovan persona sent a private message to
the Scott persona. 1212 It is not clear why the GRU chose to do this.

The GRU used additional Facebook personas connected to other
GRU influence operations to support the DCLeaks campaign. The GRU used one particularly
active persona-"Steve Wanders"-to communicate with ·oumalists on behalf of DCLeaks, as
described in a.

'-··-' Notably, the Alice Donovan persona began
communicating with the Michael Waters persona in February 2015, and the two accounts
continued to communicate until July 12, 2016, after DCLeaks went live. 1214
The GRU also leveraged some of these connections as social(U) Despite the GRU's attempts to legitimize the DCLeaks personas and obfuscate
Russian involvement, additional technical information linked the DCLeaks site to the GRU and
its other interference efforts. For example:

•

1211
1212

(U) Facebook, Account ID
Ibid.

(Donovan messaging metadata).

187

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYI•(U) The GRU _operated the DCLeaks Twitter account, @dcleaks_, from the same
computer it used for other interference efforts, including the Twitter account@BaltimorelsWhr, which encouraged a "flash mob" and posting of images to oppose
Clinton. 1219•

(U) The GRU paid for the dcleaks.com domain using a cryptocurrency account that wasalso used to lease a virtual private server. That virtual private server was registered with
an email address that the GRU also used to obtain the account at the URL-shortening
service behind the spearphishing links. 1220
ii.

(U) GRU Operation of the Guccifer 2.0 Persona and Rebuttal of
Attribution Efforts(U) In addition to the DCLeaks persona, the GRU created and deployed a persona known
as "Guccifer 2.0" to undercut attribution of the attacks to Russia and to promote and disseminate
stolen data.

(U) On June 14, 2016, only six days after the DCLeaks website went public, The
Washington Post reported that the DNC had been hacked by Russian government hackers. 1221
Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for the Kremlin, responded immediately: "I completely rule out apossibility that the [Russian] government or the government bodies have been involved inthis." 1222 Actions by the Russian intelligence services also quickly followed.

1216
1217
1218
1219

(U) Netyks om 1ctment, 'I] 39.
(U) Ibid., 'I] 35.
1221(U) Ellen Nakashima, "Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole opposition research on Trump," The
Washington Post, June 14, 2016.
1222(U) Dustin Volz and Emily Stephenson, "Russians steal research on Trump in hack of U.S. Democratic Party,"
Reuters, June 14, 2016.
1220

188

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The next day, the GRU created a WordPress site under the Guccifer 2.0 persona andpublished its first blog post, entitled "Guccifer 2.0 DNC's servers hacked by a lone hacker" 1223 :(U) In the blog post, the GRU provided a sample of hacked documents. It also sought torebut reporting that Russia hacked the DNC and DCCC, and instead suggest that the hacks were
the work of a single cybercriminal. The post read:Worldwide known cyber security company CrowdStrike announced that the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) servers had been hacked by··sophisticated " hacker groups.
I'm very pleased the company appreciated my skills so highly))) But in fact, it waseasy, very ea,;y.
Guccife r may have been the first one who penetrated Hillary Clinton 's and other
Democrats ' mail servers. But he certainly wasn 't the last. No wonder any otherhacker could easily gel access to the DNC 's servers.
Shame on CrowdStrike: Do you think I 've been in the DNC's networks/or almosta year and saved only 2 documents? Do you really believe it?
Here are just a f ew docs .from many thousands I extracted when hacking into
DNC 's network.
Some hundred sheets! This 's a serious case isn 't it?
And it 's j ust a tiny part ofall docs 1 downloadedfrom the Democrats networks.
The main part of the papers, thousands offiles and mails, 1 gave to Wikileaks.
They will publish them soon.

1223 (U)internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com/2016/06/ 15/dnc/, June I 5, 2016.

189

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
I guess CrowdStrike customers should think twice about company's competence
Fuck the Illuminati and their conspiracies!!!!!!!!! Fuck Crowd8_trike! !!!!!!!!1224(U) The text of the blog post provided evidence of GRU control. As outlined by the
SCO, the post included a variety of terms and phrases that GRU hackers had searched for online
earlier that day from a computer used by FPN 74455, such as "some hundred sheets," "dcleaks,""illuminati," "worldwide known," "think twice about," and "company's competence." 1225

(U) Other Russian government actors and WikiLeaks bolstered Guccifer 2.0's efforts.to
direct attention away from Russian responsibility. For example, Russian government media~mtlet RT announced: "'Guccifer 2.0' releases hacked DNC docs revealing mega donors, Clinton
collusion." It continued: "This contradicts the initial DNC reports that Russia was behind theattack." 1226 WikiLeaks also publicized the release on Twitter, but not the alleged Russian
involvement, stating: "DNC 'hacker' releases 200+ page internal report on Trump, says gave
WikiLeaks the all [sic] rest." 1227
(U) The Guccifer 2.0 persona released thousands of documents over the course ofanother 16 posts on the blog. The posts began with additional efforts to publish stolen DNC
documents, combined with purported "background" information about Guccifer2.0's alleged
identity. 1228 By mid-August, the posts began to include documents stolen from the DCCC in aneffort to promote a narrative that U.S. elections were "becoming a farce." 1229 As the generalelection neared, the GRU sought to build distrust in the democratic process, claiming that "the,Democrats may rig the elections on November 8." 1230
(U) The documents were not released randomly; rather, they were organized around
specific issues or states, suggesting that the G:RU had spent time reviewing and organizing the1224(U) Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com/2016/06/15/dnc/, June 15, 2016 ( document links andimages omitted).
1225(U) Netyksho indictment, .,-r.,-r 41-42.
1226(U) "Guccifer 2.0 releases hacked DNC docs revealing mega donors, Clinton collusion," RT, June 16, 2016.
1227(U) Tweet, @wikileaks, June 16, 2016.
1228(U) See Internet Archive, Captures ofguccifer2.wordpress.com, July 31, 2017 (listing blog posts from June 18,
2016 to July 14, 2016) ..
1229(U) Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com, August 12, 2016 (under post entitled "Guccifer 2.0
Hacked DCCC," calling presidential election "a farce"); see also Internet Archive, Capture of
guccifer2.wordpress.com, August 15, 2016 (under post entitled "DCCC Internal Docs on Primaries in Florida,"
calling congressional primaries "a farce").
1230(U) Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com, November 4, 2016 (November 4, 2016 post entitled"Info from Inside the FEC: the Democrats may rig the elections").

190

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVE TIGATION ONLY
stolen documents and attempting to identify materials that would provoke the most interest. 1231
For example, the GRU released specific sets of DCCC documents related to races in Florida on
August 15, 2016, 1232 and to races in Pennsylvania on August 21, 2016. 1233 In addition, the GRU
released opposition research documents, internal policy recommendations related to politicallysensitive issues, and analyses of specific congressional races. 1234
(U) The GRU relied heavily on the Guccifer 2.0 Twitter account, "@Guccifer_2," topromote postings and engage directly with media and U.S. persons, although it again used proxyaccounts to hide the GRU's control. The account, which was registered on June 20, 2016, usedthe email address "guccifer20@gmx.us" and was connected to an Israeli phone number on June23, 2016. The account was registered from a French IP address and administered at varying
times from IP addresses across the globe. 1235 Committee analysis indicates that the account's
first direct messages occurred the next day, June 21, and the GRU used the platform extensively,
engaging in private, direct communications with over 1,200 unique users, involving
approximately 15,000 unique messages. 1236 Analysis of the timing of the messages-often
spanning every hour of the day-,indicated that the account was likely administered by multiple
individuals. 1237 Public reporting also suggests that the persona's syntax and language
proficiency changed over the course of chats. 1238
iii.

\(U) GRU Social Engineering to Promote and Disseminate Information
via Third Parties

1231(U) Documents were posted to the Guccifer 2.0 blog on June 18, 20, and 21; July 6 and 14; August 12, 15, 21,
and 31; September 15 and 23; October 4 and 18; and November 4, 2016. See generally Internet Archive, Capturesof guccifer2.wordpress.com, June 15, 2016-January 12, 2017; see also SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 43.
1232(U) Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com, August 15, 2016 (post entitled "DCCC InternalDocs on Primaries in Florida")
1233(U) Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com, August 21, 2016 (post entitled "DCCC Docs on
Pennsylvania")1234 (U) See, e.g., Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com, August 31, 2016 (post entitled "DCCC
Docs from Pelosi's PC"); Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com, September 15, 2016 (post entitled"Dems Internal Workings in New Hampshire, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina"). Even after the election, the GRU
used the persona to undermine the IC assessment attributing the influence campaign to Russia in a January 12, 2017
post. See Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com, January 12, 2017 (under post entitled "Here I am
again, my friends," stating "The U.S. intelligence agencies have published several reports oflate claiming I have ties
with Russia. I'd like to make it clear enough that these accusations are unfounded. I have totally no relation to the·Russian government.").
1 35~ (U) Twitter, @Guccifer_ 2 (registration information and IP audit).
1236(U) Twitter, @Guccifer_2 (direct messaging metadata).
1231 (U) Ibid.
1238(U) See, e.g., Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, "Why Does DNC Hacker 'Guccifer 2.0' Talk Like This?," VICE,
June 23, 2016.

191

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
(U) · While it was disseminating the fruits of its hacking publicly, the GRU also used its
personas to contact individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and journalists interested inpublicizing the materials. Although the Committee does not have access to the contents of all ofthese communications, select information illustrates some of the GRU's strategic outreach to andsocial engineering of key targets. The GRU's collaboration with established outlets andindividuals appeared to be more successful at generating attention and engagement with the
hacked documents than GRU attempts to promote content through fake personas.

a. (U) General Media Outreach(U) The GRU's outreach using the Guccifer 2.0 persona focused in large part on the
media. The GRU communicated publicly and privately using the Guccifer 2.0 persona,including on the WordPress blog and through Twitter direct messages.

(U) Ori June 22, 2016, as part of the GRU' s continued effort to redirect attribution for
the DNC and DCCC hacks away from Russia, the GRU posted on its blog, "Want to Know More
About Guccifer 2.0?":
Hi All! I see many people wanna know a little more about me and ask a lot of .
questions. And I'm ready to tell you what you 're interested in if it doesn't
threaten my sqfety. Unfortunately I can't give personal answers to everybody.
That's why I'd like journalists to send me their questions via Twitter Direct
Messages. I'll post the most popular questions and answers in this blog sothat everybody can read them in original and doesn't distort my words assome journalists try to do. So I'm eager to see your questions and will beglad to give my responses. My Twitter account @Guccifer_ 2: 1239
(U) After receiving the questions, the GRU posted responses on June 30 under a post
entitled "FAQ From Guccifer 2.0," which reiterated its false claim that Guccifer 2.0 was anindependent hacker from Eastern Europe not connected to Russia. 1240
(U) The GRU also pursued extensive contact with targeted outlets and personalities andattempted to seed information with them.

1239(U) Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/about-guccifer2, June 23, 2016.
(U) Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com/2016/06/30/faq, June 30, 2016. The post also made anumber of statements relating to Romanian hacker Marcel Lazer, whose moniker "Guccifer" had been adopted by
the GRU for its persona. Ibid
1240

192

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVES.TIGATION ONLY•(U) Using the Guccifer 2.0 persona, the GRU emailed The Smoking Gun news website
on June 27, 2016, offering "exclusive access to some leaked emails linked [to] Hillary
Clinton's staff." 1241•

(U) The Guccifer 2.0 persona also communicated approximately 80 times with
Cassandra Fairbanks, then a journalist at Sputnik, who later reported that Guccifer 2.0
was interested in providing documents to support a class action lawsuit against the DNC,
asking "Can it influence the election in any how?" 1242

(U) The GRU also communicated and shared stolen Florida documents with Aaron
Nevins, who runs a Florida-focused political blog called "HelloFLA!" Nevins produced
communications with the Guccifer 2.0 persona to the Committee. According to those records, on
August 12, 2016, after the GRU released materials taken from the DCCC, Nevins suggested over
Twitter direct messages that the Guccifer 2.0 persona send "any Florida based information" tohis email address. 1243 On August 12, Nevins's blog also published a commentary on Floridarelated documents that the Guccifer 2.0 persona had already released. 1244
(U) The following week, on August 22, 2016, the Guccifer 2.0 persona messaged Nevins
about additional Florida documents and sent him variety of non-public information, which
Nevins began to review and publish on his blog. 1245 On.September 7, the Guccifer 2.0 persona
and Nevins traded additional messages over Twitter about the significance of certain materials
relating to a "turnout model." 1246 For example, Nevins wrote on September 7 and 81247 : ·1241(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 43.
(U) Twitter, @Guccifer_ 2 ( direct messaging metadata); Cassandra Fairbanks, "My Strange Interactions With
Guccifer 2.0," Big League Politics, April 23, 2017.
1243(U) Twitter direct messages, @Guccifer_ 2 and Aaron Nevins, August 12, 2016 (Nevins Production,
IMG_4731.png).
1244(U) "Guccifer 2.0 Strikes FL-18," Mark Miewurd's HelloFLA!, August 12, 2016.
1245(U) Twitter direct messages, @Guccifer_2 and Aaron Nevins, August 12, 2016 (Nevins Production);"**Exclusive! **Full DCCC Florida Docs," Mark Miewurd's HelloFLA!, August 22, 2016 ("Last week we posted alink to the selected Florida Congressional Primary overviews that were released by Guccifer2, the hacker who
dumped the DCCC archives on the web. Earlier, he contacted us with the entire Florida Archive of 250MB ! Now,
you can only find this EXCLUSIVE content on HelloFLA!").
1246(U) Nevins explained to the Guccifer 2.0 persona that anyone with the right software could "build a list andcopy their targeting" and then "[b]lunt it with mail" of their own. Twitter direct messages, @Guccifer_2 and Aaron
Nevins, September 7, 2016 (Nevins Production, IMG_4744.png).
1247(U) Twitter direct messages, @Guccifer_2 and Aaron Nevins, September 7-8, 2016 (Nevins Production).
1242

\

193

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYGUCCIFER 2.0

i gonna reblog u in my wp
ace

•••

maybe tomorrow :)Holy fuck man I don't thinkyn11 reali7e wh;it yo11 gave
me. I'm still going throughthat stuff and I find buriod

deep the lurnout morlel forthe democrats entire•

prP~1dr.ntial r.;impa1gn
This ,s probably wortl1

millions of dollars I'mgoing to post it tomorrow.
Oh man I' m not sure theyeven CJ\N redo thisthough i'm still not sure i
totally caught it :)Thanks! I can try to jot
some things down tonightand I'll send over how ,tworks. Basically if this wasa war, th,s 1s the map towhere ill the troops are
deployed

And tltt:!11 strtmytr1

because it 's based on mathand population patterns

Searchable by c1ty/counry/
district/TV broadcastzone(rnedia market)

since the last election ...
Hahahursd~y 3

9 PM J(U) Nevins posted about the "turnout model" as an exclusive on September 8, 2016, andshared the post with the Guccifer 2.0 persona. 1248 The GRU then shared the post with Roger
Stone, as described below.

b. (U) Outreach to Roger Stone(U) Some of the individuals the GRU targeted for outreach with the Gucci fer 2.0 persona
were closely associated with the Trump Campaign, such as long-time Trump advisor Roger
Stone. 1249 On August 5, 2016, Stone penned an opinion piece asserting that Guccifer 2.0, not the1248(U) Twitter, @Guccifer_2 (direct messaging metadata); "**Exclusive! •• Democrats Turnout Model," Mark
Miewurd 's HelloFLA !, September 8, 20 I 6 ("It's been almost two weeks since we received an exclusive package ofdcouments directly from Guccifer 2, the hacker that picked the DCCC clean of documents.").
1249(U) Roger Stone, an experienced political consultant and long-time advisor to, and sometimes friend of, Donald
Trump, had worked for the Trump Campaign from approximately December 2014 to August 2015. See Transcriptof SSCI Interview of Sam Nunberg, January 11 , 2019, pp. 59-60; Indictment, United States v. Roger Jason Stone
Jr., 1: l9-cr-00018-ABJ (D.D.C. January 24, 2019). After Stone left the Campaign, he remained in close contact
with Trump and Campaign leadership throughout the remainder of the election. As described more fully below,

194

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Russians, had hacked the DNC, and repeating the false claims made by the GRU on the Guccifer
2.0 website and Twitter account. 1250 On August 12, the GRU released DCCC records, including
the cell phone numbers and email addresses of almost all Democrats in the House ofRepresentatives through the Guccifer 2.0 persona, 1251 and tweeted publicly at Stone: "thanks thatu believe in the real #Guccifer2." 1252 When Twitter then suspended the Guccifer 2.0 account,
WikiLeaks complained: "@Guccifer_ 2 has account completely censored by Twitter after
publishing some files from Democratic campaign #DCCC." 1253 Stone also tweeted at WikiLeaks
and the Guccifer 2.0 persona in response to the suspension, calling it "outrageous" 1254 andreferring to Guccifer 2.0 as a "HERO." 1255·
(U) On August 14, following Twitter's reinstatement of the Guccifer 2.0 account, Stone
reached out to congratulate the Guccifer 2.0 persona over Twitter direct messaging, stating he
was "delighted." 1256 The Guccifer 2.0 persona responded, "wow. thank u for writing back, andthank u for an article about me!!! do you find anyting [sic] interesting in the docs i posted?" 1257 ,On August 16, Stone requested that Guccifer 2.0 retweet a column Stone had written about how
the 2016 election could be "rigged against Donald Trump"; the GRU replied "done." 1258 On
August 17, the Guccifer 2.0 persona called Stone "a great man" .and asked "if I can help u
anyhow," explaining that "it would be a great pleasure to me." 1259 The Committee is not awareof any response· by Stone.

(U) On September 9, the Guccifer 2.0 persona shared the HelloFLA! blog post with
Stone that provided an "exclusive" report of a hacked Democratic turnout model that the GRU

Stone was tasked by Trump, through Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, to conduct outreach to WikiLeaks regarding
releases of emails that would be damaging to Clinton and reported his findings back to Trump, Manafort, Gates, andothers. The GRU's outreach to Stone through the Guccifer 2.0 persona occurred while Stone was actively seeking
1
information about pending Wil,ciLeaks releases for the Trump Campaign.
1250(U) Roger Stone, "Dear Hillary: DNC Hack Solved, So Now Stop Blaming Russia," Breitbart, August 5, 2016.
1251(U) Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com/2016(08/12/guccifer-2-0-hacked-dccc, August 13,
2016 (posting contact information for Democratic Representatives in the 114th Congress).
1252(U) Tweet, @Guccifer_2, August 12, 2016.
1253(U) Tweet, @wikileaks, August 13, 2016.
1254(U) Tweet, @RogerJStoneJr, August 13, 2016 ("@wikileaks @Guccifer_2 Outrageous! ..."),
1255(U) Tweet, @RogerJStoneJr, August 13, 2016 ("Gruccifer2 [sic] is a HERO.").
1256 (U) Roger Stone, "The Smoking Gun Aims, Fir.es, Misses," StoneColdTruth, March 20, 2017 (documenting
messages between@RogerJStoneJr and @Guccifer_2 on August 14, 2016). The Committee confirmed the timing
and completeness of the direct messages that Stone disclosed online based on metadata produced by Twitter.
1257(U) Ibid. (documenting messages between@RogerJStoneJr and@Guccifer_2 on August 15, 2016).
1258 (U) Ibid. (documenting messages between@RogerJStoneJr and@Guccifer_2 on August 16-17, 2016).
1259(U) Ibid. (documenting messages between@RogerJStoneJr and@Guccifer_2 on August 17, 2016). ·195

had fed to Nevins, noted above, and asked for Stone's opinion. Stone responded, "Pretty
standard." 1260
(U) The nature of these communications suggested that the GRU sought to launder andamplify its stolen information through established outlets and individuals, including by
cultivating a relationship with Stone, a known close associate of Trump. This approach provided
additional avenues for the GRU to spread the hacked materials to American audiences without
relying solely on its websites or online personas. It also permitted the GRU to tap into individual
sectors of the American public that it believed would be receptive to specific documents orinformation. 1261

c. (U) Outreach

to--

1260
(U) Ibid (documenting messages between@RogerJStoneJr and @Guccifer_2 on September 9, 2016); SCO
Report, Vol. I, p. 44. The report referenced by Guccifer 2.0 to Stone was a post by Nevins about information Nevins
had been provided by the GRU's persona. See supra.
1261(U) In this regard, the GRU's approach differed from the IRA's behavior, which focused more on trying to getnarratives or content to o viral, as described in Volume 2.
1262
1263
1264

(U) Ibid, p. 40.
(U) Ibid, p. 41.
1266 (U) Ibid
1265

196

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY____ That day, Mikael
Thalen published an article on the Info Wars website titled "Exclusive: Dem Senator's Private
Email Hacked" and subtitled "DCLeaks shows Info Wars emails of Colorado democratic
senator." 1271

iv.

(U) Coordination and Communications Between GRU Personas(U) The Committee found substantial technical evidence linking the GRU to the
DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 personas, and the personas to each other. As described above, theaccounts used for the GRU's spearphishing attacks can be traced to the GRU's registration of the
DCLeaks domain. In addition, the GRU also used overlapping infrastructure and resources tomanage accounts for both the DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 personas. For example:

Ibid.
Ibid.
(U) Ibid., pp. 41--43.
1270(U) Ibid., pp. 43--44.
1271(U) Mikael Thalen, "Exclusive: Dem Senator's Private Email Hacked," lnfowars.com, October 27, 2016.
Thalen reportedly refused separate outreach by the GRU through the Guccifer 2.0 persona, in which it offered
documents purportedly hacked from the DNC that showed the DNC's plans to attack Paul Manafort for his Ukraine
work. Max Fisher "Russian Hackers Find Read Bullhorns in the Media," The New York Times, January 8, 2017.
1261 (U)126s (U)
1269

1272

197

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) The GRU used a pool of bitcoin to lease a server in Malaysia where it hosted the
DCLeaks website. 1274••

(U) The GRU used bitcoin from the same pool to purchase a virtual private network(VPN) account that it subsequently used to administer the Guccifer 2.0 Twitter account inearly July. 1277•

(U) The GRU opened this VPN account from the same server it used to register domains
used as part of its hack of the DCCC and DNC. 1278

(U) The personas also had access to each other's documents. For example, on one
occasion, the Guccifer 2.0 persona provided a link and password to The Smoking Gun to access aclosed portion of the DCLeaks site. 1279 Before doing so, however, the GRU sent the reporter an
email on June 27 stating that it had "asked the DCLeaks, the WikiLeaks sub project, to release apart with a closed access" and that The Smoking Gun would have a couple of days before it wasmade available publicly. 1280 The Committee was unable to determine why the GRU chose todisseminate some of the documents through a combination of the Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks
personas, which had not been otherwise linked.

(U) The GRU may have sought to portray Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks as fully
independent actors. One factor supporting this hypothesis was the significant number ofcommunications exchanged between the Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks accounts over Twitter direct
messaging.
•

The first known Twitter correspondence between the two GRU
personas occurred on September 15, 2016, when the Guccifer 2.0 account notified the1275
1216 (U)1 id(U) Netyksho indictment, 'I/ 45.
1278(U) Ibid
1279(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 43.
1280(U) "Tracking The Hackers Who Hit DNC, Clinton," The Smoking Gun, August 12, 2016.
1277

198

COMMITTEE SENSITI~ -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
DCLeaks account that WikiLeaks was seekin to communicate with it throu h secure
email.12s1.___, The two accounts messaged a total of 11 times that day .

••(U) The accounts exchanged a total of 45 communications from September 15 throughOctober 18. 1285

(U) The Committee does not have specific insight into why the GRU chose theseparticular occasions to communicate over a medium known to be accessible to U.S. law
enforcement. It may have done so to plant false evidence that the accounts were not linked, or tohelp the accounts appear more authentic.
6. (U) Russia and WikiLeaks Coordinate On Interference in the_U.S. Election(U) In addition to disseminating hacked materials through its own personas, the GRU
gave information to WikiLeaks as part of a joint effort to secure wider distribution of stolen
DNC documents and John Podesta emails. WikiLeaks opted to release those materials, first on
July 22 and later on an ongoing basis between October 7 and the election. WikiLeaks also
actively solicited and then released the documents for maximum effect, despite mounting
evidence that they had been stolen by Russian government hackers. Notably, this was not thefirst instance that WikiLeaks had taken actions for the purpose of harming U.S. interests. Nor isit the only instance of contact between the Russian government and WikiLeaks, which have ahistory of parallel and sometimes coordinated actions in attacking U.S. institutions.
i.

(U) Background on WikiLeaks(V) Since its emergence in 2010, WikiLeaks has directed its efforts toward publishing avariety of information norm~lly legally restricted from public disclosure. A disproportionate
number of WikiLeaks disclosures have targeted the United States and benefited U.S.

1281
1282
1283
1284
1285

etadata); SCO Report, Vol. I, pp. 46---47. Contacts

between the GRU and WikiLeaks are described further below.

199

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
adversaries. 1286 Although WikiLeaks .seeks to portray itself as a legitimate media organization,
its disclosures have jeopardized the safety and privacy of individual Americans and foreign allies
because WikiLeaks has made only minimal, and sometimes no efforts to redact sensitive
information, and does not seem to weigh whether its disclosures add any public interest value. 1287
While WikiLeaks has systematically targeted the United States in this way, the Committee has
identified no corresponding pattern with respect to leaks targeting Russia or its allies. As noted
below, WikiLeaks has also coordinated the transfer ofrestricted information to U.S. adversaries,and encouraged and aided the violation of U.S. law to secure access to classified documents. As
a result, WikiLeaks and its senior leadership "resemble a non state hostile intelligence service
often abetted by state actors." 1288

I·-·"··" The Committee is unaware of informationof comparable volume and sensitivity that WikiLeaks has solicited or released about any

1286(U) Jo Becker, et al., "How Russia Often Benefits When Julian Assange Reveals the West's Secrets," The New
York Times, August 31, 2016 ("[A] New York Times examination ofWikiLeaks activities during Mr. Assange's
years in exile found a different pattern: ... WikiLeaks' document releases, along with many of Mr. Assange's
statements, have often benefited Russia, at the expense of the West.").
1287(U) For example, the indictment of Julian Assange alleges how WikiLeaks knowingly published classified
documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars without redacting the names of local sources who had reported
information and were vulnerable to retribution. See Indictment, United States v. Julian Assange, Case 1: 18-cr00111-CMH, '11'1139-44 (E.D. Va. May 23, 2019) ("Assange indictmeqt"). A former WikiLeaks staffer has describedanother occasion when WikiLeaks published a large cache of documents that had no newsworthiness without
applying any redactions to protect the identities of"activists, opposition politicians, bloggers in autocratic regimes
and their real identities, victims of crime and political coercion, and others driven by conscience to speak to the US
government." James Ball, "Why I felt I had to tum my back on WikiLeaks," The Guardian, September 2, 2011.
1288
U National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, P.L. 116-92, Section 6747, December 20, 2019.
1289

200

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
other national government, including authoritarian and oppressive regimes with
substantial records of human rights and civil liberties violations.
•(U) WikiLeaks has passed information to U.S. adversaries, including approximately
90,000 U.S. Department of State cables to a Russian national named Israel Shamir.
Shamir in tum provided them to Belarus's Aleksandr Lukashenko, an authoritarian leader
who relied on the documents to-justify the arrest of opposition figures on allegations of
spying for the United States. 1292•

Julian Assange has said that he focuses his efforts on the·United States because
it is the world's "superpower." 1293 A former colleague of Assange has described his
work as a "one-dimensional confrontation with the U.S.A.," 1294 and e m a i l - p r o b a b l y ~ drafted by Assange reflect his ambition to "bring down"
the United States with leaks. 5 The WikiLeaks website previously stated that
WikiLeaks "aim[s] for maximum political impact." 1296

ii.

(U) Russia's Strategic Support for and Partnership with WikiLeaks(U) The Russian government has pursued a relationship with Julian Assange and
WikiLeaks that includes formal partnerships with state-owned media platforms, government
assistance for WikiLeaks associates and sources, and information sharing. This relationship hasexisted since at least 2012 and reflects an alignment between the Russian government and
WikiLeaks in seeking to undermine U.S. institutions and security.
(U) RT (formerly Russia Today) has provided both beneficial coverage ofWikiLeaks
and a formal, compensated media platform for Assange. RT first signed a contract with Assange

1292

WikiLeaks," The Guardian, September 2, 2011.
Julian Assange, Cypherpunks: Freedom and the

1293

Fu
1294

mber 27, 2010 (interview with Daniel Schmitt).
see Cryptome.org (leaking email dated December 29,
trations that rely on concealing reality - including the

1295

20
US administration").

iki/WikiLeaks:About, February 24, 2009.

1296
1297

201

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
in 2012 for ten shows, which aired as "The World Tomorrow." 1298 In August 2013, RT's editorin-chief, Margarita Simonyan, visited Assange in the Ecuador Embassy in London to renew thecontract. 1299 Following the meeting, Russian media quickly touted RT as "the only Russian
media company" to establish a relationship with WikiLeaks and receive "new leaks of secret
information," indicating that a Russian government-run propaganda: outlet could be the ultimate
beneficiary of classified WikiLeaks materials. 1300

(U) The alliance between RT and WikiLeaks is ,part of the Russian government's overall
strategy to use its state-controlled media to undermine U.S. democratic institutions. The
declassified January 2017 ICA states that RT and Spµthik (formerly The Voice ofRus'sia and
RIA Novosti) 1303 acted as part of "Russia's state-run propaganda machine" during Russia'sinterference in the 2016 U.S. elections. The declassified ICA observes that RT "conducts
strategic messaging for [the] Russian government" and "seeks to influence politics, [and] fueldiscontent in the U.S." 1304 As result of their ties to the Russian government, the Department ofJustice directed the production companies for both RT (T&R Productions LLC) and Sputnika1298(U) "Exclusive TV series hosted by Julian Assange to premiere on ~Tin March," RT, January 25, 2012;
Internet Archive, Capture ofworldtomorrow.wikileaks.org, April 15, 2012.
·
1299(U) Declassified ICA, p. 3.
1300
U Ibid1301

I id(U) See, e.g, Jim Rutenberg, "RT, Sputnik and Russia's New Theory of War," The New York Times, September
13, 2017.
.
·
1304(U) Declassified ICA, p. 3.
1302 (U)

1303

202

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(RIA Global) to register as foreign agents under FARA. 1305 Both have complied, despite theirclaims that they exercise editorial independence from the Russian state. 1306
Putin has publicly acknowledged that RT "is funded by thegovernment, so it cannot help ut reflect the Russian government's official position." 1307 But theconnections are far more malignant. For example, the Kremlin staffs RT with individuals whoare ideolo icall ali ned with Russian messa in and su ervises its covera e. 1308

1305(U) RT has sought to distance itself formally from Russian government control through contractual financing
and production arrangements, in part to avoid FARA registration requirements. See Declassified !CA, Annex A, p.
12. In its FARA filings, T&R Productions identified ANO TV-Novosti as its foreign principal and represented that
RT's shows are produced "pursuant to various commercial agreements with ANO (autonomous non-profit
organization) TV-Novosti." TV-Novosti is financed by the Russian government and organized under Russian law.
See T&R Productions LLC, Registration Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as
amended, and Exhibits, November 10, 2017. Separately, RIA Global filed its registration identifying the Federal
State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency-a government-owned news
agency-as its foreign principal. RIA's shows are also governed by a contractual arrangement with its principal.
See RIA Global LLC, Registration Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended,
and Exhibits, February 16, 2018.
1306(U) In May 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida agreed with the Department ofJustice's position that RM Broadcasting also acts as an agent of the Russian state-owned Rossiya Segodnya andmust register as such under FARA. This ruling marked the first civil enforcement action concerning Russian stateowned media. According to the evidence, RM entered into an agreement with Rossiya Segodnya to broadcast"Sputnik" radio programs, but RM could not alter the programs in any way. As a result, the agreement gave Rossiya
Segodnya direction and control over all RM content. See RM Broadcasting v. United States, Case No. 9:18-cv81418 (S.D. Fla. May 13, 2019).
1307(U) "Putin talks NSA, Syria, Iran, drones in RT interview," RT, June 12, 2013.
1308
Declassi ied /CA Annex A . 9.

For more on Gromov, see, e.g., infra Vol. 5, Sec.

203

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Other incidents illustrate close alignment between WikiLeaks and Russia in
opposing U.S. interests:•(U) WikiLeaks and Russian government talking points have closely mirrored each other.
in April 2016, Assange and WikiLeaks criticized the release of information in the
Panama Papers as a "Putin attack [that] was produced by OCCRP which targets Russia &former USSR and was funded by USAID & Soros," 1313 a frequent refrain in Russianstate-sponsored influence operations. 1314 Putin echoed this two days later, stating:"WikiLeaks has showed us that official people and official organs of the US are behind
this." 1315•

(U) In 2010, after Assange was arrested in England for questioning by Swedish
authorities on rape allegations, Putin made statements supportive of Assange. Putin has
also referred to the charges against Assange as "politically motivated" and that Assange
was being "persecuted for spreading the information he received from the U.S. military
regarding the acti9n of the U.S.A. in the Middle East, including Iraq."· In 2011, theKremlin issued Assange a Russian visa. 1316•

(U) Throughout the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, RT and Sputnik used their social
media accounts to push WikiLeaks-related content that disparaged Hillary Clinton. On atleast two occasions, RT announced WikiLeaks releases on Twitter prior to WikiLeaks
making that announcement itself. 1317•

or instance, in 2013, WikiLeaks
personnel assisted in securing asylum for Edward Snowden from the Russian government

1313(U) Tweet, @wikileaks, April 5, 2016. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a50l(c)(3) non-profit investigative platform focused on exposing crime and corruption, funded in part by the U.S.
Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of State.
1314(U) See infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.A.7.vi.
1315(U) Alan Luhn and Luke Harding, "Putin dismisses Panama Papers as an attempt to destabilise Russia," The
Guardian, April 7, 2016.
1316(U) Jo Becker, et al., "How Russia Often Benefits When Julian Assange Reveals the West's Secrets," The New
York Times, August 31, 2016.
1317(U) See, e.g., Tweet, @RT_com, October 19, 2016 ("BREAKING: @wikileaks releases fresh batch of emails
from Clinton campaign chair#podestaemails"); Tweet,@RT_com, October 17, 2016 ("BREAKING: @wikileaks
releases more emails from Clinton campaign chair#Podestal0"); Tweet, @RT_com, October 15, 2016 ("MORE:@wikileaks uploads new batch of 1,000 emails from Clinton's campaign chair #Podesta"); Tweet, @RT_com,
October 13, 2016 ("#BREAKING: #WikiLeaks releases 6th #Podesta #email batch on.rt.com/7rtd#PodestaEmails6"). RT has suggested that it was merely monitoring the WikiLeaks website closely and that it
posted on Twitter as soon as documents appeared on the website.

204

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
and accompanied him in the Moscow ai
decision. 1318

In an interview with DemocracyNow!, Assange said that he "advised Edward Snowden,that he would be safest in Moscow." 1320•••

the Russian government has offered indirect meansof support that provided Assange with a valuable platform. For example, in April 2012,
RT purchased a broadcasting license for Assange's show, "The World Tomorrow,"
shortly after funding for WikiLeaks reportedly began "drying up." 1324

The Committee observed that Assange received multiple visits at the
Ecuador Embassy in London from RT employees during the summer of 2016. Nikolay
Bogachikhin, RT's London bureau chief, visited the Embassy twice in early June. He wasfollowed by Afshin Rattansi, another RT ·oumalist, who visited Assange three more times thatmonth, as well as, both affiliated with RT, in August

1318 (U)Sara Corbett, "How a Snowdenista Kept the NSA Leaker Hidden in a Moscow Airport," Vogue, February
19, 2015.

1319
1320

lian Assange Reveals the West's Secrets," The New

Yo
1321
1322
1323

Reveals the West's Secrets," The New

1324

York Times, August 31, 2016.

205

2016. 1325 RT has claimed that these visits reflected its participation in a WikiLeaks Brexit
special, and had nothing to do with WikiLeaks activities relating to the U.S. presidential
election. 1326
iii.

(U) WikiLeaks's Record of Opposition to Hillary Clinton(U) In the early parts of the 2016 election, before WikiLeaks_had received hacked
materials from the GRU, Assange expressed his opposition to Hillary Clinton's candidacy. He
did so in private communications and in public announcements, and WikiLeaks took actions toinsert itself into the U.S. 2016 elections by publishing a searchable archive of Clinton emails thatit believed would encourage the submission of election-related leaks.
(U) As early as November 19, 2015, in a Twitter group chat, WikiLeaks repeatedly
disparaged Clinton's prospects as president, 1327 stating, among other things:.
•(U) "We believe it would be much better for [the] GOP to win." 1328•

(U) "She's a bright, well connected, sadistic sociopath." 1329•

(U) "Hence hillary has greater freedom to start wars than the GOP and has the will to doso."1330·(U) Publicly, Assange also argued against Clinton's candidacy based on his perceptionof her U.S. defense and national security views. 1331 In an August 31 interview with The New
York Times, Assange referred to Clinton as a "demon that is going to put nooses around

1325
Stephanie Kirchgaessner, et al.,"Assange's guest 1st: t e RT reporters, ac ers an 1 m-m ers who visite t e embassy," The Guardian, May 18,.2() 18; Marshall Cohen, "Exclusive: Security reports reveal how Assange turned an. embassy into a command post forelection meddling," CNN, July 15, 2019.
1326(UYStephanie Kirchgaessner, et al., "Assange's guest list: the RT reporters, hackers and film-makers who
visited the embassy," The Guardian, May 18, 2018 .
1327.
(U) The contents of these chats are described in the sea Report, Vol. I, p. 44, and were also publicly released
online at emma.best/20 I 8/07/29/1100-messages-from-private-wikileaks-chai-released/.
1328(U) SCa Report, Vol. I, p. 44.
1329 (U) Ibid.
,'
1330(U) Ibid., Vol. I, p. 45.
1331(U) Tweet,.@wikileaks, February 11, 2016 (""#Assange: Hillary Clinton gets an unseemly emotional rush outof killing people"); Tweet, @wikileaks, February 10, 2016 ("#Assange: Hillary Clinton shouldn't be let near a gun
shop, let alone an army"); Tweet, @wikileaks, February 9, 2016 ("#Assange: A vote today for Hillary Clinton is avote for endless, stupid war").

206

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-:-- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

_everyone's necks as soon as she wins the election." 1332 His statements echoed his March 2016
opposition in the private Twitter chat that "HC [Hillary Clinton] in whitehouse with her bloodlutt[sic] arid amitions [sic] of empire with hawkish liberal-interventionist appointees." 1333

(U) On March 16, 2016, shortly after the GRU began its spearphishing campaign,
WikiLeaks also began publishing a searchable archive of Clinton emails that had already been
publicly released by the U.S. Department of State in response to a FOIA request. 1334 The archive
included over 30,000 emails and attachments sent to or from Clinton between Jurie 2010 andAugust 2014, but did not include any previously non-public information. According to one .
WikiLeaks associate, while part of the goal was to "become 'the place' to search for backgroundon hillary's plotting at the state department," creating the archive would also allow WikiLeaks to"be seen to be· a resource/player in the US election, because eit [sic] may en[]courage people tosend us even more important lea~s." 1335

iv.

(U) Coordination Between the GRU and WikiLeaks on the Release ofHacked Documents(U) In June 2016, following the GRU's initial releases of stolen documents, WikiLeaks
and the GRU personas exchanged the first of their many Twitter direct messages. ·, These initial
contacts eventually led to a coordinated release of documents on the eve of the 2016 Democratic
National Convention and later on the heels of the October 7 publication of the Acces$ Hollywood
tape. 1336 As described below, the GRU used both DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 personas tocommunicate with WikiLeaks, using private Twitter direct messaging, as weHas encryptedchannels, possibly including the email of encrypted files and WikiLeaks's private
communication system. 1337 The GRU transferred the hacked DNC materials to WikiLeaks
electronically by July 18, 2016. As discussed infra, the GRU may have transferred the hacked
John Podesta emails, either electronically or via a human courier; in or about mid-September,
although the precise timing is unclear.

1332 (U) Kelsey Sutton, "Julian Assange: American press supports 'demon' Hillary Clinton," Politico, August 31,
2016.
_
333
1
(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 45.
1334(U) See "Hillary Clinton Email Archive," wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/.
1335(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 45.
1336(U) At approximately 4:00 p.m. that day, The Washington Post released a video tape of Trump discussing
grabbing women by their genitals during a hot mic during a conversation with Billy Bush of Access Hollywood (the"Access Hollywood tape"). David Farenthold, "Trump recorded having extremely lewd·conversation about womenin 2005," The Washington Post, October 8, 2016.
1337(U) It is unclear why the personas would have used Twitter to connect with WikiLeaks, given the readily
available and more secure alternatives. However, Andrew Muller-Maguhn, a close associate of Julian Assange, has
1suggested that Assange "lives on Twitter" and a direct message is the only reliable way to contact him. See Ellen
Nakashima, et al., "A German hacker offers a rare look inside the secretive world of Julian Assange and
WikiLeaks," The Washington Post, January 17, 2018.

207

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYThe GRU' s decision to use WikiLeaks to release documents was. The IC assesses, with high confidence, that "the GRU
relayed material it acquired ... to WikiLeaks," and that Putin ordered the 2016 influence
campaign against the U.S. presidential election. 1338••

there was substantial public information describing
the 1 e y Russian government ro e m ac mg e DNC ema1 s. Reporting by victims, cyber security firms, andnews organizations beginning in June 2016 attributed the hack and related influence activities by DCLeaks andGuccifer 2.0 as Russian-government backed activity. In one notable example, on July 26, 2016, The New York208

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

a. (U) Communications and Transfer of Data Related to the DNC
Release(U) On June 12, 2016, Julian Assange gave an interview on ITV indicating publicly-.
and for the first time that summer-that WikiLeaks would be releasing materials on Hillary
Clinton. During the interview, he claimed that WikiLeaks had "emails related to Hillary Clinton
which are pending publication."~ 343 Days later, on June 14, DCLeaks reached out to WikiLeaks
on Twitter direct message:

You announcedyour organization was preparing to publish more Hillary's
emails. We are ready to support you. We have some sensitive information too, in
particular, her financial documents. Let's do it together. What do you think
about publishing our info at the same moment? Thank you. 1344
(U) WikiLeaks did not respond on Twitter. 1345 But on J~ne 15, the day after The
Washington Post published the first article detailing suspected Russian hacking of the DNC, the
GRU's Guccifer 2.0 persona referenced WikiLeaks in its first blog post, claiming that it had
given "thousands of files and mails" stolen from the DNC to Wikileaks, which would "publish
them soon." 1346 That day, Guccifer 2.0 emailed some of the stolen documents to two websites,
Gawker and The Smoking Gun, and stated that the materials sent to WikiLeaks included ·"election programs, .strategies, plans against Reps, financial reports, etc." 1347

Times reported that "American intelligence agencies have told the White House they now have 'high confidence'that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and documents from the Democratic National
Committee." David E. Sanger, Eric Schmitt, "Spy Agency Consensus Grows That Russia Hacked D.N.C.," The
New York Times, July 26, 2016. Assange would have been aware of the ongoing commentary on Russian.
involvement, as demonstrated by his public statements deflecting such attribution. Open-source research, which was
widely reported at the time, also identified technical indicators of Russian involvement in the documents that werebeing released by those two personas. These indicators included unique code and Russian language in the metadata
for the hacked documents. See, e.g., Dan Goodin, "'Guccifer' leak ofDNC Trump research has a Russian's
fingerprints on it," ArsTe'chnica, June 16, 2016. Further, on October 7, prior to WikiLeaks releasing Podesta's
stolen emails, the U.S. Government publicly attributed the hack-and-leak effort to Russia's intelligence agencies.
See DHS, ODNI, Joint Statement on Election Security, October 7, 2016.
1343·(U) "Assange on Peston on Sunday: 'More Clinton Leaks to Come,"' ITV.com, June 12, 2016. It remains
unclear what emails Assange was referring to. For example, he could have been referring to Clinton emails releasedby the Department of State under FOIA that WikiLeaks had been collecting and publishing on its website in March2016. See supra. The Department of State was producing Clinton emails under FOIA throughout 2016. Seefoia.state.gov/search/collections/aspx.
1344(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 45.
1345(U) See Twitter, @wikileaks and@dcleaks_ (direct messaging metadata).
1346(U) Internet Archive, Capture of guccifer2.wordpress.com/2016/06/15/dnc/, June 15, 2016.
1347(U) Sam Biddle and Garbrielle Bluestone, "This Looks.Like the DNC's Hacked Trump Oppo File," Gawker,
June 15, 2016; "DNC Hacker Releases Trump Oppo Report," The Smoking Gun, June 15, 2016.

209

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) As discussed below, the GRU transferred hacked materials to WikiLeaks on or about ,July 14, 2016, approximately one month after this June 15 blog post. The Committee could not
determine if the GRU also transferred hacked DNC materials prior to June 15, as it represented
in that blog post and as Assange's comments seem to suggest. 1348

(U) Judging from the timing and content of numerous Twitter direct messages, it took
several weeks for the GRU to transfer the hacked DNC materials to WikiLeaks, and the twoparties appeared to encounter a number of technical difficulties in exchanging the materials.
(U) On June 22, after the Guccifer 2.0 persona had posted three additional sets ofDNC
documents to its WordPress site on June 18, 20 and 21, WikiLeaks reached out to Guccifer 2.0
via Twitter. In a direct message, WikiLeaks asked Guccifer 2.0, "Do you have securecommunications?" and suggested that Guccifer 2.0 "[s]end any new material [stolen from the
DNC] here for us to review and it will have a much higher impact than what you are doing." 1349
The two accounts exchanged seven additional messages that day over Twitter, including further
discussion about establishing secure communications, such as through the use of a program forexchanging encrypted information known as "GPG," and messages about the materials,
WikiLeaks. claimed to possess already. 1350 . The two exchanged eight more messages on June 24
and June 27: on June 24, they discussed the use of the messaging service "Jabber," and 'WikiLeaks provided instructions on how to send it an email with an encrypted message,
including a key to encrypt the message; later, on June 27, Guccifer 2.0 wrote to WikiLeaks that it
had sent "an email with a text message encrypted and an open key," and it was "waiting for ur
response." 1351 On June 29, the GRU used a Guccifer 2.0 email account to send a large encrypted
file to a WikiLeaks email account, which appeared to be unsuccessful. 1352

(U) On July 6, 2016, WikiLeaks contacted Guccifer 2.0 again through a Twitter direct
message and instructed: "if you have anything hillary related we want it in the next tweo [sic]days prefable [sic] because the DNC is approaching and she will solidify bemie supporters

1348(U) On June 17, shortly after the Guccifer 2.0 blog post, WikiLeaks posted an 88-gigabyte encrypted file,"Torrent WIKILEAKS INSURANCE 2016-06-03," purporting to "protect our coming publications." Tweet,@wikileaks, June 17, 2016. The contents of the file are unknown to the Committee and may have no relation to the2016 election, but the timing and reference to "coming publications" are suggestive.
1349(U) Affidavit in Support of Application for Search Warrant, Case 1:17-mj-00821, November 11, 2017, 'I) 22.
1350(U) Ibid.
1351(U) Ibid, 'l)'l) 23-24; Twitter, @Guccifer_2 (direct messaging metadata).
1352
U Accordin to the sea Re ort the email did not a ear to have been delivered. sea Re ort Vol. I . 46.
1353

210

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYbehind her after." 1354 Guccifer 2.0 responded: "ok ... i see." 1355 WikiLeaks went on to explain:"we think trump has only a 25% chance of winning against hillary ... so conflict between bernie
and hillary is interesting." 1356 WikiLeaks also wrote: "[W]e think the public interest is greatest
now and in early [O]ctober." 1357 The accounts exchanged a total of 82 messages that day
alone. 1358 Although again the Committee does not know the content of all of thecommunications, the Guccifer 2.0 persona messaged WikiLeaks that, among other things, it had
sent "yesterday, an archive of about 1 gb. via [website link]," to which WikiLeaks later
responded, "Please don't make anything you send to us public. It's a lot of work to go through it
and the impact is severely reduced ifwe are not the first to publish it." 1359 On July 7, the GRU
asked WikiLeaks whether it had "another way [besides email] to receive large volumes of data"
because a GRU email containing "a check archive from another email box" had not beensuccessfully delivered. 1360 The GRU sent WikiLeaks another eight messages on July 11, 2016,
including one message that the GRU had "sent it via ur submission." 1361
(U) On July 14, the GRU used the Guccifer 2.0 persona to email WikiLeaks an
encrypted attachment with the file name "wk dnc linkl.txt.gpg." 1362 The subject of the email
stated "big archive" and the message body said "a new attempt," 1363 suggesting that previous
efforts to share the data through other channels had failed. On the same day, Guccifer 2.0 and
WikiLeaks exchanged Twitter direct messages once again, during which the GRU sent
WikiLeaks an encrypted file and instructions on opening it. 1364

1354

(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 45.
(U) Ibid.
1356 (U) Ibid.
1357(U) Affidavit in Support of Application for Search Warrant, Case 1:17-mj-00821, November 11, 2017, ~ 31.
1358(U) Twitter, @Guccifer_2 (direct messaging metadata).
1359(U) Affidavit in Support of Application for Search Warrant, Case 1:17-mj-00821, November 11, 2017, ~ 26.
Some of the Guccifer 2.0 messages discussed documents it was trying to share with WikiLeaks that related to
Brexit.
1360(U) Ibid.,~ 33.
1361(U) Ibid., ~ 34.
1362(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 46. The file extension "gpg" indicates that the file was encrypted using GNU
Privacy Guard, which is an open-source analog of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption.
1363 (U) Ibid.
1364(U) Ibid. The GRU advised WikiLeaks, "Check ur email. sent u a link to a big archive and a pass." Affidavit
in Support of Application for Search Warrant, Case 1:17-mj-00821, November 11, 2017, ~ 35.
1355

211

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On July 18, WikiLeaks confirmed receipt to the Guccifer 2.0 persona via Twitter,stating that it had "the 1Gb or so archive" and would be releasing the files "this week." 1366 The
accounts exchanged another 29 messages that day. 1367 Among other things, WikiLeaks also
asked Guccifer 2.0 if it had "any bigger datasets" and whether it had received "our fast transfer
details," and suggested that WikiLeaks had taken the step of ".arrang[ing] that server just for that
purpose" presumably referring to the transfer of more data. The two entities then,discussed the
optimal timing for the GRU to transfer the remainder of its documents; whereas WikiLeaks
pushed for the data transfer to happen soon, the GRU seemed reluctant to do so before
WikiLeaks had released the initial tranche of DNC information, advising "i'll ponder it." 1368

(U) The DNC emails were released four days later, on July 22, 2016, three days before
the July 25 Democratic National Convention. WikiLeaks released 19,252 emails and 8,034
attachments obtained from seven email accounts at the DNC. The emails covered the period ofJanuary 2015 through May 25, 2016, the first date that the GRU exfiltrated data from the DNC
email server. 1369 The Trump Campaign's awareness of and reaction to the release is discussed
infra.
(U) After the July release, Assange left no doubt that his intention was to influence theelection with the DNC information. For example, on July 29, 2016, Assange gave an interview
to CNN and agreed that the release was timed for "maximum impact," further stating "that's
when we knew that there would be maximum interest by readers." 1370 He also gave an interview
to DemocracyNow! stating that the release was handled differently than normal "because of thepending D[emocratic] N[ational] C[onvention]." 1371

1365(U) sea Report, Vo. I, p. 46.
(U) Twitter, @Guccifer_2 (direct messaging metadata).
.
1368(U) Affidavit in Support of Application for Search Warrant, Case 1:17-mj-00821, November 11, 2017, ,r,r 3536.
1369(U) See www.wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/; sea Report, Vol. I, pp. 4o-11. The SCO noted that "the last-in-time
DNC email released by WikiLeaks was dated May 25, 2016, the same period of time during which the GRU gained
access to the DN's email server." Ibid, Vol. I, p. 41.
1370(U) Anderson Cooper 360, "Julian Assange: We have more material on Clinton," CNN, July 29, 2016.
1371(U) "EXCLUSIVE: WikiLeaks' Julian Assange on Releasing DNC Emails That Ousted Debbie Wasserman
Schultz," DemocracyNow!, July 25, 2016 ("Often it's the case that we have to do a iot of exploration and marketingof the material we publish ourselves to get a big political impact for it. But in this case, we knew, because of thepending DNC, because of the degree of interest in the U.S. election, we didn't need to establish partnerships ... wetook the data set, analyzed it, verified it, made it in a presentable, searchable form, presented it for all journalists and. the public to mine.").
1366

1367

212

b. (U) Communications and Transfer of Data Related to the Podesta
Release(U) WikiLeaks did not release ~dditional hacked documents relating to the 2016 U.S.
election until October 7, 2016, when it began a month-long process ofleaking stolen Podesta
emails. The Committee, like the SCO, was unable to determine precisely when and how the
GRU transferred the hacked John Podesta emails to WikiLeaks. Communications between
WikiLeaks and GRU personas, coupled with forensic analysis of documents, suggest that at least
some Podesta emails could have been transferred as late as September 2016. 1372 Information
reviewed by the Committee, detailed below, further suggests the GRU may have transferred thePodesta emails using encrypted email or, alternatively, by human courier.

(U) Communications between the GRU' s DCLeaks persona and WikiLeaks provide
some indications that the GRU used the DCLeaks persona to transfer data in the lead up to thePodesta release. On September 15, t}:te DCLeaks persona reached out to WikiLeaks on Twitter:hi there! I'm from DC Leaks. How could we discuss some submission-related
issues? Am trying to reach out to you via your secured chat but getting no
response. I've got something that might ·interest you. You won't be disappointed,
I promise. 1373
After having seemingly ignored the prior Twitter messages, WikiLeaks responded, "Hi
there." 1374 No additional communications occurred on Twitter that day between DCLeaks and
WikiLeaks. 1375
(U) However, later on the same day, Guccifer 2.0 messaged the DCLeaks persona, also
over Twitter, that "WikiLeaks was trying to contact DCLeaks and arrange for a way to speak
through encrypted emails." 1376 This was the first of m_any Twitter messages between the two1372 (U)However, Assange was hinting publicly about additional releases between July 22 and mid-Septi;:mber,suggesting that he could have been aware of additional content that had already been secured by the GRU and would
be provided to him or, alternatively, that he may have had already acquired some content that he intended to release.
For example, in an August 24, 2016 interview, Assange discussed soon-to-be-released information that would bedamaging to Hillary Clinton. Kelly File, "Assange: WikiLeaks to release 'significant' Clinton material," Fox News,
August 24, 2016.,
1373(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 46.
1374 (U). Ibid
1375
(U) Twitter, @wikileaks, @dcleaks_ (direct messaging metadata). The Committee does not know if the GRU
and WikiLeaks communicated in other ways around this time.
1376(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, pp. 4~7.

GRU-controlled accounts, as discussed above. 1377 The message indicates that WikiLeaks
suspected Guccifer 2.0 could assist it in communicating with DCLeaks.
,(U) On September 19, 2016, DCLeaks and WikiLeaks exchanged further Twitter
messages. Thereafter,. on September 22, the GRU used a DCLeaks email account(dcleaksproject@gmail.com) to send an e:mail to WikiLeaks. The subject line of the email was"Submission" and the body of the message stated "Hi from DCLeaks," and it included a PGPencrypted message with the file name "wiki_mail.txt.gpg." Although this file resembled the one
previously shared by the GRU with WikiLeaks on July 14, 2016, using the Guccifer 2.0 persona,the contents and attributes of the file are unknown. On the same day, the DCLeaks Twitter
account sent a string of characters to the WikiLeaks account that was potentially a password toaccess a file archive it had made available. 1378
(U) Some evidence suggests that the GRU transferred the Podesta emails to WikiLeaks
either via this encrypted email or through other means during the same time frame. Forensic
data from the stolen Podesta emails showed a creation date of September 19, 2016, in the midstof these exchanges. 1379 According to Ecuador Embassy officials, Assange had access to Apple
desktop and laptop computers inside the Embassy. 1380 Based on an assessment by the SCO of
the Apple operating systems possibly running on Assange's computer, this could reflect the datethe GRU staged the stolen emails for transfer to WikiLeaks, because the default setting on someApple operating systems retains the file creation date of a downloaded file from the original hostcomputer. 1381 Although some of the attachments and files showed a later creation date ofOctober 2, 2016, that actually appears to reflect the date that attachments were staged
individually on the WikiLeaks site. 1382
(U) As sophisticated actors, WikiLeaks and the GRU were almost certainly aware that
their emails and Twitter messages were in plain text and could be obtained by U.S. law
enforcement. 1383 WikiLeaks had specifically requested that they communicate in an encrypted

1377(U) Twitter, @dcleaks_, @Guccifer_2 (direct messaging metadata).
(U) SCOReport, Vol. I, p. 47.
1379 U Ibid
1378

(U) Ibid
1382(U) Ibid The timing of this staging indicates that WikiLeaks was prepared to release emails as promised by
October 3, and therefore also prepared to release emails quickly on October 7, as discussed infra.
1383(U) For example, on August 23, 2016, in response to question from The Smoking Gun about Guccifer 2.0
persona's contact with Stone, the GRU wrote from the Guccifer 2.0 Twitter account: "the fbi's tracing me, reading
my dm [direct messages] and giving u hints." William Bastone, "Roger Stone's Russian Hacking 'Hero,"' The
Smoking Gun, March 8, 2017.

214

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

channel. In addition, the GRU had very likely used direct messaging between the Guccifer 2.0
and DCLeaks personas to mask the hand of the Russian government. 1384 Despite this, both
WikiLeaks and the GRU used unencrypted emails and U.S. providers to communicate. Thisbehavior raises the possibility that both parties expected the messages to be read by U.S.
authorities, exchanged these messages in order to mislead investigators, and in fact chose totransmit the data in a different way.
(U) For example, it is also possible that files were transferred to WikiLeaks byindividuals who visited Assange in person. Assange, who was residing at the time at the
Ecuador Embassy in London had fre uent visitors in the summer and fall of 2016. Several
individuals of note stood out-·•

One of these visitors, Andrew Milller-Maguhn, a German national,
supporter ofWikiLeaks and foundin member of the hacker collective Chaos
Com uter Club, 1385•
other WikiLeaks associates,t d him multiple times per week, although
1388

1384

(U) See infra Vol. 5, Sec. Ill.B.5.iv.
Ellen Nakashima, et al., "A German hacker offers a rare look inside the secretive world of Julian Assangeand WikiLeaks," The Washin ton Post, Janu
17 2018.

1385 (U)1386

215

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I
I

I

216

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY217

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I

218

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I

I

I

I

Miiller-Maguhn had also visted

219

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Andrew Miiller-Maguhn admitted to reporters that once, in 2016, he transported aflash drive containing what he believed (but could not be certain) were personal messages toAssange, but did not identify the sender. He also did not identify when this occurred. However,
he asserted in that article that he was never in possession of the hacked emails before they wereposted, and never transported them. 1419v.

(U) WikiLeaks Promotes Alternative,-False Theories About the Source of
the GRU Materials(U) Assange and WikiLeaks undertook efforts to obscure the source of the stolen emails,
including through false narratives. Assange's use of such disinformation suggests Assangepossibly knew of and sought to hide Russian involvement. One narrative from Assange involved
a conspiracy theory that Seth Rich, a DNC staffer killed in a botched robbery, was the source of
the DNC ·emajl leak and had been murdered in response. On August 9, Assange gave aninterview on Dutch television implying that Rich was the source of the DNC emails, 1420 and that
day WikiLeaks announced that it would be issuing a reward for information about Rich's
murder. 1421 In a subsequent interview, Assange commented about the WikiLeaks interest in theRich case as concerning "someone who's potentially connected to our publication." 1422 The
Committee found that no credible evidence_ supports this narrative.
(U) Assange also attempted to rebut criticism that WikiLeaks does not release .
documents critical of or damaging to Russia. For example, on September 19, 2017, WikiLeaks
released 35 internal documents from a Russian IT company that services Moscow's wiretap
system. 1423 The e~istence and nature of the system was already well known to Russian andAmerican researchers and was not assessed to be damaging to Russia. 1424 Nonetheless, Assange

141s (U)
1419

Ibid.

(U) Ellen Nakashima, et al., "A German hacker offers a rare look inside the secretive world of Julian Assangeand WikiLeaks," The Washington Post, January 17, 2018. The Committee did not interview Miiller-Maguhn.
1420(U) "Interview of Julian Assange," Nieuwsuur, August 9, 2016 ("I am suggesting that our sources take risks.").
1421(U) Tweet, @wikileaks, August 9, 2016.
1422'(U) ."Assange: 'Murdered DNC Staffer Was Potential WikiLeaks Source,"' Fox News, August 25, 2016 (videoof Assange interview). WikiLeaks also issued a vaguely,worded statement that did not confirm or deny whether
Rich was a source. See Tweet, @wikileaks, August 10, 2016.
·
1423(U) See https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/russia/.
1424(U) Adam Taylor, "WikiLeaks releases files that appear to offer details of Russian surveillance system," The
Washington Post, September 19, 2017.

220

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYcomplained that U.S. media had not paid sufficient attention to the release. 1425 The timing andlimited nature of this release is consistent with indications that WikiLeaks knowingly aided theRussian 2016 election influence campaign.
(U) In 2017, Assarige also promised to provide evidence to then-Congressman Dana
· Rohrabacher that Russia was not his source, but only in exchange for protection from U.S.
authorities. Rohrabacher had been "told by a number of experts that it was impossible" for the
DNC data "to have been sucked out of the machine and hacked back to Russia." Rather,
Rohrabacher believed it had been "someone on the inside who downloaded it with some sort ofquick dowrtload." 1426 Rohrabacher, convinced that •~the Russians were now being accused ofsomething they didn't do," instead "felt like [he] needed to go see how [he] could prove that one
way or the other" by speaking with Assange. 1427 The meeting took place in the Ecuador
Embassy on August 16, 2017, 1428 and was also attended by Charles Johnson, a conse~ative
political activist who helped Rohrabacher set up the meeting, 1429 and Assange's lawyer. 1430 ·(U) According to Rohrabacher, Assange "made it very clear to me that he was sayingthat the Russians did not do it" and "he had proof' of who was responsible. 1431 In exchange,
Assange wanted an "assurance"-whether in the form of a pardon or otherwise-that he would
not be taken into custody when he left the Ecuador Embassy. 1432 Rohrabacher promised to "go ·back to the White House and see ifwe can arrange something where you won't be arrested." 1433
He then attempted but was "not permitted" to speak to Trump on the subject, and told theCommittee that he did not communicate again with Assange about the potential deal. 1434 The
Committee found no evidence to support Rohrabacher' s theories or Assange' s claims. 1435

7. (U) Efforts to Capitalize on WikiLeaks, Gain Advance Information on Releases

1425(U) See, e.g., Tweet, @wikileaks, January 26, 2019 (replying to @MeetThePress and linking to "Spy Files
Russia").
·
1426(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with DanaRohrabacher, December 19, 2017, pp. 8, 18-19.
1427
Ibid.
. 8-9.
142
1429(U) Ro a ac er Tr., p. 11.
(U) Ibid., p. 17.
1431(U) Ibid., p. 18.
1432(U) Ibid., pp. 18-19.
1433 (U) Ibid.
1434(U) Ibid., pp. 19-20. Rohrabacher said that then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly was "concerned any
conversation with myself and the President on this issue might be declared obstruction of justice." Ibid: p. 19.
1435(U) CrowdStrike's forensic analysis of the DNC computers also reflected that there were no USB entries. See
generally Crowdstrike, DNC Report. Sean Henry testified that CrowdStrike did not.detect any threat actors otherthan "the two Bears." SSC! Transcript of the Interview with Sean Henry, October 5, 2017, p. 82.
1430

221

(U) While the GRU and WikiLeaks were coordinating the release of hacked pNC,
DCCC, and Podesta documents, Trump and senior Campaign officials sought information
relating to "missing" Hillary Clinton emails as part of the Campaign's opposition research andpress strategies. Beginning in April or May 2016, Roger Stone repeatedly cc;mveyed to Trumpand senior Campaign staff that WikiLeaks would be releasing information damaging to Clinton.
After the July 22 WikiLeaks release, Trump and senior Campaign officials believed Stone hadaccess to non-public information about WikiLeaks' s ability and intent to release emails harmful
to Clinton.
(U) Thereafter, Trump directed Campaign officials to stay in touch with Roger Stone
about future WikiLeaks activities regarding Clinton-related emails. Manafort in tum tasked
Stone to contact Julian Assange, and Stone endeavored to reach Assange through several
intermediaries. Stone reported back to senior Campaign officials and· associates, and to Trump
directly, and provided advance informatio~ about another expected release relating to John
Podesta, which he said would be damaging to Clinton. After WikiLeaks published the Podesta
emails on October 7, Trump and the Campaign believed Stone had again acquired accurate, nonpublic information. The Committee could not reliably trace the provision of non-public
information from WikiLeaks to Stone, and as a result. could not evaluate the full scope of Stone's
non-public knowledge of WikiLeaks's activities.

(U) The Trump Campaign strategically monitored and promoted the WikiLeaks releasesof John Podesta's emails from October 7 until the· election.• The Campaign tried to cast doubton
the October 7 joint DHS/ODNT assessment formally attributing the activity to Russia, and was
indifferent to the significance of acquiring, promoting, or disseminating materials from a Russian
intelligence services hack-and-leak campaign. 1436t(U) The July 22 WikiLeaks DNC Release(U) In the spring of 2016, the Trump Campaign's opposition research team primarily
focused on Clinton's "missing" emails, and financial contributions to the Clinton Foundation. 1437

1436(U) In .contrast to the Campaign's decision, other lawmakers refused to engage iri such exploitation of the stolenmaterial. For example, in an October 2016 interview, Senator Marco Rubio said that he would "not discuss any
issue that has become public solely on the basis ofWikiLeaks," noting that "these leaks are an effort by-a foreign
government to interfere with our electoral process, and I will not indulge it." Jonathan Karl and Benjamin Siegel,"Exclusive: Rubio Won't Talk About WikiLeaks, and Neither Should Donald Trump," ABC News, October 19,
2016.
1437
(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/10/2018. The Committee assesses· that, at this time, the references to Clinton's"emails" reflected a focus on allegedly missing or deleted.emails from Clinton's personal server during her tenure as
Secretary of State. As described infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.L.l, there was parallel effort to obtain Clinton's "missing"emails by Peter W. Smith and Barbara Ledeen, both of whom had a connection to the Trump Campaign throughFlynn.
·

222

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYIn April and May, the Campaign's interest in the Clinton emails increased as the Campaign
became convinced that public interest in the emails could benefit Trump's chances to win. 1438
According to Rick Gates, Trump Jr. would ask where the Clinton emails were during "family
meetings," regularly-scheduled meetings of senior Trump Campaign officials and Trump family
members. 1439 Other senior advisors, including Flynn, Kushner, Manafort, Lewandowski, thenSenator Jeff Sessions, and Campaign policy advisor Sam Clovis1 also expressed interest in
obtaining the emails. 1440
.
·
·
C,

(U) Around the same ti~e, in approximately May 2016, Roger Stone alerted Rick Gates
and Paul Manafort that WikiLeaks would be releasing information about Clinton, but provided
no details about the timing. 1441 Stone had known Trump for years and had served as an advisor
to the Trump Campaign from late 2014 until approximately August 2015. Although Stone no.
longer had a formal position on the Campaign at this time, the Campaign "still had people heknew," including Trump, Gates, Paul Manafort, and (later) Steve Bannon, and Stone "had theability to access these people." 1442 Stone stayed in close communication with the Campaign. In
April and May 2016, Stone and Gates had approximately 67 phone calls; during the same time
period, Stone and Manafort spoke by phone approximately 64 times, and Stone also spoke 67
times with Trump donor Erik Prince. 1443·
(U) Manafort also recalled hearing from Stone sometime in June 2016 that "a source
close to WikiLeaks confirmed that WikiLeaks had the emails from Clinton's server." 1444 Like
Gates, Manafort recalled Stone telling him that the emails would be released "soon," but Stone •1438(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/10/2018.
(U) Ibid. The existence and nature of the "family meetings" are further described in connection with the June 9·2016 meeting, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.C.5.
1440(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/10/2018.
1441(U) Testimony ofRichard Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, pp. 921, 928; FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
Gates also said at trial that Stone may have passed him this information as early as April 2016. Gates, who pleaded
guilty to ·various offenses and false statements, has been consistent in his statements about Stone conveying thisinformation. For exiµnple, Gates also told the SCO in a debriefing that he recalled Stone saying to both him andManafort, at least a couple of weeks prior to June 12, 2016, that this information would be released. See FBI, FD302, Gates 10/25/18. The
Report similarly states: "Before Assange's June 12 announcement, Gates and Stone
had a phone conversation in which Stone said something 'big' was coming and had to do with a leak of
information."
Report, p. 52. Stone's comments occurred after WikiLeaks created a searchable archive inMarch 2016 of Clinton Department.of State emails that were released pursuant to a FOIA request, but these emails
were part of a set that had already been made public. See wikileaks.org/elinton-emajls/.
1442(U) Testimony of Richard Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, pp. 920-921. Although Bannon did not take aformal position on the Campaign until August 2016, Stone spoke with him several times across March, April, July,and August 2016. See AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1443(U) United States v. Roger Stone, Gov. Ex. 167 (summary chart of Stone/Campaign phone calls); AT&T tollrecords, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures. •1444(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.
1439

sea

sea

223

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE~ RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
"did not know when." 1445 Manafort, who was not convinced that the documents were coming
out, directed Gates to check in with Stone "from time to time" to see if his WikiLeaks ·information remained "real and viable." 1446

(U) Although Manafort did not identify a precise date for his June conversation with
Stone about WikiLeaks, phone records reflect six phone calls between the two during that month,including on June 4, June 12, June 20, and June 23. 1447 According to Manafort's Campaign
calendar, Manafort and Stone were scheduled to meet in person at.12:30 p.m. on June 23 in the
Trump Tower cafeteria for 30 minutes. 1448 The Committee received no further information about
the purpose of the meeting. 1449 Nonetheless, phone records and calendar entries depict a patternof communication involving Manafort, Gates, and Stone. Phone records for June and July reflecta total' of 28 calls between Gates and Stone and a total of 18 between Manafort and Stone,
including those described below. 145 From early June to the July 22 WikiLeaks release,
Manafort and Gates both called to ask Stone when the release would happen and Stone repeatedthat the information was coming. 1451°

(U) In one call during that period, Stone also told Gates that the WikiLeaks information
could be from the Russians. However, Gates did not recall Stone suggesting a connection
between WikiLeaks and Russia. Gates also thought that Stone could have based his theory of
Russian involvement on publicly available information. 1452
(U) According to Gates, Stone was the only person conveying this information to theCampaign at the time; 1453 and he did so before WikiLeaks began publicizing its access to Clinton
documents on June 12. 1454 On June 12, Julian Assange gave an interview in which he said that
WikiLeaks was planning to release information on Hillary Clinton. 1455 The Trump Campaign

1445 (U)Ibid(U) Testimony ofRichard Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, p. 932; see also FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1447(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1448(U) See Daily Schedule for Paul Manafort, June 23, 2016 (DJTFP00022874).
1449(U) Kushner testified that he was not aware of the meeting. See Kushner Tr. II, p. 58. Gates recalledaccompanying Manafort to an in-person meeting with Stone in either April or May 2016, but it is unknown whether
this is the same meeting that Gates recalled. See FBI, FD-302, Gates 3/1/2018.
1450(U) United States v: Roger Stone, Gov. Ex. 167 (summary chart of Stone/Campaign phone calls); AT&T tollrecords, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures. The Committee was able to identify relevant calls in Stone's phone.records
based on open source information, document production from other witnesses, as well as a factual stipulation andother evidence entered in the United States v. Roger Stone trial.
1451(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1452(U) Ibid. According to Gates, Stone floated the "inside job" theory at a later point in time.
1453(U) Testimony of Richard Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, p. 921.
1454(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1455(U) See "Assange on Peston on Sunday: 'More Clinton leaks to come,"' ITV com, June 12, 2016 (stating
WikiLeaks had "upcoming leaks in relation to Hillary Clinton .... We have emails pending publication.").
1446

224

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

was elated by the news about WikiLeaks's plans, which it considered an unexpected "gift." 1456
Gates said that the Campaign believed the comm~nts had to do with missing Clinton emails, andManafort said that Stone got "half ~redit" because Stone's prediction had been corroboiated. 1457
However, some in the Campaign were uncertain that WikiLeaks hadthese materials because
Stone had been making representations about WikiLeaks ''for so long" and there was no otherevidence of the emails being released. 1458
(U) The day after Assange's announcement, Stone emailed Gates to schedule a call for"guidance on many things." 1459 They spoke that evening for 20 minutes. 1460 Gates said that oneof the issues Stone needed "guidance" on was WikiLeaks. 1461 He did not say exactly whatguidance he provided.
,(U) On June 14, 2016, only two days after Assange's interview, the DNC announced thatit had been.compromised by Russian government hackers. 1462 That,.evening, at 9:03 p.m., Stone
called Trump at Trump's home number. 1463 Trump returned Stone) call from his cell phone twotimes, at 9:53 p.m. and 9:56 p.m.: the calls lasted about two-and-a-half minutes and two minutes,
respectively .1464 The Committee does not know the substance of these conversations, but thepattern and timing of Stone;s calls with Trump and others during this period suggest that the ~ocould have discussed the DNC hack and WikiLeaks.
(U) Campaign leadership reacted positively to the news that the DNC had been hacked
by the Russians. Gates described the reaction in part as "disbelief," but also given "what wewere told that information might be about," the Campaign "felt it would give [them] a leg up" if
released. 1465

1456(U) Testimony of Richard Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, p. 927.
(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1458(U) Testimony of Richard Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, p. 927.
1459 (U) Email correspondence between Roger Stone and Rick (]ates, June 13, 2016, United States v. Roger Stone,
Gov.Ex. 21.
1460(U) See AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1461(U) Testimony of Richard Gates, United.States v. Roger Stone, pp. 928-929.
1462(U) Ellen Nakashima, "Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole opposition research on Trump," The
Washington Post, June 14, 2016.
1463(U) See United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 148; AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1464(U) Ibid. The calls from Trump were made from a blocked number, which the Committee was able to identify
as Trump's based on corresponding information admitted as evidence in the trial against Roger Stone. Trump's useof a blocked number generally made it difficult for .the Committee to identify all of the pertinent contacts between
the two. The blocked number was likely Trump's cell phone; other Trump Org. phones, including Trump's direct
line, appeared in both the Stone and Trump Org. records that the Committee obtained.
1465(U) Testimony of Richard Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, pp. 928-929. This-and a variety of otherinformation the Committee found relating to the Campaign's interest in the hacked materials-is in contrast to what
1457

225

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RU.SSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In response to the Assange announcement, Stone's information, and presumably the' news of the DNC hack, the Campaign planned a "press strategy, a communications campaign,and messaging based on the possibility the emails existed," and conversations were held "about
what the campaign could plan for in the way of emails." 1466 Before WikiLeaks had released any
materials, Trump was reportedly frustrated that the Clinton emails had not beeri found. 1467
Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney and longtime confidant, recalled Trump commenting:"I wonder where they are. Somebody's got to have them." 1468 Cohen described Trump as"obsessed ... the·same way he was obsessed with finding Barack Obama's birth certificate." 1469
(U) Just after midnight on June 16, Stone and Gates discussed the DNC hack byphone. 1470 Hours earlier on June 15, the GRU had released for the first time, through the
Guccifer 2.0 persona, documents stolen from the DNC, as described above. During the over-30rninute call, Stone told Gates that "more information would be coming out of the DNC hack." 1471
Stone then requested contact information from Gates for Jared Kushner, in order to "brief'
Kushner on WikiLeaks documents. 1472 Gates then sent Kushner' s contact information to
Stone. 1473 Kushner told the Committee: "I have only met Roger Stone once in my life, and I
shook his hand briefly during the transition, and I never met him before that." 1474

(U) Because Manafort was initially dubious that Stone had accurate information about
WikiLeaks, he instructed Stone "not to tell Trump until they co~ld. confirm it." Manafort said

some witnesses claimed to the Committee: that the hack had no immediate impact on the Campaign. For example,
Bannon said the releases were a "non-event." Bannon Tr., pp. 169-170.
·
1466(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/11/2018. The Committee did not determine exactly when the messaging strategy
began, but it predated the July 22 WikiLeaks release ofDNC documents. For example, Trump and the Campaign
Were already focused on Clinton emails prior to the release, the Campaign had already been in contact with Stone
about a potential release, and Assange had already suggested he had Clinton emails. Gates estimated that it took
place in the June/July 2016 time frame, as the Campaign began t~ anticipate a release of information. FBI, FD-302,
Gates 10/25/2018.
1467(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates'l0/25/2018. As described elsewhere in this Report, there were various lines.of
unsuccessful efforts to locate the "missing" emails from Clint<;m's server by various individuals with ties to theCampaign.
1468(U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 8/7/2018.
1469(U) Ibid
1470(U) Testimony of Richard Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, pp. 930-931; Text messages, Stone and Gates,
June 15, 2016, United States v. Roger Stone, Gov. Ex. 20 ("Call me. Important.").
.
1471(U) Testimony of Richard Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, pp. 930-931; AT&T toll records, Roger
Stone/Drake Ventures.
,
1472(U) Testimony of Richard Gates, Unite,d States v. Roger Stone, pp. 931-932; Emails, Stone and Gates, June 13,
2016, United States v." Roger Stone, Gov. Ex; 22.
1473(U) Emails, Stone and Gates, June 13, 2016, United States v. Roger Stone, Gov. Ex. 22.
1474(U) Kushner Tr., p. 98. In its limited review, the Committee did not identify any calls whh the one known· Kushner number in Stone's-cell phone records.

226

that he wanted to keep Trump focused on speeches and meeting members of Congress, notdistracted "by the titillation of a WikiLeaks release." 1475 But while Manafort claimed that he was
reluctant to tell Trump and cautioned Stone against doing so, Stone could-and did-contact
Trump directly, as Stone did on June 14. In addition, Manafort believed Stone would have told
Trump anyway because he ''wanted the credit for knowing in advance." 1476,'

(U) Witness testimony and documentary evidence support that Stone spoke to Trump
about the WikiLeaks information prior to its release. Gates was aware that Stone called Trump
during the campaign. 1477 Cohen similarly noted that "Stone called Trump all the time," and"could call Trump's cell phone, especially if at night." 1478 Trump himself acknowledged that he"spoke by telephone with Roger Stone from time to time during the campaign;" 1479

(U) Though the records obtained by the Committee are limited, they show numerous
phone calls throughout June and July between Trump i:i,nd Stone. 1480 In addition to the June 14
phone call, Stone received brief calls from a Trump Organization number on June 21 and 28,1475(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018. Gates also suggested that Manafort tri~d to keep conversation about
Stone's claims minimal because Manafort thought people would lose faith in him if they knew information wascoming from Stone. FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1476 (U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/18. In fact, Stone had remained actively involved with the Campaign longafter he had been fired, and was involved in getting Manafort hired. See infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.A.5.i. Lewandowski
testified: "When Mr. Manafort came to the campaign Mr. Stone had renewed access to the campaign. He and Paulspent a considerable amount of time on the phone together discussing strategy. I believe Paul would allow him on
conference calls that Roger really had no business being on. He wasn't part of the team, but Roger was there."
Lewandowski Tr., p. 127.
1477
(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1478(U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 8/7/2018.
1479(U) SCO Report, Appendix C, pp. C-18-19.
1480(U) According to Stone's cell phone call records and call records from the Trump Organization, in addition torecords obtained by the SCO, Trump and Stone had multiple calls in June and July 2016, all before the July 22
release, either between Stone and Trump or Stone and another Trump Organization phone number. See generally
AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures; Trump Corp., Outbound Call Detail, Invoices ofJuly 1, 2016-August 1, 2016 (TRUMPORG_73_000005-8); United States v. Roger Stone, Gov. Ex. 167 (summary chart of .
Stone/Campaign phone calls). ,These data points only represent what the Committee could confirm from Stone's
cell phone call records and Trump Organization document productions, as suppleiµented by information presented
by the United States in the trial against Roger Stone. In addition, the Trump Organization used a "trunk line"
system, so its records reflected outgoing calls to Roger Stone from a central line, but did not identify the individual
or extension making the call and did not include incoming calls at all. See Email, Trump Organization to
Committee, April 9, 2019. However, the Committee could infer from witness testimony and contemporaneouscommunications that calls made by Stone to Trump Org. numbers other than Trump's direct ,line generally reflected
communications or attempted communications from Stone to Trump. For example, Tom Barrack noted that Trump"was easily accessible" through his assistant, Rhona Graff, "who Roger knew well." Barrack Tr., p. 45. In addition,
multiple witnesses testified that it was commonplace for Trump to make and receive calls on others' phones, records
for which the Committee does not possess. For example, Trump_ may have tried to hide his communications with
Stone from campaign advisors by using others' phones, such as Keith Schiller's. Nunberg Tr., p. 73.

2'1-7

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

although these calls did not appear to connect 1481 Shortly after the June 28 call, Stone called
Michael Cohen for nine minutes. 1482 On June 30 (another day that Guccifer 2.0 posted
commentary on line), Stone called Rhona Graffs line at the Trump Organization for eightminutes. 1483 Later that same day, he traded missed calls with Trump at various numbers,
culminating in a four-minute call from Stone to Trump's direct line. 1484 Any of these calls would
have provided Stone with an opportunity to share additional information about WikiLeaks
directly with Trump, and given the content of his conversations with Manafort and Gates
combined with Trump's known interest in the issue, the Committee assesses he likely did.
(U) Still, some senior Campaign officials the Committee interviewed claimed to have noknowledge of these communications, and the Campaign sought to distance itself publicly from ·Stone. 1485 For instance, Jared Kushner said he "never saw [Trump] speak with [Stone]" and"never saw [Stone] around at anything," so he did not think "there was too much involvement in
the campaign in any way." 1486 Others appeared to minimize Stone's influence. Bannon-who
joined the Campaign later on-insisted that Stone had "no engagement" with the Campaign ·while Bannon was involved, and that he was not aware of any communications between Stone
and Trump during that time. 1487 However, phone records reflect at least three calls between
Stone and Bannon after Bannon had joined the Campaign, suggesting Bannon was himself waslater in contact with Stone about Campaign issues. 1488
(U) In addition to working with Stone, in late June, the Trump Campaign was searchingfor "noteworthy" DNC documents that had been posted by the GRU under the Guccifer 2.0
persona. 1489 At the time, WikiLeaks had not released any hacked DNC documents. Nonetheless,an internal Campaign email regarding use of the mid-June DNC document releases by Guccifer

1481(U) Trump Corp., Outbound Call Detail, Invoice of July 1, 2016 (TRUMPORG_ 73 _ 000006).
(U) A. T&T toll record~r Stone/Drake Ventures (ATTSSCI00032); see also AT&T Mobility, Coheri phone1
records (number ending i n ·1483(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures (ATTSSCI00033).
· ·1484(U) See ibid; Trump Corp., Outbound Call Detail, Invoice of July 1, 2016 (TRUMPORG 73 000007); UnitedStates v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 148.
·
·
- - '
1485
(U) See Email, Hicks to O'Neill, August 8, 2016 (DJTFP00023443) (asserting that "Roger is not affiliated withthe campaign"); see also SS,cI Transcript of the Interview with Boris Epshteyn, November 30, 2018, p. 137 ("Roger
Stone was not a player as far as any ofus was concerned.").
1486(U) Kushner Tr., pp. 104--105.
1487(U) Bannon Tr., pp. 150-151.
1488(U) See AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures. Some of these calls took place in August, shortly
after Bannon became Campaign CEO. Records indicate Stone and Bannon had been in touch prior to that point as
well. On September 7, 2016, Stone and Bannon texted to arrange a meeting, and Bannon asked Stone ifhe could"come by trump tower now?" Affidavit in Support of an Application for a Search Warrant, Case 1: 18-sc-00662,
March 14, 2018, 132.
1489
(U) Email, Mashburn to Perdue and Barrow, June 18, 2016 (DJTFP00003429) ("Re: 2nd DNC Dump fromhackc;,r," noting that he was looking for "anything noteworthy folks higher up should know?").
1482

228

2.0 foreshadowed the Campaign's approach to WikiLeaks. Before downloading the newest
batch of Guccifer 2.0 emails and "sending them to the team," a Campaign staffer asked if"Senate or campaign rules preclude us from possessing data that's been hacked from a third
party and ~istributed via the internet." 1490 John Mashburn, the Policy Director for the Trump
Campaign, replied: "I don't see a problem. Just like WikiLeaks material." 1491
. (U) Nonetheless, a possible WikiLeaks release appeared central to the Campaign's· strategic focus. For example, after the June 12 announcement by Assange, Gates describedlearning from Manafort that the RNC was "energized" by the potential of a WikiLeaks release.
Further, Manafort told Gates that the RNC was going to "run the WikiLeaks issue to ground." 1492
Trump and Kushner were reportedly willing to "cooperate" with the RNC's efforts on this front,
overcoming their earlier skepticism of working with the RNC, and demonstrating that both werefocused on the possibility of WikiLeaks. releasing Clinton documents. 1493
(U) Witness testimony indicates that Stone may have raised WikiLeaks again to Trumpin late July, shortly before the DNC release occurred. Although Manafort did not know whether
Stone and Trump spoke about WikiLeaks that week, he assumed they did. 1494 Michael Cohen
recalled overhearing a phone call from Stone in Trump's office on what he believed was the 18thor 19th of July. As recalled by Cohen:

I was sitting in Mr. Trump's office when Rhona Graffyelled out: "Mr. Trump,
Roger Stone on line 1. " And as the way Mr. Trump's habit is, he doesn't use thehandset of the phone. He uses a little black box. A speaker box that [he]maintains on his desk. And without telling Roger Stone that I was in the office,Mr. Trump hit the power button and Roger Stone responded: "Mr. Trump, " hesaid. "Roger, how are you?" He says: "Good, /just want to let you know I got
off the telephone a moment ago with Julian Assange. And in a couple of days,·
there's going to be a massive dump of emails that's going to be extremely

1490(U) Emails, Perdue and Mashburn, June 18, 2016 (DJTFP00029314) (discussing "2nd DNC dump fromhacker").
1491(U) Ibid; see also Email, Perdue to Mashburn, Gordon, et al., June 18, 2016 (DJTFP000293 l 6) ( distributing
documents stolen from DNC and released by Guccifer 2.0).
_
1492(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/10/2018. Gates also said that the RNC "indicated they knew the timing of theupcoming releases," but did not convey who specifically had this information, how it was acquired, or when. The
RNC has denied that it had advance knowledge of the timing of WikiLeaks releases.
1493(U) Ibid It is not clear to the Committee exactly when the notion of cooperation between the RNC and theCampaign arose, and Kushner never mentioned it in any interviews with the Committee. However, the context ofthese statements suggests that this was in response to early warnings about a pending WikiLeaks d9cument dump
and before the July 22 release occurred. The Committee did not examine the RNC's activity or its interactions with
the Campaign on this topic.
1494(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.

229

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

damaging to the Clinton campaign." Mr. Trump said: "Uh, that's good. Keepme posted. " To which point, after they hung up, Mr. Trump looked at me and hesaid to me: "Do you believe him? Do you think Roger really spoke to Assange?"
And I responded: "I don't know. Roger is Roger, andfor all you know, he waslooking on his Twitter account. I don't know the answer. " 1495
(U) The limited records reviewed by the Committee did not reflect a call from Stone's
known cell phone to a Trump-associated number on either of those days, which conflicts with
Cohen's testimony. 1496 However, the Committee cannot rule otit the possibility that either Stoneor Trump used alternative numbers. 1497 The Committee did not obtain the phone records for Stone's residences in Florida or New York, or records reflecting the transmission or receipt oftext messages. In addition, the Committee did not seek to obtain the phone records for Trump's
cell phone, which Stone could sometimes call. 1498
(U) However, Stone's phone records show that Keith Schiller placed a five-minute callto Stone on the afternoon of July 17, 2016. 1499 Witnesses said that Trump often used Schiller's
phone to hide his communications. For example, Sam Nunberg recalled Stone commenting in
the late 2015 to early 2016 time frame that Trump would c~ll Stone from Keith Schiller's phone
because he did not want his advisors to know they were talking. 1500

(U) In June and July 2016, prior to the release ofDNC materials by WikiLeaks, theCampaign worked on a "messaging strategy" based on "the possible content of ah upcoming
release. 1501 Gates described the effort as "brainstorming sessions" to determine what theCampaign would say if materials-including the 33,000 "missing" Clinton emails-werereleased. 1502 Manafort was involved in creating the strategy, as were Gates, Stephen Miller, and

1495(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 7-8(U) See generally AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1497(U) In addition; as previously noted, the Trump Org. system did not record incoming calls, according tocounsel.
1498(U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 8/7/2018.
1499(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures. This call-likely made by or on behalf of Trump-appeared to take place before Michael Cohen's flight from Rome, Italy (Alitalia Flight 602) had landed at New
York's JFK International Airport, suggesting that he would not have been present for this call. See DHS, TECS
Person Encounter List, Cohen (CBP000006).
1500(U) Nunberg Tr., pp. 73-74. Michael Cohen described other reasons that Trump would use Schiller's phone.
See infra Vol. 5, Sec. m.C.3.iv.
1501(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/11/2018.
1502(U) Testimony of Rick Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, p. 934; FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1496

230

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Jason Miller .1503 Among other things, the. strategy included a focus on Clinton's perceived lowlevel of trustworthiness and her emails. 1504_(U) On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released and publicized 20,000 emails the GRU hadstolen from the DNC. 1505.
.
·

(U) After the July 22 release, Trump and his Campaign immediately pivoted toleveraging the WikiLeaks documents. Gates recalled that Manafort "express[ed] excitement"~ about the release. 1506 On the afternoon of July 22, Manafort and Trump discussed how they
could use the DNC emails relating to Debbie Wasserman Schultz. 1507 Although Manafort was
confused by Stone's prediction, which was that WikiLeaks had emails from "Clinton's server,"whereas the document released that day came from the DNC, he. still used the "fact of the hackand the substance of the emails" to attack Clinton and deflect attention from Trump's comments
towards Senator Ted Cruz and Cruz's wife. 1508 Cohen and Trump also discussed "the usefulnessof the released emails," including in relation to Bernie Sanders, Donna Brazile, and Wasserman
Shultz. 1509 Gates recalled that following the email release, he was with Trump on Trump's planeon the tarmac, and takeoff was delayed for thirty minutes so that Trump could work the emails
into his next speech. 1510
(U) According to Michael Cohen, after the DNC release, Trump confided to him: "Iguess Roger was right." 1511 Cohen also said that Trump told him "he guessed Stone knew what
he was talking about." 1512 Similarly, despite Manafort's initial skepticism, after the email release

1503(U) Testimony of Rick Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, p. 934. Gates also said that Hope Hicks and Bryan
Lanza were involved in the brainstorming sessions. FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1504(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018; see email, Manafort to Fabrizio, Parscale, Reed, and Gates, May 27, 2019
(FAB00224 7) (identifying messaging themes for Fabrizio as "honesty, trustworthiness, competence, character, will
do anything to win"). Stone spoke at length by phone with the Campaign's pollster, Tony F1tbrizio, on several
occasions, including on July 14 for 16 minutes. AT&T toll re·cords, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures (ATTSSCI00035).
1505(U) Tweet, @WikiLeaks, July 22, 2016 ("RELEASE: 19,252 emails from the US Democratic National
Committee wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/").
1506(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/11/2018; FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1507(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.
,
.
,
1508
(U) Ibid; FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/11/2018. For example, Manafort sought to "draw [a] comparison to [the] factthat the Dems attack Russia for hacking them but want us to believe that the server in HC['s] home was safe fromhacking" and that Clinton had "put national security at risk." Email, Manafort to Spicer, Miller, Parscale, Reed,
Gates, Fabrizio, and Kushner, July 24, 2016 (DJTFP00012961). This was also a theJne he discussed with Roger.
Stone. See FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018 ("IfWikiLeaks had the emails, it would prove the argument that
Clinton put the country at risk.").
·1509(U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 8/7/2018.
1510(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/12/2018.
1511(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 53.
1512(U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 8/7/2018.

231

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
on July 22, Manafort "thought that Stone had been right." 1513 The Committee did not identify
who, if anyone, was Roger Stone's source of information in advance of the July 22 WikiLeaks
release.
(U) On July 23, the Campaign used the release to attack the Democratic Party, sayingthat the "anti-Bernie DNC email leak issue threatens to destroy their party." 1514 Trump also
highlighted the release in a July 23 tweet: "The Wikileaks e-mail release today was so bad to
Sanders that it will make it impossible for him to support her, unless he is a fraud!" 1515 On July
25, Trump's talking points highlighted the WikiLeaks materials, including the "rigging of thesystem"· and emphasizing the division between Clinton and Sanders supporters. 1516 These· attacks mirrored the discussion between WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 about using the emails tocreate conflict within the Democratic Party by splitting Clinton and Sanders supporters,
discussed supra. They also echoed social media efforts by Russia to drive a wedge between
supporters of Clinton.and Sanders, as described in Volume 2.
"-,(U) At a news conference on July 27, Trump also declared: "Russia, if you're listening, I
hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be
rewarded mightily by our press." 1517 Senior Campaign officials believed that the statement was
unscripted. 1518 However, Gates also recalled Stone mentioning that Russia was probably thesource of the materials, and Gates also acknowledged there were public indications at the timethat Russia was responsible. 1519 Within five hours. of Trump's statement, GRU hackers
spearphished non-public email accounts of Clinton's personal office for the first time andtargeted seventy-six email accounts hosted by the Clinton Campaign's domain. 1520
ii~(U) The October 7 Podesta Release(U) Following July 22, the Campaign believed that. WikiLeaks would release further
materials and, as a result, began to more actively pursue leads_9n WikiLeaks activities. 1521
Manafort reminded Trump that Stone had predicted the release and claimed to have access to

1513(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.
(U) Email, J. Miller to J. Miller, July 23, 2016 (DJTFP00012930-1293 l).
1515(U) Tweet, @realDonaldTrump, July 23, 2016. This tweet echoed the Trump Campaign's press teammessaging. See Email, J. Miller to J. Miller, July 23, 2016 (DJTFP00012930-12931).
1516(U) Email, Abboud to J. Miller, Hicks, and Lanza, July 25, 2016 (DJTFP000t2984--12985); Email, Smith toConway, Gordon, Denysyk, et al., July 25, 2016 (DJTFP00023180-23181).
1517(U) See, e.g., Ashleyl1arker, David E. Sanger, "Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Find Hillary Clinton!sMissing Emails," The New York Times, July 27, 2016 (containing video of Trump's remarks).
1518(U) See FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/11/2018; FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018; Bannon Tr., pp. 173-174.
1519(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates, 10/25/2018.
1520(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 49; Netyksho indictment,~ 22.
1521(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/11/2018.
1514

232

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
WikiLeaks. 1522 In response, Trump directed Manafort to stay in touch with Stone to see if there
were more emails coming out. 1523 Manafort then spoke with Stone during the week of the
Democratic National Convention. 1524 At the time, Stone said he did not know what else would
come out or when, but he agreed to follow up, although he did not say when he would do so. 1525
(U) Manafort also instructed Gates to follow up with Stone on occasion to find out when
additional information might be released and told Gates that he would be "updating other people
on the Campaign, including the candidate." 1526 Gates himself recalled having a conversation
with Stone in which Stone said that the WikiLeaks July 22 release was what Stone had
previously predicted would come out, and that additional information would be coming. 1527 But
while Manafort and Oates tasked Stone with communicating with WikiLeaks, Manafort advised
Gates and others throughout the Campaign that no one should "touch" Assange, even though
there was a "growing belief that Assange was, in fact, assisting their effort." 1528
(U) After receiving Trump's directive via Manafort, Stone channeled his efforts to reach.
Assange through Jerome Corsi. Corsi, who at the time worked for WorldNetDaily (WND), an
online publication, had developed a working relationship with Stone during the first half of2016· when he began interviewing Stone for WND. 1529 Corsi occasionally assisted Stone with research
projects. 1530 Although Corsi was aware that Stone had left the Trump Campaign, Stone claimed

sea Report, Vol. I, p. 53.
(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018; sea Report, Vol. I, p. 53.
1524 (U) Ibid Stone was in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention, which occurred directly prior'to the
Democratic National Convention.
1525 (U) Ibid
1526
(U) Testimony of Rick Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, p. 938.
1527 (U) Ibid, pp. 936--37; FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1528 (U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 3/1/2018. Although the intent ofManafort's statement is unclear, it suggests that
Manafort was aware that direct communication between the Campaign and WikiLeaks, other than through Stone,
could be perceived as problematic.
'. 529 (U) Corsi purportedly originated the "birther" conspiracy about Barack Obama and the "swift boat" attack on
John Kerry. See SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 54.
1530 (U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/6/2018. The Committee reviewed five FBI FD-302s documenting five interviews ofCorsi conducted by the SCO. During the FBI's initial interview of Corsi on September 6, 2018, Corsi provided
inaccurate information, denying that he had communicated with Stone about WikiLeaks and that he had taken any
actions to contact Assange, despite clear eviderice to the contrary. He subsequently revised those statements ininterviews conducted on September 17 and 21, only to later walk back some of these new admissions during
interviews on November 1 and 2, 2018. In the November 1 interview, he said that "the way he wanted to remember
things was not actually how things happened" and that he had "self promoted himself to Stone and made it soundlike he knew what he was talking about and had ·sources to WikiLeaks." As a result, although some ofCorsi's
testimony was consistent and could be corroborated by documents and phone records, the Committee encountereddifficulty in determining the veracity of Corsi' s conflicting statements regarding how he had obtained information
about WikiLeaks possessing information on John Podesta-namely, whether he had been told the information by asource or had deduced it on his own.
522
1
(U)
1523

233

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY''

- to Corsi that he spoke with Trump "every day" and could "get a message" to Trump "at any
time." 1531 Gates recalled that Corsi himself was present around Trump Tower often and that
Trump liked him. 1532.
(U) Corsi recalled that he and Stone had discussed, either in phone or in person, Corsi's"ability to get to Assange." 1533 This may have been on the evening of July 22, when the two
spoke for 28 minutes by phone, or on July 25, when they spoke for another 27 minutes. 1534

(U) On July 25, 2016, Stone emailed Jerome Corsi, with the subjectline "Get to
Assange," telling him to "Get to Assange" (emphasis in the originai). An hour later, Corsi
forwarded the email to Ted Malloch, an American author who lived in London and was believed
to have contacts with associates of Assange, writing: "From Roger Stone." 1535 ·1531(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/6/2018.
(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/19/2018.
1533(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/6/2018.
1534(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1535(U) Email, Corsi to Malloch, July 25, 2016 (Corsi production) (highlights and writing in original, as·produced
by Corsi to the Committee).
1532

234

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMlTTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Fro , Jerome Cors

Sub1e , Fwd Get to A

oa .i, July 25, 201 ~0

led Malloch- - Ted
From Roger Stone
Jerry

o,--o

~ y.... '( ;..Ai-'\n:t
K.~ ~J..

~G~~ ------'"'·o Narded rnossage

Fro m: 1 ;c·s? " •Subject: Get to Assange
Date: u25 ?016 at 2:05'16 ?\.~ EDT

To:

Roge stone
Get to AssangeI
I "'(U) Corsi had previously been involved in publishing Ted Malloch' s memoirs, and had
introduced Malloch and Stone earlier in 2016, when Malloch sought involvement in theCampaign. 1536 Malloch had also met Trump and Corey Lewandowski at the Council for
1538
National Policy candidate forum. 1537 In May 2016, Malloch traveled to New York City.
While he was there, Malloch visited Trump Tower with Corsi and met Campaign staffers. His"objective was to communicate his willingness to assist the Campaign with whatever theyneeded." 1539 On either May 15 or 16, he had dinner with Stone and Corsi, and Malloch
understood that Stone " still had an unofficial role in the campaign and Trump listened to him,"so Malloch stayed in touch and offered to help with opposition research. 1540

1536 (U)SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 55.
FBI, FD-302, Malloch 6/8/2018. The SCO interviewed Malloch twice. In the first interview on March 27,
2018, Malloch denied communicating with Corsi and Stone about WikiLeaks. He corrected his statement in thesecond interview on June 8, 2018.
1538 (U) Ibid.
1539 (U) Ibid.
1540 (U) Ibid.
1537 (U)235

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) According to Malloch, at about this same time, he and Corsi had a FaceTime
conversation about the July,22 release. During the conversation, Corsi asked him "if he could
facilitate an interview with Julian Assange" or ifhe knew anyone in Nigel Farage's circle who
could help. 1541 According to Malloch, Corsi had no connection to either Assange or Farage, andMalloch did not try to use Farage to reach Assange. 1542 Corsi stated that he never heard backabout this request, 1543 and gave conflicting accounts about whether he told Stone that Malloch
had been tasked. 1544
(U) Phone records indicate that Stone remained in contact with Trump and the Campaign
at the same time he was coordinating with Corsi. Records reflect one-minute calls (suggesting
no connection) between Stone and Manafort on July 28 and 29. 1545 On July 29, Stone messaged
Manafort about finding a time for the two of them to communicate, writing that there was "goodshit happening." 1546 The back-a~d-forth between Stone and Manafort ultimately culminated in a
68-minute call on July 30, the longest call between the two of which the Committee is aware. 1547
(U) Gates may have been present for this call between Stone and Manafort. Gates
recalled a conversation between Manafort and Stone shortly after the July 22 release that
Manafort placed on speaker phone, during which Stone indicated that "additional information
would be coming out down the road." 1548 Manafort was "surprised" and "thought that would begreat."1549(U) On Sunday July 31, at 9:15 p.m., the day after speaking at length with Manafort,
Stone called Gates. 1550 Teh minutes later, Stone had two phone calls with Trump ttiat lasted overI

1541
- - Ibid Farage had several interactions with the Trump Campaign and Transition. On June 28,
B a n ~ i t h Farage about Farage addressing the Republican National Convention, and Bannon emailed
Kushner and Manafort about that possibility the following day. Email, Bannon to Kushner and Manafort, June 29,2016 (SKB_SSCI-0001140). On August 24, Farage spoke at a Trump rally. Matthew Teague, "Farage at Trump
rally: 'I wouldn't vote for Clinton if you paid me,'" The Guardian, August 25, 2016. Trump Jr. also recalled seeing
him at a few campaign events. See Trump Jr. Tr. II, pp. 91-92. Following the election, on or about December 15,
2016, Farage requested and was scheduled to meet with K.T. McFarland at Trump Tower for a briefing. Email,McFarland to Bannon, Flynn, et al., December 15, 2016 TFA00l 7787 ; List of McFarland Forei n Contact
Meetin s TFA0016252 .

(U) FBI, FD-302, Ma loch 6 8 2018.
(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 11/1/2018.
1544(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/17/2018; FBI, FD-302, Corsi 11/1/2018.
1545(U) AT&T toll rec9rds, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1546(U) Email, Stone to Manafort, July 29, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 24).
1547
(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1548(U) Testimony of Rick Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, p. 936.
1549(U) Ibid
1550(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1543

236

I.

ten minutes. 1551 Stone then emailed Jessica Macchia, one of Trump's assistants, eight draft
tweets for Trump, under the subject line "Tweets Mr. Trump requested last night." 1552 Many ofthe draft tweets attacked Clinton for her adversarial posture toward Russia and mentioned a newpeace deal with Putin, s~ch as "I want a new detente with Russia under Putin." 1553
(U) At 10:45 p.m. that same evening, Stone emailed Corsi again with the subject line
"Call me MON[day]" and writing that "Malloch should see Assange." 1554
(U) The next morning, August 1, Stone again spoke twice with Trump. 1555 Stone later
informed Gates of these calls. 1556 According to an email that morning from Stone to Macchia,
Trump had "asked [Stone] for some other things" that Stone said he was "writing now." 1557 .

(U) Corsi, who was in Italy at the time, responded to Stone's email about Assange on
August 2:

Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I'm back. 2ndin Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.

1551(U) Records reviewed by the Committee showed a six minute call from Stone to Trump on July 31 at
approximately 9:25 p.m. and.a five-minute call from Stone to himself at approximately 9:36 p.m .. See AT&T Tollrecords, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures (ATTSSCI00039). Evidence introduced at trial against Stone showedcorresponding calls with Trump at those same times and for the same length of time, including a call from Trump at
the number "-1" to Stone at 9:36 p.m. See United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 148; United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex.
164; Testimony of Michelle Taylor, United States v. Stone, pp. 348-349. This suggests that that Trump's phonewould sometimes appear in another person's phone records as that person calling him or herself, or as a call withphone number "-1." A number of such calls appear in Stone's records and others, including records provided by
Donald Trump Jr., during relevant time periods, but the Committee did not investigate those additional calls further.
1552(U) Email, Stone to Macchia, July 31, 2016 (TRUMPORG_18_001307).
1553(U) Ibid One draft tweet referenced the Clinton Foundation. Stone followed up about the tweets with Rhona
Graff the following morning, August 1, to make sure Trump received them. Email, Stone to Graff, August 1, 2016
(TRUMPORG_ 18_001310).
1554(U) Email, Stone to Corsi, July 31, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 36). Stone also asked Corsi to follow
up on two other tasks intended to attack the Clintons: (1) to talk to Bernie Sanders' brother "who called Bill a rapist- turn him for Trump"; and (2) to "find Eileen Wellstone or more proof of Bill getting kicked out." Although Corsi
produced some of his communications about WikiLeaks to the Committee, he had already deleted many of the mostincriminating exchanges with Stone, including this email. The Committee did not have the forensic capabilities toreview Corsi's electronic media and therefore relied on the government's exhibits for this information. These
deleted emails were obtained by the SCO through the use of Apple "Time Machine" backups, which provided
snapshots of Corsi' s hard drive prior to his deleting the documents.
1555(U) AT&T toll records, Roger StoneiDrake Ventures.
1556(U) Text message, Stone to Gates, August 2, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 20) ("Spoke to Trump a cpl
of times.").
1557(U) Email, Stone to Macchia, August 1, 2016 (TRUMPORG_l8_001315).

237

Time to let more than Podesta to be exposed as in bedw[ith] enemy if they are
not ready to drop HRC.
·
That appears to be the game hackers are now about. Would not hurt to startsuggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke - neither he nor she well. I expectthat much of next dump focus, setting stage for Foundation·debacle. 1558
(U) Stone spoke by phone with Gates that night, and then called Manafort the nextmorning, but appeared unable to connect. 1559 Shortly after placing that call, Stone emailed
Manafort with the subject line "I have an idea" and with the message text "to save Trump's
ass." 1560 Later that morning, Manafort called Stone back, and Stone tried to reach Gates againthat afternoon. 1561'

(U) During this period, Stone announced his affiliation with Julian Assange publicly andprivately-claims that he later retracted. For example, in early August, Sam Nunberg, anassociate of Stone's and a former Trump Campaign official, recalled emailing Stone asking hiswhereabouts. 1562 Nun berg recalled Stone responding on August 4 that he had just returned from
London, where he had dinner with Julian Assange. 1563 Nunberg, who was in frequent contact
with Stone that month, 1564 recalled that Stone told him that he had "met with Julian Assangeabout the emails"; when Nunberg asked Stone if the next release would deal with Benghazi,
Stone told him that the emails would relate to the Clinton Foundation. 1565 When he later learned
that Nunberg had been subpoenaed to testify before the Grand Jury, Stone denied meeting with
Assange and claimed he had been joking. 1566 He also publicly denied having traveled to London
during that time. 1567·
(U) Stone,. however, also advertised h1s association with WikiLeaks in public. On
August 8, Stone gave a speech to the Southwest Broward Republican Organization. After his
remarks, a member of the audience asked: "With regard to the October surprise, what would be
your forecast on that given what Julian Assange has intimated he's going to do?" Stone replied,"Well, it could be any number of things. I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe

1558(U) Email, Corsi to Stone; August 2, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 37). The email is time-stamped
3:40 a.m.
1559(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures (ATTSSCI00039);
1560(U) Email, Stone to Manafort, August 3, 2016 (United States v. Stone; Gov. Ex. 25).
1561
(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures ..
1562(U) Nunberg Tr., pp. 84, 90, 96.
1563(U) Ibid, pp. 84, 90, 96.
1564(U) See AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures (ATTSSCI0_9039-ATTSSCI00046).
1565(U) Nunberg Tr., pp. 84, 90, 96.
1566(U) Ibid, pp. 90-91, 99-100.
1567(U) Shelby Holliday and Rob Barry, "Roger Stone's Claim ofa 2016 Julian Assange Meeting Draws Scrutiny,"
The Wall Street Journal; April 2, 2018.

238

the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation but there's no telling what
the October surprise may be." 1568 This was Stone's first public statement claiming tocommunicate with Assange, and he clarified on August 16 that this communication was througha "mutual acquaintance." 1569 Corsi assumed that he was the "mutual acquaintance," because th~
two had spoken the day before about John Podesta_. 1570
(U) On Twitter, WikiLeaks denied contact with Stone. On August 9, WikiLeaks
tweeted: "We are not aware of having communicated with Roger Stone. We do however take,and verify, anonymous tips~" 1571
(U) The Committee is uncertain how Corsi determined that Assange had John Podesta's
emails. Corsi initially explained in an interview with the SCO that during his trip to Italy,
someone told him Assange had the Podesta emails. Corsi also recalled learning that Assange
was going to "release the emails seriatim and not all at once." 1572 However, Corsi claimed not toremember who provided him with this information, saying he could only recall that "it feels likea man" who told him. 1573
(U) Corsi further recalled that on August 15, after he returned from Italy, he conveyed
this information to Stone by phone. 1574 According to Corsi, the information was new to Stone.
Stone seemed "happy to hear it," and the two of them "discussed how the emails would be very
damaging" to Clinton. 1575 Corsi also reiterated by both text and email to Stone on August 15 that
there was "[m]ore to come than anyone realizes. Won't really get started until after Labor
Day."1576

1568(U) YouTube, "Roger Stone at the Southwest Broward Republican Organization," Stone Cold Truth, August 10,
2016.
1569
(U) YouTube, "Roger Stone Discusses The Future Plans ofWikiLeaks," BlazeTV, August 16, 2016.
1570(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 11/1/2018; AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures (documenting a 24-minutephone call between Stone and Corsi at 12:14 p.m. on August 15, 2016).
·
1571(U) Tweet, @wikileaks, August 9, 2016.
1572(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/17/2018.
l 573 (U) lb id
1574(U) Ibid; FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/21/2018. Location information contained in phqne records produced by Corsi
to the Committee indicate that he was in Italy until at least August 11 and had returned to New Jersey by August 13.
According to Roger Stone's phone records, Corsi's first phone call with Stone following the trip was for 24 min~tes
on August 15. See AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1575(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/21/2018.
1576(U) Text message, Corsi to Stone, August 15, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 38); Email, Corsi to Stone,
August 15,.2016 (United States v. Roger Stone, Gov. Ex. 39). On August 15, Corsi also published an article on
WorldNetDaily, reporting unverified clai~ by Stone that he had been hacked in retaliation for commenting about
WikiLeaks's plans. See Jerome Corsi, "Trump adviser: Wikileaks plotting email dump to derail Hiilary,"
WorldNetDaily, ,<\ugust 15, 2016. On August 8, 13 ·and 16, 2016, Stone tweeted that he had been hacked. See
Tweets, @RogerJStoneJr, August 8, 13, and 16, 2016.

an

239

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) However, during a later interview with the SCO, Corsi revised how he had learned
that Assange would be releasing Podesta's emails. Corsi claimed that, rather than being told thisinformation by a source, he had deduced it from Assange's public stat~ments. In particular,
Corsi said he had determined that when "Assange said something damaging to Clinton wascoming out, it meant something related to Podesta." 1577 However, he thought it would be "morebelievable;' to tell Stone that he had "sources," which also "made it sound like he knew what hewas talkiQg about." 1578 The Committee did not interview Corsi, who asserted his Fifth
Amendment rights in response to a Committee subpoena, and could not determine if either of the· two versions of these events was accurate.
,(U) Separately, Gates recalled Stone advising him, prior to the release of an August 14
article in The New York Times about Paul Manafort's "secret ledger," that damaging information
was .going to be released about Podesta. 1579 Gates understood that Stone was referring to nonpublic information. Gates further recalled. later conversations with Stone about how to save
Manafort's role on the Campaign, and that Stone was focused on getting information about John
Podesta, but said that Stone did not reveal the "inner workings" of that plan to Gates. 1580
(U) Stone appeared to believe Corsi' s prediction to him that John Podesta was
WikiLeaks's next target. On August 21, a month-and-a-half before WikiLeaks ultimately
released its first batch of stolen John Podesta emails, Roger Stone tweeted 1581 :1577(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 11/1/2018. Corsi did not specify the Assange statement that purportedly triggered his
belief.
1578(U) Ibid Despite Corsi's claim that he had deduced the information about Podesta on his own\ as opposed togetting the information from a source, Corsi did not tell Stone that "there was nothing to hide" when Stone wascalled to testify before Congress. FBI, FD-302, Corsi 11/1/20.18.
1579(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018; see Andrew Kramer, et al., "Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for
Donald Trump's Campaign Chief," The New York Times, August 14, 2016. Because the timing of this conversation
pre-dates Corsi's August 15 call with Stone, it is not clear that Gates is entirely accurate in his recollection. Most of
the communications between Stone and Corsi appear t6 have taken place over the phone, and records indicate that
Gates and Stone did not speak over their cell phones between August 3 and August 17, which suggests that Stone
actually informed Gates of the Podesta information two days after the August 15 call with Corsi. AT&T tollrecords, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures. Although both Stone and Gates may have used encrypted apps, there is nci
information to indicate that they did so when communicating with one another. It is also possible that Gates did notread The New York Times article about Manafort until later, even though it was first published on August 14.
1580(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1581(U) Tweet, @RogerJStoneJr, August 21, 2016.

240

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Roger Stone• Follow

Trust me. 1t will soon the Poctesta's time 1n hebarrel.

(U) Corsi and Stone had numerous phone calls later in August. 1582 Corsi said that "Stone
was asking for further information" about "timing and content of the Podesta email release."1583
Corsi believed Assange would release the documents as an "October surprise." 1584 Stone told
Corsi that he was talking to Trump, and Corsi assumed that Stone was conveying Corsi ' s
information to the Campaign. 1585 Records show that Stone had at least 25 phone calls with
Manafort, 20 phone calls with Gates, two calls with Bannon and two calls with Trump in themonth of August 2016 alone.1 586(U) Bannon recalled discussing WikiLeaks and Assange with Stone both before and after
taking over as the chief executive officer of the Trump Campaign on August 13, 2016. 1587
Bannon recalled that, prior to j oining the Campaign, "Stone told him that he had a connection to
Assange" and "implied that he had inside information about WikiLeaks." 1588 After Bannon
assumed the role of Campaign CEO, Stone repeated to him that he "had a relationship with
Assange and said that WikiLeaks was going to dump additional materials that would be bad for
the Clinton Campaign." 1589
(U) Corsi recalled that, at the end of August, Stone grew concerned about having made astatement about the release of Podesta materials before WikiLeaks had released any
documents. 1590 On August 30, Stone and Corsi agreed to fabricate a story that Stone' s
knowledge and his August 21 Podesta tweet were both based on a public article and subsequent

1582 (U)

AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/2 1/2018.
1584 (U) Ibid.
1585 (U) Ibid.
1586 (U) See Summary Chart of Stone Calls with Campaign ( United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 167); AT&T tollrecords, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1587 (U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 54; Testimony of Steve Bannon, United States v. Stone, p. 850. Bannon also said
that he "might'' have communicated with Ted Malloch during the campaign, but did not say when or what they
discussed. Ibid. , p. 856.
1588 (U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 54.
1589 (U) Ibid.; Testimony of Steve Bannon, United States v. Stone, pp. 850, 857- 861. In an email on August 18,
Stone wrote to Bannon: "I do know how to win this but it ain't pretty." Email, Stone to Bannon, August 18, 2016
(United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 28). Bannon responded, "Let's talk ASAP." Ibid.
1590 (U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 11/1/20 18.
1583 (U)241

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

memorandum from Corsi. 1591 However, Corsi understood that he was Stone's actual source of
information and admitted that this "cover story" was "bullshit." 1592 The next day, August 31, hewrote a fake memorandum to Stone highlighting a "much ov_erlooked" CNN article dated August
19 that reported on an alleged investigation into the Podesta Group. 1593
(U) Stone also began communicating with radio host and comedian Randy Credico about
WikiLeaks during this period. Credico, a comedian who describes himself as a "politicalsatirist" and "activist," is the former director of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial
Justice and has run for political office in New York multiple times. 1594 Stone and Credico have
known each other for years and overlapped on political campaigns. 1595 On August 19, Stone
learned from Randy Credico that Julian Assange was slated to be a guest on his (Credico's) radio
show the following Thursday, August 25. 1596,,
(U) Stone then appeared on Credico's show ort August 23, and Credico asked him:
"What about the October surprise? I mean, you've been in touch indirectly with Julian Assange.
What-can you give us any kind of insight? Is there an October. surprise happening?" 1597 Stone
responded: "Well, first of all, I don't want to intimate in any way that I control or have influencewith Assange, because I do not. . . . We have a mutual friend, somebody we both trust, andtherefore I am a recipient ofgood information." 1598 Credico did not know who Stone wasreferring to, although Stone later described the source as a "guy" and a ')ournalist." 1599
(U) During Assange's interview with Credico on August 25, Assange denied contact
with Stone, stating "we have not had any communications with him whatsoever." 1600 On August
26, after Assange appeared on the show, Credico informed Stone that Assange had talked about
him: "He didn't say anything bad but we were talking a~out how the Press is trying to make it

1591(U) Ibid(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/21/2018;
1593(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 11/1/2018; see Memorandum, Corsi to Stone, "John Podesta Ties to Russia," August
31, 2016 (Corsi Production).
1594(U) See Program page, "Randy Credico - Live on the Fly," WBAI; Jessica Kwong, "Who is Randy Credico?
Roger Stone Threatened to Take Away Associate's Dog if He Cooperated with Russia Investigation: Indictment,"
Newsweek, January 25, 2019.
1595(U) Josh Gerstein and Darren Samuelsohn, "Stone's odd friendship with Randy Credico," Politico, November
8, 2019.
1596(U) Text messages, Stone and Credico, August 19, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 189). Stone had
lengthy phone calls with Manafort on both August 19 and 21. See AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1597(U) WBAI Radio Interview, Randy Credico and Roger Stone, August 25, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov.
Ex. 134).
1598(U) Ibid; Testimony of Randy Credfoo, United States v. Stone, p. 607.
1599
(U) Testimony of Randy Credico, United States v. Stone, pp. 607,616.
1600(U) Ari Melber, Interview with Randy Credico, MSNBC, March 21, 2018 (playing recording ofinterview
between Credico and Assange).
1592

1

242

look like you and he are in cahoots." 1601 The next day, Credico updated Stone that the stationwas "working on a Julian Assange radio show" and he was "in charge" of the project; Credicolater texted Stone that "Assange has kryptonite on Hillary." 1602 According to Credico, this was
the first time they had discussed what information Assange might have. 1603 Credico testified
that his statement was based on "public statements" by Assange. 1604
(U) On September 18, Stone texted Credico that he was "e-mailing u a request to pass on
to [A]ssange." Credico agreed to be a messenger, but then added: "Just remember do not nameme as your connection to Assange[,] you had one before that you referred to." 1605 That day,
Stone emailed Credico an article with allegations about then-candidate Clinton related to her
service as Secretary of State and wrote: "Please ask Assange for any State or HRC e-mail from
August 10 to August 30-particularly on August 20, 2011 that mention Dr. R.K[.] Paul or
confirm this narrative." 1606 Stone followed up the next day, September 19, and texted Credico:"Pass my message ... to Assange." Credico responded: " I did," 1607 and then, on September 20,
forwarded Stone's message to an attorney with the ability to contact Assange, and blind-copied
Stone on the message 1608 :WIKILEAK SEARCH .. OO YOU KNOW IF
From:

To:
Bee:
Date:
Attachments:

Margaret Ratner Kunstler
Players2 .
Tue, 20 Sep 2016 09:13:25 --0400
Clinton and Libya FINAL.pelf (23.74 MB)

CAN YOU FIND OUT FROM JA IF THERE IS AS tate or HRC e-mail from August 10 toAugust JO-particularly on August 20, 2011 that mention Dr. R.K Paul or confirm this narrative

1601 (U)Text messages, Stone and Credico, August 26, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 189).
Text messages, Stone and Credico, August 27, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 189).
1603 (U) Testimony of Randy Credico, United States v. Stone, p. 613.
1604
(U) Ibid.
1605 (U) Text messages, Stone and Credico, September 18, 2016 ( United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 48).
1606 (U) Email, Stone to Credico, September 18, 2016 ( United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 50).
1607 (U) Text messages, Stone and Credico, September 19, 2016 ( United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 48).
1608 (U) Email, Credico to Kunstler (blind copying Stone), September 20, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex.
55).
1602 (U)243

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

. COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Credico insinuated to Stone that he was communicating regularly with WikiLeaks,commenting, "That batch probably coming out in the next drop ... I can't ask them favors every
other day. I asked one of his lawyers." 1609 The attorney was Margaret Ratner Kunstler, who
assisted in representing WikiLeaks and Assange in 2015 and 2016 and helped to coordinate
Assange's interview with Credico. 1610 Kunstler was also referenced by Assan e in a Twitter
messa e to Donald Trum Jr. as his oint-of-contact for submissions. 1611

(U) Stone spoke with Credico again on September 26, 27 and 28: 1614 In addition, Stone
and Corsi had further phone calls on September 21, 24, and 25 .1615(U) At the end of September, Stone privately conveyed information about a future
WikiLeaks release to Trump and Manafort. Manafort, who had left the Campaign in August, 1616
recalled speaking with Stone around the first presidential debate between Trump and Clinton,
which took place on September 26, 2016. 1617 Storie told Manafort that "John Podesta was going
to be in the barrel" and that "there were going to be leaks of John Podesta's emails." 1618 · ·(U) On September 29, a call took place between Stone and Trump while Trump andGates were on the way to LaGuardia Airport. After the call ended, Trump told Gates that "morereleases of damaging information would be coming." 1619 Phone records show that this was not
the first phon~ call between them that day. Trump called Stone three times just before 10:00
a.m. on the morning of September 29, but could not connect. 1620 Stone returned the call to a.

'

1609

(U) Email, Credico to Stone, September 19, 2016, (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 51). Credico testified atStone's trial that this email was not based on any inside information. Testimony of Randy Credico, United States v.
Stone, pp. 619--620.
1610(U) Testimony of Margaret Kunstler, United States v. Stone, p. 836.
I(U) See Testimony of Margaret Kunstler, Unit~d States v. Stone, p. 836. Kunstler did not respond to theCommittee's voluntary request for documents and an interview.
1614(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1615(U) Ibid. On September 24, Stone spoke with Corsi for a total of 23 minutes.
1616(U) Manafort, however, stayed in contact with senior Campaign officials, including Trump. See infra Vol. 5,
Sec. m.A.6.i.
·
1617(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018.
161s (U) Ibid.
1619(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 54; Testimony ofRick Gates, United States v. Stone, p. 946.
1620
(U) See United States v. S(one, Gov. Ex. 148.

244

Trump Organization number two hours later, but the call lasted only two minutes. 1621 Then, at
approximately 1:40 p.m., Stone received a one-minute call from Keith Schiller's phone number,which records show i;,riginating from East Elmhurst, New York-in proximity to LaGuardia
Airport. 1622 Stone returned the call to Schiller at 1:51 p.m. for three minutes. 1623 This callmatches the conversation between Stone and Trump that Gates remembered.
(U) Trump, in written responses to the SCO, stated: "I do not recall discussing
WikiLeaks with [Stone], nor do I recall being aware of Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks.
with individuals associated with my campaign." 1624 Trump further claimed that he had "norecollection of the specifics of any conversations I had with Mr. Stone between June 1, 2016 andNovember 8, 2016." 1625 Despite Trump's recollection, the Committee ass~sses that Trump did,in fact, speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his Campaign about Stone's
access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions.

(U) On September 27, it was reported that Assange would be making an"announcement" on October 4 at the Ecuador Embassy. 1626 On September 30, the announcement
was reportedly canceled due to "security concems." 1627 That same day, Credico texted Stone a·photo of himself standing outside the Ecuador Embassy. 1628 Credico was in London to see afriend and had agreed to deliver a letter to Assange from Berthold Reimers, Manager of the
WBAI radio station. 1629 Credico said that he handed the letter to someone at the door of the
Emb_assy, but never made it inside. 1630

1621

(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures (ATTSSCI00053).
(U) Invoice, Call Detail for Keith Schiller (TRUMPORG_73_000020).
1623(U) Ibid.; AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures (ATTSSCI00053).
1624(U) SCO Report, Appendix C, p. C-19.
1625(U) Ibid., Appendix C, pp. C-18-19.
1626(U) Tweet, @JesseRodriguez, September 27, 2016 ("Julian Assange set to make an announcement from his
balcony in London next Tuesday, according to @wikileaks.").
·1627(U) Tweet, @JesseRodriguez, September 30, 2016 ("Due to security concerns at the Ecuadorian Embassy,
Julian Assange's balcony announcement on Tues has been canceled, per@wikileaks.").
.
,
1628(U) Text messages, Stone and Credico, September 30, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 190). Credico 'shared the i~age publicly on Twitter several days later. Tweet, @Credico2016, October 5, 2016 ("leaving Ecuador
Embassy London past scarey brit agent").
1629
Testimony of Randy Credico United States v. Stone
Ibid. . 624.
1622.

om Assange.

Credico, United States v. Stone, pp. 625--626.

245

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On the evening of October 1, Credico sent Stone new messages about an upcoming
WikiLeaks release. 1631 In the text messages to Stone, Credico conveyed that there would be "bignews Wednesday" (October 5) and that "Hillary's campaign will die this week." 1632 Credicoalso wrote, "now pretend~ don't know me," to which Stone responded "U died 5 years ago." 1633

. . (U) On October 2, WikiLeaks announced that Assange would be appearing by video at a
Berlin press conference on Tuesday, October 4. 1634 Later that day, Stone emailed Credico an
article about the change in Assange' s announcement, to ·which Credico responded, "head ·fake." 1635 Stone also texted Credico, "Did Assange back off," to which Credico replied thefollowing day, "I can't tal[k] about it." 1636
(U) Stone commented publicly regarding Assange' s change in plans. On October 2,
Stone tweeted, "Wednesday @HillaryCiinton is done. #WikiLeaks." 1637· That day, Stone also
appeared on The Alex Jones Show and advised that he had been "assured" by an intermediary to
Assange that "the mother lode is coming Wednesday." He continued: "It wouldn't be an
October surprise if I told you what it was but I have reason to believe that it is devastating
because people with political judgment who are aware of the subject matter tell me this." 1638
(U) On October 3, WikiLeaks announced on Twitter that it would be hosting a"WikiLeaks press conference Tuesday 10:00 am Berlin time ·on the past;present & future of
WikiLeaks." 1639 Stone and Corsi also had a 24-minute phone call. 1640 In addition, following
more text messages from Stone, Credico advised him: "I think it's on for tomorrow." 1641 Thatday, Stone tweeted: "I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will
educate the American people soon #LockHerUp." 1642

1631

(U) Text messages, Stone and Credico, October 1, 2016 (United States v, Stone, Gov. Ex. 190).
Ibid.
.
.
.
1633 (U) Ibid.
.
1634(U) Julia Boccagno, "WikiLeaks changes venue for 'October surprise' announcement," CBS News, October 3,
2016.·
1635(U) Emails, Stone and Credico, October 2, 2016, (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 59) (although there was notext other than a link to the article, the subject line of Stone's email was "WTF?").
1636(U) Text messages, Stone and Credico, October 2-3, 2016, (UnitedStates v. Stone, ·Gov. Ex. 190).
1637(U) Tweet, @RogerJStoneJr, October 2, 2016.
.
1638(U) "Trump Advisor Roger Stone Says He's Been 'Assured' Through An Assange Intermediary That 'The
Mother Lode is Coming," Me,dia Matters, October 3, 2016 (date of posting). ·1639(U). Tweet, @wikileaks, October 3, 2016.
1640(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures. ,., •1641(U) Text messages, Stone and Credico, October 3, 2016, (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 190). Credico's
comment was part of a longer October 3 dialogue on the expected WikiLeaks announcement, during which Stone
references using Signal to communfoate, because it considers it to be "secure."'
1642(U) Tweet, @RogerJStoneJr, October 3, 2016.
1632 (U)1

246

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RU~SIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Trump Campaign tracked Stone's commentary and the news about WikiLeaks.
On October 2, Andrew .Surabian, who ran the Campaign's war room, emailed Stone's Twitter
prediction about a Wednesday release to Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, and the Trump Campaign
press team. 1643 On October 3, Dan Scavino emailed the October 3 WikiLeaks Twitter
announcement to Bannon. 1644 That evening, Bannon reached out to two Breitbart editors,
Wynton Han and Peter Schweizer, to ask if they would be awake "to get what he [Assange] haslive."I.645(U) Separately, also on October 3, Bannon received an email from Matthew Boyle,another Breitbart editor, forwarding Boyle's correspondence from earlier that day with Stone. In
it, Boyle had asked Stone, "Assange-what's he got? Hope it's good." Stone responded, "It is.
I'd tell Bannon but he doesn't call me back." In his email to Bannon, Boyle advised Bannon tocall Stone, and when Bannon said he had "important stuff to worry about," Boyle replied, "Wellclearly he knows what Assange has. I'd say that's important." 1646
(U) Stone also emailed Erik Prince on October 3, telling him: "Spoke to my friend in
London last night. The payload is still coming." 1647

(U) In the midst of the speculation, WikiLeaks reached out directly to Donald Trump Jr.·and asked him to "comment on/push" a report about Clinton asking whether Assange could bedroned. Trump Jr. responded that he h,ad already done so. 1648 Two minutes later, Trump Jr.
wrote to WikiLeaks: "What's behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about?" 1649 He did notreceive a response. Trump Jr. testified to the Committee that he did not recall how he had h,eard
aqout a "Wednesday leak." 1650
(U) On Tuesday, October 4, 2016, the 10th anniversary ofWikiLeaks, Assangeannounced that he would be releasing more documents starting that week, including those"affecting three powerful organizations in three different states as well as, of course, information
previously referred to about the U.S. election process," which he characterized as

1643(U) Email, Surabian to Bannon, Conway, and Team Press, October 2, 2016 (SKB_SSCl-0001941).
(U) Email, Scavino to Bannon, October 3, 2016 (SKB_SSCI-0001795).
1645(U) Email, Bannon to Hall and Schweizer, October 3, 2016 (SKB_SSCI-0001773).
1646(U) Michael Schmidt, et al., "Read the Emails: The Trump Campaign and Roger Stone," The New York Times,
November 1, 2018. Bannon did not produce these emails to the Committee, but when confronted with them as
reproduced in The New York Times, said that he was familiar with them and that although he did not "know if they
are accurate," he "assume[d] they are." Bannon Tr., p. 188.
1647
(U) Email, Stone and Prince, October 3, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 31).
1648
(U) Tweet, @DonaldJTrumpir, November 13, 2017 (posting October 3, 2016 direct message exchange with@wikileaks); Trump Jr. Tr., pp. 187-188.
1649(U) Twitter direct message, @DonaldJTrumpJ.to @wikileaks, October 3, 2016 {Trump Jr. Production).
1650(U) Trump Jr. Tr., p. 190.
1644

247

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

"significant." 1651 He also said thatWikiLeaks would be "publishing every week for the next 10
weeks" so that "all the U.S. election-related documents" would come out before November 8. 1652
Assange made no specific reference to Cljnton or Podesta, and WikiLeaks did not release any
documents.
(U) Trump was frustrated with the absence of a WikiLeaks release on October 4. Gates
recalled that Trump had anticipated something would be released and later asked: "When is theother stuff coming out?" 1653

(U) Following the announcement, Bannon complained to Stone by email about the lackof any new releases, asking "what was that this moming???" 1654 Bannon wrote to Stone because
Stone had said he "knew WikiLeaks and knew Julian Assange." 1655 Stone responded, echoing
information he had received from Credico and Assange's own announcement: "Fear. Serious
security concern. He thinks they are going to kill him and the London police are standing done "[sic]. However-a load every week going forward." 1656·
(U) On October 4, Prince also asked Stone whether Assange had "chicken[ed] out." "Stone responded that he was "[n]ot sure," but "checking." Later that day, Prince texted Stone,
again to ask whether he had "hear[d] anymore from London." Stone wrote, "Yes-want to talkon a secure line-got Whatsapp?" and previewed that it was "good.?' 1657 Prince recalled later
speaking with Stone, who told him that WikiLeaks would release more materials harmful to the
Clinton Campaign. Prince also described Stone having the equivalent of "insider stock trading"information about Assange. 1658
(U) WikiLeaks did not release any documents the following day, Wednesday, October 5,
as Credico and Stone had originally expected. Stone, however, maintained his prediction that
Assange would be releasing Clinton materials. On October 5, Stonti tweeted: "Libs thinking

1651(U) Andrea Shalal, "WikiLeaks' Assange signals release of documents before U.S. election," Reuters, October
4, 2016 (linking to video).
1652(U) Tim Hains, "Julian Assange: First 'October Surprise' Leak Will Be Released This Week,"
RealClearPolitics, October 4, 2016 (linking to video).
1653(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/25/2018.
1654(U) Email, Bannon to Stone, October 4, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 32).
1655
(U) Testimony of Steve Bannon, United States v. Stone, p. 876.
1656(U) Email, Stone to Bannon, October 4, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 32). ·1657(U) Text messages, Stone and Prince, October 4, 2016 (United States v. Stone, Gov. Ex. 33). In text messages,
Prince promised to call Stone on October 5. Ibid.
1658(U) SCO Report, Vol., p. 57.
I'

248

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY\
Assange will stand down are wishful thinking. Payload coming #Lockthemup." 1659 On theevening of October 5, Stone and Credico spoke for 12 minutes. 1660
(U) WikiLeaks did not release anything on October 6. Nevertheless, on October 6, Stone
tweeted: "Julian Assange will deliver a devastating expose on Hillary at a time of his choosing. I
stand by my prediction. #handcuffs4hillary." 1661 Stone and Credico had five ·additional calls thatday.1662(U) On the afternoon of October 6, Stone received a call from Keith Schiller's number.
Stone returned the call about 20 minutes later, and spoke-almost certainly to Trump--for six
minutes. 1663 The substance of that conversation is not known to the Committee. However, at thetime, Stone was focused on the potential for a WikiLeaks release, the Campaign was following
WikiLeaks's announcements, and Trump's prior call with Stone on September 29, also using
Schiller's phone, related to a WikiLeaks release. Given these facts, it appears quite likely that
Stone and Trump spoke about WikiLeaks.

· (U) At approximately 4 p.m. on October 7, The Washington Post released the Access
Hollywood tape. 1664 Witnesses involved in Trump's debate preparation recalled that the teamfirst heard of the tape about an hour prior to its public release. 1665 According to Jerome Corsi,
however, news of the release also made its way to Roger Stone. 1666 Corsi and Stone spoke twicethat day at length: once at 1:42 p.m. for 18 minutes, and once at 2:18 p.m. for 21 minutes. 1667
Corsi recalled learning from Stone that the Access Hollywood tape would be coming out, and that
Stone "[w]anted the Podesta stuff to balance the news cycle" either "right then or at least

1659(U) Tweet, @RogerJStoneJr, October 5, 2016.
(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1661(U) Tweet, @RogerJStoneJr, October 6, 2016.
1662(U) AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures.
1663(U) Ibid; Trump Org. call records, Keith Schiller (TRUMPORG 73 000021). As noted above, Trump would
use Schiller's phone to make and receive calls, including with Stone, -;s also illustrated by the September 29 phone
calls.
1664(U) See David A. Farenthold, "Trump recorded having extremely lewd conversation about women in 2005,"
The Washington Post, October 7, 2016 (linking to video).
1665(U) Bannon Tr., p .. 206.
1666(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/21/2018.
1667(U) In an email to the SCO that he later produced to the Committee, Corsi also stated that he called and spoke toStone at 11:47 a.m. about the "status of the Wikileaks publication of the Podesta emails and Roger's concern that
Assange should start publishing immediately the Podesta emails." See Email, Corsi to Gray, October 2, 2018 (Corsi
Production). Corsi's phone records reflect only one minute of call time, suggesting that a conversation, if one
occurred, was short. See Corsi Phone Records, October 7, 2016 (Corsi Production).
1660

249

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
coincident." 1668 According to Corsi, Stone also told him to have WikiLeaks "drop the Podesta
emails immediately." 1669
(U) When the tape later became public, Corsi claimed that he was not surprised by thegraphic language because he had already heard it. 167 Corsi recalled previewing the Access
Hollywood tape with conference call participants during one or two calls that day: aWorldNetDaily staff call at 1:08 p.m., or a 2 p.m. call involving Total Banking Solutions that
included Malloch. 1671 Corsi remembered telling conference participants that the tape was a
problem and to contact Assange. 1672 Corsi then "watched all day to see what Assap.ge would
do," and when the Podesta emails were released, he thought to himself that Malloch "had finally
got to Assange." 1673 However, Corsi later told investigators that he did,not call Malloch or Stone
after the WikiLeaks release to convey this reaction because, in contradiction to his earlier
statements, he was "doubtful" that Malloch had succeeded. 1674 1°(U) Corsi also claimed that he tweeted publicly at WikiLeaks in order to get them torelease documents, but no such tweets could be located. 1675 The SCO was unable to identify any
conference call participants who recalled getting non-public information about the tape from
Corsi that day; the Committee did not seek to confirm those findings. 1676

(U) At approximately 4:32 p.m. on October 7-approximately 32 minutes after the
release of the Access Hollywood tape-WikiLeaks released 2,050 emails that the GRU hadstolen from John Podesta, repeatedly announcing the leak on Twitter and linking to a searchable
archive of the documents. 1677
(U) After the Podesta emails were released on October 7, 2016, Trump and seniorCampaign officials acknowledged internally and to Stone that Stone had predicted the
WikiLeaks release about Podesta. Manafort recalled Trump acknowledging to him that "Stone

1668(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 11/1/2018. It is not clear how Stone received news of the tape. Stone's phone records
did not reflect any calls that day with the Trump Campaign and only one 18-minute call with a Washington Post
number-but, according to the SCO, the records do not, on their face, indicate that the call involved any of the·reporters who broke the Access Hollywood story. See AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake Ventures;
Report, Vol. I, p ..59.
1669(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/21/2018.
1610 (U) Ibid.
1671(U) Ibid.; FBI, FD-302, Corsi 11/1/2018.
1672(U) Ibid.
1613 (U) Ibid.
1674 (U) Ibid.
1675(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/21/2018. The SCO was also unable to locate the alleged tweets.
Report, Vol. I,
p. 59.
1676(U)
Report, Vol. I, p. 59.
1677(U) Tweet, @wikileaks, October 7, 2016

sea

sea

sea

250

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

had information on the release in advance" of it becoming public. 1678 Manafort spoke with Stoneby phone and told Stone that Stone had been right. 1679 Gates also spoke with Stone shortly after
the release, and Stone confirmed that this was the information he had said would be coming
out. 1680 On October 8, Stone messaged Corsi: "Lunch postponed - have to go see T," referring
to Trump. 1681

(U) Corsi said that after the October 7 WikiLeaks release, he and Stone agreed that they
deserve.d credit and that."Trump should reward us." 1682 However, Corsi said that Stone wasconcerned about having advance information about the Podesta release, and that Stone recruited. Corsi to make sure no one knew Stone had advance knowledge of that information. After the
October 7 release, Corsi claimed that Stone directed him to delete emails relating to the Podesta
information. 1683 As outlined in his indictment and presented at trial, in subsequent congressional
testim~ny to the HPSCI, Stone hid his communications with Corsi about WikiLeaks, and instead
identified Credico as his intermediary; he also concealed communications he made directing both
Corsi and Credico to obtain advance information about future WikiLeaks releases; and he mademisleading and false statements about his communications with the Trump Campaign andindividuals associated with the Campaign. 1684 Following this testimony, Corsi said that Stone
directed him to "stick to the plan"; Stone also threatened Credico to prevent him from testifying ·to HPSCI and contradicting Stone's story. 1685
(U) On October 13', 2016, after WikiLeaks had publicly disclaimed any connection to
Stone, 1686 Stone wrote directly to the WikiLeaks Twitter account: "Since I was all over nationalTV, cable and print defending wikileaks. and assange against the claim that you are Russian
agents and debunking the false charges of sexual assault as trumped up bs you may want to

1678(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/13/2018 ..
(U) Ibid Stone's cell phone records show a 17-minute call with Manafort on October 12, although they may
have been in touch through other means following the Podesta release. AT&T toll records, Roger Stone/Drake
Ventures (ATTSSCI00058). Manafort told Gates that the release was three months late. FB(FD-302, Gates
10/25/2018.
1680(U) Testimony of Rick Gates, United States v. Roger Stone, pp. 946-947. Gates did not recall Stone saying that
he had orchestrated the timing of the release, although Stone told Gates that the release would "help." FBI, FD-302,
Gates 10/25/2018.
1681(U) Affidavit in Support ofan Application for a Search Warrant, Case 1:18-sc-02524, July 27, 2018, ,r 66. It is
unknown if Stone and Trump in fact met.
1682
(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/21/2018.
1683(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 11/1/2018.
1684(U) See, e.g., Stone indictment, ,r,r 11-39.
1685(U) FBI, FD-302, Corsi 9/21/2018. On November 15, 2019, following trial, Stone was convicted of obstructionof justice, witness tampering, and false statements for conduct relating to these events. He was sentenced to 40
months in prison.
1686 (U) See, e.g., Tweet, @wikileaks, October 12, 2016 ("As we have already stated clearly: WikiLeaks has.had nocontact wiith [sic] Roger Stone.").
1679

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rexamine [sic] the strategy of attacking me." 1687 WikiLeaks responded: "We appreciate that.
However, the false claims of association are being used by the democrats to undermine theimpact of our publications. Don't go there if you don't want us to correct you." 1688 Stone thenreplied: "Ha! The more you 'correct' me the more people think you're lying. Your operation
leaks like a sieve. You need to figure out who you friends are." 1689
(U) Following the October 7 release, WikiLeaks released thirty-three more sets of stolenmaterials before Election Day, amounting to over 50,000 documents, advertising the materials on
Twitter each time. 1690
·
·

iii.

(U) Trump Campaign',s Continued Use of WikiLeaks After October 7(U) Despite the contemporaneous statement by the U.S. Government warning of Russian
responsibility for the hacking and leaking of the DNC, DCCC, and Clinton Campaign documents
and emails, the Trump Campaign considered the release of these materials to be its "Octobersurprise." 1691 The Trump Campaign's press team first found out about the WikiLeaks release
when it "hit the press" on October 7,1692 and the Campaign quicklytumed to capitalize on thePodesta emails: the following morning, October 8, the communications team began compilinginformation from the release that it could use to attack Clinton. 1693 WikiLeaks information was

1687(U) See Affidavit in Support of Application for a Search Warrant, Case 1:17-mj-00661, September 11, 2017, 'I[
31 (documenting October 13, 2016 messages)..
·
1688(U) Ibid., '1[ 32 (documenting October 13, 2016 messages).
1689(U) Ibid., '1[ 33 (documenting October 16, 2016 messages). On November 9, 2016, the day after the U.S.
presidential election, WikiLeaks messaged Stone, ''Happy?" and "We are now more free to communicate." Ibid., 'I[
34 (documenting November 9, 2016 messages). They corresponded further on June 4, 2017, when Stone messageda Twitter account associated with Assange, @JulianAssange, that among other things, "If the U.S. government
moves on you I will bring down the entire house of cards." Ibid., '1[ 35 (documenting June 4, 2017 messages). On
June 10, 2017, Stone added: "I am doing everything possible to address the issues at the highest level ofGovernment. Fed treatment of you and WikiLeaks is an outrage. Must be circumspect in this forum as experiencedemonstrates it is monitored." Ibid., '1[ 36 (documenting June 10, 2017 messages).
1690(U) Netyksho indictment, 'I[ 49; see also Tweets, @wikleaks, October 7, 2016 to November 7, 2016.
1691(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/19/2018.
I
1692(U) Epshteyn Tr., p. 212.
1693
(U) See, e.g., Email, Shah to Ditto, Cheung, J. Miller, and Hicks, October 8, 2016 (DJTFP00019278) (attaching
document titled "Wikileaks October 7, 2016 John Podesta Email Release"); Email, Epshteyn to Ellis, October 8,2016 (DJTFP00019302-19304) (requesting "talkers on this asap" in reference to leaked speech excerpts). In his
testimony, Bannon downplayed the relative importance of the WikiLeaks release in light orthe Access Hollywood
tape. Bannon recalled that the Campaign learned of the tape approximately 60 minutes before it was released, in the
middle of debate preparation with Trump. See Bannon Tr., p. 206. According to Bannon, the tape was an"extinction level event," and precipitated Republican Party efforts to "remove the candidate" the following day ..
Ibid., pp. 207-208. Bannon claimed that he not recall finding out about the WikiLeaks release or speaking about itwith Trump until the evening after the debate. Ibid., pp. 206-207.

I

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later integrated with Trump's tweets, 1694 into his speeches, 1695 and into his press releases. 1696
Other members of the Trump family also scrutinized the news. 1697 And, the Campaign tracked
WikiLeaks releases in order to populate a fake Clinton Campaign website, clintonkaine.com. 1698
(U) Witnesses did not describe a formalized process for integrating WikiLeaks materials
into the Campaign. Rather, the Campaign would "look to see what's the most newsworthy"
when emails were released. 1699 Gates described this as a "wait-and-see" approach. 1700 When
asked what steps the Campaign took to promote WikiLeaks releases, Jared Kushner explained:[W]hen [the hacked emails] would come out, we'd get them - the Internet would
crowdsource them and we'd kind of see which ones were hot. And then we would
kind of debate ways to try to get them out further, whether it be having thecandidate read them at rallies, or tweet about them, or whatever it is. 1701
Kushner said the discussions were "not like a traditional command and control structure," butrather "a bunch of people who were helping figure it out." 1702 Participants included Trump andhis senior Campaign officials, such as Dan Scavino, Hope Hicks, Bannon, Kushner, Stephen
Miller, and Jason Miller. 1703
(U) While the Campaign was using the WikiLeaks documents, Trump cast doubt on theassessment that Russian government hackers were responsible for the hack-and-leak campaign.
At the second presidential debate on October 9, Trump asserted: "maybe there is no hacking." 1704

1694(U) Email, J. Miller to Giuliani, Hicks, Scavino, and S. Miller, October 11, 2016 (DJTFP00019376) (linking to
WikiLeaks story in the LA Times).
1695(U) Email, Gabriel to S. Miller and Ditto, October 27, 2016 (DJTFP00020051) (providing teleprompter script
for Springfield, Ohio speech referencing WikiLeaks).
1696(U) Email, Gates to Bannon, October 27, 2016 (SKB_SSCl-0001369-1370) (stating "This is good and exactly
what we need," and forwarding written Trump statement using WikiLeaks releases to attack Clinton under the
subject line, "FW: Donald J. Trump Statement.").
1697 (U) Email, J. Miller to Shah, et al., October 9, 2016 (DJTFP00024165) (discussing Eric Trump's question about
the WikiLeaks release, "Are we discussing Hillary selling weapons to Isis [sic] as per WikiLeaks email dump?").
1698 (U) Email, Hemming to Parscale, Bannon, and Hall, "Re: Top Twenty-Five Wikileaks Revelations," October
15, 2016 (SKB_SSCl-0001528-1530).
1699(U) S. Miller Tr., p. 110.
1700(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/19/2018.
1701(U) Kushner II Tr., p. 69.
1702(U) Ibid. 1703 (U) Ibid, p. 70; see, e.g., Email, J. Miller to Bannon, Conway, Bossie, S. Miller, and Hicks, October 12, 2016
(SKB_SSCI-0001615) (commenting "More!" and forwarding a GOP communications alert noting a WikiLeaks
tweet announcing "The Podesta Emails, Part 4"); Email, Burgess to "Team Press," Conway, Bannon, and Bossie,
October 12, 2016 (SKB_SSCI-0001616) (forwarding the same and commenting "Flagging-more wikileaks
documents. Wanted to make sure everyone saw them.").
1704(U) "Full Video: Second Presidential Debate," The New York Times, October 9, 2016.

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
In testimony to the Committee, Stephen Miller claimed that the Campaign did not know who was
responsible for the hacks "one way or the other." 1705 But this uncertainty did not stop Trump orCampaign officials from minimizing Russian involvement at other times, suggesting that it wasan "absurd claim" to say that the Kremlin was promoting the Trump Campaign1706 ; that "theDNC did the 'hacking"' as a distraction 1707 ; that the Dem'ocrats were "putting [it] out" that theRussians were responsible; and that it was "unlikely" that the Russians did it 1708 or that nobody
knew it was Russia, and it "could also be China" or "lots of other people." 1709 According toGates, the Campaign was "not concerned with how or who hacked" the documents, but justsought to release emails as quickly as possible. 1710
(U) Among the theories espoused by Trump Campaign officials, Manafort expressed abelief that the Ukrainians were responsible, not the Russians. 1711 Gates said that this "parroted anarrative [Konstantin] Kilimnik often supported." 1712 According to Gates, Kilimnik also
asserted that the hack could have been done by "Russian operatives in Ukraine." 1713 Gates was
not aware of Manafort asking Kilimnik "to reach out to his Russian contacts" about the source ofthe leaked materials, and was not himself asked to contact Kilimnik about it. 1714 The Committee
has determined that this theory espoused by Kilimnik and Manafort has no factual basis. 1715
Gates and others also decided to promote the story that a DNC insider had been involved in thehacks.1116(U) Within the Campaign, there was no policy that governed using materials released by
WikiLeaks. 1717 To the contrary, the Campaign treated the releases as just another form of1705(U) S. Miller Tr., p. 95.
(U) Email, Abboud to J. Miller, Hicks, and Lanza, July 25, 2016 (DJTFP00012984).
1707(U) Eric Bradner, "Trump: DNC hacked itself," CNN, June 15, 2016.
.
1708(U) Trump made the statement to Larry King on RT America on September 9, 2016. Theodore Schleifer, "On
Russian TV, Trump says it's 'unlikely' Putin trying to sway election," CNN, September 9, 2016. On September 2,1706

2016, Putin similarly deflected questions about Russia's involvement in an interview, stating: "Is it really important
who hacked this information from Clinton's election campaign? What's important is the content of what was madepublic." Laura Mills, "Putin Denies Kremlin Hand in DNC Hacking Breach," The Wall Street Journal, September
2, 2016.
1709(U) "Full Video: First Presidential Debate," The New York Times, September 26, 2016. Statements by Trump
casting doubt on attribution for Russia's election interference campaign continued following the election.
1710(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 2/12/2018.
1711(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/10/2018.
1712(U) Ibid
1713(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/11/2018.
1114
Ibid

1716 (U)1717

FBI, FD-302, Gates 3/1/2018; FBI, FD-302, Gates 4il0/201°8. . . . .
(U) Bannon Tr., p. 177; S. Miller Tr., p. -110.

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opposition research. 1718 Bannon's view was that "anything negative that comes out [against an
opponent] is clearly helpful to a campaign." 1719 According to Stephen Miller, "[i]t would havebeen political malpractice not to use the WikiLeaks material once it became public." 1720 Gates
described a "growing belief' within the Campaign that Assange was, in fact, assisting theireffort." 1721
(U) Rather than regulating the Campaign's use ofWikiLeaks materials, Trump praised
and promoted WikiLeaks repeatedly in the closing month of the campaign1722 :•(U) October 10, 2016: "This just came out. WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks."•(U) October 12, 2016: "This WikiLeaks stuff is unbelievable. It tells you the inner heart,
you'·gotta read it."•(U) October 13, 2016: "It's been amazing what's coming out on WikiLeaks."•(U) October 31, 2016: "Another one came in today. This WikiLeaks is like a treasure
trove."•(U) November 2, 2016: "WikiLeaks, it sounds like, is going to be dropping some more .
.Ifwe met tomorrow. I'd tell you about it tomorrow."•(U) November 4, 2016: "Getting off the plane, they were just announcing new
WikiLeaks, and I wanted to stay there, but I didn't want to keep you waiting. Boy, I lovereading those WikiLeaks."(U) Using Trump to promote WikiLeaks was a deliberate strategy employed by theCampaign, rtot only in his remarks, but also on social media. In mid-October, Ivanka Trump
tasked the Campaign's senior officials (including ]:Jannon, Scavino, Stephen Miller and Jason

1718(U) ·For example, Hope Hicks told the Committee: "[E]veryone has opposition research, and this just happened
to be available to everyone." Hicks Tr., pp. 66--67. Kushner described the releases as a "popular topic" that"everyone was talking about." Kushner II Tr., pp. '52-54.
1719(U) Bannon Tr., p. 171-172.
1720(U) S. Miller Tr., p. 91.
1721(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 3/1/2018.
1722(U) ,Some of these are reproduced in a video by The Washington Post. "Watch Trump Praise WikiLeaks," The
Washington Post, April 11, 2019. Public tabulations of the number ofreferences in speeches, interviews, rallies, anddebates Vary, but place it in excess of 100 mentions. See, e.g., Gabrielle Healy, "Did Trump really mention
WikiLeaks over 160 times in the last month of the election cycle?" PolitiFact, April 21, 2017; David Choi and John
Haltiwanger, "5 times Trump praised WikiLeaks during his 2016 election campaign," Business Insider, April 11,
2019.

255

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Miller) with preparing two Trump tweets every day linking to WikiLeaks content, which, shesaid, would help "refocus the narrative." 1723 Trump tweeted direct references to WikiLeaks
throughout October and November 2016, including on October 11, 12, 16, 17, 21 (twice), 22, 24,
27 and November 1. 1724(U) WikiLeaks contacted the Trump Campaign directly, through Donald Trump Jr., on
sev:eral occasions. On September 21, WikiLeaks used a direct message on Twitter to reach out toTrump Jr. for a comment about a website, "putintrump.org," and provided Trump Jr. a password
to access the website before it launched. 1725 Trump Jr. responded, "Off the record I don't know
who that is, but I'll ask around." 1726 He then forwarded the message to senior Campaign officials
in an email, and asked for their thoughts, indicating that he had visited the website:
Guys I got a weird Twitter DM.from wikileaks. See below. I tried the password
and it works and the about section they reference contains the next pie in terms of
who is behind it. Not sure if this is anything but it seems like it's really wikileaks
asking me as /follow them and itis a DM Do you know the people mentioned
and what the conspiracy they are looking for could be? These are just screen
shots but it's a fully built out page claiming to be a PAC let me know yourthoughts and if we want to look into it. 1727
Trump Jr. expressed concern about the webpage, though not about WikiLeaks itself: "The way
they asked the question it almost seemed like there was some connection we should be aware ofthough. Do any oftlie political people recognize the names there?" 1728 Some members of theCampaign responded to Trump Jr., but he did not communicate further with Wik1Leaks on the
topic. 1729

1723(U) Email, I. Trump to Bannon, S. Miller, et al., October 15, 2016 (TRUMPORG_69_010687).
(U) Tweets, @rea!DonaldTrump, October 11-November 1, 2016.
1725(U) Twitter direct message, @wikileaks to @DonaldJTrumpJr, September 21, 2016.
1726(U) Twitter direct message, @DonaldJTrumpJr to @wikileaks, September 21, 2016.
1727(U) Email, Trump Jr. to Conway, Bannon, Kushner, Bossie, and Parscale, September 21, 2016
(DJTFP00023909-23911) (attaching screenshots of Twitter direct message from WikiLeaks). The email garneredsome responses. Brad Parscale suggested setting up a competing website so that "searches come to us." Email,Parscale to Trump Jr. et al., September 21, 2016 (DJTFP00023912). Jared Kushner forwarded the email to Hope
Hicks without comment. Email, Kushner to Hicks, September 21, 2016 (DJTFP00023916-23918). The SCO
declined to charge Trump Jr. for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act based on his unauthorized use of thepassword to access the website. See SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 179.
1728
(U) Email, Trump Jr. to Parscale,.Bannon, Conway, Kushner, and Bossie, September 21, 2016,(DJTFP00023919).
1729(U) When asked about Trump Jr.'s communications with WikiLeaks on this topic, Bannon said: "I'd describe
Don Junior, who I think very highly of, as a guy who believes everything on Breitbart is true." Bannon Tr., p. 88.
1724

256

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) WikiLeaks also sought to coordinate its distribution of stolen documents with theCampaign. After Trump proclaimed at an October 10 rally, "I love WikiLeaks" and then posted
about it on Twitter, 1730 WikiLeaks resumed messaging with Trump Jr. On Oqtober 12, it said:"Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us ... there's many great stories thepress are missing and we're sure some of your follows [sic] will find it. btw we just released
Podesta Emails Part 4." 1731 Shortly afterward, Trump tweeted: "Very little pick-up by thedishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged
System!" 1732 Two days later, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted the link himself: "For those who havethe time to read about all the corruption and hypocrisy all the @wikileaks emails are right here:
wlsearch.tk." 1733 Trump Jr. admitted that this may have been in response to the request fromWikiLeaks, but also suggested that it could have been part of a general practice of retweeting the.
WikiLeaks releases when they came out. 1734
(U) According to public information, Trump Jr. retweeted WikiLeaks content numerous
times in October.and November 2016, frequently encouraging others to go to WikiLeaks or·elsewhere to review the hacked emails. 1735 Trump ir. defended his treatment of WikiLeaks as "amedia organization," asserting that "they're reaching out to me to essentially promote what they
had put out." 1736 He considered the emails "relevant" and said that "other people should seeit." 1737 He admitted, however, that he did not think about whether WikiLeaks was acting as
pass-thr.ough for Russia or otherwise consider WikiLeaks's history of hostile actions against theUnited States. 1738

a

1730

(U) Tweet, @realDonaldTrump, October 11, 2016.
(U) Twitter direct messages, @wikileaks and @DonaldJTrumpJr, October 12, 2016.
1732(U) Tweet, @realDonaldTrump, October 12, 2016.
1733(U) Tweet, @DonaldJTrumpJr, October 14, 2016.
1734(U) Trump Jr. Tr., pp. 195-196, 198~199.
1735(U) See ibid., p. 202; see generally Tweets, @DonaldJTrumpJr, October I-November 8, 2016. A publicly
accessible database purporting to have archived, in close to real time, tweets by Trump Jr., indicates at least 70
tweets responding to or retweeting WikiLeaks, and many others referencing its releases. See Trump Twitter
Archive, @donaldjtrumpjr, October I-November 8, 2016. Twitter's search function at the time of this writing
revealed a lower number; it is unclear what caused the discrepancy, but tweets can be deleted after they are posted.
1736(U) Ibid., pp. 164-166.
1737(U) Ibid., p. 202.
1738
(U) Ibid., pp. 164-166. WikiLeaks continued to interact with Trump Jr. after the general election on November
8, 2016. On November 9, 2016, WikiLeaks wrote to Trump Jr.: "Wow. Obama people will surely try to delete
records on the way out. Just a heads up." In December 2016, WikiLeaks contacted Trump Jr., again to ask that
Trump issue a statement in support of Assange. In July 2017, following initial public reporting, WikiLeaks
requested that Trump Jr. provide WikiLeaks with his emails about the June 9., 2016 meeting for publicati~n, throughMiirgaret Kunstler. Trump Jr. did not respond to these messages. See Twitter direct messages, @wikileaks and@DonaldJTrumpJr, November 9, 2016-July 11, 2017.
1731

257

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Campaign's preoccupation with WikiLeaks continued until the general election.
As the general election approached, Scavino, a member of the communications team who also
had a role in administering Trump's Twitter account during the campaign, 1739 increasingly
forwarded updates relating to WikiLeaks to other Campaign officials, using subject lines like ·"WIK.I ABOUT TO DROP SOME BOMBS ... 4 pmE" and "The WikiLeaks BOMB!" andlinking to the latest WikiLeaks twitter post or its website. 1740 To one, Donald Trump Jr.
responded: "Blow it out." 1741

1739 (U)Epshteyn.Tr,, p. 135.
(U) Email, Scavino to Bannon; E. Trump, Trump Jr., Kushner, S. Miller, and Hicks, October 31, 2016
(TRUMPORG_69_016159); Email, Scavino to Bannon, Hicks, Kushner, S. Miller, Trump Jr., and E. Trump,(TRUMPORG_69_016934). See also Email, Scavino to Bannon, Hicks, Conway, and S. Miller, November 4, 2016
(TRUMPORG_69_017232) ("Tweet by WikiLeaks on Twitter"); Email, Scavino to Scavino, November 6, 2016
(TRUMPORG_69_017455) ("8,263 DNC EMAILS RELEASED" and linking to WikiLeaks tweet); Email, Scavino
to Bannon, S. Miller, Kushner, E. Trump, Trump Jr., November 7, 2016 (TRUMPORG_69_ 017463) (subject "Wiki- CIIlCAGO PROTESTS COSTS" and linking to WikiLeaks documents).
1741(U) Email, Trump Jr. to Scavino, Bannon, E. Trump, Kushner, S. Miller, and Hicks, October 31, 2016
(TRUMPORG_ 69_016164).
.
1740

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C. (U) The Agalarovs and t!Je June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting
1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) Aras Agalarov, a prominent Russian oligarch originally from Azerbaijan, and his son
Emin Agalarov, a musician and real estate executive, have since 2013 maintained both a businessand personal relationship with Donald Trump. That relationship began with the planning of the2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and subsequently included negotiations over a Trump
Tower Moscow in 2014. Aras and Emin Agalarov were later involved in arranging a June 9,2016 meeting at Trump To.wer between Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer withgovernment connections, several of her associates, and Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, andPaul Manafort. That meeting was arranged based on an offer of derogatory information on
Hillary Clinton, which was ultimately not delivered.

(U) The Committee sought to understand the relationship between Donald Trump andthe Agalarov family in Russia, as well as the relationship between the Trump Organization and
the Agalarovs' company, the Crocus Group, more broadly. The Committee also sought tounderstand the nature of the Agalarovs' and Veselnitskaya's connections to the Russian
government and Russian intelligence services.
C(U) In this effort, the Committee interviewed a number of individuals with direct insight
regarding the Agalarovs and non-public awareness of the Trump-Agalarov relationship's historyor specific events. Nevertheless, the Committee faced significant limitations in its efforts to fully
understand the relationship with the Agalarovs. In particular, events related to the Agalarovs
often occurred in Russia, which significantly limited the availability of documents and witnesses
that the Committee sought. Additionally, the passage of time complicated the collection of
documents and reliable testimony regarding some aspects of the relationship. Witness testimony,
while helpful, was often incomplete or contradicted other testimony or documents. The
Committee was often not able to reconcile some of these challenges. The absence of cooperationfrom several individuals hindered the Committee's ability to fully address some aspects of therelationship.
(U) The relationship between Donald Tru~p and the Agalarovs, which began in 2013,
continued through the 2016 U.S. election. This relationship included both business and personalcommunications, and was composed of in-person visits both in Russia and in the United States,
as well as written correspondence, text messages, calls, social media, and gifts. The relationshipalso extended to Agalarov associates and family members, and to Trump associates and family
members, who in some cases were in frequent contact. The Agalarovs, who have ties to theRussian government, may have been aware of Trump's intention to run for president prior to theCampaign's public announcement.

259

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Aras Agalarov was personally involved in pushing for the meeting between
Veselnitskaya and the Trump Campaign, and also pushed for a second meeting for Veselnitskayafollowing the election, which did not take place. The Committee found that Agalarov likely
sought to arrange these meetings on behalf of individuals affiliated with the Russian government.
(U) The Committee found that it was the intent of the Campaign participants in themeeting, particularly Donald Trump Jr., to receive derogatory information that would be of
benefit to the Campaign from a source known, at least by Trump Jr., to have connections to theRussian government. Actions were taken by Campaign participants to operationalize that intent.
The Committee found no reliable evidence that information of benefit to the Trump Campaign
was transmitted at the June 9, 2016 meeting, or that Trump had foreknowledge of the June 9,2016 meeting.

(U) The information that Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer, offered during theJune 9, 2016 meeting, and planned to offer again at the follow up meeting requested by Aras
Agalarov, was part of a broader influence operation targeting the United States that wascoordinated, at least in part, with elements of the Russian government. That Russian effort was
focused on U.S. sanctions against Russia. Some of the same information used b Veselnitska aat the meetin was also usedmeeting participants from the Campaign were aware of this Russian influence operation when
accepting the meeting or participating in it. Participants on both sides of the meeting were
ultimately disappointed with how it transpired.
(U) The Committee assesses that at least two participants in the June 9, 2016 meeting,
Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin, have significant connections to the Russian government,
including the Russian intelligence services. Those connections, particularly regarding
Veselnitskaya, were far more extensive and concerning than what had been publicly known, andneither Veselnitskaya nor Akhmetshin were forthcoming with the Committee regarding thoseconnections. Both Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin may have sought, in some cases, to obfuscate
the true intent of their work in the United States.

260

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Around the time of the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, the Agalarovs
employed Artem Klyushin to help promote Emin Agalarov on social media. In that capacity,
Klyushin and his then-wife spent some time with Trump during the pageant weekend. Klyushin
is a Kremlin-linked bot developer who has supported Russian social media influence operationsin other countries. The Committee did not find information indicating that Trump had awarenessof this at the time, or any subsequent communication with Klyushin.

2. (U) Background on the Agalarovs

Aras Agalarov is a Russian oligarch, originally from Azerbaijan, and is thehead o ~ G r o u p . Crocus is involved in construction and real estate development, as
well as ownership and operation of shopping centers and other businesses in Russia. Agalarov isbased in Moscow and his net worth is approximately $1.7 billion. 1743 The Agalarovs havesignificant ties to Russian organized crime and have been closely affiliated with individuals
involved in murder, prostitution, weapons trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, narcotics
trafficking, money laundering and other significant criminal enterprises. Some of those activities
have extended outside of Russia, including to the United States. 1744 A alarov and his associates
have also for ears artici ated in a varie of large-volume
1745(U) Aras Agalarov also has significant ties to the Russian government, including toindividuals involved in influence operations targeting the 2016 U.S. election. He has access to
President Putin and to Putin' s close aide Dimitry Peskov. 1746 Agalarov is also an associate ofYuri Chaika, who until 2020 was the Russian Prosecutor General, a position which is similar tothat of the U.S. Attorney General. 1747 Agalarov may have a connection to First Deputy Premier, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000095).
e

m

.

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Igor Shuvalov, 1748 and is also connected t~ Mikhail Mishustin, ·the now-Prime Minister ofRussia. 1749 ~·

I
r

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--

263

264

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY265

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) According to a Russian press report, in October 2010 when Russian intelligence helda celebration for the 60th anniversary of the GRU' s special missions department, the event was
hosted atAgalarov's Crocus City Hall. 1775·

266

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Aras Agalarov is an associate of Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who has
connections to Russian intelligence and security services. 1776
(U) Agalarov has also been a longtime employer of Irakli Kaveladze, who has been
involved in probable money laundering activity on behalf of Agalarov in the United States.
(U) Kaveladze is a Georgian-American businessman who immigrated to the UnitedStates in 1991. He has been employed by Aras Agalarov and the Crocus Group siiice
1989. At times in his work for the Crocus Group, Kaveladze would travel frequently to
Moscow, sometimes for extended periods. 1777·•

(U) According to a report by the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) in
October 2000, Kaveladze has been involved in a range of activities in the United Statesthat raise serious concerns regarding Russian money laundering. 1778 According to GAO,
companies created by Kaveladze established approximately 2,000 corporations, some ofwhich had made up names, for Russian brokers. Kaveladze's companies moved morethan $1 billion in wire transfer transactions into 236 accounts at two U.S. banks, most ofwhich was then transferred back to accounts in Eastern Europe again for Russian brokers.
Kaveladze has insisted that he had no involvement in an wron doin callin the GAO(U) Emin Agalarov is the son of Aras Agalarov. He is Executive Vice President of
Crocus group and is also a musician. Emin Agalarov is connected to Grigoriy Lepsveridze, who
has been sanctioned by the United States for his role in Russian organized crime. 1780 Emin

1776
; SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Natalia
Vese mts aya, Marc 26, 2018, pp. 69-70. For interactions with the Committee, the Agalarovs retained Scott
Balber, an attorney who has also represented Donald Trump. Dylan Stableford, "Trump releases birth certificate toBill Maher, demands $5 million," Yahoo News, January 9, 2013. Early 2017 text messages between Veselnitskayaan~ Agalarov employee U:akli Kaveladze ind~cate tha~ Balber may have wor_ked on aovemment~task" or""stateass1 ment." The Committee has no further mformatlon on the narure ofth1s work.
For Veselnitskaya's involvement int eJune 9, 2016 meeting, see infra Vo. 5, Sec. 111.C.5.
1777(U) FBI, FD-302, Kaveladze 11/16/2017; SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Irakli Kaveladze, October 18,
2017, pp. 4, 28.
1778(U) GAO, "Suspicious Banking Activities: Possible Money Laundering by U.S. Corporations Formed for
Russian Entities," October 2000, p. 11; Raymond Bonner, "Laundering of Money Seen as 'Easy,"' The New YorkTimes November 29, 2000.
1779
Ra mond Bonner, "Launderin of Mone Seen as 'Bas ,'" The New York Times, November 29,(U) Treasury, "Treasury Designates Associate of Key Brothers' Circle Members," October 30, 2013.

267

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Agalarov previously employed Artem Klyushin, a Kremlin-linked bot developer who has
supported Russian influence operations, to help promote Agalarov on social media. Emin
Agalarov grew up, in part, in New Jersey, but is currently based in Moscow. 1781

(U) According to Michael Cohen, around the time of the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in
Moscow, a friend, Giorgi Rtskhiladze, cautioned that he "did not care for the Agalarovs, thought
they were gangsters and didn't do business with them." According to Cohen, when Rtskhiladze
heard that Donald Trump Jr. was considering a real estate development project with theAgalarovs, Rtskhiladze again warned Cohen that the Agalarovs, and particularly Aras Agalarov,"are really rough." 1786 Rtskhiladze's description to the Committee of his limited relationship with
the Agalarovs did not include this information. 1787

3. (U) Origins of the Trump-Agalarov Relationship

1781(U) In February 2020, Agalarov produced documents and testified pursuant to a Committee subpoena served in
Janu
2020.
178
178

178
1787

(U) Wntten Responses, Rtskhiladze, August 23, 2019; Written Responses, Rtskhiladze, September 16, 2019.

268

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Donald Trump first met the Agalarovs in 2013 in an effort to bring the annual Miss
Universe pageant to Moscow. 1788 The Miss Universe Organization had been co-owned by
Trump since 1996. 1789
(U) There was at least one previous attempt to bring the pageant to Moscow prior to
2013. In 2005, Paula Shugart, the president of the Miss Universe Organization, took an
exploratory visit to Moscow to determine its suitability for hosting the event. After Shugart' s
trip, Trump wrote a letter to Mikhail Kusnirovich, a Russian businessman whom Shugart met on
the trip. In his letter, Trump praised Moscow as a "spectacular venue" for the Miss Universe
pageant.1790

1788(U) See RG0000J(}-000031 (hereinafter Agalarov Washington Post Tr.).
The Miss Universe Organization includes Miss USA and Miss Teen USA.
1790 (U) Letter, Trump to Kusnirovich, October 25, 2005 (TRUMPORG_ IS_ I0).
1789 (U)269

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

·tv
JI.

October 25, 2005

Mr. Mikhail Kusnirovich
Bosco di'Cilicgi/Articoli
9, KrymsJ.-y Val
Moscow, 119049 Russia
Dear Mikhail,l'aula Slmgart informed me of her recent trip to Moscow and how impressed she
was by you and your organization.
There is no doubt Moscow would be a spectacular venue for the Miss Universe
pageant. Moscow bas everything it takes to make it a destination city-it's a newly
vibrant city along with a magnificent and fabled history. The millions ofinternational viewers of Miss Universe would surely nppreciatc that combjnation. J
sincerely hope we arc able to make it work, and I thank you for all of your efforts
and interest in the pageant.
·With best reg:mJs,(U) Shugart recalled only meeting with Kusnirovich, not with any Russian government
officials, while she was in Moscow. Efforts to bring the pageant to Moscow at that time were
unsuccessful. 1791 According to Rob Goldstone, who later served as Emin Agalarov' s promoter
and aide, there was "too much red tape," making bringing the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow"too difficult to do." 1792
i.

1791
1792

(U) Planning Miss Universe Moscow(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Paula Shugart, April 30, 2018, pp. 10-11, 17-23.
(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 41.

270

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The first correspondence the Committee is aware of regarding Miss Universe
Moscow occurred on January 7, 2013, when Emel Kiral emailed Emin Agalarov and wrote that
she enjoyed meeting him, suggested that they meet with her "contact" at Miss Universe, andsuggested that Agalarov could perform at a Miss Universe pageant that was hosted in Moscow.
Kiral also attached a slide presentation on the potential benefits of hosting a Miss Universe
pageant in Russia. 1793 Agalarov responded, thanking her and saying that he would look at theslides. 1794 It does not appear that any further involvement with Kiral took place .
. ..
(U) Separately, also in early 2013, Rob Goldstone reached out to a previous winner ofthe Miss Universe pageant regarding a potential role for the woman .in an_ upcoming Emin
Agalarov music video. 1795 Although the woman was upavailable, slie connected Goldstone with
Shugart, the president of the Miss Universe Organization, as someone who might be able to
make another recommendation for the music video. 1796 In March 2013, Shugart offered to meetWith Goldstone and Emin Agalarov. During the meeting, Goldstone suggested that Agalarov
cc:mld perform at a future Miss Universe pageant. 1797(U) According to Goldstone, Emin Agalarov asked about hosting the pageant in
Moscow. Shugart explained that she had previously hoped to host the pageant there, but thoseefforts were unsuccessful. Shugart identified Crocus City Hall as a potential location, and was
impressed to learn that Emin Agalarov's father owned the venue. 1798
(U) Emin Agalarov then asked Shugart about Miss Universe's fee structure and about
what would be involved in bringing the pageant to Russia. Goldstone said that Agalarov was
optimistic that he would be able to perform at the pageant if it were held at Crocus City Hall, andbelieved that it would generate international exposure for his music career. In part to foster thisnew relationship, Shugart offered Miss Universe 2012 for Agalarov's music video. 1799
(U) Kaveladze recalled that Aras Agalarov was initially very skeptical about hosting the
pageant, but Emin Agalarov was excited and lobbied his father. 180 Kaveladze believed that

°

1793

(U) Eniail, Kiral to E. Agalarov, January 7, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00001). Shugart told the Committee that Kinµ had
been introduced to the Miss Universe Organization by Rhona Graff, but that neither Shugart nor Agalarov had any
meaningful connection to-her. Shugart Tr., pp. 41-42; Krial has also gone by the name Emel Dilek.
1794(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Kiral, January 7, 2013 (TRUMPORG_18_000998).
1 5
79 (U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 45--47.
1796 (U) Ibid
1797
(U) Ibid, pp. 46-48.
1798(U) Ibid, pp. 47--48.
1799(U) Ibid, pp. 48-50.
1800(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 14-15.

271

Crocus would lose a substantial amount of money and repeatedly advised against hosting theevent.1so1(U) On April 18, Goldstone emailed Aga:larov to tell him that Trump and the Miss
Universe Organization had met and were willing to "pull out all the stops to get this to
Moscow."1802 In May 2013, the Miss Universe Organization was under increasing pressure tosecure a location for the upcoming pageant. 1803 At that time, Emin Agalarov invited Shugart andseveral other Miss Universe representatives to Moscow to visit the venue and other related
facilities such as hotels. 1804 During that visit to Moscow, Aras Agalarov agreed to pay to hostthe pageant. 1805 Despite Shugart providing recommendations regarding financing structures thatmight involve governments or tourism departments as well as private entities, the Agalarovs
indicated that the financing for the Moscow pageant would be strictly private. 1806
(U) Ultimately, Crocus Group paid approximately $6 million for a licensing fee andincurred an additional $6 million in expenses. The Agalarovs only recouped about $2 million insales, resulting in an approximately $10 million loss for the event. 1807 According to Shugart,
Moscow was one of the most lucrative deals that the Miss Universe Organization had everparticipated in. 1808

(U) Following the commitment from Agalarov to finance the pageant, Shugart notified:Oonald Trump. Shugart recalled that Trump was "very happy" and believed the Agalarovs were"the real deal." Shugart recalled that Trump told her she was "finally introducing hitn to thepeople he needed to be meeting." 1809
(U) At the conclusion of the Russia trip, a Letter oflntent was signed. 1810 Goldstonerecalled that Trump wanted to announce the locations of the upcoming Miss Universe pageantduring the awards ceremony for the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas, Nevada, in June 2013 ..

1801
1802

(U) Emai, Go stone to E. Agalarov, April 18, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00057). According the same email fromGoldstone, Shugart had also "asked if there was any word back from the Government folks your father emailed etc."
1803(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 14, 24.
.
1804(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 45-50. This account is generally consistent with testimony to the Committee from Paula
Shugart. Shugart Tr., pp. 17-23.
.
1805(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 17-23, 50-51; Goldstone Tr., pp. 53-54.
1806(U) Shugart Tr., p. 22.
1807(U) Attorney Proffer, Kaveladze, September 28, 2017.
1808(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 32-33.
1809(U) Ibid., pp. 47-48.
1810(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 53-54.
272

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYGoldstone recalled that the groups were "very much under pressure to get that all agreed, so acontract could be signed in Vegas." 1811

(U) Shugart told the Committee that "once. Aras decided it was happening, we moved
very quickly," and the two sides drafted a contract..1812 Kaveladze, who served as Crocus's leadon the contract," told the Committee that he worked with representatives from th~ M1ss Universe
organization for a month and a half to prepare the documents and final contract that needed to besigned to finalize the deal. 1813 Shugart told the Committee that Trump made no input on thedetails of the deal. 1814

ii.

(U) The First Meeting: Las Vegas(U) In June 2013, the Miss Universe Organization invited the Agalarovs to Las Vegas tosign the contract and make the announcement alongside Trump during the Miss USA
pageant. 1815 Arriving on June 15, 2013, the day before the pageant, Trump and the Agalarovs
met for the first time in the lobby of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.
(U) Following their initial introduction, Trump and the Agalarovs went upstairs to a suite
to sign the final contract for Miss Universe Moscow. Shugart and Aras Agalarov w:ere thesignatories. 1816 Roman Beniaminov, a close friend and aide to Emin Agalarov, recalled that at
the signing the Miss Universe Organization group presented Aras Agalarov with a bottle oftequila to celebrate the occasion. 1817·
(U) The same day, Goldstone recalled receiving a phone call from Keith Schiller, Donald
Trump's head of security. According to Goldstone, Schiller said, "I hear from Paula that you
guys are going to dinner tonight. Mr. Trump would like to join." Goldstone continued, "I hungup. I called Emin and said: You have a guest tonight; Mr. Trump's now coming to dinner. And
he goes: Very funny. I said: No, no; he is coming to dinner." 1818

1811

(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 50--51.
(U) Shugart Tr., p. 44.
1813(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 14.
1814(U) Shugart Tr., p. 51-53.
1815(U) Ibid, p. 52.
, _1816 (U) Ibid, pp. 56-58, 67; Itinerary for Donald Trump, et al. (TRUMPORG_18_000028); SSCI Transcript of theInterview with Roman Beniaminov, February 23, 2018, pp. 77-79.
1817(U) Beniaminov Tr., p. 79.
'
1818(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 61--62.
1812

273

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The dinner that night ultimately included members of the Agalarov family, Trump
Organization, Miss Universe Organization, and a number ofEmin Agalarov's friends. 1819
Michael Cohen attended with Trump and Schiller. 1820 During the meal, Goldstone recalled being
approached by Schiller, who asked Goldstone if the Agalarov group had plans after the meal.
Goldstone recalled telling Schiller that one of Emin Agalarov's associates, Murtaza Akbar, wasan investor in a club called The Act and that the group planned to go. According to Goldstone,
Schiller responded by telling Goldstone that "Mr. Trump wants to come." 1821
(U) Following dinner, the group, which included the Agalarovs, their associates, and the
Trump Organization group, went to The Act. Goldstone described The Act as, "a bit Cirque duSoleil and a bit burlesquey thrown into one." 1822 Cohen recalled that the club was "more than aburlesque club" and was a "wild place." 1823
(U) The group, including Trump, stayed at The Act for several hours. 1824

1819

(U) According to Beniaminov, attendees at the dinner included Aras Agalarov, Donald Trump, Aras Agalarov's
wife and daughter, Emin Agalarov, Emin Agalarov's friends Murad and Timur Beniaminov, Roman Beniaminov(no relation), Rob Goldstone, Goldstone and Agalarov's associate Murtaza Akbar, Trump Organization employees
Keith Schiller and Michael Cohen, Miss Universe employee Esther Swan, former-Miss Universe Olivia Culpo, andothers. Beniaminov Tr., pp. 71-75. Lawrence Glick from the Trump Organization may have also attended. Shugart
Tr., p. 56-58.
1820(U) Cohen served as a board member of the Miss Universe Organization, which he described as a "perk" of his
job at the Trump Organization. Cohen Tr. II, p. 108.
1821
(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 63-64.
1822(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 64.
1823(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 109-110 ("It's a club that puts on shows, and you never really know what the show isgoing to be. In this specific case they brought out a young man who was in a leotard body suit, who, to me, I would
diagnose him as a thalidomide baby. And he was blind as well, but he sang like Pavarotti. And while he wassinging-I forget the song, it was like a 'God Bless America' -type song-there was a woman who was in a thong
bikini, who was large, performing sex acts on him while he was singing. Interesting, because I was with Mr. Trumpat the time. It was not really a place I expected to be with him at. He looked over to me when he was finished, andI'll never forget this, he looked me right in the face. He goes, 'That's a tough way to make a living."'); Cohen told
the Committee he did not remember the name of the club. Based on testimony from other witnesses, the club was
The Act. Shugart Tr., pp. 62. Goldstone Tr., pp. 63-66; Tim O'Reiley, "Curtain comes down on nearly half of edgy
skits at The Act nightclub," 'Las Vegas Review-Journal, September 13, 2013.
1824(U) A series oflate night and early morning text messages between Beniaminov and Goldstone indicate
Trump's presence at the club with the Agalarovs. Text message, Goldstone to Beniaminov, June 15, 2013
(RB001136-1137). Goldstone told the Committee that, at some point, Emin Agalarov asked him, "How do we get
rid of him? When does he go? How long will he stay?" Sometime after that, Schiller approached Goldstone.
Goldstone told the Committee, "Then Keith came up and said: 'Mr. Trump's going to leave.' And he made an,interesting comment. He goes: 'By the way, you've hosted him really well; he must really like you guys, because hedoesn't do this kind of thing and he doesn't stay. Thank you very much.'" Goldstone Tr., pp. 63-66. Beniaminovrecalled going to the club after dinner, and that it was a late night, but his memory of the details were vague or nonexistent. He recalled that there had been someone dancing on stage in a "mirror type of suit outfit." BeniaminovTr., p. 81. Shugart recalled hearing the next morning that it had been a late night at the club and that everyone got

274

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The following day there was a dress rehearsal and the Miss USA pageant at which
Aras and Emin Agalarov sat beside Trump. The pageant was followed by the official Miss
Universe Moscow announcement, a ceremonial signing of the contract and a press
conference. 1825·
(U) On June 17, 2013, Emin Agalarov instructed that a. Crocus Group and Agalarov
Estate brochure be sent by messenger to Trump. 1826
(U) On June 18, 2013, Donald Trump wrote on Twitter, "Do yC>u think Putin will begoing to the Miss Universe pageant in November in Moscow? If so, will he become my new
best friend?" The same day, Emin Agalarov responded on Twitter, "Mr. @realDonaldTrump
anyone you meet becomes your best friend- so I'm sure Mr. Putin will not be an ~xception in
Moscow @crocuscityhall." 1827

iii.

(U) Planning Miss Universe Moscow(U) Following the contract signing in Las Vegas in June, planning began for theNovember 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. In addition to arranging the pageant itself,
Trump and Aras Agalarov repeatedly contacted President Putin and his staff,. both to invite Putin
to the event, and to offer a personal meeting with Ttump.
(U) On June 21, 2013, Goldstone emailed Emin Agalarov with the subject line "Putin" toinform him that, "He [Trump] has a personal email [address] for VP" but had asked for a mailingaddress for the letter. 1828 On June 22, 2013, Goldstone emailed Emin Agalarov the text of a draft
letter from Trump inviting Putin to attend the Miss. Universe pageant and requesting a personalprivate meeting. in Moscow. The email included the subject line, "Draft of Putin letter for
Donald Trump - please show to Aras and let me know before I send to Trump." Emin Agalarov
approved. 1829
(U) On June 24, 2013, Rhona Graff, Trump's assistant, wrote to Shugart, informing her
that, "DT wants to send a letter to Putin inviting him to Miss Universe. I asked Rob G. to draft
something we could tweak. If you see the letter below, he references a trip to Moscow by DT in

I,

along. She believed the club was called The Act. Shugart Tr., pp:61-64. Schiller said he had no recollection ofgoing to any club. SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Keith Schiller, February 7, 2018, pp. 43--45.
1825(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 65-66; Goldstone Tr., p. 66.
1826 (U) Agalarov Estate brochure (DJTJR00502-607); Crocus Group brochure (DJTJR00610-849); Email,Goldstone to Graff, June 18, 2013 (TRUMPORG_l8_000999).
.
1827 (U) Tweet, @realDonaldTrump, June 18, 2013; Tweet, @eminofficial, June 18, 2013.
1828 (U) Email, Goldstone to E. Agalarov, June 21, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00466).
1829 (U) Email, Goldstone to E. Agalarov and Beni!llllinov, June 22, 2013 (RB-000858).

275

COMMITTEE SEN ITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
advance of the actual pageant. What is he talking about?" 1830 Graff included a version of thedraft letter from Trump to President Putin, written by Rob Goldstone, which stated: "I havealways valued your kind offer for me to visit Moscow, and I will be doing so later this year prior
to the contest. I want to personally invite you as my guest of honor to the November 9th Miss
Universe Pageant, and would also hope to meet privately with you during my stay in
Moscow." 1831
I.

(U) Later on June 24, Shugart responded to Graffs email, writing, "I have no idea, I'm
finding out now." 1832 Shugart told the Committee that she found out that Trump had said to theAgalarovs that he would come a few days earlier to "facilitate a meeting" with Putin. 1833
(U) On June 27, 2013, Goldstone wrote to Emin Agalarov stating that Trump's assistantwanted to know where to send "the letter for Putin." Emin Agalarov wrote back, "On it." 1834
Later that day Goldstone sent Graff and Shugart the address and email of "who to forward letterfrom Mr. Trump to President Putin" and included the mailing address, title, and email address ofDmitry Peskov .1835 In an email Goldstone explained that this individual "is in direct daily contact
with the President and has been briefed to expect an email and physical letter." 1836

(U) On June 27, 2013, Graff emailed a draft letter titled "Dear President Putin.docx" toan assistant, writing, "Please print this out for me on DT's heavy letterhead (with envelope)." 1837
On June 28, 2013, Graff emailed Shugart and Goldstone and attached a final signed copy of theletter. The signed copy had several changes to Goldstone's draft, including the omission of theextended stay in Moscow and the personal meeting request. 1838
·"

1830

(U) Email, Graffto Shugart, June 24, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000016--17).
(U) Email, Goldstone to Graff, June 24, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000016--17).
1832(U) Email, Shugart to Graff, June 24, 2013 (1RUMPORG 18 001016).
1833 (U) Shugart Tr., pp. 76-77.
- 1834(U) Email, Emin to Goldstone and Beniaminov, June 27, 2013 (RB-000856).
1835(U) For more on Dmitry Peskov, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.C.5.i.b.
·
1836(U) Email, Goldstone to Graff and Shugart, June 27, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000015).
1837(U) Email, Graff to Kelly, June 27, 2013 (1RUMPORG_18_001022).
1838(U) Letter, Trump to Putin, June 26, 2013 (1RUMPORG_18_000031).
1831

276

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

June 26, 2013

Pre ident Vladimir Putin
c/o Dmjtiri Sergeevich Peskov
Press ecrclary of President Vl::idimir Putin'turaya Ploshad I 0/4, 3n1 floor, Office 304
1oscow
Russia. 10132
Dear Mr. Pte idcnt:
I hope you have beard by now the exciting new that we are bringing the Miss Universe
2013 Pngcaul to Russia for tbe first time in lhe 62 year his tory of the Pageant
We wiU p artner with Crocus Gr oup and Aras Agolarov to stage the event on ' ovember 9th
at roe.WI City Hall The Miss niversc Pageant is watched by over l billion people
worldwide and i one of the must watched TV shows 1mywher e in the world.
I know thnt our Moscow pageant will be our biggest and best Miss nivcrsc ever, and weare already ovcnvhclmcd with a very positive and extensive response from both
inlcrnatioo:il and Russi.an mediu. We turned down many other competing countries infavor of Russin.
I want to take th.is opportunity lo personally invite you to be my guest of honor in Moscow
on 'o,•ember 9th • I know you w ill l111ve II grwt time
With best wishes.

(U) Several months later, on September 9, 20 13, planning efforts were focused on
securing hotel rooms for the pageant leadership and judges. Goldstone wrote several emails to
Kaveladze, Emin Agalarov, Beniaminov, and three Russian employees of Crocus Group
277

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

regarding hotel options for the pageant. 1839 Goldstone wrote that he would like to visit the""Intercontinental Hotel and check out their top suites for Donald Trump to stay as it is oursponsor hotel group. At the moment we have him in an $1 lk a night suite at Ritz Carlton - and I
am assured by Trump's office that he is happy to stay at Intercontinental in a top suite and it
should save us a lot ofmoney." 1840 However, later that day, Emin Agalarov wrote to Roman
Beniaminov and Crocus employee Katia Kosenkova, -directing them to arrange for Trump to stayat the Ritz Carlton. He wrote, "trump will stay at the ritz comply with me [sic]," and requested
that room options be sent to him. 1841
(U) Roman Beniaminov told the Committee that guests of Aras Agalarov had previously
had reservations made for them at the Ritz Carlton for Crocus business. 1842
(U) On September 12, 2013, Agalarov and Trump efforts turned back to outreach to
Putin. Goldstone wrote to Graff and Shugart with a follow up request for another signed letterfrom Trump. Goldstone's request mentioned asking for a personal meeting between Trump and
Putin, "as discussed." Goldstone wrote: 1843

1839

(U) Email, Goldstone to Kaveladze, E. Agalarov, et al., September 9, 2013 (RB-000388). The additional Crocus
email recipients were Svetlana Bignova, Katia Kosenkova, and Sergey Sharov.
·
1840(U) Email, Goldstone to Kaveladze, E. Agalarov, et al., September 9, 2013 (RB-000388).
1841(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Kosenkova and Beniaminov, September 9, 2013 (RB-000020). Shugart told theCommittee that she did not know who made the hotel reservations, but that it would have been someone on the
Russian side of the planning for the event. Shugart said that the Miss Universe Organization would have approved
the choice, but "we were just notified that they had the Ritz." Shugart Tr., p. 118.
1842
(U) Beniaminov Tr., p. 185.
1843(U) Email, Goldstone to Graff and Shugart, September 12, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000034).

278

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2013 4:29 PM
To: Rhona Graff
Cc: 'Paula Shugart'
Subject: Letter from Mr Trump to President Putin
Importance: HighHI Ladies
I am off to Moscow tomorrow and might have an opportunity to meet with
Putin's personal private secretary next week.
During the visit I would bring up the request for Mr. Trump to meet with
President Putin during the M iss Universe week as discussed and requested inprevious letter to him.
It has been suggested that I bring a hand signed copy of the letter with mein case it is asked for and also that we put some dates in there say Nov 5
to 9 for a meeting, so he could get it on Putin's calendar.
Do you think you could maybe add in those dates to the original letter and I
could get an original hand signed copy? I was thinking maybe Rachel or Larryor even Olivia could bring it next week to Moscow and I could deliver it(possibly even with Olivia) to his personal secretary.
Rob Goldstone(U) Shugart told the Committee that she understood Goldstone to be discussing meetingwith Dmitry Peskov. Shugart said she took Goldstone' s outreach regarding Peskov seriously
because Goldstone was in close contact with the Agalarovs, and she believed that Aras Agalarov
had that level of access to Putin. 1844
(U) Graff responded to Goldstone' s email, writing, ''Not a bad idea. Let me talk to Mr.
Trump about it and I will get back to you asap." 1845 Later on September 12, Graff replied, "He' llsign it in the morning and I'll let you know Paula when someone can come over to pick itup." 1846 Separately, also on September 12, Goldstone emailed Emin Agalarov, Kaveladze, andBeniaminov. He wrote, " I will have a hand signed letter from Donald Trump to President Putin
asking to meet when he is in Moscow Nov 5 to 9 th . Hopefully we can get this letter to Peskov orsome other person next week in Moscow." 1847
(U) The June 26 and September 13 letters to Putin are similar but not the same. Several
small changes were made to the June 26 letter, including the re-addition of a line regarding

1844(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 84, 87.
Email, Graff to Goldstone and Shugart, September 12, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000033).
1846 (U) Email, Graff to Shugart, September 12, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000031).
1847 (U) Email, Goldstone to E. Agalarov, Kaveladze, and Beniaminov, September 12, 2013 (RB-000093).
1845 (U)279

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Trump making an extended stay in Moscow and an offer for a personal meeting with Trump
separate from the pageant. 1848 Shugart said that while she had asked Trump to write letters toheads of state on behalf of Miss Universe, "an invitation like this had never happened before"
and that this was not typical of other foreign pageants they had done elsewhere. 1849

I
September 13, 2013

President Vladimir Putin
c/o Dmitiri Sergeevich Pc.~kov
Press Secretary of Prcsillcnt Vfadimir Putin
Stnraya Ploshnd 10/4, 3 rd floor, Office 304
l\foscow
R11ssia, 10132
Dear Mr. President:
I hope you hnve hcaril the exciting news that we are bringing the Miss 1J11iverse 2013
Pageant to Uussia for the first time in the 62 year history of the Pagc:mt. As you lmow, it'is
the biggest and important pageant in the world and lias .a tclc,ision audience of over I
billion pco11Ie, making it one of the most watcl1ed 'fV shows worldwitle. It will be a great
tribute to Mo~cow and Russia!

\Ve will be working with Crocus Group and Ams Agalaruv to stage the event on November
9th at Cmcus City Hall. We turned down many compcti11g countries in favor of Russia.

I want to take Ibis opportunity to personally invite you to be my Guest of IIon or at thel~agcant on NoYcli.tber 9. Additionally, I will be arriving in Moscow a few days prior to theevent and if for :my rca.~on you would like. i·o meet with me, it would be my great honor.
I look fonvard to seeing yon.
• • • ttrtdii1c arri&With bcstwishes,

1848
1849

(U) Letter, Trump to Putin, September 13, 2013 (TRUMPORG_18_000033).
(U) Shugart Tr., p. 78, 85.

280

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On September 18, Emin Agalarov wrote to Goldstone, simply stating, "Trumps letteris with Peskov he will pass on to the president." 1850 On September 19, Goldstone emailed Emin
Agalarov, writing that, "According to his [Trump's] office, he is keen to make himself available
at any time to meet President Putin, and if necessary, would fly in earlier on Nov 6th." 1851 Emin
Agalarov told the Committee, '_'Trump was always asking if Putin's coming or not." 1852
(U) Shugart told the Committee that during this time period Trump discussed Putin withher specifically. She recalled, "Donald wanted to meet Putin," and that, "He wanted to makesure we arranged a meeting." 1853 Shugart told the Committee that, "When we would speak in thelead-up to the pageant, he [Trump] wanted to - he just would reiterate his desire to meet Putin,"but he didn't explain why. 1854 Shugart told the Comrnittee that Trump followed up on the Putin
meeting whenever they spoke. She recalled, "that was the reason for a lot of these letters - wewere all trying to ensure that this meeting happened for Donald with Mr. Putin, because that was
the request whenever we spoke about it, whenever we spoke about the pageant and theevent."1sss(U) In addition to the meeting, another topic of focus for pageant organizers and Trump
Organization employees was the guests that Trump wanted to bring to the pageant in Moscow.
On October 10, 2013, Graff wrote an email titled "DT's Guests on Trip to Moscow" to Shugart.
Graff wrote that Trump "was bringing two guests with him other than Keith [Schiller] andMichael [Cohen]). Their names are Alex Sapir and Rotem Rosen." 1856 Additionally, in midOctober there was email correspondence regarding the hotel ~rrangements for Phil Ruffin, aclose friend of Trump, and Ruffin's wife, Oleksandra Nikolayenko. In late October, Graff wrote
to Shugart to notify her that Trump had invited a friend, Joe Cinque, to the pageant, and that
Cinque would need a room at the Ritz Carlton and would be flying home with Trump. 1857
Despite planning for their attendance, neither Michael Cohen nor Cinque ultimately traveled to1850 (U)Email, E. Agalarov to Goldstone, September 18, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000192).
(U) Email, Goldstone to E. Agalarov et al., September 19, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00637).
1852 (U) E. Agalarov Tr., p. 36.
·
1853(U) Shugart Tr., p. 69.
185 4- (U) Shugart Tr., p. 69.
1855~ugartTr., p. 85.
1856
Email, Graff to Shugart, October 10, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000052). Rotem Rosen is linked to Putin
associate Lev Leviev, who re ortedl has ties to or anized crime and a number of Russian oli archs.
1851(U) Email, Shugart to Graff, et al., October 30, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000100); Shugart Tr., pp. 106-109.

281

Moscow. 1858 However, the Ruffins, Alex Sapir, and Rotem Rosen did attend. 0ther information
indicates that a Trump acquaintance, David Geovanis, may have attended the pageant. 1859
(U) On October 18, Goldstone drafted an email that Emin Agalarov planned to send to
Shugart. The draft email to Shugart stated that, "there is still a huge issue we need to resolve.
We have just tabulated our final budget and income and project a shortfall of $8.9 million."
Emin Agalarov and Goldstone sought a reduction in the $6.5 million licensing fee, and believedthat Shugart would take the request to Trump. 1860
(U) By October 18, a meeting with Putin still had not been secured, and.Graff wrote to
Shugart to inform her that Trump would no longer be arriving early in Moscow; but insteadwould arrive the day before the pageant. On October 28, Shugart responded:
Could we speak about Mr. Trump's schedule? Aras Agalarov, Emin '.s father, .
expressed concern that DT would only be in on November 8th. Apparently in Las ·Vegas Mr. Trump told him he would come in a day or two earlier than henormally does. Aras and SperBank [sic] wanted to arrange a b_realfast or lunchwith the business· leaders of Russia with Mr. Trump as the guest of honor. This is· the first time Aras has expressed disappointment about anything. 1861
(U) Securing Trump's attendance at the Sberbank event may have oeen particularly
important to Aras Agalarov given his need for financing from the bank for a major upcoming
construction project. 1862·

(U) Despite the change in travel schedule, Shugart told the Committee that as the
pageant got closer Trump grew more emphatic about the need to secure the meeting with .
Putin. 1863
(U) On October 23, Goldstone sent an email to Emin Agalarov with the subject line
"Putin Trump meeting?" He wrote, "What is the status on a possible meeting between Trump
And Mr Putin? Trump Office is asking." Later that day Emin Agalarov replied, "Roman

1858(U) Shugart Tr., p. 108; Cohen Tr. II, p. 108.
(U) · SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Bob Foresman, January 9, 2019, p. 221; Written Responses,
McFarren, January 18, 2019-. For more on Geovanis, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.I.
·,
1860(U) Email Goldstone to_E. Agalarov, October 18; 2013 (EA-SSCI-00713-714), email Goldstone to E. Agala'rov,
October 18, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00707).
.
1861(U) Email, Shugart to Graff, October 28, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000095):,
1862(U) Alexander Panin, "Sberbank Funds $2.4 Billion Construction at Crocus City;:• The Moscow Times, .
November 19, 2013.
·
1863(U) Shugart Tr., p. 90.
1859

282

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
[Grachev] will find out." 1864 G~achev, the director of Crocus City Hall, was in touch withDmitry Peskov and had been involved in the prior transmittal of the letter from Trump toPutin. 1865 On October 24, Goldstone emailed again, pushing for a response on the meeting. On
Sunday, October 27, Svetlana Bignova, Grachev's deputy, sent an email to Goldstone, Emin
Agalarov, Kaveladze, Grachev, and Beniaminov. She wrote, "Please let them know that on
Tuesday Mr. Putin will make his decision." 1866
(U) Aras Agalarov was personally involved in the effort to secure a meeting. Irakli
Kaveladze recalled that, in approximately October, Aras Agalarov received a call from Dmitry
Peskov, Putin's press secretary. Kaveladze was in Aras Agalarov's office and overheard
Agalarov relay Trump's interest to meet with Putin. Kaveladze believes Peskov told Aras
Agalarov that he would get back to Agalarov. 1867
(U) According to Aras Agalarov, "when I told the Presidential Administration that
Trump was coming, and I told them what kind of event we were hosting, and how it will be se~nby many people all over the world, the Presidential Administration responded that Vladimir
Putin would like to meet Mr. Trump." 1868
(U) In an interview with Aras Agalarov that has only partially been published, Agalarov
was asked why Putin wanted to meet with Trump. Agalarov replied:Well, first of all, I convinced him to. You know the government here often pays
visits to exhibitions, and we have a lot of national exhibitions taking place here.
And I remember once when Putin was visiting one of the exhibition[s], I told himthat we will have Donald Trump here for one of these events and we would havean audience of[ many people]. .. Putin pays attention to events like the Olympic
Games, Formula 1, FIFA World Cup. He is interested in global events, and ofcourse he was interested in this event. He thought he should meet this person who
brought this global event to Russia. That was the main reason. 1869
(U) In late October 2013, Aras Agalatov was scheduled to receive the Order of Honor,
one of the highest civilian awards in Russia, from President Putin. In an,October 28 email to

1864(U) Emails, Goldstone and E. Agalarov, October 23, 2013 (Beniaminov Production).
(U) Beniaminov Tr., p. 100.
1866 (U) Email, Bignova to Goldstone, E. Agalarov, et al., October 27, 2013 (Beniaminov Production).
1867(U) FBI, FD-302, Kaveladze 11/16/2017.
1868(U) Agalarov Washington Post Tr.
1869 (U) Ibid.
1865

283

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Graff, Shugart noted that "Aras is being awarded some sort of Medal of Freedom by Putin at the
Kremlin tomorrow and he is hoping to set a meeting with Mr. Trump." 1870
(U) On October 29, 2013, Shugart, who was in Moscow, 1871 emailed Graff a series ofphotos of Aras Agalarov receiving the award from Putin. She wrote, "This was just sent to me.
They were discussing DJT while this was happening. Stay tuned." 1872 Later that day Graff
responded, "Well, I think if this is a serious and substantial offer to meet Putin, DJT would
reconsider his travel plans. Let's talk when you know more." 1873 Shugart,replied, "I'll know
more in the morning but it sounds serious. I told my contact it would be major reshuffling and it
would need to be worth it. Did you give him [Donald Trump] a heads up?" Graff responded she
had. 1874 The following day, October 30, Graff wrote to Shugart, "Any news on Putin?" 1875
Shugart replied, "No but at least I made Emin aware of the situation tonight at the event. We arefollowing up in the AM. He said the meeting is definitely happening, he just isn't sure if Putin
wants 7th , 8th or 9th • He was told 7th but hasn't received confirmation on information." 1876
(U) On October 30, 2013, Roman Beniaminov and Goldstone, who both work for Emin
Agalarov, exchanged an email titled "To do." The text of the email consists of a list of tasks,
primarily related to Emin Agalarov. One item on the list was simply: "Trump-Putin." 1877
(U) Shugart recalled, she "knew there was a desire" to meet with Putin and "they all feltthat they were going to be able to make it happen." 1878 Shugart said she was working on
arranging the meeting on a daily basis and that "every time I spoke to him [Trump] leading up to
the pageant, he wanted to know if it was set." I 879

1870(U) ~mail, Shugart to Graff, October 28, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000095).
(U) Several weeks prior to the pageant, staff working to organize the event, including Shugart and Goldstone,
relocated to Moscow. Goldstone told the Committee, "I arrived in Moscow approximately three weeks before theevent, and that was timed to coincide with when the main part of the final logistics took place, and including when
the contestants arrived." According to Goldstone, those who arrived early primarily stayed at the Crown Plaza in
Moscow, then moved to the Ritz Carlton shortly before the pageant. Goldstone Tr., pp. 73-74.
1872(U) Email, Shugart to Graff, October 29, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000081).
1873(U) Email, Graff to Shugart, October 29, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000081).
1874(U) Email, Graff to Shugart, October 30, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000072-73). Shugart told the Committee that she
believed that her "contact" in this case was Irakli Kaveladze. Shugart Tr., p. 102.
1875
(U) Email, Graff to Shugart, October 30, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000092).
1876(U) Email, Shugart to Graff, October 30, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000078; Shugart Tr., p. 110.
1877(U) Email, Beniaminov to Goldsone, October 30, 2013 (RB001988).
1878(U) Shugart told the Committee that she believed Emin Agalarov had told her that the meeting was definitely
happening. Shugart Tr., p. 109-110.
1879(U) Shugart Tr., p. 111. Rhona Graff stated that she did not recall communications regarding Peskov or ameeting with Putin in Moscow. SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Rhona Graff, February 16, 2018, pp. 100105.
1871

284

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Kaveladze has said that a few days before the pageant, Kaveladze was in Aras
Agalarov's office and Agalarov mentioned that he.was trying to invite President Vladimir Putin
to the pageant. 1880
(U) Ultimately, a date for meeting with Putin prior to the pageant was not secured, andTrump did not arrive in Moscow early. 1881 Putin attending the pageant on short notice appeared
unlikely, however the question of whether there would be a meeting with Putin while Trump wasin Moscow remained unresolved. 1882

iv.

(U) The Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow(U) On October 31, 2013, the Crocus Group and the Miss Univei:se Organization hosted
a charity auction . 1883 The .initial guest list for the event, which includes individuals with ties tothe highest levels of the Russian government, military, intelligence services, organized crime,
Russian banks, and Russian energy companies, among others, offers some insight into theAgalarovs' social and professional network in Moscow. Some of the individuals on the
Agalarovs' guest list have participated in Russian influence operations targeting the UnitedStates and its allies, some have significant connections to the Russian intelligence services, andsome are currently sanctioned by the United States. 1884

(U) On Thursday, November 7, Donald Trump was scheduled to attend Billy ·Graham's,
birthday in North Carolina with Melania Trump. At 9:00 p.m. on November 7, Donald Trump

1880(U) FBI, FD-302, Kaveladze 11/16/2017.
(U) Shugart Tr., p. 97.
1882(U) .Shugart Tr., pp. 169-170; Beniaminov Tr., pp. 102-104.
18 ~3 (U) Email, Goldstone to Shugart, et al., September 11, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000021). A letter from Roman
Beniaminov's counsel indicates that the charity event took place "that weekend," indicating that it was the same
weekend as the pageant. This is consistent with Rob Goldstone's interest, expressed over email, in scheduling thecharity event while Donald Trump was in Moscow. Nevertheless, publicly available documents indicate that theauction took place on October 31, 2013. ;Letter, Yi to SSCI, March 14, 2019.
1884(U) The initial invite list obtained by the Committee is not a final list, nor does it necessarily reflect who
ultimately attended. Nevertheless, it is informative as preliminary reflection of the Agalarov's network. The list
included Dmitry Medvedev, Sergey Shoygu, Sergei Stepashin, Vladislav Surkov, Vladimir Kozhin, Petr Aven,
Vagit Alekperov, Valentina Matviyenko, Polina Deripaska, Vladimir Y akunin, Roman Abramovich, Vyacheslav
Lebedev, Vasily Titov, Mikhail Mishustin, Igor Shuvalov, Arkady Dvorkovich, Kirill Androsov, Boris Gromov,
Herman Gref, and others. Also on the Agalarov's invite list was Anatoly Kucherena, the Russian lawyer with
reported links to the FSB who was representing Edward Snowden. Invitation, Crocus charity auction, (RB0026712680). Snowden arrived in Moscow in July 2013, several months prior to the Miss Universe pageant being hosted
there. Emin Agalarov told the Committee that he knows Kucherena and has been friends with Polina Deripaska ·since the early 2000s. E. Agalarov Tr., pp. 73, 69. Steven Lee Myers, "Snowden's Lawyer Comes with High
Profiie and Kremlin Ties," The New York Times, July 27, 2013.
·
1881

a

285

and Keith Schiller were scheduled to board the private airplane of Phil Ruffin. 1885 Flight records
indicate that the flight departed at 9:15 p.m. for Moscow. 1886

a. (U) Friday, November 8(U) Trump's flight from North Carolina was scheduled to arrive at Moscow's Vnukovo
Airport at 2:45 p.m. on November 8. 1887
(U) Schiller and Trump were scheduled to be met at the airport in Moscow by Nelson
Feliciano, the head of security for the Miss Universe Organization. 1888 Trump was scheduled tobe picked up by two cars, an armored Mercedes S550 for Trump and Schiller, and a second carthat would include Feliciano and members ofEmin Agalarov's security team. The cars were to
be accompanied by a Russian police escort to the Ritz Carlton hotel. 1889 Shugart recalled that thepolice escort was provided by local authorities, and that Trump's driver in Moscow was hired by
the Agalarovs specifically for the Miss Universe event. 1890 Roman Beniaminov told theCommittee that he was "aware of people who work with Emin serving in the military and havesome special training in the military" and that several private security firms were involved in the
pageant in Moscow. 1891·

1885

(U) Ruffin and his wife likely flew to Moscow for the pageant on a separate aircraft. (U) Email, Graff toShugart, et al., November 7, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000139-142).
.
1886(U) Vernon Silver, "Flight Records Illuminate Mystery of Trump's Moscow Nights," Bloomberg Government,
April 23, 2018.
1887(U) Email, Graff to Shugart, et al., November 7, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000139-141). Shugart told the Committeethat Trump "arrived early in the morning on Friday the 8th" and estimated that the flight arrive·d around 7:00 a.m.
This is not consistent with other information obtained by the Committee. The Committee was not able to reconcile
this discrepancy. Shugart Tr., pp.137-138;
1888(U) Ibid Multiple people interviewed by the Committee expressed some concern about Feliciano. In 2015,
Goldstone recommended in an email that Feliciano not be hired for a job because "MUO let him go for some shadyactivity." Text message, Goldstone to Beniaminov, November 2, 2015 (RBOOl 148). Beniaminov told theCommittee, "I'm aware of him being eventually let go from the Miss Universe Organization for something that hadgone on internally." Beniaminov Tr., p. 143. Shugart said that Feliciano had been on bad terms with Schiller
following the pageant and "had been charged with something, some sort of credit card sting," prior to the pageant.
Shugart contended that Feliciano had not left the organization on bad terms. Shugart Tr., p. 122-123.
1889(U) Email, Feliciano to Bignova, Shugart, et al., November 7, 2013 (Beniaminov Production).
1890(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 128-134·:.
1891(U) Beniaminov recalled that one of the private security firms involved in the pageant was called Karat. In
addition, the Crocus.Group had its own security, which was provided by a different private security firm. There wasconsideration ofEmin Agalarov's security team also providing security for Trump; however, the second unidentified
private security firm was ultimately brought in for this purpose. Beniaminov Tr., pp. 136-140.

286

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On November 7, Emin Agalarov directed Beniaminov to work with Agalarov's headof security to confirm Trump's security guard. 1892 Shugart recalled that the Agalarovs designatedthe security guard. Shugart said that because Trump was not there long, Trump "had a police
escort and I know a car and driver .... there were a couple of people that were there. I just don't
know who they were, but they were definitely local." 1893
(U) Schiller told the Committee he did not recall who picked them up at the airport, or
who drove them, or what vehicle they were in, or where they went. He also did not recall doing
any vetting of the transportation entities or arrangements for Donald Trump, or having any
communication with the Agalarov's organization to coordinate. 1894

(U) According to Graffs itinerary, Trump was scheduled to arrive at the Ritz Carlton
hotel at 4:00 p.m. According to the itinerary, Trump was scheduled to do a short interview witha television host, A.J. Calloway, at the Ritz Carlton at 5: 10 p.m. 1895 Publicly available
information indicates that the interview with Calloway took place, though the timing is notclear. 1896
(U) Trump was scheduled to depart the hotel at 5:15 p.m. for an event at Nobu, arestaurant, that was hosted by Aras Agalarov and Russia's largest bank, the state-owned
Sberbank, from 5 :30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. 1897 This included a 20-minute quest"ion and answer andmeet and greet, followed by an optional private dinner. 1898 According to Goldstone, who
attended, Trump was the focus of the event, which had been organized for approximately 20
prominent Russian business and banking leaders. According to Emin Agalarov, the event wasfor "Sberbank top partners and clients." Neither Emin Agalarov nor Goldstqne recalled the1892 (U)Email, E. Agalarov to Beniaminov, Bignova, and Goldstone, November 7, 2013 (Beniaminov Production);see also E. Agalarov Tr., p. 29.
1893(U) Shugart Tr., p. 127.
1894
(U) Schiller Tr., p. 62, 6~8.
1895 (U) Email, Graff to Shugart, et al. including Trump's ittinerary, November 7, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000139-141) ("Iftime is tight, will do [the Calloway interview] on return from Nobu.").
1896 (U) "'Extra' Interviews Donald Trump About Miss Universe in Moscow," Kxtra, archival footage posted
January 11, 2017. Goldstone told the Committee that Trump came directly from the airport to Nobu, but thereliability of this recollection was unclear. Goldstone Tr., p. 83.
1897 (U) Email, Graff to Shugart, et al., November 7, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000139-141). The identities of almost all of
the attendees at the Nobu event continue to be unknown, and as many as 35 people may have attended. Email, E.
Agalarov to Goldstone, et al., October 29, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00746). Sergey Gorkov, a graduate of Russia's FSB
Academy, was a senior Sberbank official at the time of the event.
1898 (U) Ibid287

names of any of the attendees other than the head of Sberbank, Herman Gref. 1899 Gref has
significant ties to Putin.

-(U) Following the pageant, Trump wrote to Gref: 1902

1899

(U) E. Agalarov, Tr., pp. 17-18. Goldstone told the Committee that the Agalarovs hired a translator for Trump.
According to Goldstone the translator was generally present at the Nobu event and the same translator was used forthe duration of the tri . Goldstone Tr.
. 85-93.
1900
1901
1902

at the Agalarovs's Crocus City complex in Moscow. It was reportedly the largest real estate loan in the history of
Sberbank. See Alexander Panin, "Sberbank Funds $2.4 Billion Construction at Crocus City," The Moscow Times,
November 19, 2013.

288

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

'ovcmbcr 11, 2013

Mr. Herman Gref
Chairman and CEO
SBERBANK
19 Vavilova Str.,
117997 Moscow, Russia
Dear Herman,

It was wonderful being with you in Moscow -- 1 hope you enjoyed yourself as muchas l did.

You have done an absolutely fantastic job and l look forward to seeing SBERBANKin the number one position (not easy) in the not too distant future.
Whenever you a rc in
dinner.

ew York, please feel free to caU and we will have lunch orWith best wishes,

PS - Mr. Agalarov is wonderful man and developer.

289

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Goldstone told the Committee that the Nobu event lasted 30 to 45 minutes. 1903
Goldstone did not recall additional substantive information about the meeting. 1904

(U) Trump may have gone to the hotel following the Nobu event. 1905 At 9:30 p.m. on
November 8, Trump was scheduled to depart for Crocus City Hall, where the Miss Universe
rehearsal had been taking place from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. 1906
(U) Shugart recalled Emin Agalarov showing Trump around the Crocus City complex on
Friday, November 8. 1907 Shugart also recalled that there was a meeting where the building of a
Trump Tower in Moscow was briefly discussed. She recalled:

It was an impromptu meeting with Emin, which is the only time I heard a Trump-- rower Moscow being discussed. It was [Friday], because Emin had shown hiswhole Crocus City Complex. Emin had a plan to call it - to do part of thatcomplex and call it 'Manhattan. ' So that's when I remember them saying: 'Oh,
and a Trump Tower for Manhattan would be good. '1908
Shugart further recalled: "I want to say that [meeting] was during rehearsal [on Friday], when hemet- right after he met the contestants." Shugart said that Phil Ruffin joined the meeting but
Aras Agalarov did not. 1909

1903
(U) Shugart, who was in Moscow but not at the event, told the Committee that the event lasted ''about twohours." When asked what gave her-that impression, she responded: "Rob, just judging from the schedule andhearing when I would check in to'hear how they were doing. Donald said it was a few hours, but I think it wasprobably about two. And just I think I kept track of the schedule." Shugart Tr., p. 142.
1904
(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 91-92 ("somebody asked Mr. Trump for his comments on the European debt crisis andespecially as it related to the Greek bailout. Mr. Trump said: 'Have any of you ever watched The Apprentice? It's a
TV show I created with Mark Burnett, and it's a major money-spinner for NBC. And let me tell you how it's amajor money~spinner and how it works and what it's about, and how amazing it is, and it has a prime viewership on
a Sunday night in America.' And he then said: 'Thank you very much for inviting me. Your economy's doing
great, you're all doing great.' And he stood up and got a standing ovation for that answer. And that is what I recallof that meeting primarily."). Schiller claimed he had no recollection of the event at Nobu. Schiller Tr., p. 73.
1905(U) Goldstone told the Committee: "Our suggestion was that after Nobu he [Trump] went to the hotel, checked
in, and got ready. That was our suggestion to him, and we had cars and drivers to take him and Keith there; and to
the-best ofmy knowledge, he went there." Goldstone's recollection is inconsistent with Trump's itinerary. The
Committee was not able to reconcile this discrepancy. Goldstone Tr., p. 97.
1905(U) Email, Graff to Shugart, et al., November 7, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000139-141).
1907(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 163-164.
190s (U) Ibid.
1909(U) Shugart told the Committee that she did not see Trump on Saturday until he was backstage because she wasvery busy with the pageant preparations, so she believed she wouldn't have recalled a.meeting ifit happened on
Saturday. Shugart Tr., p. 164.

290

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Trump wrote a letter to Phil Ruffin following the pageant that referenced " making
the rounds of the city" but the timing of that activity is unclear: 19 10

November 13, 2013

Dear Phil:

It was great spending time with you in Moscow and making the rounds of the city in thehopes of the purchase or development of a project.
lf we decide to go fon vard, which I hope we will, I have no doubt it will be a wonderful
success. Personally, I like the concept of a residential tower but perhaps a mixed use
building would be best
Let's sec how it all turns out - it is important that we make a good decision!
With best wishes,(U) The night before the pageant, Trump was scheduled to attend Aras Agalarov's
birthday party at 10:00 p.m. 1911 All 86 Miss Universe contestants were also scheduled to1910 (U)Letter, Trump to Ruffin, November 13, 2013 (TRUMPORG_l 8_000012). On December 4, 2013, Trump
again wrote to Ruffin, thanking Ruffin for allowing Trump to use Ruffin's airplane to travel to the pageant in
Moscow. Letter, Trump to Ruffin, December 4, 2013 (TRUMPORG_l8_000013).
1911 (U) Shugart Tr., pp. 144-146 ("He [Trump] came to the rehearsal. There was a rehearsal going the day before.
He came out for that at one point, and then he stayed out there, because Aras was having his birthday party and Aras
had actually moved his birthday party out there, so people wouldn't have to come back in town and Donald wouldn ' thave to come back in for the traffic.").

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

attend. 1912 The event was held at Zafferano, a restaurant in the Crocus complex, and wasattended by several hundred people. 1913 · Shugart, who went to the party, was told that the"Russian elite" were in attendance, along with the contestants and many of Aras Agalarov's
friends and family members. 1914

(U) Shugart recalled that she stayed with Trump for most of the party, and that she wasthere for "a few hours." Shugart recalled that she left the party around midnight and that Trump
and Schiller were still there. 1916 Goldstone estimated that, "the earliest he [Trump] would haveleft is probably 1:00 a.m.; maybe a little after that. Then you've got this 40-minute or so drive
back into the center ofMoscow." 1917 Goldstone recalled that he remained at the party until
Trump and Schiller left to return to the hotel, again with a police escort and security. 1918 Emin
Agalarov told the Committee that he stayed at the party and did not return to the hotel with
Trump and Schiller. 1919 Several items on the hotel room bill may indicate additional social
activity following the birthday party. 1920
(U) According to documents produced by Ritz Carlton Moscow, Trump was initiallybooked in the Presidential Suite, but that reservation was later canceled, and Trump was moved'

1912(U) Email, Graff to Shugart, et al., November 7, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000139-141).
(U) Goldstone estimated 500 or more. Goldstone Tr., p. 95. Kaveladze estimated 200. Kaveladze Tr., p. 26.
Shugart estimated 200. Shugart Tr., p. 144. Beniaminov said "a few hundred." Beniaminov Tr., p. 157.
1914
Shu art Tr. . 148.
1915
For more on the relationship between Manafort and
Akhmetoy, see irifra Vo. 5, Sec. III.A.
1916(U) Shugart Tr., p. 151. Kaveladze, who attended, estimated that he left at midnight, and that the party was stillgoing. Kaveladze Tr., p. 26. Schiller said he did not recall attending a birthday party. Schiller Tr., pp. 73.
1917(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 103.
1918
(U) Ibid, pp. 102-103.
1919(U) E. Agalarov Tr., p. 26.
1920(U) Invoice, Ritz Carlton Moscow, November 10, 2013 (RC-Moscow 053). The Ritz Carlton Moscow charged
Trump's room approximately $720 at the 02 Lounge, which is on the roofofthe hotel, possibly early in themorning ofNovember 9. Separately, the room was also charged approximately $306 for shisha, which is offered at
the 02 Lounge, also possibly early in the morning ofNovember 9. There were also approximately $146 in charges
to the in-room bar, the timing of which are unclear. Other charges include meals at restaurants and room service.
1913

292

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYto a differentroom, a Ca~lton Suite. 1921 Despite Trump's scheduled arrival on November 8 being
knpwn significantly in advance, his room was reserved, and paid for, for an additional two nights
prior to arrival, starting on November 6. 1922 The Committee was not able to determine why thisadvance reservation took place. 1923
(U) On November 7, Feliciano emailed to Svetlana Bignova, Paula Shugart' and others,
stating that, "Keith has also requested a person to stand in front of room when Trump is in therooms I will work on that and hope to have someone provide." 1924 Witnesses the Committee
spoke with did not have any knowledge of this taking place. Schiller told the Committee that;usually, after Trump was in his room, Schiller "would stand out there maybe for a little bit" andthen go to his room, and that was what happened in Moscow. 1925
(U) Schiller told the Committee that, generally, the preference when traveling was for
Schiller to have the room next to Trump, however that was not always possible ..1926 On Friday,
November 8, Goldstone emailed a Crocus employee named Katia Kosenkova to inform her that"[i]t appears Trump needed a second room for his head of security Keith" but that room had notbeen previously booked. Goldstone wrote that, "they got a Second room but Emin says for you
to handle the Charge [sic]." 1927 . It is not clear which room Schiller stayed in.
(U) · On the way to Trump's room, possibly on the. evening of N oveinber 8, Schiller
recalled telling Trump that Schiller had been approached at a meeting earlier in the day by a man
who offered to send five women to Trump and Schiller.'s rooms. 1928 Schiller recalled:

1921(U) Email, Zaitseva to Kuhlen, et al., January 11, 2017 (RC-Moscow 012) (reflecting Trump's stay in a
"Carlton Suite," room #727).
1922(U) Email, Sukhanova to Kuhlen, et al., January 11, 2017 (RC-Moscow 011) (stating the room was reserved andpaid for by a Russian company, Academservice). Invoice, Ritz Carlton Moscow (RC-Moscow 001). Records from ·the Ritz Carlton Moscow indicate that, despite the room being booked start,ing on November 6, the hotel was awarethat the guest would not arrive until two days later. Document titled "VIPs of the we;:ekend," Ritz Carlton Moscow(RC-Moscow 032). Goldstone told the Committee that Svetlana Bignova, who works for the Agalarovs, wasresponsible for arranging the hotel. Goldstone Tr., p. 79. Ultimately, Trump was in Moscow for two nights,
November 8 and November 9, departir~g in the early morning hours ofNovember JO.
1923(U) Schiller told the Committee he did not know who.reserved the hotel rooms, and did not recall being
involved in reviewing the hotel selection: Schiller did not recall taking any security precautions regarding Trump's
room other than looking to see that there was no one else in it. Schiller told.the Committe.e he did not recall how
many nights they were in Russia, or what hotel they stayed at. Schiller Tr., pp. 70, 72-73, 85, 98.
1924(U) Email, Feliciano to Bignova, Shugart, et al.,November 7, 2013 (Beniarrtinov Production).
1925(U) Schiller Tr., p. 84, 90.
1926(U) Schiller Tr., p. 24.
1927(U) Email, Goldstone to Kosenkova and Beniaminov, November 8, 2013 (Beniaminov Production).
1928(U) Schiller Tr., pp. 85-90.

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

·1 told him [Trump] that later on that evening. . . . We just laughed. I thought it
was as a joke. I told him as we were walking to the room. 'I said: One of theseclowns, or something to that effect, made this proposal and I thought it was funny.
And he [Trump] just laughed, and that .was the end of it. 1929/

(U) It is not clear, based on Schiller's recollection, where or when the offer was made, orby whom. Schiller told the Committee that the offer was not made by either of the Agalarovs,
who were the only people in the i:oom that Schiller recognized. The man who approached,
Schiller was wearing a suit and tie, and made the offer in English. 1930 Schiller recalled that theman who made the offer was one of the people in a meeting, and that "[t]here was a bunch of .
people in suits and ties talking," sitting around a ' 1large table," and there were "restaurant-type"
people serving hors d'oeuvres. 1931 Schiller recalled Emin and Aras Agalarov being at themeeting, and Schiller referred to it as a business-related meeting. 1932, Schiller believed that there
may have been Europeans and Russians present at the meeting, but that Engllsh was being
spoken. 1933 According to Schiller, the offer was not made in front ofa group, but there wereother people in the room. 19.34(U) Regarding the offer, Schiller told the Committee, "I don't know if it was a joke, but
I took it as ajoke." 1935 Nevertheless, Schiller also told the Committee, "I took it serious and I
made it very clear: Don't even try that, don't even attempt, and it's not happening. I put an end
to it immediately." 1936 Schiller said, "I would remember if that happened. I don't recall. I knowthat didn't happen." When asked how he knew nothing happened, Schiller told the Committee, ·"Because, well, while I was with him I know it wouldn't happen, because he would nevertol~rate that; and I would never allow it as well, not on my watch. So I know; it just wouldn't
happen. It's never happened." 1937·

1929 (U)

Ibid

1930

(U) Schiller Tr., pp. 99-100. •1931(U) Ibid, pp. 86, 80, 78.
1932(U) Ibid, p. 78.
1933(U) Ibid, p. 100.
1934(U) Ibid, p. 87. Schiller told the Committee that he·was standing at the time of the offer and had the sense thatthe man who made the offer may have been lower-level in seniority. Schiller said that the offer may have takenplace at the hotel, however he did not have a clear rec\)llection of the timing or location of the offer. Ibid, pp. 80,
100. Schiller's description of the meeting at which the offer took place may be generally consistent with the
Sberbank event earlier on Friday, November 8, which took place at Nobu. Goldstone recalled that the Sberbank
meeting took place initially standing, and then seated at a large dining table, which "almost looked like a conferencetable," with Russian business leaders, Emin and Aras Agalarov, and drinks and food. Goldstone Tr., pp. 89-90.
1935(U) Schiller Tr., p. 100.
1936(U) Ibid, p. 86.
1937(U) Ibid, p. 85. Cohen has testified that, "Keith is the ultimate protector, and he was his [Trump's] bodyguard,
his attache for many, many years. And he was the keeper of Mr. Trump's secrets. So, for example, ifhe was going

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

b. (U) Saturday, November 9, 2013
(U) On Saturday, November 9, at 11:00 a.m., Trump was scheduled to participate infilming a music video with Emin Agalarov at the Ritz Carlton Moscow. 1938 Roman Beniaminovrecalled that after Trump arrived to film the video he briefly greeted people in the room, thenwas given a microphone and makeup. Beniaminov told the Committee, "I remember him[Trump] sitting down at a conference table ... a couple takes. It didn't take long at all, and thenhe departed .... It was all very quick and mechanical almost." 1939 Emin Agalarov has said that
Trump was only present at the music video filming for 1Ominutes. 1940
(U) At 12:00 p.m. Trump was scheduled to depart for a press conference at Crocus City
Hall that was taking place at 12:30 p.m. 1941 According to Shugart, following the press
conference Trump did an interview with Thomas Roberts of MSNBC, who was a host for the
pageant. 1942.
(U) Between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., Trump's schedule included "Full Dress
Rehearsal" and "Return to Hotel" without specific times. 1943 . Shugart recalled that Trump did
return to the hotel mid-day. 1944 The next event on the itinerary was not until 7:30 p.m., when
Trump was scheduled to depart the hotel for the pageant.
(U) There are several events that may have taken place during this unscheduled time.
Kaveladze told the Committee that Trump visited Agalarov Estate. 1945 Emin Agalarov did notrecall if Trump visited Agalarov Estate. Agalarov said that Kaveladze would have been the one

to text a female, he would have Keith do it on his phone." Cohen has also testified that he has seen Schiller lie for
Trump. HPSCI Transcript of the Interview with Michael Cohen, Part 2, March 6, 2019, p. 236.
1938
(U) Email, Graff to Shugart et al, November 7,2013 (PS-SEN-0000139-141). The video filming was originallyscheduled for 11 :30 a.m., and Emin Agalarov asked that it be moved later. Email, E. Agalarov to Goldstone,
November 6, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00794). Shugart told the Committee that the video may have been filmed at 10:00
a.m., but that she wouldn't have scheduled it early in the morning because she was being protective of Trump's
schedule. Shugart Tr., p. 154.
1939·(U) Beniaminov Tr., p. 167-168. Regarding the music video, Emin Agalarov has said, "He [Trump] really did
me a favor by being in the video. You know he Tweeted out 'check out Emin's amazing new video and song andtrack,' which is cool. I think that's the support you cannot buy. Only through a relationship." Agalarov Washington
Post Tr.
1940(U) Agalarov Washington Post Tr. Schiller told the Committee he had no recollection of a music video being ·filmed; Schiller Tr., p. 76.
1941(U) Tweet,@ARTEM_KLYUSHIN, November 9, 2013.
1942(U) Shugart Tr., p. 155; Tweet, @AlferovaYulyaE, November 9, 2013.
1943(U) Email, Graff to Shugart, et al., November 7, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000139-141).
1944(U) Shugart Tr., p. 162.
1945
(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 31.

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
to arrange it, and that Aras Agalarov would have wanted to show Trump the property. Emin
Agalarov told the Committee that he had been busy preparing for the pageant concert, and may
have skipped the visit. 1946 Scenes from Emin Agalarov's music video were filmed at Agalarov
Estate, however the music video scenes that feature Trump appear to have been filmed at thehotel. 1947
(U) On November 9, 2013, Trump wrote on Twitter that he had received "a great tour of
Moscow." 1948 Goldstone told the Committee that in the afternoon Emin Agalarov had shown
Trump around Crocus, and that Trump had "gone on this little drive around the property." 1949
Goldstone stated that, "Emin wanted to show him [Trump] some of the Crocus structure andparts, and that was it. He [Emin] said he would do that before the press conference." 1950
Goldstone told the Committee that Emin showed Trump "some of the new developments ... atthat point they were talking about this idea of possibly a Trump Tower. He [Emin] showed him[Trump] where that might be built." 1951 Emin Agalarov told the Committee that he did not recall
taking Trump on a tour or doing any sightseeing however he did recall pointing out parts of thecity surrounding Trump's hotel. 1952

(U) By November 9, 2013, joint business discussions· appeared to be moving forward.
RT, the Russian-government sponsored news outlet, quoted Trump as saying, "I have plans forthe establishment of business in Russia. Now, I am in talks with several Russian companies toestablish this skyscraper." 1953 The same RT story quoted Aras Agalarov telling the RussianNews Agency !TAR-TASS, "We started talking about joint work in the field ofreal estate a few
days ago." 1954
(U) Separately, the issue of a Trump-Putin meeting remained unresolved. Goldstone told
the Committee that the unscheduled time on the afternoon of Saturday, November 9, was

1946(U) E. Agalarov Tr., pp. 30-31. Aras Agalarov may have indicated that he showed Trump around Moscow.
See Evgenia Pismennaya, et al., "The Day Trump Came to Moscow: Oligarchs, Miss Universe and Nobu,"
Bloomberg Government, December 21, 2016.
1947(U) Beniaminov Tr., pp. 160-161, 165.
1948
(U) Tweet, @RealDonaldTrump, November 9, 2013. Emin Agalarov has said that although Trump's
movement and destination would typically need to be provided to "his security staff," Trump told his security detail,"don't bother them [the Agalarovs]. I [am] going wherever I'm going with them. I trust them." Agalarov
Washington Post Tr.
1949(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 132.
1950
(U) Ibid, p. 119.
1951
(U) Ibid, pp. 132-133. It is not clear if these real estate-related events on Saturday are the same as, or are
different than, the real estate-related events on Friday that were recalled by Shugart.
·
1952(U) E. Agalarov Tr., pp. 23-24.
1953(U) ~•us 'Miss Universe' billionaire plans Russian Trump Tower," RT, November 9, 2013.
1954(U) Ibid296

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
intentionally left open on Trump's itinerary in the event that the meeting with Putin was acceptedat the last minute.
(U) Goldstone recalled:{W]e allowed a period of time on the [day of the pageant] around 4:00 p.m., 3:00
or 4:00 p.m. We didn't fill it with anything, just in case there was a meeting, ·maybe there was a call, maybe there was something. We left a little bit of time sothat if it did happen he would be able to react. . . . Me personally, I asked on
numerous occasions to Emin: Is there going to be a call, is there going to be ameeting? We have to know. The schedule's very, very tight. And the answer wasalways: We'll hear from my dad, we'll hear from the Kremlin. 1955
(U) Goldstone continued:

The most likely time looked to be around 4:00. What in fact happened was at
about that time that's when this- that's when a call took place .. '.. So we weretold that there was a call. We were called into a room a bit like this, a conference
room, and Emin said: You know, my dad's going to getthe answer, is there going
to be ia meeting, is there not going to be a meeting. Mr .. Trump was there, Paula;
myself, Aras, Emin. I'm-not sure who else, probably Keith. Aras took a_call ...
[which was translated] through Emin. He's saying that the call isfroni a man
named Dimitry Peskov, who is the spokesperson, who has a message that saysthat PresidentPutin is very sorry, but because the King of Holland has been
delayed on an official visit to the Kremlin,,he 's unable to make time to receive
Mr. Trump. He wishes him well, and he says that he'd like to invite him on his
next visit to meet with him, whenever or wherever that should be within Russia.
And he actually said to him that, ifhe could, he'd like to invite him to the Sochi
Winter Olympics.' If not, at the next possible time that Mr. Trump might be in
Russia he would do everything he could to meet with him. And that was it. We
knew at that point there was no meeting, no call going to take place, and ihat was
the call that determined that. 1956
(U) Regarding the call, Goldstone was uncertain but told the Committee, "Aras may
have passed over the phone briefly to Mr. Trump to say 'thank you, hello, and thank_you.' But if,. he did, it was literally a 'hello and thank you.' It's in my mind that that may have happened, but

1955
1956

(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 111-112.
(U) Ibid.,. pp. 120-121.

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the bulk of it was Aras and Peskov." 1957 Goldstone believed the call took place before a press
conference that Trump participated in later that day. 1958
(U) At 7:30 p.m., Trump was scheduled to depart to Crocus City Hall for the Miss
Universe pageant. The red carpet prior to the pageant was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. 1959 Alex
Sapir and Rotem Rosen may have ridden with Trump and Schiller to the event. 1960 Additionally,
at some point on the evening of June 9, likely after the pageant, Trump signed a plaque in the
shape of a star for Aras Agalarov and Emin Agalarov. 1961

(U) Shugart recalled Trump being backstage at approximately 9 p.m. 1962 According toTrump's itinerary, from 10 p.m. to midnight the Miss Universe live show was scheduled to takeplace. Trump sat next to Aras Agalarov, and Agalarov social media manager Artem Klyushin
and his then-wife sat behind them. 1963
(U) Although Putin did not attend the pageant, he reportedly sent a senior Kremlin
official, Vladimir Kozh1n, in his place. 1964 Kozhin may have already had a connection to Aras
Agalarov. 1965·

1957

(U) Ibid, pp. 123-124.
(U) Ibid, p. 121.
1959
(U) Email, Graff to Shugart, et al., November 7, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000142).
1960(U) Email, Rosen to I. Trump, Macchia, and Sapir, January 11, 2017 (TRUMPORG_l6_000004). On January
11, 2017, Alex Sapir and Rotem Rosen wrote a message to Trump rejecting any allegation of impropriety by Trump
during the 2013 weekend in Moscow. In the message, they claimed to-have been with Trump throughout his stay,including riding with him to the pageant. Although both men attended at least some of the events in Moscow, therecollections of a number of people who spent significant time with Trump during the trip were not consistent withsome of Sapir and Rosen's assertions. See, e.g., Shugart Tr., pp. 160-161, i'36 (stating she did not recognize either
man and they would not have fit in Trump's car); Schiller Tr., pp. 96--97 (stating he had no recollection of either
man at the events or in the car); Goldstone Tr., p. 288 (stating he had no recollection of either man).
1961(U) Email, Agalarov to Parado, cc Gorokhova, January 29, 2017 (EA-SSCI-02078). The star was for a Crocus
version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Vegas Mall. Goldstone Tr., p. 132.
1962
(U) Shugart Tr., p. 159.
1963
(U) Instagram, artem_klyushin, November 9, 2013; Tweet, @AlferovaYulya, November 10, 2013.
1964(U) Michael Stott and Catherine Belton, "Trump's Russian Connections," Financial Times, December 13, 2016.
1965(U) Invitation, Crocus charity auction, (RB002671-2680); Andrew Roth, "The man who drives Trump's Russia
connection," The Washington Post, July 22, 2017; Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via the
Associated Press, September 6, 2012.
1958

298

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Shugart told the Committee, "While we were there at the pageant, he [Trump] had
told me-it might have been right afterwards, but I think it came up at the pageant-that if
anyone asked, for me to allude to the fact that Putin had been there; and that he said that no one
would know because he could have come in when the lights went down for the show." 1967

(U) The pageant was followed by a press event, coronation ball, and an after party at
Crocus Expo Hall 16 from midnight to 3 :00 a.m. 1968 Goldstone told the Committee, "It was avery fluid thing. If Trump wanted to [go to the party]. We knew he had to leave that night to beback in the States, and nobody knew exactly when he was going to leave. I had asked a numberof times to Paula and·to Keith. Nobody knew exactly when. But then he said he would go to theafter-party." 1969
(U) Shugart recalled that Trump had a press conference following the pageant andarrived at the after-party around 12:30 a.m. 1970 Goldstone recalled that Trump was seated in a
VIP enclave but that there were lots of people around. Shugart told the Committee that there
were approximately 200 people in the VIP area. 1971
(U) Goldstone said that Trump appeared to be having a good time, and stayed later thanthey had planned, leaving around 3 :00 a.m. 1972 Goldstone said he was told that the bags had
been packed and were in the car and that Trump left the party directly to the airport, but he had(U) S ugart Tr., p. 203.
(U) Email, Graff to Shugart, et al., November 7, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000139-142); Tweet,@ARTEM_KLYUSHIN, November 9, 2013; Tweet, @AlferovaYulyaE, November 9, 2013.
1969(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 138-140.
1970(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 172-173. This is generally consistent with Goldstone's recollection that Trump arrived at
midnight. Goldstone Tr., p. 140.
1971
(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 173-175. Roustam Tariko, a Russian billionaire who has said that he has "known Trumpfor many years" and was a sponsor of the pageant, may have been present. See Evgenia Pismennaya, et al., "TheDay Trump Came to Moscow: Oligarchs,.Miss Universe and Nobu," Bloomberg Government, December 21, 2016.
See also Jeffrey Toobin, "Trump's Miss Universe Gambit," The New Yorker, February 19, 2018.
1972(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 140, 147-148. This is generally consistent with Paula Shugart who estimated that Trump
stayed until 3:30 a.m. Shugart Tr., pp. 172-173.
1968

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no personal knowledge of this other than seeing 'Trump leave the party. Paula Shugart also
recalled that Trump ieft directly for the airport.
(U) According to Goldstone, "at the last minute" A.J. Calloway asked Trump if he could
fly home with Trump, and likely did join the flight. 1973 Although Trump used Phil Ruffin's
airplane in both directions, and although Ruffin and his wife attended the pageant, it appears thatthey flew separately in both directions. 1974
(U) At 2:30 a.m. on November 10, Trump was scheduled to depart the after-party for
Moscow's Vnukovo airport. Trump's flight was scheduled to depart for Newark, New Jersey, at
3:30 a.m. in Moscow, and was scheduled to arrive in Newark at 3:30 a.m. Eastern Standard
Time. 1975 Public reporting indicates that the flight was approximately 30 minutes behindschedule, taking off at 3 :58 a.m. and landing at 4: 11 a.m. 1976
(U) As the pageant concluded, discussion of future business continued. On November
10, Emin responded to an email from the architect William McGee, informing McGee that, "Wemay do a tower with him [Trump] now." 1977 The following day, November 11, Trump wrote on
Twitter to Aras Agalarov praising the Agalarovs and stating that Trump Tower Moscow would
be next. 1978 The following day, Emin Agalarov replied on Twitter with thanks, and wrote thatthey should make Trump Tower Moscow happen. 1979(U) On November 12, Olivia Cellini from the Trump Organization emailed Goldstone
and Beniaminov: "Can you please send me Aras' email address? Mr. Trump would like to send
him a message." 1980v.

(U) Communications with the Agalarovs Following Miss Universe
Moscow

1973(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 139-140. This is supported by a copy of Trump's· Moscow itinerary with A.J.
Calloway's name handwritten in for the return flight. lnterary, Trump Organization (TRUMPORG_18_000009).
1974(U) Email, Graff to Shugart, et al., November 7, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000139-142); Ben Schreckinger, "Trump's
false claims to Corney about Moscow story could aid Mueller," Politico, April 23, 2018.
·
1975(U) Email, Graff to Shugart, et al., November 7, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000139-141). According to Trump's itinerary
Steve Tyler and Aimee Preston were scheduled to join the flight.
1976(U) Vernon Silver, "Flight Records Illuminate Mystery of Trump's Moscow Nights (1)," Bloomberg
Government, April 23, 2018.
1977(U) Email, E. Agalarov to McGee, November 10, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00845).
1978(U) Tweet, @realDonaldTrump, November 11, 2013.
1979(U) Tweet, @eminofficial, November 12, 2013.
1980(U) Email, Cellini to Goldstone andBeniaminov, November 12, 2013 (BeniaminovProduction). The
Committee has no additional information regarding this communication.
/

300

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On November 19, 2013, Donald Trump Jr:. emailed Emin Agalarov to introduce
himself for the first time. Trump Jr. wrote that he had spoken to his father about working with
the Agalarovs to develop a Trump Tower or hotel in Moscow, and that his father had asked him
to reach out to Emin and Aras Agalarov to discuss moving forward. 1981 Later that day Emin
Agalarov replied and said "let's speak and see ifwe can make things happen." 1982

(U) On November 20 Emin Agalarov wrote to Trump Jr. in hopes that Trump Jr. would
remind his father to tweet a link to Agalarov's new music video, which featured Donald
Trump. 1983 Trump Jr. replied that he would, and wrote that he would be c'alling "shortly to
discuss the potential tower." 1984 Later that day, Donald Trump tweeted a link to Emin
Agalarov's video. 1985
(U) On November 21, 2013, Emin Agalarov sent an email to Donald Trump Jr., and ·copied Shugart and Goldstone. The subject line of Agalarov's email was, "Presideqt," and in the
body of the email Agalarov wrote, "My father just received a letter and gift for your dad from
Mr. Putin." Agalarov attached images of the gift, which was a Fedoskino-style lacquer box, as
well as images of the letter from Putin. Trump Jr. appeared to have passed the emaff andphotographs on to his father. 1986

1981(U) Email, Trump Jr. to E. Agalarov, November 19, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00879).
(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Trump Jr, November 19, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00875).
1983(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Trump Jr., November 20, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00879).
1984(U) Email, Trump Jr. to E. Agalarov, November 20, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00883).
1985(U) Tweet, @realDonaldTrump, November 20, 2013.
,
1986(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Trump Jr., November 21, 2013 (TRUMPORG_18,.,,;000035--40); Agalarov
Washington Post Tr. (RG000014).
1982

301

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE, - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
From:

Sont:

To:
Sub]uct

Attachment'S.!

Donald Trump Jr,
n1ursday, Novombur 21, 2013 9:37 AM

Katherin• Feigfn
FW, Pr0:11do1it
pholo lJPG; ATIOOOOl.txt; photo 2JPG; ATT00002,tllt photo 3JPG; AITOOOOl.lxt phot~
4JPG; ATT00004.txt; photo SJPG; ATT00005.lxt

Please print this emalf and all the attachments for ,wlhanks, dllonald J. Trump Jr.
Ex:etutive Vloo Pmsidemt of Oeve1opment and Ac-qulsltions Th~ Tn.Jmf> Organi:,aUon
725 FIith Avenue New Yori,, NY 110022-Original Me.t.i;.age-

Ftom: e,riln agalarov
Sent: Thursday, November U, 2013 9:12 AM
To: Donald Trump Jr.
C<: !Mb Gn!d<tonc; Paula Shugart
5u~Jecl: Pre,rdent

\

""

~\~ ~

~~~
~,,.\~,..s\ "S:,VJ
I~~

Dear Don~
Mv f.1ther Ju<t rea,ived a letter and gift foryourdad rrom Mr. Putin, I'm sending all this with my mom.who lsfivlng earlyne~l \'/eek and either rtob or Paula wlll mnJ.:e sure you guys get it shortly, ln the mmmtlmo here ar-o t;nmn pfcturM.

Thank youEmin(U) Images of the box and letter that were attached are included below 1987 :1987(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Trump Jr., November 21, 2013 (1RUMPORG_18_000035-40); Email, E. Agalarov
to Trump Jr., Goldstone, and Shugart, November 11, 21, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00891-00896).

302

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303

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The unofficial English translation of the letter that was included states:
Dear Mr. Tmmp, I would like to congratulate you and y,our colleagues on
successfully holding the Miss Universe contest in Moscow. I hope that all theparticipants in this remarkable event will go home with good memories of theirvisit to the Russian capital. It is a pity that we were not able to have our meeting,but I hope we will be able to talk during one ofyour upcoming visits to Russia.
Yours sincerely, V. Putin 1988·
(U) The package with the box from Putin was brought to the United States by Irina
Agalarova, Aras Agalarov's wif~. 1989

a. (U) Joint Real Estate Development Effort in Moscow 2013-2014(U) Shortly after the Miss Universe pageant, discussions began between the Agalarovs'
Crocus Group and the Trump Organization about a joint reatestate devel~pment project.

(U) Goldstone told the Committee that Emin Agalarov believed that Trµmp's initial
reaction to' being shown possible sites in Moscow during the Miss Universe contest was
positive. 1990 As noted, at Trump's sugg~stion, on November 19, 2013, Donald Trump Jr. reached
out to Emin Agalarov regarding a possible joint development project in Moscow. 1991 On
November 22, Emin Agalarov wrote to Trump Jr., stating, "I've spoken to my Father about o~rconversation and all looks very positive,·general terms are suitable for a negotiation, lets identify
the land and building ( we have a few options) and get the ball rolling contractually." In the
7interim, Emin Agalarov suggested an exclusivity arrangement. 1992
(U) On November 27, Yulya Klyushina emailed Emin Agalarov, Rob Goldstone, Artem
Klyushin and others, to inform them that Trump had written about the Agalarovs on Twitter andhad posted a link to an article about Emin Agalarov's new music video, which Trump wasfeatured in. 1993 On December 2, at Trump's request; one of Trump's employees sent Emin

1988(U) Letter, Putin to Trump, November 19, 2013 (TRUMPORG_18_000039).
(U) Emin, Agalarova to Shugart, November 28, 2013 (PS-SEN-0000102). ' ,1990(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 150-151.
'
1991(U) Email, Trump Jr. to E. Agalarov, November 19, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00879).
1992(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Trump Jr., November 19, 2013 (EA~SSCI-00971).
1993(U) Email, Klyushina to E. Agalarov, et al., November 27, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00922); see also Tweet,@realDonaldTrump, November 27, 2013.' Klyushina and Klyushin had been hired to promote Emin Agalarov
online. Beniaminov Tr., pp. 175-177.
1989

304

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE~ RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Agalarov a copy of the article that Trump posted on Twitter with a hand written note that
1994
referenced the possibility of a Trump Tower Moscow.

The Moscow Times
Donald Trump in New Emin Video
2eNowrn/:H,r'2013

111 P Gl'!ltr 4941::W:~

u.s e,,111,ona,re ,e,1u la1&dew lop« Oon.1kf Trump lgUfH p,om11-..n1y,,, a now-mutli;o._.deo ret6Ued byEmW'I AgoJarov
an Atof1 pop 11Drend 't'l'.ce pnttldcmt of Crocu9 Group(U) On December 4, Trump Jr. wrote to Emin Agalarov, " lam back and ready to go."Trump Jr. offered to have the Trump Organization draft a letter similar to the one suggested byEmin Agalarov as an initial step. 1995 A preliminary, but formal, agreement was signed on
1996
December 5, 2013 ; the signatories were Trump Jr. and Emin Agalarov.

1994 (U)Email, Che lsea Frommer to E. Agalarov, December 2, 2013 (EA-SSCl-00946, 00947).
Email, Trump Jr. to E. Agalarov, November 19, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00969).
1996 (U) Letter, Trump Jr. to Crocus Group, December 5, 2013 (Kaveladze Proffer Documents). Kaveladze referedto this document as the Letter of Intent (LOI). Kaveladze Tr., pp. 34, 40-41 .
1995 (U)305

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

TrUmP 11111mauonalD8V&IOPm!Hit ll~
Crocus lntem.i:11on:31·:WI, l>t~f$r.i.ttm.J~'i 51:{i'llT?,foreow, Ru:i.;.(i., 11":'W:!.
,'\trmii-:m: :Ernin A~l~v

TI,t j;rnc11s (ir(ltip {"you'1 bzs_1?Xpi.!~<:d !nitres! t:i 11_e:q11lring n li~-ci:so 10 Ii!;!! ;;i•.:!i.ri,-;'bti•;t t'.lnlii;"Tnrmp" name fur th!! !)\lr]:/0.St \>ridc11tif.11in;~ :a lo be bl!ili ~l(!<f 1Wlllll}', ,~stnr 001l1Jl.. 5e,eSUl!i:: Jj'roje.,iti; Mosoo,~. Thi~ le1rer,,:1w,i:;:mt111 is tiotn Jl',l'Ot1/ of .!,\IC'.h (!_1!4,-criw, or:i.11·:tl);J'Ccme.i1t·h:,, .:ithery,m or-Trump
1111tl':rr.;tiom,l ~•.·c1op11"' ri, l,l..C _('.'we:' o.:··1.1~"'} to C'til c~ Imo ~W Ut<:llM:_ mUJ\: Cullin:. -'This [enec ngrc:m1:r11

f~"'in.imply ;i_gl>l>Gl l'ciidi :iccommod:;,f1m by 11> of y,mr req11cst lh;i,t iv~ v.rmpomril}' rl!fh1iil from i.c:ckifig~i[:ir lic-mstog 11~mcnu ln Momiw wi1h·c1her .llim~whil,;. :;uu .9temr,t m iiicn1if.v ~pfKop1fa1c t~ctl fo:
coasrn:ctfon.iu Moscow Md iimnu!~J~ C\ b:~n,;.-.:fr,rnn 3lld !}iOJ'Xls:11.

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lmc,, scill,ci!;fJJf!lctepi IWJ olTe: 1.:1 Iitell~ii lirn "il'tlmp" n.iml!i t'crirle1,tifylng'rui,y tci.rd~nlia!, lio\el 1111ilf1)tt'lfficc projci:t ltit;:imH11 Mtlleow. Notwhltmlln\ling ib: fori:i;oing_• .we-,WII not-be lxti:11d by ihc prec-e(li11 0~;:;~nt-e, t,•en 1l11ring lhe period pt for lo Mlllcb s:2Q 14, lf (f) }'Oti.no.tify U!l tht1ry_ou. !Ui:!!' nn'Jo:,3~ ::ee~ing
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Th~ inunedi-ittly pm:eillng Hire~ ¢nl&rJplis, ~d thls.pmgi:::.ipli, ~lttiH be olrtdfai~. 01111:rwisc, thisi~{ttf - ~ not CO!lWII nny bimlrn_e; promises by cililtr [i,'iny ·,md, wi:00111 i!mi!olitm, r.11itlii?r p:i.rzy :sttlig,11cdro.ll1c other to pum1e.:,ny fu1t!t;,!'•dtsc!1s.sions or citgolbf!on~. This ·li:uer_n,1:teemeot sruil1 oo.!,;O'/tm'1ril by tile fa•vt. of1lai.: St:uin,fNe~v York', .,-.'i1l10~1t reg:1fd IO.c(!nfllcu of !11.w prim1ij1l,:s•. Ytu 1mi!,we
11:,-.h ~~rt.1e11t w lole :imi .::i:c:lwh-.: pc~om1I ·nn d' su\.ijc~ n1e11i:r jl!fisdi<:iio,i1.:ur:0· ,·.mu; die feue1al· l!J1d-!'.itc coom in u,~ Cl.w,and Cn1m1y of Ne~.,. Yoik, Nc1v YOJk, Th~. l~H~'t' 1i:gn:cn11:li1 (i)eomalns lite· enlfrc:~yctrrn:01 belwee11 yq_u :i111I ll~. (ii) m:iy not ~ modified or-w:?i~"t?l:! l.Mvno!o orin p.'.!rt omlly er b:, ~-m~U,(lli} I$ r.on.JS!'.fl).nil.ble am! {iv) may bf e;,:ccmcd fo toulltc1par~ ctidi of whr.:lrn,~y b: effccd\'idy dcllvmd
I.I 11n .1m:,chm~I 10.vo ,::-mail,

,m

306

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On December 6, 2013, Emin Agalarov sent the signed agreement to Trump Jr. andintroduced him, by email, to Irakli Kaveladze, who Agalarov said had worked on the Miss
Universe pageant, had met Trump, and would be working on the Trump Tower deal for
Crocus. 1997 Kaveladze told the Committee that his primary interlocutor at the Trump
Organization was Trump Jr., and that Emi.n and Aras Agalarov were both involved on the Crocus
side. Kaveladze said that negotiations with the Trump Organization took place primarily byemail and conference calls, and that he was against the joint project. 1998

(U) · Kaveladze told the Committee that the joint project was designed as ap. incentive fee
deal for a residential Trump Tower, and that Kaveladze was mostly focused on negotiating with
the Trump Organization to lower its fees. 1999 Despite Kaveladze's concerns, negotiations
advanced between the Crocus Group and the Trump Organization. Throughout December
Kaveladze and Trump Jr. negotiated by email regarding the Trump Organization's fee structure,and ultimately agreed to "an expanded LOI" which Trump Jr. said he could get following theholidays. 2000
(U) On January 13, 2014, Emin Agalarov and Trump Jr. met in person, along with
Goldstone, at Nobu in New.York City. 2001 Goldstone recalled that the Trump Tower project was
discussed at this meeting and seemed to be moving forward. 2002
(U) On January 14, 2014, Trump Jr. sent Emin Agalarov an unsigned expanded letter ofintent regarding the proposed development of a "super luxury" real estate project in Moscow.
This letter and its attachment totaled 10 pages and was significantly more detailed than theoriginal basic letter from December 5. 2003

(U) On January 15, 2014, Goldstone, Trump Jr., and other Trump Organization staff
exchanged a number of emails regarding Ivanka Trump meeting with the Agalarovs in Moscow
on February 4 for a "site visit," and Emin Agalarov performing for an upcoming golf event at the
Trump property in Doral, Florida. 2004

(U) Kaveladze told the Committee that he met Ivanka Trump briefly at the Crocus Group
office in Moscow in February before she went with Emin Agalarov to visit the proposed site fora Trump Tower, which Kaveladze recalled was at the Crocus City complex on land already

1997(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Trump Jr., December 6, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00993).
(U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 33-38; FBI, FD-302, Kaveladze 11/16/2017.
1999(U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 36, 43-44.
2000(U) Email, Trump Jr. to Kaveladze, cc E. Agalarov, December 23, 2013 (EA-SSCI-00990-00992).
2001(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., January 15, 2104 (RB000142).
2002(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 173.
2003
(U) Email, Trump Jr. to E. Agalarov, January 14, 2014 (EA~SSCI-01038-01048).
2004(U) Emails, Goldstone to Trump Jr., January 15, 2014 (RB000142).
1998

307

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
owned by the Agalarovs. 2005 Following Ivanka Trump's visit to Crocus on February 4, sheemailed Emin Agalarov to thank him for the tour. She wrote, "I am very excited about ourcollaboration and am confident that our families will enjoy great success together. We lookforward to meeting with you again in the US in March to review the details of the proposed
Trump Tower with your architects." 2006·
(U) On February 11, 2014, at Rob Goldstone's request, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted"topromote Emin Agalarov's album. 2007 On February 19, 2014, Donald Trump tweeted to promote
an Emin Agalarov performance in Sochi, Russia, on the Today Show. Later that day Agalarov
wrote to Donald Trump Jr, and others, with Ivanka Trump copied, to thank them for supporting
him.2oos(U) On March 5, 2014, Trump Jr. emailed Emin Agalarov,. "Do you have any free time
this week. Would love to circle up on Moscow." Emin Agalarov replied that he would be flying
to Miami the following day, and Trump Jr. suggested that they meet on March 7 after Agalarov
arrived. 2009(U) On March 8, 2014, Emin Agalarov performed at the Trump golf event in Doral,
Florida. He met with Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Trump Jr. while he was there. 2010 Trump Jr.
planned to meet with Agalarov on March 10.2011(U) By late March, discussions between the Trump Organization, the Agalarovs, andarchitects hired by Crocus seemed to be progressing. Discussions included issues ranging frominterior design to the square footage of residences, need for balconies, amenities, and the ratio ofapartments to parking places.2012 This level of detailed discussion continued through at least
mid-July .2013

2005(U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 45-51.
(U) Email, I. Trump to E. Agalarov, February 5, 2014 (EA-SSCI-01264); Emin Agalarov told the Committeethat Ivanka Trump was in Moscow to visit a friend, Miroslava Duma. E. Agalarov Tr., p. 11. During the campaign,in late 2015, Duma was involved in outreach to Trump by Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko. See Report On
The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidentia!Election, Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller
III, Vol. I, pp. 78- 79; TRUMPORG_16_000057.
2007(U) Email, Goldstone to E. Agalarov, February 11, 2014 (EA-SSCI-01274).
2008(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Trump Jr., Goldstone, Blavatnik, et al., February 19, 2014 (EA-SSCI-01285--01286).
2009(U) Email, Trump Jr., to E. Agalarov, March 5, 2014 (RB000347).
2010(U) Trump Jr. Tr. I, pp. 29-30. Goldstone Tr., pp. 153-154; Instagram, eminofficial, March 9, 2014.
2011(U) Email, Trump Jr. to E. Agalarov, March 8, 2014 (EA-SSCI-01327). Trump Jr. Tr. I, pp. 29-30.
2012(U) Email, Tropea to E. Agalarov, et al., March 27, 2014 (RB000l 15) (attaching "20131001 Residential tower
Alternative massing studies.pdf').
.,
2013(U) Email, Khoo to McGee, cc Trump Jr. et al., July 17, 2014 (EA-SSCI-01371-01372).
2006

308

(U) The relationship between the Agalarovs and Trump also continued on other fronts.
For example, emails from early July 2014, indicate that Trump was seeking Emin Agalarov;smailing address to thank him for a watch. 2014 The watch given to Trump was likely made by UBoat, a company that Emin Agalarov has a relationship with. 2015-(U) Eventually, progress on Trump Tower Moscow discussions began to slow. By latesummer and early fall 2014, Tropea and Kaveladze expressed frustration internally that the· 'Trump Organization was not being responsiv~ to requests regarding the project.2016(U) However, by mid-November 2014 the two sides had discussed design opti_ons andparcels of land. On November 14, architects from the firm Jacobs/ KlingStubbins who were
working on behalf of Crocus emailed Trump Jr. and Florence Khoo at the Trump Organ.lzationand copied Emin Agalarov, Kaveladze, and others. The subjectline of the email was "Project:
Crocus - Residential Complex (Parcel 11) ... Trump Tower - Moscow." In the body of themessage architect William McGee referenced previous discussions and wrote that "Mr. _· - _Agalarov" had suggested that the "Trump project" be moved to a different site along the river.
The attached file was titled: "Tru111p Tower concept study."2017(U) As of December 2014, EminAgalarov continued to direct staff work on the project.
On December 14, 2014, Jason Tropea emailed a Crocus employee, writing: "Emin has asked me
to review and study the Trump org. / Crocus contract for the resi4ential tower."2018 Tropea asked
for a copy of the contract from the employee.2019·(U) In December 2014, T~mp recorded dvideo in celebration of Emin Agalarov's 35 thbirthday.2020(U) It is not clear that the negotiations with the Agalarovs for a Trump Tower Moscow
ever formally ended; however, testimony from witnesses who were involved and other2014(U) Email, Giudice to Beniaminov, July l, 2014 (RB000079).
Email, E. Agalarov to Goldstone, May 7, 2014 (EA-SSCI-01334) .. 2016
(U) Email, Kaveladze to Tropea, September 29, 2014 (RB000393-394).
_
2017(U) Email, Nat Skerry to Trump Jr., et al., November 13; 2014 (Be11iaminov Production). Beniaminov told theCommittee: "There have been plans for many years to develop -- within Crocus City there is an undeveloped parcelof land which is part of the Crocus City compound. There's jusfnot4ing there. There weri;: plans for years todevelop a project called "Little Manhattan." It would include, I believe, at some point something upwards of 11
towers, high-rises, so to say. I believe that one of those towers was the tower to be the Trump Tower ... that
undeveloped parcel of land is behind the Crocus City Hall Expo 3 area. It lies between that and the riverembankment." Beniaminov Tr., p. 204.
2018
(U) Email, Tropea to Sergey [likely Sergey Sharov], December 14, 2014 (RB000104--105).
2019 (U) Ibid
2020
(U) YouTube, EminOfficial,December 19, 2014.
2015 (U)309

infopnation indicates that communications regarding the project became increasingly infrequent
over time; without a specific cause identified. 2021
(U) Trump Jr. recalled that the project faded. He told the Committee:
I don't even recall a specific: "Hey, guys, we 're just not going to do it. " It was
just sort of clear that we 're sort ofgoing different directions and it probably
wouldn 't make sense for either side. So it just sort ofwent out. 2022
I

(U) Goldstone told the Committee that,'during an in-person meeting_ in Trunip Tower
between Emin Agalarov and Donald Trump, Agalarov said that Russia's economy had
deteriorated and that, "we may have to reevaluate and relook." 2023 Trump Jr. was unsure but
estimated that by the end of2014 it was cle_ar that the project had lost momentum and wouldn't
be moving forward. 2024··
(U) Emin Agalarov said, in an April 2016 interview, that the negotiations "kind of faded
away, because I think he [Trump] is busy with other things, we are busy with other things. It's
not something that we decided, like 'Okay, let's stop.' It wasn't at that.point. Teams are stiH in
correspondence. It's a work in progress." When pressed, Emin.Agalarov acknowledged that"[s]ince he [Trump] started running for the presidency, I don't think we've had a conversation
about Trump Tower." 2025 Nevertheless, in the same interview, Aras Agalarov stated that Crocus
was still "the right place for a Trump Tower." 2026
vi.

(U) Continuing Communic'ations(U) Throughout 2015 and 2016, Aras Agalarov and Emin Agalarov remained in regularcontact with Trump and Trump Jr., often through Graff.and Goldstone or other staff working for

2021(U) Kaveladze recalled that the Trump Organization was interested in building in downtown Moscow, while the
Crocus Group preferred to build on land associated with Crocus City, which is outside the city center. Other issuesof contention, according to Kaveladze, were the Trump Organization's fees and the question of how involved the
Trump Organization would be in managing the construction of the building. Kaveladze Tr., pp. 40-44. In April
2016, Emin Agalrov said that the joint project was going to be a residential building arid that, "Right now we're in acrisis of residential development, so we basically froze our developments in that particular direction. We'redeveloping shopping malls, we're not developing any residential buildings at the moment." Agalarov Washington
Post Tr.
·
2022(U) Trump Jr. Tr., pp. 66--67.
2.°23 (U) Goldstone Tr., p. 39. The. exact timing of this conversation is unclear.
2024(U) Trump Jr. Tr., p. 67.
2025(U) Agalarov Washington Post Tr. (RG000019-22).
2026(U) Ibid. (RG000019).

310

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
the Agalarovs. The contact ranged from personal to substantive to logistical and included writtencorrespondence, gifts, and in person meetings.
(U) Goldstone estimated that in addition to in-person meetings between Trump and Emin
Agalarov in Las Vegas, Moscow, and Doral, they met three or four times in Trump Tower for
visits when Emin Agalarov was in New York. Goldstone characterized these meetings in Trump
Tower as personal, rather than substantive or business oriented.2027 .

(U) One of these meetings occurred on May 20, 2015.2028 That meeting was likely thelast of Emin Agalarov's personal meetings with Trump at Trump Tower. Emin Agalarov told
the Committee that Trump discussed running for president at the time,. but that Trump s~id_ he did
not know if he would run. 2029 Goldstone had a different recollection. He told the Committee thatthe final meeting between Trump and Agalarov "was approximately six weeks before he[Trump] was due to announce that he was going to run for President. The reason is, on the way
out he said: I'm going to be running for President, you know; so next time you won't be coming
here; you'll be coming to see.me at the White House. That's why I specifically remember ·that. ,,2030(U) Recalling his final meeting with Trump, Emin Agalarov has said, "the lastconversation before he ran that he and I had, he was criticizing the United States government for
not being able to be friends with Russia. He keeps underlining that he thinks that President Putin
is a strong leader. And he thinks America, instead of fighting Russia, should bond and be friends
and have common goals with Russia."2031
4. (U) The Trump-Agalarov Relationship During the 2016 Presidential Campaign

2027(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 39. Emin Agalarov has said, "Also, just to add an important comment. Every time I am in
New York, and Trump is also in New York, I go visit him. We kind of hang out at his office." Agalarov
Washington Post Tr. (RG000016).
·,
2028(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., April 30, 2015 (Beniaminciv Production). Goldstone sent Trump Jr. an 'invitation to attend Emin Agalarov' s upcoming performances in New York or Miami. Goldstone also requested thatthe invitation be extended to Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump.
2029(U) E. Agalarov Tr., p. 8.
2030(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 296. On January 28, 2015, Yulya Klyushina, who knew Emin Agalarov and Goldstone,
announced on Twitter that Trump would be running for President of the United States. It is not clear what
Alferova' s foreknowledge was based on, or if it was related to any information provided to Agalarov and Goldstone.
Tweet, @AlferovaYulya, January 28, 20_15; see also Email, Goldstone to E. Agalarov, June 16, 2015 (EA-SSCI01670).
2031(U) Agalarov Washington Post Tr. (RG000016).

311

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY\COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY)(U) On June 16, 2015, the day that Trump announced his candidacy, Goldstone emailed
Graff and Trump Jr. with the subject line, "Please pass on mine and Emin's best wishes andcongratulations to Mr. Trump." The body of the email simply stated, "Wonderful news."2032(U) On July 22, 2015, Goldstone wrote to Graff notifying her that Emin Agalarov would
like to invite Trump to Aras Agalarov's birthday party in Moscow on November 8, and hopedthat Trump would be willing to write a small message of congratulations to Aras Agalarov in acelebratory book. Graff responded, "I will certainly make Mr. Trump aware of this invitation,and I know he will be honored that Emin thought of him. However, given his presidential
campaign, it's highly unlikely he would have time on his calender [sic] to go to Moscow inNovember. Regardless, I am sure he will want to write a congratulatory note." Goldstone replied
to Graff that he understood Trump's scheduling constraints regarding traveling to Moscow,"unless maybe he [Trump] would welcome a meeting with President Putin which Emin would
set up," and offered to come to the office to pick up the congratulatory note for Aras
Agalarov. 2033
(U) On November 8, 2015, Trump wrote to Aras Agalarov2034 :2032(U) Email, Goldstone to Graff, June 16, 2015 (DJTJR00146).
(U) Emails, Goldstone and Graff, July 22 and 24, 2015 (DJTJR00893).
2034(U) Letter, Trump to A. Agalarov, November 8, 2015 (TRUMPORG_l8_000014).
2033

312

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

November 8, 2015

Dear Aras,
It's your birthday and I think you have a lot of reasons to celebrate. I know of one
big reason, which is your son, Emin, who has brought a lot of elegance andexcitement to my pageants. He is a very big talent and his magna.nimous
personality has touched many thousands of people throughout the world. I have afeeling he got quite a bit of his talent from you. But Emin aside, I am w riting towish you a very Happy Birthday -- and I' m hoping you will have a mostmemorable celebration in Moscow!

Donald J. Trumpi.

(U) First Outreach Regarding the Russian Social Media Company VK(U) On January 19, 2016, Goldstone emailed Trump Jr. and copied Graff. He wrote:

l hope you are well and congratulations on an outstanding job so far re the campaign.
With this in mind, I was just in Moscow and met with a good friend who runs themarketing for VK - which is the largest social media platform in Russia. They
have more than 2. 7 million Russian Americans using the site (living in the USA)and had an idea to create a campaign page on VKfor Mr. Trump and market it to
the almost 3 million influential Russian American voters living in the USA. I
thought it was a very interesting and sensible idea and so wanted to pass it along.
I am not sure who handles this kind of thing for the campaign so I hope you don 't
mind I sent it directly to you both. I can get massive exposure for Mr. Trump on
313

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

the site for sure - and it will be covered in Russian media also - where I noticed
your campaign is covered positively almost daily- which {sic] extremely
gracious comments.from President Puti!) etc. Please let me know if the campaign
is interested and I will connect the dots. 2035
(U) Goldstone's email included the text of a forwarded email from Konstantin Sidorkov,
a "Partner Relations Manager" at VK: 2036

From: Konstantin Sidbrkov'
Subject: Donalq Trump on VK
Date: January 18, 2016 at 12:48:06 PM EST
To: Rob Goldstone■■■I, Rob Goldstone

I want to introduce you the most visited social network in Russia, Ukraine and CIS
countries - VK (VKontaktc).
Some interesting facts about VI(:
- More then 340 million registered. users;- Over 76 million. visitors per day;- Over 2.6 billion page views per day;
- 65% visitors from Russia;- More then 59% users older then 25 years.
From USAwe had 2.7 millions profiles registered ano more then 1.5 million visitors
monthly.

Our platfom1 includes all types of communication: Messenger+ Video+ Mttsic +Photo. US press .often calls us "Russian facebook", because all other social networks
in Russia are rather .smaller then VK. For last 2 years VK become a favorite platform
for many polities in Russia as the best way to communicate with people. In addition
you can find the fool presentation about us with details.
We want to invite Donald Trump to set up an official page on VK°, which will havethe latest updates from Donald and maybe Russian translation.
Also we will make a huge promotion for it with our marketing instruments and put
this page to user's recommendation inc .. targeting to all our audience.
Thanks for your attention, will look forward for your answer.

(U) Later that day, January 19, 2016, Graff responded, copying Trump Jr. and Dan
Scavino from the Trump Campaign. She wrote, "Thank you for bringing this terrific opportunity

2035
2036

(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr. and Graff, January 19, 2016 (RG000003).
(U) Email, Sidorkov to Goldstone, January 18, 2016 (DJTJR00418--00439).

314

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
to our attention. I've copied Dan Scavino, who heads up social media for the campaign, and I
am sure he will be in touch with you to help 'connect the dots."'2037(U) Shortly after Graff's email, Scavino replied to Goldstone, copying Graff and Trump
Jr. He wrote:2038
Hi Rob!
Pleaso feel free to send me whatever you have on this system I I w,11 sharo it with the team • as we are currenUy on the campaign trail rightnow. Thank you so much • tor looking out tor Mr. Trump & his presidential campaign. This is greatl

Best. DanTRUMP
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
DANIEL SCAVINO JR
DonaJd J Trump For President. Inc.
W\vw.OonaldJTrumooom(U) The Russian government and the Internet Research Agency (IRA) use VK, Russia' s
version of Facebook, for influence operations. 2039 According to public reporting, the company's
original leadership was pushed out, in an effort that involved the Russian FSB, and replaced with
Kremlin-aligned ownership in 2013 and 2014.2040

2037 (U)Email, Graff to Goldstone, et al, (RG000003).

2038 ~ a i l, Scavino to Goldstone, et al., (RG000006).
2039 -

See infr a Vol. 2; Adrian Chen, "The Agency," The New York Times Ma azine, June 2 2015· Todd C.
Helmus et al. "Russian Social Media Influence " RAND 2018 . 16·) Jenni er Monag an, V ont e Founder Says Sold Shares Due to FSB Pressure," The Moscow Times,
April 17, 2014. Alisher Usmanov, an oligarch and close Putin associate, his business partner Ivan Tavrin, and Igor
Sechin, another close Putin associate who is sanctioned by the United States, were involved. See Olga
Razumovskaya, "Alisher Usmanov Cements Control of Social Network," The Wall Street Journal, January 25,
2014· "Russia's VKontakte CEO sa s he was fired flees Russia," Reuters, April 22, 20 14.
2041

315

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY316

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYThe Committee's insight into Sidorkov's motivations is extremely limited. 2053
However, tar etin Russians eaking voters in the United States is thematically consistent with
undertaken by the Russian government in support of Trump

I

•

2049
2050
2051

(U) GeoffCutmore and Catherine Boyle, "Russia's Richest Man Usmanov: Wait For Next Facebook Surge,"·

CNBC, December 21 2012.

(U) For example, Goldstone has characterized Sidorkov as a "really good ally" ofEmin Agalarov, and public
information indicates that Sidorkov is also an associate ofYulya Klyushina, who is described elsewhere in thisReport. The nature and extent of these relationships remains unknown. Goldstone Tr., 268. Screenshot ofYulya
Klyushina and Konstantin Sidorkov, April 29, 2015 [no longer available]. Tweet, @AlferovaYulyaE, December 7,
2013.

317

(U) On January 20, Konstantin Sidorkov wrote to Scavino, copying Goldstone, Graff andTrump Jr.:2os1
Hi, Dani Nice to meet you and your team! In .attachment you can find the last presentation about VK audience.
Plea<,e check this details in the end of my first letter:- More then 340 million registered users;- Over 7!; million visitors per day;- Over 2.6 billion page views per day;
- 65% visitors from Russia;- Mare then 59% users alder then 25 years.
From USA we had 2.7 millions.profiles registered and more then 1.5 million visitors monthly.

We can help with a registration, adding first infom1ation to the page. But further we want ask you to manage page by yourself with last
updates like facebook.
·It will be cool also ta have ·Russian transl 9tion of publication there to·get more coverage, because not so many Russian's know English. But forthis thing we need to find in your social media department Russian speaking manager.

Rogozin, see infra Vo. 5, Sec. ill.H.
2057(U) Email, Sidorkov to Scavino, January 20, 2016 (RG000007). _The attachment referenced by Sidorkov may
refer to the presentation previously discussed.

318

(U) In 2016, and into at least the beginning of 2017, contact continued between the
Agalarovs and their associates and the Trumps and their associates, through a series of emails,
gifts, and letters. Some of the communications, not all of which are captured below, were
substantive, others were less so.
(U) On January 25, 2016, Emin Agalarov emailed Trump Jr., "I'm in New York send mybest to the family and congratulations on all the amazing success!!! My best to the big boss!!!!
Emin."2oss(U) On February 29, 2016, Goldstone wrote to Trump Jr. and Graff, copying Emin
Agalarov:2059

Good 1110rnino.

e.m1n's father has asked Ill! co pus on his conoratulat1ons tn a letter enclosed below for Mr . Trunip on theeve of Super Tuesd3y vote - - offer,no his suppor t 3nd th3- of 1113ny of his 111'p()rt3nt Russ13n friends 3nd
co1 1eaoues - especially With reterence to u.S. / Russ1an relations .
l!eH of luck to you .ill end !'lany lhank5 for posing on tha letter .
Best

Rob

Attached to Goldstone 's email was a letter from Aras Agalarov wishing Trump success on Super
Tuesday.2060(U) On March 4, 2016, Graff responded to Goldstone, writing, "Please know that thevery thoughtful and kind letter from Mr. Agalarov to Mr. Trump was relayed to him earlier thisweek." 2061 Graff's confirmation that Trump had received the letter was passed on to Emin
Agalarov and other Agalarov staff.
(U) On March 18, 2016, Trump responded in a hand written note on the original letterfrom Agalarov.2062

2058 (U)Email, E. Agalarov to Trump Jr., January 25, 2016 (DJTJR00441 ).
Email, Goldstone to Graff, et al., February 29, 2016 (RB000056-58).
2060(U) Ibid.
2061 (U) Email, Graff to Goldstone, March 4, 2016 (RB000056).
2062 (U) Handwritten note, Trump to A. Agalarov, March 18, 2016 (DJTJR00406).
2059 (U)3 19

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

" ' Oun,ild Trump

l>t

I Tr. mpI\, ,me, w di au; i pteplc ,n th1• w unll'\ "h"appn:., ncd •our suncrncn1 thatI ~ IU'.d Ru ••• •l» uld ""11. lot..::ther onur. clr'ls:ly. all ofu• all roe,,• Ciroup1,"with :-e~t n o:rt5I your bn::ht e,cctora1 camra1~r:

The letter with the note was emailed by a staffer at the Trump Organization to Emin Agalarov,
who responded, "Amazing Thank you."2063(U) The Agalarovs seemed to feel that this note on the letter demonstrated theirrelationship with Trump. On April 8, 2016, Aras Agalarov brought the letter to an interview

2063(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Murphy, March 18, 2016 (DJTJR00407).

320

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
with The Washington Post's Moscow Bureau Chief. When Agalarov produced it in theinterview, Emin Agalarov stated, "It's the real deal, not fake." 2064 Aras Agalarov then added:

Please note that first of all, he didn't just give this to his secretary to type, hewrote it himself. . . . So, he wrote that himself with his own hand. That tells that
this is a person who doesn't suffer from the disease of celebrity. Can you imagine
that the future president of the United States, using his own hands, spends time
writing letters to his friend in Russia? It's a good sign. 2065

(U) On April 13, 2016, Goldstone wrote to Graff to inform her that the The Washington
Post interview had taken place. He wrote, "Below is a note from Aras Agalarov for Mr. Trump
regarding a recent Washington Post business interview in Moscow in which he was asked somequestions and topics regarding Russia and Mr. Trump. If you need a transcript, please let me
know." 2067 A letter from Aras Agalarov was attached. 2068 On April 15, Graff emailed Goldstone
to inform him that Trump had received the letter from Agalarov. 2069
(U) On April 25, 2016, Graff emailed Goldstone, writing, "Hope all is well! Please see
the attached note from Mr. Trump to Mr. Agalarov. Would you kindly relay it to him?" 2070 The
following, a handwritten note from Trump on the original letter from Agalarov, was attached: 2071

2064
2065

(U) Agalarov Washington Post Tr.
U Ibid2066
2067(U) Ema1, Go stone to Gra , Apn 13, 2016 DJTJR00179.
(U) Letter, A. Agalarov to Trump, April 13, 2016 (DJTJR00190).
2069(U) Email, Graff to Goldstone, April 15, 2016 (DJTJR00179).
2070(U) Email, Graff to Goldstone, April, 25, 2016 (DJTJR01191).
207 .1 (U) Handwritten note, Trump to A. Agalarov, April 25, 2016 (DJTJR0l 192). On April 27, 2016, Goldstoneemailed Emin Agalarov with the subject line, "Trump." Goldstone wrote, "Amazing win from Trump tonight
winning ALL major 5 out of5 Primary contests! You [should] send him a congrat tweet in the morning." Agalarov
replied later that day, writing only, "Amazing." Emails, Goldstone and E. Agalarov, April 27, 2016 (RG000036).
2068

321

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

\4":""--~,A,I;~~~~V 4P1/croctJsG~~~;( L
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the cooncsy or letting you ow th&t a coupk of da, s¥ ago, ti.- Mo!<n,. bUttau chief of 0.,. Washington Pn M,ch><I B1robaurn) a:
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C'ro,us Group, "'"th the President of RIB.'131'
rcdcration, and topics relaung ,o Russia, Aurba11an ,ind the U~A,.,th

TI><: ,a.,1 majority of quesuorui rctcrrcd to )our "ork 1n the lidd or businessand polillcs and of course, the upcoming elecuon.

Althou!!h th, mtcn.1l'W wa, •~f)' po<,; UH and both me and Emm ha<i on•) ~best :hmgs lo say 00 all IOplCS, WC tell that the """"'J>Ondt-nt m•v not h•xr bee 1 Dflrof your b1t!cst 'an11. J aJ""ays N"cord A11< tnnsenbc a.Ji media 1nte:rv1cv.-s ar.~"':r{erefon:, s ,ould )OU ever need it. we are h:ippy 10 ~nd )OU , transcnpt
0111."-e .Jg.a.in. I 511m,;c::rel1 \\' 1:;h )'<HJ ,uc.<,;t;.:;:, m )our clccf(traJ campe.ign.

Aru Agalaro,

5. (U) The June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting(U) In addition to business and personal correspondence, the Agalarovs were involved inpushing for a meeting which occurred on June 9, 2016, in Trump Tower ("June 9, 2016
meeting"). The Committee sought to understand the meeting, which involved Donald Trump Jr.,
Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, a Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya, and four of her
associates. The Committee's efforts focused on the motivations for the meeting on both sides,
the content of the meeting itself, and communications involving the participants following themeeting.

322

(U) The Committee interviewed each of the attendees at the meeting, as well as several
other individuals who had non-public awareness of the meeting or communications related toit. 2072 Nevertheless, the Committee faced significant limitations in its efforts to fully understandthe June 9, 2016 meeting. In particular, the almost complete absence of documentary evidence
regarding the content of the meeting itself forced the Committee to rely heavily on witness
testimony. That testimony, while helpful, was often incomplete, from an interested party, or
contradictory to other testimony or documents. Witnesses were not in agreement on basic facts
such as what language was being spoken and who was in the room during the meeting. In somecases, testimony was not consistent across multiple interviews with the same individual. The
Committee was unable to·reconcile some of these challenges and discrepancies.
i.

(U) Background on the Information Provided in the Meeting(U) The June 9, 2016 meeting with members of the Trump Campaign was part of alarger Russian government-supported effort to counter U.S. sanctions. The Committee assesses
that some of the information and themes presented by the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskayain the meeting, and again following the election via email, had been used previously in an
influence effort targeting individuals perceived to be sympathetic to Russia's position. That
previous influence effort occurred in Moscow in April 2016, months prior to the June 9, 2016
meeting, when then-Congressman Dana Rohrabacher was provided a folder of information fromthe Russian government that was largely similar in content to what Veselnitskaya later used in
Trump Tower.
a. (U) Information provided to Rohrabacher in April 2016
(U) In April 2016, Rohrabacher, along with several other members of the House ofRepresentatives and their staff, traveled to Europe, including Russia. While in Moscow,
Rohrabacher and his staffer, Paul Behrends, separated from the group and, despite the concernsof the U.S. Embassy, met with Vladimir Yakunin. 2073 Yakunin is a close confidant of President
Putin.2074 Yakunin is also the former president of Russian Railways and the president of the
Dialogue of Civilizations (DoC), a Berlin-based non-governmental organization. At the time of

2072(U) The Committee conducted a limited interview of Paul Manafort on July 25, 2017. The interview
exclusively covered the June 9, 2016 meeting in Trump Tower.
2073(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Paul Behrends, December 19, 2017, pp. 28-30; Rohrabacher Tr., p.
64. Rohrabacher and others also met with Natalia Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin in Moscow on this trip.
Akhmetshin Tr., . 41-42.
2074

323

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
the meeting, Yakunin·was sanctioned by the United States.2075 The Committee found that
Yakunin is significantly involved in Russian influence activities, including those targeting
elections.
·

-2075

(U) Treasury, "Treasury Sanctions Russian Officials, Members Of The Russian Leadership's Inner Circle, And
An Enti For Involvement In The Situation in Ukraine" March 20, 2014.

324

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYI[(U) Rohrabacher told the Committee that he was unsure how the April 2016 Moscow
meeting with Yakunin was arranged, but that it may have been proposed by then-Russian
Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. 2091 According to Rohrabacher, at the meeting
Yakunin spoke about the DoC and was interested in securing Rohrabacher's participation in the
DoC's annual Rhodes Forum. 2092 Rohrabacher told the Committee he was unable to attend. 2093

-2087

2088 (U)i .

lb id.

2(U) Ro rabac er Tr., pp. 64-65. Paul Behrends was unsure about Kislyak's involvement, but recalled that afriend of his, Anthony Salvia, may have been involved. Behrends Tr., p. 29.
2092(U) Behrends Tr., pp. 28, 30. Behrends recalled that Yakunin had previously invited Rohrabacher to the DoC's
annual Rhodes conference in writing.
2093(U) Rohrabacher Tr., pp. 65--66.

325

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(lJ) At the meeting, Yakunin also raised a report that had information he believed

Rohrabacher should review. Rohrabacher recalled:[Yakunin] said: Look, our prosecutors have done an investigation into thisMagnitsky thing and would you-we,re you willing to look at the material, theirreport? And I said: "Sure, I'll look at any report; I'll talk to anybody and I'll
read anything. " And he said: "Well, they'll try to get it to you at that meetingyou 're going to have tomorrow with the Duma foreign affairs committee. "2095(U) Following the meeting with Yakunin, Rohrabacher, Behrends, and the othermembers of the delegation met with Konstantin Kosachev, the Chairman of the Council of theFederation Committee on Foreign Affairs. 2096 The Committee found that Kosachev issignificantly involved in Russian influence activities, including those targeting the United States.
He was sanctioned by the United States in 2018. 2097

2094
2095
2096
2097

(U) Ibid, p._66; Behrends.Tr., p. 35.
(U) Treasury, "Treasury Designated Russian Oligarchs, Officials, and Entities in Response to Worldwide
•

•

•

■

326

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I[

327

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) At end of the meeting with Kosachev, Kosachev passed Rohrabacher a note. 2108 On
the note, Kosachev had written a question asking whether Rohrabacher would be willing toreceive "sensitive documents." 2109 After responding that he would be willing, Rohrabacher wasapproached by several individuals who handed him a folder of documents. 2110 Behrends
recalled:.

Mr. Rohrabacher 's in the middle, across the table from Mr. Kosachev. And themeeting's winding down. . . . Mr. Kosachev hands Mr. Rohrabacher a note on apiece ofpaper and says: "Would you be willing to accept sensitive documents?" .
. . What I remember is the note said that,. "Would you be willing to accept these
documents?" And Mr. Rohrabacher looked at me and showed me the note. And I
said: "Okay, sure. " So Mr. Rohrabacher said: 'Okay. 'And then the meeting kindof ended, and it was a little awkward. And these two people who we didn't know
who they were, came up and there was like an introduction. But I didn't know
who they were. Even if they introduced us by name, I had no context of who thesepeople were ... [they were] not in the meeting. They somehow got there as if it
was prearranged on their side. And these people gave Mr. Rohrabacher thefolder, and he said: Thank you very much; we'll take a look at it. If we shookhands, I don't remember. We may have shook hands. All of it took maybe aminute, and then we walked out. But it was a little unusual. 2111 ·(U) Rohrabacher told the Committee that he recalled that the two men who provided the
documents were from the Russian prosecutor's office, but otherwise could not identify them. 2112

(U) The Committee obtained a copy of the documents that Kosachev and his associates
provided to Rohrabacher in April 2016.2113 The primary document focuses on a series ofallegations related to U.S. Magnitsky Act sanctions legislation. The document provided to theCongressional delegation following the Kosachev meeting is shorter than the document that
Natalia Veselnitskaya later used at the June 9, 2016 meeting and is not the same document.

Ibid(U) Behrends Tr., p. 35.
2109(U) Ibid
2110(U) Ibid, p. 36.
2111(U) Ibid, pp. 35-36.
2112
Rohrabacher Tr.
2101 (U)2108

328

However, the organization and substance of the two documents are similar, and parts of the two
documents are nearly, or completely, identical.
b. (U) Natalia Veselnitskaya's Connections to Russian Influence
Operations(U) Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer who previo~sly worked for, and remains
in contact with, senior individuals in the Russian government. Veselnitskaya has described
herself as a source of information or "informant" for the Russian government, and as a private
attome .2114 The Committee assesses that Veselnitska a has reviousl been involved
2115

ml

(U) Veselnitskaya.has traveled frequently to the United States, in.part due to her role
representing the Russian.businessman Denis Katsyv and his Cyprus-based company Prevezon
Holdings. In 2013, .the U.~. Government alleged that Prevezon Holdings was involved inlaundering the proceeds of a $230 million Russian tax fraud scheme that involved corrupt
Russian officials.2116 Veselnitskaya helped represent Prevezon in the case.2117

2114(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Natalia Veselnitskaya, March 26, 2018, p. 90; "Russian lawyer who
met with Kushner Don Jr. admits to bein an informant," NBC News, April 23, 2018.
·

2115
2116

(U) U.S. Attorney's O ice, Sout em District ofNew York, "Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Civil
Forfeiture Complaint Agaiµst Real Estate Corporations Allegedly Involved In Laundering Proceeds Of Russian Tax
Refund Fraud Scheme," September 10, 2013. In its complaint, DOJ alleged that Prevezon had "laundered thesefraud proceeds into its real estate holdings, including investment in multiple units of high-end commercial space andluxury apartments in Manhattan, and created multiple other corporations, also the subject of forfeiture action, to holdthese properties.".
_
2117(U) The $230 million fraud was initially unco~ered by the Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky
had be~n retained by a U.K. ·investment firm, Hermitage Capital, which was targeted by the scheme. According to
the DOJ's complaint in the Prevezon case, members of the organization of Russian criminals and corrupt
government officials that perpetrated the scheme then took "illegal actions in order to conceal this fraud and retaliate
against individuals who attempted to expose it." Verified Complaint, United States v. Prevezon Holdings Ltd, etal., Case No. 13-CV-6326 (S.D.N.Y. September 10, 2013). Sergei Magnitsky was one of those individuals. In 2008,
following his discovery of the fraud, Magnitsky was arrested on false pretenses. According to the Congressional
Research Service, Magnistky was "denied medical care, family visits, or due legal process while in custody, as well
as beaten and possibly tortured. He died in prison in November 2009, at the age of37." Following Magnitsky's
death, his former employer, William Browder, who is an American-born British citizen and the CEO ofHerinitage
Capital, drew global attention to Magnitsky's death. In 2012 Congress passed the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law
Accountability Act (the "Magnitsky Act"), which after its enactment froze assets and blocked visas for a number ofRussian individuals, including some who are connected to the government. Dianne Rennack, "The Global
Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act," CRS, June 15, 2018. The Prevezon case was settled with the
Department of Justice in May 2017 for $5.9 million. U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern Dist.rict ofNew York,"Acting Manhattan U.S: Attorney Announces $5.9 Million Settlement of Civil Money Laundering and Forfeiture
Claims Against Real Estate Corporations Alleged To Have Laundered Proceeds Of Russian Tax Fraud," May 12,
2017.

329

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYOn April 30, 2017, upon arrival from Moscow to New York's JFK
airport,~sclosed that she was traveling with $20,000 in cash.2119

330

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Veselnitskaya was also one of the leading Russian nationals in the lobbying effort
against the Magnitsky Act and its sanctions in the United States.

(U) In her efforts, Veselnitskaya has had wealthy and powerful Russian supporters. For
example, in early 2016, Vasiliy Anisimov, a Russian oligarch with ties to Vladimir Putin and ties
to organized crime, sought to hire Louis Freeh, an American lobbyist and former Director of theFBI, to work with Veselnitskaya on the Prevezon case. The connection between Freeh andAnisimov was facilitated by Imre Pakh, who also has ties to Russian organized crime.2124

331

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Freeh is believed to have held multiple meetings in Moscow; likely in 2016, at least
one of which included senior Russian government officials, and at least one of which included
Veselnitskaya. Strategies regarding the Prevezon case and countering the Magnitsky Act werediscussed at both meetings. 2127
·

-An

'

initial meeting in Moscow was attended by Louis Freeh, then-R:ussian
Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, the Russian Deputy Prosecutor General, PeterKatsyv, Imre
Pakh, and the Associate Managing Director at Freeh's firm.

Two topics were discussed in the meeting. Foremost was the need io resolve the,Prevezon litigation. Secondly, the Russian offic:ials stated that the group needed"to start figuring out a solution to the Magnitsky Act . .. [At the meeting] either
Chaika or the Deputy Prosecutor General said Freeh should discuss follow-up
details with Natalia Veselnitskaya. . . . They added that Freeh should do thisbecause "she's one of us" or "she's part of us, " implying she was working for theRussian government. 2128 Freeh and the identified Associate Managing Director
did have a follow-up meeting with Veselnitskaya regarding both the Prevezon
case and the Magnitsky Act on an undisclosed date and then the two returned to
the United States. 2129
I(U) Among her other efforts, Veselnitskaya helped establish an organization called the
Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation (HRAGI). 2130 The Delaware-basedfoun~ation served in part as a platform for the influence campaign against the Magnitsky Act,and related sanctions, under the auspices of addressing' a retaliatory adoptions policy ·that was put
in place by Russia. 2131
(U) Veselnitskaya was involved in the production and promotion of a film that targeted
the Magnitsky Act and sought to exonerate the Russian government officials who perpetrated the$230 million fraud. The film played in Washington, D.C., on June 13, 2016. In her efforts,
Veselnitskaya significantly interacted with at least one member of Congress, Congressman Dana
Rohrabacher, both in Washington and in Mo~cow. Veselnitskaya also at various points worked

2121 (U)
2128

Ibid.
..
(U) Likely in early 2017, Freeh met with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions regarding Freeh's meeting in
Moscow about the Prevezon case and the Magnits Act. Sessions was re ortedl hesitant to et involved at thetime. The Prevezon case was settled in Ma 2017.

332

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYwith Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, and worked alongside numerous firms related to thePrevezon case and related matters, including BakerHostetler, Quinn Emanuel Urauhart &Sullivan, and Cozen O'Connor.2132(U) In addition to its work on the Magnitsky Act and adoptions, Veselnitskaya's HRAGI
was intended to have a broader mission to conduct cultural exchanges to improve Russia's image
in the United States. Such exchanges, while not inherently problematic, have been used by
Russian NGOs to facilitate· influence operations and recruitment by Russian intelligence
services. 2133 Although HRAGI signed a contract for services related to conducting cultural
exchanges, that effort never came to fruition, and the organization ultimately ceased
operations. 2134
(U) Veselnitskaya's work to counter sanctions legislation in the United States did nottake place in isolation. The Committee found that she has significant and concerning connections
to Russian government and· intelligence officials, and has not been forthcoming about thoserelationships.

2132(U) Veselnitskaya Tr., pp. 27-30, 72; Akhmetshin Tr., pp. 20-21, 61; SSCI interview with Anatoli
Samochornov, October 3; 2017, pp. 36-37. For more on Veselnitskaya's work with Simpson, see infra Vol. 5, Sec.
IV.B.
2133

oundation Contract

2134

an

Production); Akhmetshin Tr., p. 94.

213

333

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE....: RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

/

334 .

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

--

335

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

336

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY-(U) Veselnitskaya told the Committee that she established Kamerton Consulting, a law
firm, in 2003.2156 According to a press report, Veselnitskaya and Kamerton represented the FSB
between 2005 and 2013 in a real estate dispute. 2157·

2156(U) Vese mts aya Tr., p. 6.
(U) Maria Tsvetkova and Jack Stubbs, "Moscow lawyerwho met Trump Jr. had Russian spy agency as client,"
Reuters, July 21, 2017.
·

2157

337

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

. (U) Veselnitskaya also told the Committee that she represents Aras Agalarov on someissues, and has worked for him since 2013 or 2014. 2158 According to Kaveladze, "Ms.
Veselnitskaya represents Crocus in numerous real estate-related, land-related transactions."2159(U) Both Agalarov and Veselnitskaya are connected to Petr Katsyv. 2160

(U) Separately, Agalarov and Veselnitskaya both have close ties to Yuri Chaika, who
until 2020 was Russia's Prosecutor General. 2162 While Chaika was in that role Veselnitskaya
told the Committee that she was in contact with the Prosecutor General's office, and would
personally brief Chaika.2163 Chaika was a member of President Putin's Security Council, andRussian press reports have characterized him as part of part of the security establishment at ahigh level, along with Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev and head of the FSB
Aleksandr Bortnikov. 2164 Chaika likely has been involved in Russian influence activities, and his
son is sanctioned by the United States. 2165

2158(U) Veselnitskaya Tr., pp. 83-84. Irakli Kaveladze believed that she did not start representing Crocus until
after the June 9, 2016, meeting. Kaveladze Tr., p. 82.
2159(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 77.
2160
U Samochomov Tr. . 82· Kaveladze Tr. . 79.

(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 110; Brett Forrest and Paul Sonne, "Russian Lawyer Whom Trump Jr. Met Says She
Was in Contact With Top Russian Prosecutor," The Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2017; Samochomov Tr., pp. 5859.

2165(U) Treasury, "Umte States Sanctions Human Rights Abusers and Corrupt Actors Across the Globe,"
December 21, 2017.
2166
2167

338

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On January 8, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Veselnitskaya with
obstruction of justice related to the Prevezon case. 2171·
c. (U) Rinat Akhmetshin(U) Rinat Akhmetshin is a Russian-American lobbyist who has worked on a number offoreign lobbying efforts, some of which were undertaken with Veselnitskaya. Akhmetshin firstworked with Veselnitskaya on issues related to the Prevezon case.2172 Akhmetshin also worked
with Veselnitskaya through HRAGI, which was described previously, and on HRAGl's efforts
related to countering the Magnitsky Act. Akhmetshin told the Committee that after doing
research on Browder related to depositions in the Prevezon case, he had the idea to establish
HRAGI and proposed it to Veselnitskaya and her client in Russia, Katsyv. Akhmetshin said he
didn't know who the financial backers_ ofHRAGI were, but believed that Katsyv was one of thesmaller contributors.2173 In testimony to the Committee, Akhmetshin sought to downplay theextent and nature of his work for HRAGI. 2174--

2171 (U)

DOJ, "Russian Attorney Nata ya Vese mts aya Charged With O struction Of Justice In Connection with
Civil Money Laundering and Forfeiture Action," January 8, 2019.
2172(U) Akhmetshin Tr., pp. 4, 17-20.
2173 (U) Ibid.pp. 31, 33-34, 39-40; When asked who the HRAGI contributors were, Akhmetshin replied, "I do not
know. I was given-the director gave me the three names which I put for my form. I asked him for my LDA
registration I needed some names, which he gave me, and I put them down. I'm not aware of how much wascontributed and who contributed. I have three names, and Katsyv's among them." The other names or entities
provided on Akhmetshin's Lobbying Disclosure Act form are: Mikhail Pohomarev, Albert Nasibulin, Vladimir
Lelyukh and Berryle Trading Inc. Akhmetshin told the Committee he has never filed under the Foreign Agent
Registration Act. Akhmetshin Tr., p. 40.
2174 (U) Akhmetshin Tr., pp. 32. Akhmetshin's own description of the origins ofHRAGI made clear that it was
initially conceived as a method for sharing perceived derogatory information regarding William Browder and theMagnistky case, and that this is what interested Veselnitskaya and her clients when Akhmetshin proposed
establishing a foundation. Akhmetshin indicated that Browder and Magnitsky continued to be Katsyv's primary
motive, and that Katsyv had previously been unaware of the adoption issue. The adoption issue was used foroutreach to Congress to "target" offices that were engaged on the topic and "to tell the HRAGI story." Following
the 2016 election, less than a year after HRAGI was established, its funders in Russia lost interest and eventually"pulled the plug." Ibid. pp. 28, 38-39, 81-82, 94.

339

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee assesses that Akhmetshin has connections to the Russian
government, a Russian oligarch with ties to Putin, and to Russian intelligence. Ih several cases
these ties were more extensive than what has previously been publicly known. The Committee
found that Akhmetshin was not fully forthcoming in his testimony. , ,2175
2116 (U)l id.

(U) Ibid.
2178(U) Ibid., pp. 35-36
2179(U) Ibid., p. 37.
2111

340

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

2180
2181
2182
2183
2184
2185

341

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Akhmetshin has a history of allegations against him regarding hacking and the
dumping of stolen information as part of influence operations.2189

2186(U) Ibid., p. 47.
(U) Ibid., pp. 48-49.
2188
Akhmetshin Tr.,
2187

2189

342

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

2191

(U) Ibid., p. 40.
Ibid., p. 41.
2193 (U) Ibid.
2194(U) Ibid., p. 37.
2195(U) Ibid., p. 47.
2196(U) Treasury, "Magnitsky Sanctions Listings," April 12, 2013; Treasury, "Magnitsky Act-Related
Designations," December 20, 2017.
2192 (U)343

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) However, Akhmetshin testified to the Committee that he had never met Manafort inperson prior to the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, but he had known ofManafort due toManafort's work in Ukraine and their mutual relationship with Lanny Wiles. 2199

(U) Akhmetshin has been friends for 15 or 20 years with Sam Patten. Patten, in 2018,
pleaded guilty to being an unregistered foreign agent. 2201 Patten was a close business associateof Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence officer. 2202 Patten testified to the Committee that
Akhmetshin and Kilimnik have met, without Patten present, possibly more than once. The
nature of the meeting or meetings between Akhmetshin and Kilimnik, according to Patten,
related to then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych visiting New York. 2203 Akhmetshin told

2197

2200
2201

(U) Patten Tr., p. 134; Crimina Information, United States v. W Samuel Patten, Case No: 1: l 8-cr-260 (D.D.C.
August 31, 2018).
2202(U) For _more information on the relationship between Sam Patten and Konstantin Kilimnik, see infra Vol. 5,
Sec. III.A.
2203(U) Patten Tr., p. 141-142.

344

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE --RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

the Committee that he has also known Simpson for many years, and that they ha:ve had mutualclients like Prevezon, but they have never worked together. 2204
d. (U) Anatoli Samochornov(U) Anatoli Samochomov is arr interpreter. He was born in Russia in)968, and came to
the United States in 199 ~. He testified to the Committee that he has been interpreting
professionally since roughly 1997 and has worked as a subcontractor for the Department ofState, both as a program manager related to the International Visitor Leader~hip Program and as
an interpreter. Samochomov testified to the Committee that he has never worked for the FBI.
Samochomov has done some contract work for United Nations (UN) agencies, like UN AIDS
and UN Women, but has never worked formally for the UN itself.2205(U) Samochomov first met Natalia Veselnitskaya and Denis Katsyv in the fall of2015
when Samochomov was asked to fill in for a colleague to do deposition work related to thePrevezon case. 2206 In that capacity, Samochomov was interpreting for BakerHostetler and Quinn
Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, two law firms that were hired by the defendants. Following his
work on the Prevezon case,2207 Samochomov was approached by Veselnitskaya andBakerHostetler to continue doing interpreting work for HRAGI, and he accepted. 2208

ii.

(U) Origins and Foreknowledge of the June 9, 2016 Meeting(U) The effort to plan the June 9, 2016 meeting in Trump ,Tower likely began on June 3,
2016, and consisted of a phone call from Em.in Agalarov to Rob Goldstone. Goldstone testified
to the Committee:,'

On the morning of, I believe it was June 3rd {2016], Emin called me:.. and asked if
I could possibly contact "the Trumps, " was how he called them, because hisfather had met with a well-connected government lawyer in his office, who hadsome interesting information about illicit Russian funding to the Democrats andits candidate; and could I pass that on and get the meeting. . . . I asked him what
he was talking about, first of all. I said: "Could you articulate, what does thatmean? Who is this person?" -4nd he says: "It doesn't matter; all you need to do is
get the meeting. Ike [Kave/adze] will coordinate it. You don 't have to attend.
And you don't have to report back on it to me. You just have to get a meeting. "2204 .(U)Akhmetshin Tr., pp. 96-98.
(U) Samochomov°Tr., pp. 15-16, 9.
2206(U) Ibid, p. 9. For more information on the Prevezon case, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.C.5.i.
2207(U) Samochomov Tr., p. 10.
2208(U) Ibid., p. 17. For more information on the HRAGI case, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.C.5.i.
2205

345

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYAnd I simply asked if he could possibly articulate what it was that I was
supposed to be conveying. And he said again that she was very well-connected
and she had some potentially damaging information. .. I'm not even sure that hesaid 'she' at that point. He just said "a Russian lawyer. " I again asked: "Who is
this person?" And he said "Well-connected. " Again, I can be quite flip. I said:'Well, connected to what, the power grid? She must be connected to something. 'And he said 'Connected. ' And that was it. I pushed a few times on that and thatwas my final answer: The lawyer was well-connected. I then said: "You know,
this isn't your field of expertise, it isn't my field of expertise, and I'm not
comfortable. I don't know what you 're asking me to convey. They 're going to
ask me." And he said again: "There's information, it's potentially damaging to
the Democrats and Hillary, and I think you should contact the Trumps; my dad
would really like this meeting to take place. " My final statement on that, I justsaid to him: "I really don't want to do this; I know nothing about politics, you
don 't, and your father certainly doesn 't. " And he goes: "Please, just ask for the
meeting. You don't need to do anything else. "2209';(U) Kaveladze, who learned about the planned meeting shortly after Emin Agalarov
tasked Goldstone, told the Committee that the meeting was'Aras Agalarov's "initiative andproject" and that Aras Agalarov was "directly and personally involved."221 Kaveladze believedthat Aras Agalarov was doing a "favor" for "someone" by organizing the meeting. 2211 However,Kaveladze noted that "[w]hoever contacted Mr. Agalarov Senior, I don't know."2212 Kaveladze
explained that Emin Agalarov was only involved because Aras Agalarov would not contact
Goldstone directly, but would instead pass the message through Emin Agalarov. 2213°

(U) Emin Agalarov told the Committee that he did not know why, or for whom, hisfather wanted the Trump Tower meeting with Veselnitskaya to be set up, because Emin
Agalarov had not asked. Emin Agalarov stated that, "When my father asks, I cannot say no tohim," and that, "He is not the kind of guy you get to ask questions. And I wouldn't.... It
doesn't matter.· Ifl'm dying, I'm not going to ask him a question."2214

2209(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 157-160.
(U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 51-55; 83-85.
2211(U) Ibid, p. 84. Veselnitskaya told the Committee that Aras Agalarov was aware of her work and its
connection to high-level officials in the Russian government. Veselnitskaya Tr., 69-70.
2212(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 84.
·
2213(U) Ibid Goldstone similarly told the Committee that he was "never" tasked directly by Aras Agal.arov, butwould be asked to do things through a "chain of command" that either went through assistants, or through Emin ·Agalarov. Goldstone Tr., pp. 221-222.
2214•(U) E. Agalarov Tr., pp. 50, 58-59.
2210

346

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
(U) Later on June 3, 2016, after the phone call with Emin, Goldstone emailed to Donald
Trump Jr. with the subject line "Russia - Clinton - private and confidential.221 5
On Jun 3, 2016. at 10:36 AM, Rob Golds:cne

wroteGood morning
Emln just called and asked me to contact you with something very tntcreslmg.
The Crown prosecutor ol Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeung ottered to provide the Trump campaign withsome offtcial documents and Information that would incriminate Hillary and her deahngs v11th Russia and would be very useful to your father.
This is obviously very high level and sensrtIve inlormation but Is part of RusS10 and its governmenrs support tor Mr. Trump · helped along by
Aras and Emm.
Whal do you think Is the best way to handle this 1nformatton and would you be ai:Jle 10 speak to Emm about it directly?
I can also send this info to your father via Rhona but ll ls ultra sensitive so wanted 10 send to you 11rs!
Best
Rob GoldStonc(U) Goldstone testified to the Committee that his portrayal of the offer of derogatory
information being part of " Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump" was based on his
general assessment of Russian enthusiasm for Trump.2216 Goldstone told the Committee that at
the time he did not have any specific information to indicate that Veselnitskaya was connected to
the Russian government. Regarding his description of the "Crown prosecutor of Russia,"
Goldstone clarified that:[F]ederal prosecutors in England are called "crown prosecutors, " which is how 1
still refer to them. So when he told me that she was "well-connected," 1 made theassumption where she was connected to and that she was p robably federal interms ofany thing else. When 1 put "crown, " 1 was using my English expression
for a federal p rosecutor. ... 1 was infe rring that she was working/or thegovernment, because when 1 pushed 1 was told she's connected. 2211
(U) Goldstone further explained that he described the information as "ultrasensitive"
because " if somebody tells me that somebody may have damaging information on a potential
2218
presidential candidate, I believe it' s ultrasensitive, no matter what it is."(U) Minutes after Goldstone's email, Trump Jr. responded, suggesting that he speak with
Emin Agalarov directly and writing "if it' s what you say I love it especially later in thesummer." 2219

2215 (U)Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., June 3, 2016 (RG00006 l ).
Goldstone Tr., p. 167.
2217 (U) Goldstone Tr., p. 162- 163.
2218 (U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 169.
2219 (U) Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone, June 3, 2016 (RG000061).
2216 (U)347

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
From: Donald Trump Jr.
Subject: Re: Russia • Clinton • private and confidenhal
D.itc: June 3 , 2016 at 10:53 AM

To: Rob GoldstoneI

ThankS Rob I aweciale that. I am on the road at the moment bul perhaps I Just speak to Emin first. Seems we ha\'e some time and tt it's what
you R.1Y I love ii especially later 1n the summer Could we do a call first thing next week when I am baek?
Bes~

Don

(U) Trump Jr. told the Committee that " l love it" is a colloquial expression he frequently
uses to indicate being in favor of something. Trump Jr. stated that he probably wrote "if it' s
what you say" because he was skeptical. Trump Jr. stated that "[s]eems we have some time"
indicated that he was not in a rush to meet Goldstone. When asked if it was related to the timingof the upcoming general election, Trump Jr. responded, "I don't recall specifically what I was
thinking at the time." When asked why he indicated that he would love it "especially later in thesummer," Trump Jr. responded that it was "[b]ecause I had too much on my plate to deal with itat this time." However, Trump Jr. later said, "I don' t recall specifically again what I was
thinking."2220 Trump Jr. also explained that he wanted to speak with Emin first because he hadreceived "a rather sensational email from Rob, who r know to be a rather sensational kind ofguy" and as a result, Trump Jr. " didn' t know what to make of it." 2221
(U) Later that day, June 3, 2016, Goldstone emailed Emin Agalarov, telling him that
Trump Jr. wanted " to speak personally on the issue with you early next week." Emin Agalarov
replied: " Great." 2222
(U) At some point likely between June 3, 2016, and June 6, 2016, Paul Manafort, who
was serving as the Campaign's convention manager at the time, recalled that Trump Jr. had told
him either " in the hall or on the phone" that he "had been contacted by some people who had
worked with the Trump Organization for the Miss Universe Pageant and they had some
information that they wanted to share that could be helpful to the campaign."2223 Manafort
recalled in his interview with the Committee that Trump Jr. had indicated that the businessmen
were from Azerbaijan. 2224 Manafort explained that at the time Trump Jr. informed him of themeeting, he warned Trump Jr. that they "usually have an agenda of their own when they're

2220
2221

(U) Trump Jr. Tr., pp. 92-95.
(U) Ibid., p. 9 I.

2222

(U) Emails, Goldstone and E. Agalarov, June 3, 2016 (RG000061-62).
(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Paul Manafort, July 25, 2017, pp. 6-7.
2224(U) Ibid. Manafort has also said that Trump Jr. told him prior to the meeting that the individuals were comingfrom Russia, and that they had derogatory information regarding Hillary Clinton. See FBI, FD-302, Manafort
9/11/2018.
2223

348

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
coming from that part of the world."2225 However, Manafort also recalled that Trump Jr. told
him that they had ''worked with the Trump Organization and he was comfortable."2226(U) Records and testimony indicate a regularly scheduled "Family Meeting," which
included Trump family members and limited senior Campaign staff.2227 An entry in Manafort's
calendar indicates that a "Family Meeting" occurred at approximately 9:30 a.m. on the morningof June 6, 2016, on the 25 th floor of Trump Tower. 2228 The meeting was scheduled to take placein Trump Jr.' s office.

a(U) Rick Gates, who was serving in a senior position on the Campaign, recalled that at
regular morning meeting in the days leading up to the June 9, 2016 meeting, Trump Jr.
announced that he had a lead on negative information about the Clinton Foundation.2229 Gates
recalled that Trump Jr. said that the information was coming from a group in Kyrgyzstan andthat he was introduced to the group by a friend. 2230 Gates recalled that in addition to Trump Jr.,
Eric Trump, Manafort, and Hope Hicks attended the meeting, while Ivanka Trump and Jared
Kushner joined the meeting late.2231 According to Gates, Manafort warned the group that themeeting likely would not yield vital information and they should be careful.2232(U) Manafort recalled that, at the Family Meeting on June 6, Trump Jr. reminded
Manafort of the upcoming June 9, 2016.meeting. 2233 Manafort believed that Trump Jr. would nothave invited Manafort to attend unless Trump Jr. thought the meeting would potentially be
important.2234(U) Trump Jr. confirmed that there were regular morning meetings of Trump family
members and senior Campaign staff, though the frequency and attendees could vary. Trump Jr.
did not recall whether any Family Meeting took place the week of June 6, 2016. Trump Jr. also
did not recall discussing the Agalarov-related meeting during any meeting. 2235 Kushner told the222s (U)

Ibid.
Ibid.
2227
(U) Trump Jr. Tr. II, pp. 26-27; Email, Gates to Trump Jr., et al., June 6, 2016 (TRUMPORG_76_0029272940); SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 115.
2228
(U) Calendar, Paul Manafort, June 5-11, 2016 (DJTFP00022338).
2229(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 115.
'
2230 (U) Ibid.
2231(U) Ibid. Gates sent an email at 9:03 a.m. on June 6, 2016, about a "Family Meeting" that morning. The email
was sent to Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, and copies Paul Manafort, Corey Lewandowski,
Hope Hicks, and Jared Kushner. There are several attachments, including an agenda and items related to convention
speeches. Email, Gates to Trump Jr., et al., June 6, 2016 (TRUMPORG_76_002927-2940) ..
2232 (U) Ibid.
2233(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/11/2018.
2234 (U) Ibid.
2235(U) Trump Jr. Tr. II, pp. 25-31.

2226 (U)349

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY/COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Committee he remembered that Trump Jr. invited him to the June 9, 2016 meeting, but when
asked if Trump Jr. told him anything about that meeting prior to it, Kushner said that he did notrecall. 2236 Hope Hicks told the Co~ittee that she did not recall knowing about the meeting
prior to reading about it in the press.2237'\(U) The same day as the Family Meeting, Emin Agalarov emailed Goldstone, asking if
there was "any news" related to a possible call with Trump Jr. 2238 Goldstone replied that there
was no news yet, explaining that Trump Jr. would likely be available after "Super Tuesday,"when Trump would be "'crowned' the official nominee."2239 Goldstone told Agalarov he would
arrange the call with Trump Jr. at that time. 2240
(U) -Later that day, on June 6, 2016, Goldstone emailed Trump Jr., asking him to "[l]etme know when you are free to talk with Emin by phone about this Hillary info." 2241 Trump Jr.
responded, asking "could we speak now?"2242 Goldstone replied that he would try to "track him[Emin] down in Moscow" and asked what phone number Emin could use for the call. At 3:38
p.m., Trump Jr. provided his cell phone number. 2243
(U) At 3:43 p.m., Goldstone wrote to Trump Jr., "ok he's on stage in Moscow but should
be off within 20 Minutes so I am sure can call."2244 At 4:04 p.m., toll records indicate an
incoming call from a Russian phone number associated with Emin Agalarov connecting for two
minutes with the phone number Trump Jr. had provided Goldstone. 2245 At 4:31 p.m., toll records
indicate an outgoing call from the Trump Jr. phone number to the same Russian phone number,

2236(U) Kushner Tr. II, p. 32.
(U) Hicks Tr., p. 47.
2238(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Goldstone, June 6, 2016 (RG000063).
2239(U) Email, Goldstone to E. Agalarov, June 6, 2016 (RG000064).
2240(U) Ibid
2241(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., June 6, 2016 (RG000065).
2242(U) Email, Trump Jr., to Goldstone, June 6, 2016 (RG000065).
2243(U) Email, Trump Jr., to Goldstone, June 6, 2016 (RG000066f
2244(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., June 6, 2016 (RG000067).
2245(U) AT&T toll records, Trump Jr. (DJTJR00855). It is not clear whether this was a voice message or aconnected call.
2237

350

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYconnecting for three minutes.2246 At 4:38 p.m., Trump Jr. emailed Goldstone, stating only "Rob
thanks for the help." 2247 Goldstone responded, "A pleasure."2248;(U) Trump Jr. told the Committee that he does not recall speaking with Emin Agalarov
on the phone in this time period and does not remember either of the calls. 2249 Goldstonerecalled that Emin Agalarov initially did not remember the calls either, but that Agalarov later .
remembered that the call did happen and noted that it was short. Regarding the content of thecall or calls, Goldstone said that it was his understanding that "they would speak, and logic
would tell me that if they would speak they would speak about whatthe meeting was about," buthe had no specific knowledge of what was said.2250(U) Emin Agalarov has publicly described the call with Trump Jr.: "I said, 'Listen, there
are some people who want to meet you. They obviously want something that could potentiallyhelp them resolve things that you could be interested in, or maybe not. If you can spare fiveminutes of your time I'd be grateful. If not, no problem.' Obviously, Don Jr. being Don Jr. said,'Of course, I'll do it if you're asking me."2251 Agalarov told the Committee he did not remember
this call.2252(U) Separately, on June 6, 2016, Aras Agalarov contacted Kaveladze and asked him to
fly to New York the following day for an "important meeting."2253 Over the course of several
calls, Aras Agalarov instructed Kaveladze to contact Veselnitskaya and to meet her in advance ofthe meeting at Trump Tower to go over the topics that would be discussed. 2254 Follow~g theinitial call from Agalarov, Kaveladze called Veselnitskaya to coordinate the date and time ofth_eir meeting. Kaveladze told the Committee that, at that point, he had riot met or heard of
Veselnitskaya.2255

2246 (U)Ibid. On June 6 at 4:27 p.m., the Trump Jr. phone conducted a four-minute call with a blocked number.
Later, at 8:40 p.m., another eleven-minute call with a blocked number took place. Trump Jr. testified that he does
not remember the contents of either of the calls with the blocked numbers, or who those calls were with. Trump Jr.
Tr., pp. 111-112. The Committee was independently able to determine the identity of the two individuals involvedin these calls with Trump Jr., and that the calls were likely unrelated to the meeting requested by Emin Agalarov.
See AT&T Response to SSCI Subpoena, December 14, 2018 (ATTSSCIO000l).
2247 (U) Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone, June 6, 2016 (DJTJR00445).
2248(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., June 6, 2016 (DJTJR00445).
2249(U) Trump Jr. Tr., pp. 100-103, 114.
2250
(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 181-182.
,
2251 (U) HBO, "We spoke to Emin Agalarov about a conversation Donald Trump Jr. claimed to have forgotten,"Vice News, July 10, 2018.
2252 (U) E. Agalarov Tr., pp. 52-54. Agalarov told the Committee, "I do not deny that it could have happened. And
if it happened, this is exactly what I would say." Ibid. p. 54.
2253(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 52.
2254(U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 51-53, 58, 66.
2255(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 52.

351

(U) On June 7, at 12:44 p.m., the same Russian phone number previously identified as
being associated with Emin Agalarov called Trump Jr. for two minutes. 2256 Trump Jr. said he
had no recollection of that call. 2257
(U) Later on June 7, Goldstone emailed Trump Jr. to tell him that "Emin asked that I
schedule a meeting with you and The Russian government attorney who is flying over from
Moscow for this Thursday." 2258 Goldstone stated, "I believe you are aware.of the meeting - andso wondered if 3pm or later on Thursday works for you?"2259 About an hour later, Trump Jr.
· replied to Goldstone, offering "3 at our offices" for the meeting. 2260 ·Goldstone replied, stating"Perfect ... I won't sit in on the meeting, but will bring them at 3pm and introduce you etc."
Goldstone also noted that he would send the names of "the two people meeting with you forsecurity when I have them later today." 2261 Trump Jr. responded that it "will likely be Paul
Manafort (campaign boss) my brother in law and me."2262(U) During his calls with Aras Agalarov on the previous day, Kaveladze was told thatthe meeting would be with "Trump people," but that he was given no specifics regarding who
would attend. 2263 Initially, Kaveladze thought the meeting would be about business, and was
surprised when, on June 7, Aras Agalarov called and informed him that the meeting would be
about the Magnitsky Act. 2264 Kaveladze testified to the Committee that he was further confused
after receiving an email from Goldstone explaining that they would be meeting with Trump Jr.,
as well as Manafort and Kushner, who Kaveladze assessed to be "highly positioned
individuals."2265 Kaveladze recalled suggesting to Aras Agalarov multiple times that because
Veseinitskaya is a lawyer, they should be meeting with other lawyers.2266(U) Kaveladze explained that he was confused by the level at which the meeting was
taking place. Because of this confusion, Kaveladze recalled calling Beniaminov on June 7 tofind out more information. Kaveladze testified that he asked Beniaminov:

2256(U) AT&T toll records, Trump Jr. (DJTJR00855).
(U) Trump Jr. Tr., p. 102-103.
2258(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., June 7, 2016 (RG000068).
2259 (U) Ibid
2260
(U) Ibid; Goldstone emailed Irakli Kaveladze and Natalia Veselnitskaya, including Emin Agalarov, to confirm
that the meeting was set for June 9, 2016, at 3:00 p.m. See Email, Kaveladze to Veselnitskaya and Emin, June 7,2016 (RG000070).
2261(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., June 7, 2016 (RG000069).
2262(U) Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone, June 7, 2016 (RG000071).
2263(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 53.
2264(U) Ibid, pp. 52-53.
2265(U) Ibid, p. 58.
2266 (U) Ibid
2257

352

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY_"Roman, what's happening? Why are we meeting with these people to discuss
Magnitsky law?" [Roman's] response was he believes there's some negative
information on Hillary Clinton, [Veselnitskaya] 's bringing some negative
information on Hillary Clinton. And that was completely inconsistent with what
I'd heard before. 2267
(U) Kaveladze told the Committee that this was the first time he had heard that themeeting would be about "negative information" on Clinton, and that it "kind of scared the hell·out ofme."2268 According to Kaveladze, Beniaminov had learned this information fromGoldstone. 2269
(U) Kaveladze said that, on June 7, he strongly suggested to.-Aras Agalarov, again, thatthey meet with Donald Trump's attorneys, rather than the Campaign leadership, but he did notraise the derogatory information regarding Hillary Clinton.2270 At some point, on June 7 or June
8, Kaveladze received an email with a four-page document which was a synopsis, in Russian, ofwhat the meeting would be about. 2271 The document contained a series of allegations regarding
the Magnitsky Act, Bill Browder, the Ziff brothers and donations to the Democratic party.2272
According to Kaveladze, the document also contained the allegation that some of these actors
could be financing Clinton's campaign as well. The document was sent to Kaveladze by anassociate of Aras Agalarov, potentially a secretary. 2273
(U) Veselnitskaya told the Committee that her primary motivation was to get the U.S.
Congress to investigate Browder and the basis for the Magnitsky Act. 2274 In that effort,

2267(U) Ibid., p. 60.

226s (U)2269 (U)Ibid.
.
Ibid., pp. 60--61. Beniaminov testified that while he did generally hear about the June 9, 2016 meeting fromGoldstone prior to it taking place, regarding pre-meeting communications with Kaveladze, Beniaminov said, "I
don't recall any. That is not to say that they didn't happen. I don't particularly recall." Beniaminov Tr., p. 228229.
2270(U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 55-56.
2271(U) Ibid., pp, 62-63.
2272 (U) The Ziff brothers are American investors. See Juliet Chung, "Ziff Brothers Investments Set to Gradually
Close U.S. Hedge Fund," Wall Street Journal, October 31, 2013.
2273 (U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 62--63. The Committee showed Kaveladze a similar document, written in English anddated May 31, 2016, which was published by Foreign Policy just two days before his interview. See Elias Groll,"Here's the Memo the Kremlin-Linked Lawyer Took to the Meeting with Donald Trump Jr.," Foreign Policy,
October 16, 2017. Kaveladze testified: "It sure looks like it. Yes, it's definitely very close to what I read in
Russian." Ibid., pp. 62--63, 65.
2274 (U) Veselnitskaya Tr., p. 31. Kaveladze told the Committee, "The Russian government was trying to repeal theact as well. My understanding was that certain important people got sanctioned under that Act and goverrµnent was

353

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Veselnitskaya was 'looking for help developing contacts in the United States who could assist her
campaign. She told the Committee, "In one of those conversations with some other client ofmine-the name of the other client was Mr. Aras Agalarov-he mentioned, he said: Well, let'stry."2275(U) Veselnitskaya told the Committee:
I know that Aras Agalarov knows that I'm involved in a number of investigations;that it's been·quite a long time that I've been involved in the investigation into
Mr. Browder; that those investigations, they are subject to the confidence of somehigh-level authorities of both the Russian Federation and some other countries. I·told to Aras that; I reported about this case and about this story; I reported
personally to the prosecutor general of the Russian Federation, that he received
me:2216·-(U) Additionally, Veselnitskaya claimed:[N]obody told me that I was going to meet Trump campaign, 2277 and I neverasked anybody for that. . . . The point was about a private meeting with a friendof my client's son, that's all . . . . I don't know exactly who was the one who
agreed the particular date and place. But what I was told, correspondingly, Aras,
my client, when he reacted to my request to think about how he might help me,with whom he might introduce me to in the United States, he gave me the contact
details of an individual in the United States, Mr. Irakli Kave/adze. He is a
Russian speaker. 2278
(U) Veselnitskaya told the Committee that, over the course of s·everal days in late May or
early June, she spoke to Kaveladze several times. She stated:

When I was told that there is a chance for a meeting, I prepared a memo four
pages long, just in case if I would not be granted a visa and there would be no
chance for me to travel or, let's say, if there would be no need for a personal

trying and lobbying to try to repeal that Act, and she was trying, for [Katsyv], so there was an exchange andcooperation going on." Kaveladze Tr., p. 81.
2275(U) VeselnitskayaTr., p. 31.
\.
2276(U) Ibid, pp. 69-70. It is unclear, from the transcript, who "he" refers to in the final sentence of the quote ..
From context, "he" may refer to Aras Agalarov or Donald Trump Jr.; however the Committee has no further
information.
2277(U) Samochomov recalled in an interview that Veselnitskaya was excited for the meeting and treated it as a
special event. FBI, FD-302, Samochomov 7/13/2017.
2278(U) Veselnitskaya Tr., pp. 33-34.

354,

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYmeeting and it would be just enough to provide the information. For those cases,
I prepared kind of a memo. So in principle, I was even willing to just send overthe memo. 2279
(U) Early on the morning of June 8, 2016, Kushner emailed his assistant, stating "Lets[sic] try to get time this am to map out how I get my schedule back this week - too many nonessential meetings and I need time to do some things pro-active."2280 In particular, Kushnerasked his assistant to "discuss with me a 130 meeting today at Trump Tower and then a 3pm tomwith donjr."2281 When asked ifhe had discussed the upcoming June 9, 2016, meeting with his
assistant Kushner testified that he did not recall. 2282
(U) Later in the day on June 8, Goldstone received an email from Kaveladze, explainingthat Kaveladze had spoken to Veselnitskaya and that she was scheduled to be in court on themorning of June 9, and requested that the meeting be moved to 4:00 p.m., so as to not be late.2283
On June 8, at 10:34 a.m., Goldstone emailed Trump Jr. to request that the meeting be
rescheduled for 4:00 p.m. to accommodate the "Russian attorney."2284 At 11:15 a.m., Trump Jr.
responded, "Yes Rob I could do that unless they wanted to do 3 today instead ... just let meknow and ill lock it in either way. 2285 Ultimately, Goldstone and Trump Jr. agreed to meet on
June 9, 2016, at 4:00 p.m.2286(U) Shortly after this exchange, Goldstone emailed Trump Jr. again about the Russiansocial media platform VK. Goldstone wrote that he had been to Moscow recently and had "metwith the head of marketing for Russia's largest social media network VK." 2287 Goldstone statedthat "the subject of Russian American voters in the USA came up" and that the VK head of ·.
marketing "is keen to set up a Trump Campaign VOTE page on VK" whfoh would he targeted at
Russian and CIS voters in the United States and would "surely secure their·votes."2288 Goldstone
attached a VK "mock up" page displaying Trump's image and several of his public comments

2279(U) Ibid, pp. 34-35.
(U) Email, Kushner to Vargas, June 8, 2016 (NSSCIO00000lO).
2281 (U) Email, Kushner to Vargas, June 8, 2016 (NSSCIO00000I 1).
2282(U) Kushner Tr., p. 38.
2283(U) Email, Kaveladze to Goldstone, June 8, 2016 (RG000072).
2284 (U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., June 8, 2016 (RG000073).
2285(U) Ibid
2286(U) Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone, June 8, 2016 (RG000074).
2287 (U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., June 8, 2016 (RG000075-76).
2288(U) Ibid. CIS likely refers to Commonwealth oflndependent States.
2280

355

inserted into the profile. Goldstone said he would bring a print out the following day. 2289 The
Committee did not identify any email response to Goldstone' s message.
(U) After agreeing to move the time of the meeting back one hour at Goldstone's
request, Trump Jr. emailed Kushner and Manafort, forwarding the entirety of his email threadwith Goldstone about arranging the meeting. 2290
Paul

To;
Manafort

From:
Sent:
Wed 6/8/2016 12:02:35 PM
Importance:
NormalSubject: FW: Russia - Clinton - private and confidential
MAIL_RECEIVED: Wed 6/8/201.6 12:02:40 PM
Meeting got moved to 4 tomorrow at my offices.
Best,

Don

(U) Kushner told the Committee that he "didn't have time to read every email" and that
he did not recall reading the subject line of the email, which read "FW: Russia - Clinton - private
and confidential."2291 Manafort responded to Trump Jr.'s email, writing only "[s]ee you
then."2292 Manafort told the Committee that he did not read the chain of earlier messages
between Goldstone and Trump Jr. 2293 Manafort told the Committee:
I never got any of those emails until the last one with the time change, which was
all that was relevant to me. If I had read down that I would have told him heshouldn't do the meeting, or I would have talked to our legal counsel and asked,
is this appropriate, something like that. . . . In other words, I don't know what a"crown prosecutor" is, but I wouldn't have told him to do a meeting with agovernment, any government official, unless legal had vetted it. 2294

2289(U) Ibid The introductory nature of Goldstone's email suggests that the initial connection to Scavino in
January 2016 had not progressed. Goldstone's email again included a basic message from Sidorkov at VK, though
this one also contained a sample VK page for Donald Trump that Sidorkov had sent to Goldstone. Ibid
2290
(U) Email, Trump Jr. to Kushner and Manafort, June 8, 2016 (NSSCI00000014).
2291(U) Kushner Tr., pp. 40-41; Statement of Jared C. Kushner to Congressional Committees, July 24, 2017.
2292(U) Email, Manafort to Trump Jr., June 8, 2016 (DJTFP000l 1895).
2293(U) Manafort did receive the full chain of emails, but the documents provided to the Committee do not indicate
whether or not he read the prior emails. Ibid.
2294(U) Manafort Tr., p. 30.

356

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee sought to understand the extent of Trump's foreknowledge of theJune 9, 2016, meeting, if any.
(U) On June 7, several days after Goldstone's offer of information to Trump Jr. andseveral hours after Trump Jr. confirmed the June 9, 2016 meeting with Goldstone, then-candidate
Trump publicly stated, "I'm going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week andwe're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons. I think
you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting."2295 That speech did not
happen as scheduled.

(U) Stephen Miller, who worked on the Campaign, told the Committee that the speechreferenced by Trump may have been postponed due to the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida.
According to Miller, the speech that was originally planned for Monday, June 12, later took
place at the Trump SoHo hotel. 2296 Miller recalled working. on the speech, an:d said that it was
heavily based off of the book "Clinton Cash," and was not based on anything Russia-related.2297
This is consistent with Trump's written answers to questions from the SCO. The SCO "did not
find evidence that the original idea for the speech was connected to the anticipated June 9
meeting or that the change of topic was attributable to the failure of that meeting to produce
concrete evidence about Clinton."2298·m(U) Michael Cohen testified to the Committee that he was present Trump's officewhen Trump Jr. came into the office and, in a manner that was uncommon, walked toward theback of Trump's desk and leaned over and quietly said, "The meeting. It's all set."2299 Cohen
recalled that Trump replied, "Okay. Keep me posted."230 Cohen has also said that, "Trump Jr.·
said to Trump that he was setting up a meeting in order to get dirt on Hillary Clinton." Cohen
said that Trump responded with words to the effect of, "That's great. Let me know." 2301

°

2295

(U) Daniel Halper, "Trump to Give Major Hillary Speech Monday," Washington Examiner, June 7, 2016.
(U) On June 22, 2016, then-candidate Trump delivered a speech at the Trump Soho Hotel that fits Miller's
general description. Benjy Sarlin and Alex Seitz-Wald, "Donald Trump Tries to Reset Race With Hillary Clinton
Onsiaught," NBC News, June 22, 2016. This topic is additionally addressed in President Trump's written responses
to questions from the SCO. SCO Report, Appendix C, C-11-15.
.
2297(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Stephen Miller, June 15, 2018, pp. 79-80.
2298(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 116. Jared Kushner said that he did not have any information on why the speech wasplanned at that time, nor did he have any information about how the speech would focus on the Clintons. Kushneralso did not recall working on any such speech, but said that if there was a speech like that he probably would have
known about it. When asked if the speech had any relationship to Goldstone telling Trump ir. that he would bereceiving incriminating information about Clinton, Kushner said that he did not know. Kushner Tr. II, pp. 39-40.
2299(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 9.
2300(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 9.
2301(U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 8/7/2018.
2296

357

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Cohen testified to the Committee that he recalled that other people were in the office ,at the time, but could not recall who, and that it seemed as if Trump Jr. was trying to keep themeeting a secret.2302 Cohen said that, at the time, he did not know what meeting Trump Jr. wasreferring to, and did not ask because he did not feel it was appropriate. 2303 Cohen testified that it
was only after he saw news reports regarding the June 9, 2016 meeting that he made theconnection to the exchange between Trump Jr. and Trump. Cohen believed Trump Jr. wasreferring to the June 9, 2016 meeting, but Cohen referred to his belief as "speculation." 2304
Cohen has stated that the interaction between Trump Jr. and his father took place in early June
2016, but the timing of what Cohen remembers remains somewhat unclear. 2305~.

(U) Trump Jr. told the Committee he did not recall informing his father of efforts by the
Agalarovs to arrange a meeting during the campaign, and believed Trump first learned of theJune 9, 2016 meeting in July 2017. 2306 Kushner testified that he did not have reason to believethat Trump Jr. had informed Trump of the meeting prior to it taking place. 2307
(U) Paul Manafort's calendar for June 9, 2016, shows that he was scheduled to meet with
Trump at 10:30 a.m. 2308 Similarly, President Trump stated in response to written questions from

2302

(U) Cohen Tr. II, 8-11.
(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 11-12.
2304(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 8.
2305(U) On August 7, 2018, Michael Cohen told the SCO that the exchange between Trump Jr. and Trump occurredon June 6 or June 7, 2016. SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 115. On February 27, 2019, Cohen told the U.S. House ofRepresentatives' Committee on Oversight and Reform that the exchange happened "probably in early June 2016."
House Committee on Oversight and Reform Transcript of the Interview with Michael Cohen, February 27, 2019.
However, on February 26, 2019, the day before his House testimony, Cohen told this Committee that he did notrecall when the interaction took place. Cohen Tr. II, pp. 9-10, 375. The Committee was unable to resolve thisdiscrepancy.
·'
2306(U) Trump Jr.'s level of insight regarding his father's knowledge during the campaign is unclear. He told theCommittee that during the campaign, contact with Trump "could be anywhere from a couple times a day to not
speaking for a week. It really depended. But like I said, once things got into full motion, I wasn't with him very
often. And I didn't need to speak to him. He's not a small-talk kind of guy. So I knew what I needed to do, heknew what he needed to do, and we executed those roles. But you don't call my dad to say 'Hey, what's up?' in the
midst of everything that's going on. That's just not what he's into." Trump Jr. Tr., pp. 26-27. Steve Bannon, who
was an informal advisor to the Trump campaign at the time, has been quoted as saying that there was no chance
Donald Trump Jr. didn't take the meeting participants to meet his father while they were in Trump Tower. Tucker
Higgins, "Steve Bannon says he's certain that Trump met with Russians who were at Trump Tower in 2016,"
CNBC, January 3, 2018. When asked about that statement Bannon did not deny saying it, but told the Committeethat he did not know if Donald Trump Jr. made the introduction to his father and had no additional information on
the topic. Bannon Tr., p. 36.
2307(U) Kushner Tr. II, p. 37.
2308(U) Calendar, Manafort, June 5-11, 2016 (DJTFP00022328).
2303

358

the SCO, "My desk calendar indicates I was scheduled to meet with Paul Manafort on themorning of June 9, but I do not recall if that meeting took place."2309(U) Manafort told the Committee that he never spoke to Trump about the June 9, 2016
meeting. 2310 According to the SCO, Manafort also did not recall "anyone informing candidate
Trump of the meeting, including Trump Jr." 2311 Trump's written responses to questions from the
SCO state, "I have no recollection of learning at the time that Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort,
or Jared Kushner was conside,ring participating in a meeting in J~ne 2016 concerning potentiallynegative information about Hillary Clinton."2312(U) The Campaign participants in the June 9, 2016 meeting, who were senior officials on
the Campaign, each took the time to participate in the meeting, even after it was rescheduled the
day before and despit~ their purportedly busy schedules. The Committee sought to understand
why they prioritized the meeting.
(U) Kushner testified that the campaign was fast-paced, that his schedule was very full,and that the volume of incoming emails and meeting requests was a challenge.2313 Similarly,
Manafort told the Committee that his "schedule was totally full, from like 7:00 in the morning tolate at night. And there were no meetings setting up meetings. It was me just going frommeeting to meeting to meeting based on subject matter."2314(U) Both Kushner and Manafort testified to the Committee that they attended themeeting on June 9, 2016, because Trump Jr. invited them. Kushner testified that, "If Don asksme, then I would do it, 100 percent," and said that he would attend all meetings that Don Jr.
invited him to.2315 Manafort testified that Trump Jr. often set up meetings for the Campaign, "Hewould typically say, these people might be helpful; let's meet with them and you figure itout."2316(U) Manafort told the Committee:
Well, as has been reported, I have some experience in that part of the world[Russia and the former Soviet Union]. If they were going to be coming.from
Azerbaifan, which is-even though Don said they worked in Moscow, I assumed

2309(U) SCO Report, Appendix C, C-14.
(U) Manafort Tr., p. 27.
23
11_(0) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 116.
2312
(U) Ibid, Appendix C, C-13.
2313(U) Kushner Tr., pp. 41--42.
2314(U) Manafort Tr., pp. 9-10.
2310

2315

2316

(U) Kushner Tr., p. 39; Kushner Tr. II, p. 40.
(U) Manafort Tr., p. 7.

359

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

they were coming.from Azerbaijan- they probably had an agenda. What it was I
had no idea. But Don vetted them really, as far as I was concerned, when he said
that they worked for the [Trump] Organization. So my experience when Don had
asked me to meet with people up to that point was very positive. So I-in the end,
I didn't know why they'd be coming all the way from Azerbaijan to give us
information helpful to the campaign. 2317
(U) Despite having advance knowledge of the upcoming meeting with Donald Trump Jr,that meeting was omitted from Paul Manafort's calendar as of the morning of June 9, 2016. 2318
(U) When asked why the June 9, 2016 meeting warranted the time of three senior
members of a Campaign, including its chairman, Kushner testified that it was "not uncommon"for the senior Campaign staff to be in each other's meetings, and to 'jump in and out all the timeofdifferent meetings." 2319 Regarding the day-ahead rescheduling request, Kushner told theCommittee that, "My schedule was always something that was in flux. We were always moving.
You move something back, you move something forward. That's just how it would happen. " 2320
(U) Despite the Campaign being very busy, and Trump Jr. being unsure of theinformation, Trump Jr. testified that he thought it was worth it to include Kushner and Manafort
in the·meeting to hear the Russian lawyer out. Trump Jr. told the Committee that, "ifwe were in
the same place, in the same building at the same time, it would be common practice to say: 'Hey,
this is going on now; maybe drop by.' Paul obviously had a lot more experience in this stuff
than I did."2321 When asked what "this stuff' referred to, Trump Jr. told the Committee,"Campaigns generally. He was the campaign manager. I thought we should listen and then we
could decide what, if anything, to do."2322(U) Kushner testified to the Committee that the Campaign took many different kinds ofmeetings:

2317(U) Ibid, pp. 16-17.
(U) Email, Hagan to Manafort and Gates, June 9, 2016 (DJ1FP00022347-22349).
2319(U) Kushner Tr., p. 36.
2320(U) Kushner Tr. II, p. 33.
2321(U) Trump Jr. Tr., p. 123. Michael Cohen told the Committee that, in his opinion: "The reason why Jared andManafort were in that meeting is because Mr. Trump would never have allowed Junior to be in that meeting byhimself. Mr. Trump was very quick to tell everybody that he thinks Don Jr. has the worst judgement of anyone he's
ever met in the world. And I can assure you that when that meeting, conversation, took place, that Mr. Trump
turned around and said: Make sure that Jared and Paul are part of the meeting. Because he would never let Don Jr.
handle that meeting by himself." Cohen Tr. II, p. 376; Cohen's statement is notable only because of the access-he
had to the individuals involved, including Trump, at the time of meeting. The Committee did not find informationthat corroborate's Cohen's statement, and did find information that contradicts it. ·2322(U) Trump Jr. Tr., p. 124.
2318

360

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Some meetings that we expected would be worthless turned out to be phenomenaland some of the meetings we thought would be phenomenal turned out to be
worthless. But we figured it out at the end of the day. And we, I think again, by
running a very entrepreneurial campaign, we looked at a lot of different things
and then tried to come up with new ways to make things happen. 2323

iii.

(U) The Events of June 9, 20162324(U) On the morning of June 9, 2016, Anatoli Samochomov, the interpreter, met
Veselnitskaya at her hotel in New York. During their drive downtown, Samochomov learned
that they would be meeting with Trump Jr. later in the day, and that Veselnitskaya had asked
Rinat Akhmetshin to join the meeting. Veselnitskaya, who was on a phone call, handed
Samochomov one of her phones and asked him to translate and transcribe a text message, which
she dictated, asking that Akhmetshin be added to the meeting. Samochomov did not' know towhom the text message was being sent.2325(U) Samochomov told the Committee:
I wasn't told anything. I was only told: I have a meeting with Donald Trump
Junior. It was a pretty busy day because between the appellate court and themeeting, that really-there wasn't sort of a lot of time for social chit-chat kind ofthing. So it was really busy. And she tended to work on-she had several phones,
so she tended to work her phones quite extensively, and calling to Russia. So very
often she did her thing and I was with her, but I was on my phone. Kind of wewere not engaged in any kind of conversation. So in the car ride, I remember thatthat was when I learned that there was going to be a meeting, and I remember
typing the message to add Mr. Akhmetshin.... ·sometimes she would tell mewhat
would be the schedule. Other times she would just ask me to come at 9:00 a.m. at
the hotel and I would not know the specific agenda. And her schedule changed alot. That particular day, I was just told to come for a specific time, specificplace.2326

2323(U) Kushner Tr., p. 37.
(U) As previously noted;there are significant discrepancies in the memories of the participants in the June 9,
2016, meeting on a range of issues, including basic facts like who was present and what language was spoken. The
Committee was often unable to reconcile ~hese numerous discrepancies; in part due to a lack of documentary
evidence. Where possible the Comm1ttee has endeavored to note the inconsistencies;
2325(U) Samochomov Tr., pp. 44--48.
2326(U) Samochomov Tr., pp. 46--47.
2324

361

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Samochornov said he was surprised when he was informed that they would bemeeting with Truinp Jr., and that it was "unusual."2327(U) Separately, on the morning of June 9, Akhmetshin took the Acela Amtrak train from
Washington, D.C., to New York City. He told the Committee he planned to be in New York toattend a play. After checking in at his hotel, he remembered receiving a call from Veselnitskayaasking him to join her for lunch. 2328 According to Akhmetshin, "She said, 'can' you come?' I
knew that-she said: 'I want to discuss something importan~.' 1)1e fact that she didn't say it on
the phone, I thought that was something that was important and I understood, and I came."2329(U) Samochornov told the Committee that Veselnitskaya wanted to go to a particular
restaurant, which is close to Trump Tower, for lunch. 2330 At the lunch they were joined by Irakli
Kaveladze and possibly Akhmetshin. 2331 It was Samochornov's understanding that Kaveladze
was meeting the other participants for the first time, and that he worked for Russian asso_ciates of
Trump and Trump's family. 2332
c(U) Kaveladze's flight to New York arrived around 7:00 a.m. on June 9, and after
checking in at his hotel, he waited for the lunch with Veselnitskaya. The Trump Tower meeting,and the lunch meeting prior to it, was the only purpose for Kaveladze's trip to New York. At thelunch, Kaveladze was primarily concerned with reviewing the updated meeting materials that
had been emailed to him by an associate of Aras Agalarov. He recalled:[Veselnitskaya] was I believe 40 minutes late. She was pretty late for the meeting[at the restaurant]. ... I know we had a very limited amount of time because,
according to Mr. [Aras] Agalarov, she·would have some more detailed
presentation and I needed time to study it. . . . So I was a bit nervous that we 're
not going to have much time to read it because she was running late. Eventually
she showed up. She showed up with a translator, which was news to me. I
thought I would be a translator during the meeting. A gentleman named Anatoli
Samochornov. Then she gave me some documents and pages and gave me 10
minutes to 15 minutes to study it, which I studied, and it was a detailed version of

2327(U) Ibid, p. 48.
(U) Akhmetshin Tr., pp. 24-25.
2329(U) Ibid, p. 49.
2330(U) Multiple participants recalled the lunch meeting talcing place at Nello, a restaurant in New York.
2331(U) Kaveladze had a specific memory of meeting Akhmetshin after lunch, on the way to Trump Tower, but not
at the restaurant. However, Akhmetshin had a specific memory of meeting the group at the restaurant.
Akhmetshin's recollection is consistent with Samochomov's.
2332(U) Samochomov Tr., pp. 48-50.
2328

362

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

that initial. There was no new information, which kind of calmed me downbecause I realized there's none of those bad things which I was afraid o/ 2333 ·(U) Kaveladze said that the "bad things" that he was concerned about related to the"negative information on Hillary Clinton" that he had heard of from Beniaminov. However,Kaveladze said the updated document was about the Magnitsky Act and contained more details
about William Browder, not about Clinton.2334 Kaveladze recalled that the document he reviewed ·was 10-11 pages and was written in Russian. 2335
(U) Akhmetshin remembered arriving at the restaurant as the others were finishing, andspent approximately 20 minutes there. He recalled an interact~on with Veselnitskaya at therestaurant:,

And she tells me: "Guess what? I'm going to 'see Trump Junior. " I said: "Wow. "I was surprised that she was able to get it. Then she said: "What do you think I
should tell him?" And I tell her this whole-throughout the primaries there's a· big-already the issue ofUS.-Russia relations, and there was a lot of-Hillary
was obviously very negative about this stuff, and then he seems to say goodthings. I said that Magnitsky is perfect for this. I thought that to make Magnitsky
as a campaign issue would be interesting. It really wouldn 't take-it took me afew hours to figure this o.ut. Just anyone could start looking at how this wholething came together and figure it out, that it's a fabrication. And it would beeasy, low-hanging fruit-adoption. 2336
(U) Akhmetshin felt that he did not need to review the documents that Veselnitskayabrought with her because he assumed that they covered issues that he had heard Veselnitskaya
discuss previously, and believed he was already familiar with the documents' contents.2337 He
believed that the documents were written in English. It was Akhmetshin's assumption that
Veselnitskaya planned to distribute these documents at the upcoming meeting. 2338

2333(U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 68-70.
(U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 70, 72.
2335(U) Senate Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with Irakli Kaveladze, November 3, 2017.
2336(U) Although Akhmetshin seemed to suggest that the linkage between Clinton and Magnitsky themes originatedwith him at the lunch, this is inconsistent with timing of the meeting materials prepared on May 31, 2016, which 'already mentioned the Clinton Campaign. Akhmetshin Tr., pp. 50-51.
2337(U) Regarding the source ofVeselnitskaya's information, Akhmetshin told the·Committee: "I assume that she.
used professional help in obtaining this information. There are numerous-I believe that she used-there are many,
many private intelligence, due diligence firms. My understanding is the majority of information comes from cyber;so there are firms who just specialize in cyber, cyber and corporate entities. So I don't think she's capable, although
I learned not to assume anything these days." Akhmetshin Tr., p. 115.
2338
(U) Akhmetshin Tr., pp. 53-54, 57-58.
2334

363

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Samochomov recalled that because everyone at the lunch· spoke Russian, he was notneeded as an interpreter, but participated in the conversation. He and Akhmetshin both
remembered that Browder was a focus ·of the lunch. 2339 Following lunch the group walked to
Trump Tower. 2340

(U) At Trump Tower the group met Goldstone. 2341 Goldstone was meeting
Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin, and Samochomov for the first time. Kaveladze and Goldstone knew
each other because KaveladzeI worked for Aras Agalarov and Goldstone worked for Emin
Agalarov, but they were not close. Kaveladze said that Goldstone had previously spoken ofGoldstone's relationship with, and access to, the Trump family. Given Goldstone's role inarranging the 2013 Miss Universe contest in Moscow, which Trump was involved i~, Kaveladze
believed Goldstone. Kaveladze stated, "Besides, after that email [to Donald Trump Jr.], after, what I saw, the three key figures of the Republican Party electoral campaign attending a meetingwith some strange lawyer, yes, that definitely made me believe in the power of Rob Goldstone,
believe me." 2342
(U) After very brief introductions in the lobby of Trump Tower, the group, led byGoldstone, went through security and up to the 25 th floor. Only Goldstone's identification was
requested. 2343 Goldstone did not intend to stay for the meeting, but recalled that after Trump Jr.
arrived and Goldstone made introductions, "I said: 'I'm leaving.' And he looked at me and hegoes: 'You don't need to leave; just sit, and you'll take them out at the end,"' and Goldstone
agreed. 2344

(U) According to Samochomov:
I

There is a lobby and it's kind of a glass wall that separates the lobby from theconference room. We were met there in the lobby and ushered into theconference room pretty much straightaway. . . . I remember that the room had a
glass wall and it is a corner room that overlooks Fifth Avenue and 57th Street.

2339(U) Ibid., p. 53; Samochornov Tr., p. 50.
(U) Kaveladze recalled Akhmetshinjoining the group during the walk from lunch to Trump Tower. Kaveladze
had previously been unaware that Samochornov and Akhmetshin would be joining the meeting, and attempted to
notify Goldstone of the additions to the group not knowing that Veselnitskaya had already communicated theserequests to Goldstone directly. Kaveladze Tr., pp. 70--71, 87.
2341(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 191-192.
2342(U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 58, 73-74.
2343(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 88; Goldstone Tr., p. 193; Samochornov Tr., p. 54. Akhmetshin also remembers not.presenting any identification; however, he remembers meeting Goldstone after taking the elevator up. AkhmetshinTr., p. 65.
2344(U) Ibid., p. 194.
2340

364

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYAnd I believe there was a table either throughout the perimeter of the room or it
was kind of a ... horseshoe table. But it was sqz,are. There w~re no corners.
And there were two entrances into the room, the left and the right. I recall us
entering through the left side, and we were met by Donald Trump Junior and I
believe Mr. Manafort, and exchanged cards, exchanged pleasantries, and wewere sat down ... Mr. Akhmetshin, Ms. Veselnitskaya, and myselfsat to the left
side,facing-with our backs to the wall,facing 57th Street and the other side of
the table. Mr. Donald Trump Junior and Mr. Manafort were at the head of thetable. 2345
(U) Samochomov recalled that Kushner sat across the table. 2346
(U) According to Goldstone:[W]e were introduced there [in the large conference room at Trump Tower]. I'dnever met Jared Kushner or Paul Manafort before, so we were introduced andseated. And I sat next to Jared Kushner on one side, the Russian grouping sat on
the other side, and at the head of the table was Don and Paul Manafort.... At
first ,it was "How do you do" and nods, and then the Russian grouping introduced
themselves and who they are and what they are. 2347
(U) Irakli Kaveladze recalled that Goldstone and he were not introduced to the group.
He also said that the Trump Campaign participants were not introduced. Veselnitskaya"introduced herself as a private attorney," Akhmetshin was introduced "as a lobbyist andproponent of the anti-Magnitsky Act actions," and Samochomov was introduced "as atranslator. " 2348
(U) Seve,ral participants, on both sides of the meeting, told the Committee they were
surprised by the size of the group. Akhmetshin had only expected Trump Jr., and not Manafort
and Kushner. 2349 On the other side, Trump Jr., who had not received an updated attendance list
from Goldstone, was surprised by the number of attendees who arrived with Veselnitskaya.2350

2345(U) Samochomov Tr., pp. 57-58. While in some respects Samochomov's memory is specific, the Committee
notes that he also stated, "I do not remember Mr. Kaveladze or Mr. Goldstone at that meeting. I do remember that
there were other people there. My recollection was that there were eight, maybe more, people." Ibid., p. 58.
2346(U) Samochomov Tr., pp. 57-58.
2347(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 195.
2348
(U) Senate Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with Irakli Kaveladze, November 3, 2017, pp. 39-

42.

~

-

2349

(U) Akhmetshin Tr., p. 71.
2350(U) Trump Jr. Tr., p. 131.

365

(U) Akhmetshin told the Committee that after the introductions and some brief small
talk, which included congratulations on securing the nomination, the meeting got underway.
Trump Jr. remembered that the 4:00 p.m. meeting generally started on time. 2351 Akhmetshinrecalled that Trump Jr. "was very courteous, very polite, I would say. He asked Ms.- ,Veselnitskaya: So, what brings you here? We hear you have some important information for the
campaign."2352·'(U) According to Samochomov:

Then Ms. Veselnitskaya took the floor and she delivered a speech which I
interpreted, which I think lasted for maybe three or four minutes. 2353 And shetalked about the research that she had uncovered as part of her research in Mr.
Browder, and her allegation was that the Ziff brothers, who are US. investors
who I believe now are UK investors, that they were Mr. Browder 's investors andthat they laundered money and did not pay taxes in Russia and the UnitedStates. 2354 She said that they were contributors either to the Democratic National
Committee or to Hillary Clinton. 2355·

(U) Samochomov told the Committee that he had heard Veselnitskaya present thisinformation previously, to the law firm Cozen O'Connor, and that Samochomov found it to be"completely unconvincing."2356 Trump Jr. told the Committee:
She started talking about-again, it was a little hard to tell because it wasn't
making all that much sense to me. And I don't know if that's because there
wasn't much there or because it was being lost in translation. But she started
talking essentially about some people who are American businesspeople, thatwere large contributors to either Hillary Clinton or the DNC, and how they werealso doing business in Russia and somehow managing to avoid paying taxes,
something to that effect, in either location, in Russia and-or the United States. 2357

2351(U) Ibid., p. 147.
(U) Akhmetshin Tr., p. 76.
2353(U) Kaveladze told the Committee that Veselnitskaya spoke for no more than 15 minutes, which withtranslation was 22 or 23 minutes. Kaveladze Tr., p. 98.
2354(U) Veselnitskaya Tr., p. 57. Goldstone recalled Veselnitskaya "reading from something or looking at somenotes" during her presentation, and Veselnitskaya told the Committee, "I prepared the Russian text on May 31, 2016... this document dated May 31, it very clearly states every single word that I was sharing verbally." The May 31
document referenced by Veselnitskaya was provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Goldstone Tr., p. 201.
2355
(U) Samochomov-Tr., p. 58. There was inconsistency among some of the participants regarding what language
Veselnitskaya was speaking. See ibid., pp. 19, 58; Kaveladze Tr., p. 201; Kushner Tr., p. 45.
2356(U) Ibid, p. 63.
.
2357(U) Trump Jr. Tr., p. 133.
2352

366

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Though Trump Jr. didn't recall specific qµestions being asked by the Campaign
participants in the meeting, he told the Committee that, "I do imagine there were questions asked
to say, what exactly are you getting at or saying?"2358(U) Akhmetshin told the Committe~ that, regarding Veselnitskaya's presentation, "Juniorsaid: 'That's very-interesting, but so could you show how money goes to Hillary's campaign?
Do you think it goes to Hillary's campaign or just DNC?' He said: 'Could you show us how themoney goes to Hillary's campaign?"'2359 Veselnitskaya recalled that Trump Jr., "asked aclarifying question, whether I had the financial records indicating that the particular funds thatwere obtained ... in the United States were transferred directly to Clinton Foundation."2360
When Veselnitskaya said that she did not have more information to share, and suggested that theCampaign continue its own research on the topic, Akhmetshin recalled, "I could tell the light
kind of went out of their eyes. They said, 'ah,' and kind oflike they checked out from this wholething."2361(U) Multiple participants described a growing level of both frustration anddisengagement from the Campaign participants over the course of the meeting.
(U) Kaveladze told the Committee:
I was sitting between Mr. Kushner and Mr. 'Manafort and at some point of time
Mr: Kushner looked very aggravated, very unhappy he was present there. ·He
asked a question. I don't know exactly how the question sounded, but the purposeof the question was: 'Why are we here? Why are we listening to this Mqgnitsky
Act story? 'So she then produced this whole Ziff Brothers, and she continued withthis vertical of ownership and they might be funding Hillary Clinton's campaign
as well; 'I know they 're strong supporters and donors of Democratic Party. '2362(U) Similarly, Goldstone recalled:

Then Jared said: 'I have no idea what you 're talking about, ' or words to that
effect. 'What are you saying? Can you be more specific? I don't understand. '2358(U) Ibid., p. 134.
(U) Akhmetshin Tr., pp. 77-78.
2360(U) Veselnitskaya Tr., p. 57.
2361(U) Akhmetshin Tr., pp. 77-78. Kaveladze recalled that Akhmetshin, rather than Veselnitskaya, suggested that
the Campaign continue researching the topic. Senate Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with Irakli
Kaveladze, November 3, 2017, p. 45.
2362(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 89. Veselnitskaya did not recall Kushner saying anything during the meeting.
Veselnitskaya Tr., p. 43.
2359

367

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY .

And she began the exact same presentation again, as ifalmost reading off a script... The exact same thing . .. The first bit, the alleged information she had about
Hillary or funding. We just heard what she was now saying again. 2363
(U) Samochomov has stated that Veselnitskaya believed the information about donations
could act as a "carrot." Samochomov believed that Veselnitskaya wanted to provide informationof benefit to both parties that could also advance her advocacy against the Magnitsky Act.
Samochomov said Veselnitskaya's focus at the meeting was on the Magnitsky Act, notadoptions. 2364
(U) Manafort has said that Veselnitskaya suggested that Trump call for the repeal of theMagnitsky Act, which she said hurt U.S.-Russia relations. Manafort also said that Veselnitskaya
offered to push to lift the Russian restriction on adoptions in exchange for Trump calling for the
repeal of the Magnitsky Act. 2365

(U) Samochomov recalled that Manafort seemed unimpressed by Veselnitskaya's
allegation regarding the Ziff brothers being donors to either Clinton or to the DNC.
Samochomov told the Committee, "Mr. Manafort said that 'this is noth~ng; people give money toall kinds of people.' Here [Veselnitskaya] kind of stumbled and she didn't know how tocontinue. I remember Mr. Manafort pretty much tuning out of the meeting, and I think was
looking at his phone. But he was seated sort of half-turned around to her."2366'(U) Akhmetshin recalled that Veselnitskaya then changed topics: "Then she said: 'But
you know, because of that, adoptions.' And then she goes through another five minutes on
adoption stuff. " 2367·
(U) Sensing that the meeting was not going well, Akhmetshin stepped in. 2368 "Then I
felt like already people. are uncomfortable, people checking their phones, typing on things. And I
feel like I need to just cut in this thing." 2369 Samochomov told the Committee:

Then Mr. Akhmetshin took the floor and [in English] he talked about thefoundation [HRAGI] and the fact that there is this chance. If there is an

2363(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 198.
(U) FBI, FD-302, Samochomov 7/12/2017.
2365(U) FBI, FD-302, Manafort 9/11/2018.
2366(U) Samochomov Tr., p. 59. Veselnitskaya did not recall Manafort saying anything during the meeting.
Veselnitskaya Tr., p. 59.
2367(U) Akhmetshin Tr., p. 78.
2368(U) See Samochomov Tr., p. 59 (recalling Akhmetshin speaking for 10 or 15 minutes); Akhmetshin Tr., p. 78(recalling speaking for 90 seconds). But see Goldstone Tr., p. 204 (not recalling Akhmetshin speaking).
2369(U) Akhmetshin Tr., p. 78.
2364

368

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYindependent review, then there is a possibility. that the Russians would release
those children that they are taking hostage, and that there could be a thaw in therelationship. 2370
(U) Trump Jr .. recalled this shift in direction:
That's sort ofagain when they went into, transitioned into: "Well, you may beaware that you can't adopt,Russian children anymore and that's a big thing forAmerican people. ".. .' It was sort of-it was: "Well, okay, forgef about that; youshould really help with (his because it's a sentimental thing that affects many
American families,· you may have heard of it. "2371(U) At 4:26 p.m., Kushner sent Manafort a text message, writing only "Waste oftime."2372 At 4:27 p.m., Kushner emailed one of his assistants with only the subject line, "Plscall my cell." Shortly after that, at 4:29 p.m., Kushner emailed a different assistant, this timewith the subject line, "Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting."2373
Kushner told the Committee: It wasn't because they were discussing anything that was inappropriate. Just
again we were operating at that point in time with more things to do than time to
do it. So when you get to something that didn't seem like it was productive, I justtried to bail out so I could get to a lot of the other responsibilities that I had. 2374
Trump Jr: said Kushner left a little mcire than halfway through the meeting to take a phonecall.2375(U) Manafort told the Committee that he was also considering leaving the meeting early
once it shifted from Veselnitskaya's initial presentation, but felt he could not after Kushnerdeparted. He recalled that, on the way out, Kushner said to him, "This is a waste of time." 2376

2370

(U) Samochomov.Tr., p. 59.
Trump Jr. Tr., p. 135.
(U) Text message Kushner to Manafort, June 9, 201,6 (NSSCI00000145); Manafort replied to Kushner, "Yes."
Text message Manafort to Kushner, June 9, 2016 (NSSCI00000145).
2373(U) Email, Kushner to Vargas, June 9, 2016 (NSSCI00000019-00000020).
2374(U) Kushner Tr., p. 35.
_
2375(U) Trump Jr. Tr., pp. 137, 151. Kaveladze did not recall Kushner leaving early. Kaveladze Tr., p. 97;
2376(U) Manafort Tr., p. 14.
23

71 (U)
2372

369

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Manafort said the meeting continued for five to ten minutes after Kushner left. 2377
Kaveladze recalled how the meeting concluded:

I remember the ending, Donald Trump Junior basically saying that: "Look, we 'reat the electoral stage; we 're not there yet; we don't know if we'll ever win thiscampaign; if we win the campaign, we could get back to the topic and continue
this topic, continue discussion; but at this point we 're busy with other things,
we 're in the electoral campaign. " So he politely stopped the meeting. 2378
(U) Trump Jr. told the Committee:

I think it became pretty apparent to me once they made that transition that thiswas a way for them to lobby me about some sort ofpolicy. We listened for a few
minutes, said it has nothing to do with us, we left. Rob Goldstone apologized tome on the way out. . . . The meeting really wasn't about anything that he said it
was going to be about. 2379
(U) It is not clear what time the meeting ended, though based on the memories of theparticipants it likely lasted about 30 minutes. 2380 The participants in the meeting had inconsistentmemories regarding what portion of the meeting was dedicated to Veselnitskaya's presentation

2377(U) Manafort took notes on his phone during the meeting. The iCloud file associated with Manafort's notes
was last modified at 4:28 p.m. on June 9, 2016. Manafort told the Committee, "I stopped taking notes when they
started talking about Russian adoptions." Manafort Tr., pp. 14, 21, 36; Manafort's notes from the meeting consistedof the following: "Bill browder / Offshore - Cyprus/ 133m shares/ Companies/ Not invest- loan/ Value in Cyprus
as inter/ Illici [should be "Illicit," according to Manafort] / Active sponsors ofRNC I Browder hired Joanna Glover[Should be, "Juleanna Glover," according to Manafort] / Tied into Cheney I Russian adoption by American
families." Notes, Manafort (PJM-SSCI-00000306-307).
2378(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 99. Veselnitskaya recalled, "He [Trump Jr.] said: Your story is very interesting. It can bevery exciting. And when or ifwe come to power, maybe we will get back to that exciting story. But at the current
phase, there is nothing that I can help you with and there is nothing that I can recommend to you. That was all.
That was how the meeting ended, and we exchanged the very common pleasantries and we parted." VeselnitskayaTr., pp. 62--63.
2379(U) Trump Jr. Tr., pp. 138-139.
2380(U) Samochomov had a specific memory of when the meeting ended. He told the Committee, "I remembei:here's a funny thing. I don't typically wear a watch, but that day I did. And I remember that when we went down
[to the lobby after the meeting] it was 25 minutes after.the hour [4:25 p.m.], and I remember the reason it stuck in
my mind is I thought that was quick." Samochomov Tr., p. 60. This recollection does not align with the timing ofKushner's emails to his assistants, and may be incorrect. Veselnitskaya told the Committee the meeting could havegone as long as 30 to 40 minutes, due to the simultaneous translation. Veselnitskaya Tr., p. 60. Kaveladze has also
estimated the total meeting time, with translation, being in that range. Kaveladze Tr., p. 97; FBI, FD-302,
Kaveladze 11/16/2017.

370

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

on the Ziff brothers, the DNC, and Clinton, and what portion was taken by the Magnitsky Act,
Browder, and Russian adoptions. 2381
(U) Despite the docum~nts that Veselnitskaya brought with her to the lunch, which she'may have read from during her presentation, the meeting participants did not recall any
documents being distributed or received at the meeting. 2382
(U) Kaveladze recalled that, as the group was leaving the conference room, they ran into
Ivanka Trump by chance: "We walk out into reception area. We're being greeted by lvanka
Trump. She said hello to everybody. We said hello to her .... She was just there. She said
hello. So we passed by her, go to elevator, go downstairs ...." 2383

(U) Participants on both sides of the meeting felt the meeting had not met expectations.
(U) Goldstone immediately called Emin Agalarov to tell him that the meeting wasembarrassing and that it had been about adoption, which surprised Agalarov. 2384 Goldstonerecalled apologizing to Trump Jr. as they were walking out of the meeting. Goldstone said that"allegedly there [was] going to be some big smoking gun," and that "I'd been told by my clientthat this person had damaging information, basically, about Hillary Clinton and funding and the
DNC," bµt the meeting failed to deliver that, which embarrassed Goldstone. 2385
(U) Kaveladze, in an email to a family member several days later, stated that "[the]meeting was boring. The Russians did not have any bad info [on] Hillary."2386 Kaveladze said
he believed repeal of the Magnitsky Act was the "true agenda" of the meeting, not adoption
issues.2387 Kaveladze told the Committee, "Look, [the Campaign participants] certainly were not

2381(U) Trump Jr. estimated that it was about evenly divided. Trump Jr. Tr., p. 148. Manafort recalled, "It was avery disconcerting-dysfunctional conversation. Every one of these points until the last point related to Browder,and they were attacking Browder. Most of the conversation was attacking the character of Browder. They were
trying to make him into a criminal businessman and therefore the Magnitsky Act was created to protect a lawyer fora criminal." Manafort Tr., pp. 20-21.
2382(U) See, e.g., Manafort Tr., p. 28; Samochomov Tr., p. 66; Trump Jr. Tr., p. 148.
2383
(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 105.
2384(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 208-209.
2385(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 207-208. Despite Goldstone being embarrassed, as the meeting participants werewalking out of the room, Goldstone recalled approaching Trump Jr. and Manafort again regarding VK. Goldstonesaid, "By the way, I have a friend who works for VK [VK.ontakte], which is Russia's version ofFacebook, wants toknow who the best person to send a project idea for Mr. Trump would be." According to Goldstone, he was told
Dan Scavino was the best point of contact. Ibid., p. 211. Trump Jr. told the Committee he does not recall thisinteraction. Trump Jr. Tr., p. 385-389.
2386(U) Email, Kaveladze to [A. Kaveladze], June 14, 2016. (KAVELADZE00227).
2387(U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 123-124.

371

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
interested in the Magnitsky law. I think the reason they were present in that room was Rob
Goldstone's [email]. They were certainly expecting something else, which they didn't get."2388(U) Manafort and Kushner both recalled speaking to Trump Jr. after the meeting.
Manafort told the Committee, "at some point, either that night or the next day, I told Don: That
was a total waste of time. And he agreed."2389 Kushner, who also characterized the meeting as a"waste of time" recalled, "Don and I joked about it after. We said, 'hey, that was kind of funny.'
But then you just move forward." 239 Kushner told the Committee, "Sometimes you take highprobability meetings and sometimes you take low-probability meetings. Sometimes things comein, sometimes they don't."2391°(U) Akhmetshin recalled, "I felt a little awkward there [at the meeting]. Everyone, I
think they expected something and she expected something, and none of their expectations
materialized."2392 Regarding the Campaign participants' motivations, he said, "I think theywanted to hear about the money. I don't think they cared a bit about this whole adoption
stuff. ,,z393(U) Samochomov told the Committee, "Ms. Veselnitskaya did not get what she came
. there for." 2394 Veselnitskaya echoed that assessment: "I've come to a pre-scheduled meetingwith Mr. Donald Trump Junior. And in my memory, everything that still remains in my memory
from that meeting is only absolute and total disappointment with the meeting."2395(U) Goldstone recalled that, following the meeting, he spoke to Kaveladze and said:"'This was really embarrassing.' And he was like: 'I know Mr. A [Agalarov] wanted it.' ...
Emin and he both said the same continually: 'I know you didn't want to do this, I know you
didn't want to set it up, but Mr. A[galarov] really wanted it, and it's fine.'" 2396 Goldstone also
recalled, "I'd said either pre-or post-meeting to Emin, probably Emin, that: 'This is a pretty big
favor; I hope it was worth it to your father. Whether that was a favor for us to ask or somebody
asking him a favor, it was a pretty big favor.'" 2397

2388(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 100.
(U) Manafort Tr., p. 14.
2390(U) Kushner Tr., p. 43.
2391(U) Kushner Tr. II, p. 45.
2392(U) Akhmetshin Tr., p. 80.
2393(U) Ibid, p. 95.
2394(U) Samochomov Tr., p. 86.
2395(U) Veselnitskaya Tr., p. 38.
2396(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 214.
2397(0) Jbid,p.217.
2389

372

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Once the meeting was over, the participants generally parted ways. Goldstone wenthome. Veselnitskaya, Samochornov, Akhmetshin, and Kaveladze went briefly to a bar in Trump
Tower for a drink. Samochomov told the Committee:·

Ms. Veselnitskaya was very disappointed in the meeting. She said somethingalong the lines: 'That was it?' Mr. Akhmetshin and Mr. Kaveladze were trying totell her: 'Well, you informed them about the issue; this is good; they know about
the issue. ' So they were kind of telling her something comforting andconciliatory. We had a couple of drinks, and Mr. Kaveladze left first and Mr.
Akhmetshin left second. Then I believe that was the end of that drink situation. 2398
(U) Kaveladze also recalled the visit to the bar after the meeting:

So we had like a maybe 15-minute conversation, during which I received a callfrom Mr. [Aras] Agalarov and he asked me, 'how did it go?' And I said 'it went
well. ' And she said-and Natalia asked me ifI could hand her the phone, and so
I handed her the phone, and she thanked him. She said: 'Thank you, thank you,great; it was wonderful; it's all good information, good news.' Later I'm going tohave a second call with Mr. Agalarov without Natalia present and tell him 'thiswhole thing was a disaster and a loss of time, 'so I was more open. Obviously,with them in the picture I couldn't say those things. 2399
(U) That night, Akhmetshin, Samochornov, and Veselnitskaya attended a Russian playin New York that featured one of Akhmetshin's relatives. 240 Kaveladze had already seen theplay in Moscow and highly recommended it. 2401°

6. (U) Subsequent Events and Communications(U) On June 10, 2016, Goldstone emailed Rhona Graff to inform her that "Emin andAras have a fairly sizable birthday gift for Mr. Trump" and asked how it should be delivered.
Graff responded that it would likely have to be delivered throu'gh the basement for security
screening.2402

2398(U) Samochomov Tr., pp. 69-70.
Kaveladze Tr., p. 106. Kaveladze has said that Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin seemed "kind of happy"
after the meeting. Kaveladze did not tell the Committee this, and it is not consistent with accounts from other
witnesses. FBI, FD-302, Kaveladze 11/16/2017.
2400(U) Veselnitskaya Tr., p. 42.
2401(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 106.
2402
(U) Emails, Goldstone and Graff, June 10, 2016 (RG000082).

2399 (U)373

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Roman Beniaminov told the Committee that Aras Agalarov instructed him to deliver
the gift, a painting, with Goldstone's assistance. 2403 Emin Agalarov's personal assistant arranged
for the painting and two others to be brought into the United States from Russia in a "giantbox."2404 Jason Tropea told the Committee that the Agalarovs using staff to carry packages into
the United States is not typical, and that, "We've never flown paintings in before."2405
Beniaminov recalled that the painting was "pretty big" and measured four or five feet tall. 2406
The box containing the paintings did not fit in the vehicle that had initially been rented to ·transport it and ulti~ately required a larger rental truck for the delivery. 2407
(U) On June 13, 2016, Beniaminov emailed Graff, copying Goldstone and Tropea tocoordinate the delivery of one of the paintings. 2408 Shortly thereafter, Beniaminov and Tropeadelivered the painting, depicted below, to Trump Tower. 2409 Emails between Graff and a U.S.
Secret Service agent on June 13 indicate that the painting was to be held in the sub-cellar after
delivery so that it could be screened by security later that night or the following moming. 2410
Beniaminov told the Committee that he delivered the painting directly to Graff in her office. 2411

B emammov. .
Tr., p. 48 •.
1(U) Beniaminov Tr., p. 266. Beniaminov believed the painting was delivered as part of checked luggage,
explain that "[t]here's no way you could bring that on board. You'd probably have to strap it to the top of the plane."
Beniaminov Tr., p. 267.
2405(U) Tropea Tr., p. 106.
2406
(U) Beniaminov Tr.,'p. 267.
2407(U) FBI, FD-302, Beniaminov 1/6/2018.
.
2408(U) Email, Beniaminov to Graff, et al., June 13, 2016 (RG000084).
2409(U) Image ( D J T J R 0 ~ . 104.
2410
(U) Email, Graff to _ _ , et al., June 13, 2016 (TRUMPORG_l6_000274-275).
2411(U) Beniaminov Tr., pp. 263-264. Beniaminov's communications support this. Several months after thedelivery, Beniaminov texted Goldstone to say that he had "brought the painting into her [Graff's] office .. .In to theactual office on the top floor, around the corner from Mr Trumps." See Texts messages, Goldstone and Beniaminov,
October 11, 2016 (RB00l 153-1154). Graff only had a vague recollection of the painting being delivered after
reviewing documents related to it. Alan Garten, the General Counsel of the Trump Organization, informed theCommittee that he later "commandeered" the painting. Graff Tr., pp. 63-65.
z403 (U)
2404

374

I

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) A personal note from Emin and Aras Agalarov was attached to the back of thepainting.2412

2412 (U) Handwritten note (DJTJR00501); Tropea Tr., p. 104.

375

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

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/t,..-/t/71 ~.I( _.,,t 1,... (1/,,lly1;,,sr . a-I .. f/2,/..,.( / ,_
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Ywr h :o, Js ll, A:,u_,(U) Beniaminov told the Committee that the painting was part of a series of three
paintings that made up a complete set. Beniaminov recalled Aras Agalarov calling him to
identify the painting to be delivered first and instructing him to hold the remaining paintings,
saying that "the following birthday we'll give [Trump] the next one, and the following birthday
we' ll give the next one." 2413 The two additional paintings, depicted below, were never delivered
to Trump.2414

2413
2414

(U) Beniaminov Tr., pp. 267- 268.
(U) Email, Scott Balber to SSCl, April 30, 2018; Tropea Tr., pp. 105-106.

376

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

377

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Goldstone told the Committee that he believed the paintings were purchased in
Russia, and that he was told the value of the three paintings was$ 100,000.241 5(U) On June 14, 2016, Goldstone emailed Graff, writing that he trusted that hiscolleagues "were able to deliver the birthday painting for Mr. Trump today" and asking her to" [p]lease pass on my sincere birthday good wishes along with those of Emin and Aras and as
always thank you for all your help." 24 16 Graff responded to Goldstone by confirming thepainting' s delivery, describing the painting as "truly quite magnificent." Graff relayed toGoldstone that although Trump had been in meetings all day, she hoped to show it to him before
he left for a campaign trip, stating that he ''will be very pleased with it." Graff also told
Goldstone that she would "make sure to have it displayed in a very prominent location." 24 17(U) Also on June 14, Goldstone emailed Emin Agalarov and Kaveladze and attached a
CNN article titled, "Russian hackers stole Dems' Trump files, firm says."2418 Goldstone wrote:
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Attachments:

Rob Goldston~n behalf of Rob Goldstone
Tuesday. June 14, 2016 10:09 AM
emin agalarov; Ike
Breaking news
image1 .PNG; _.!)ct

Top story right now • seems eerily weird based on our Trump meeting last week with the Russian lawyers etc(U) Later on June 14, at l 0:22 a.m., Kaveladze replied, only to Goldstone, writing,"Very interesting." 2419
(U) Goldstone told the Committee:

24 15(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 276. Goldstone told the Committee that he believed that Beniaminov told him the valueof the paintings. Beniaminov told the Committee that he did not know the value of the painting that was delivered.
Beniaminov Tr., p. 265.
2416(U) Email, Goldstone to Graff, June 14, 2016 (RG000086). Other emails between Graff and Beniaminovindicate that the painting may have been delivered on June 13. Email, Graff to Taddoni, et al., June 13, 2016
(TRUMPORG_ 16_ 000275).
24 17(U) Email, Graff to Goldstone, June 14, 2016 (RG000086). Graff told the Committee that she did not think that
Trump hung the painting in his office. Graff Tr., p. 65.
24 18(U) Email, Goldstone to E. Agalarov and Kaveladze, June 14, 2016 (KA VELADZE00027-00028);
Tai Kopan, "Russian hackers stole Dems' Trump files, firm says," CNN, June 14, 2016.
2419(U) Email, Kaveladze to Goldstone, June 14, 2016 (KA VELADZE00224).

378

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I was watching a CNN broadcast and suddenly they flash up something about
Russia and hacking and emails and the DNC. And I look at CNN and I see"Russia" and the "DNC." And I think: Well, that's odd. Didn't I just organize ameeting where allegedly somebody was going to talk about Russia? But my one
talked about adoption, so I think that's eerily weird. So the person I send that to.
was Ike. I think I sent something similar to Emin as well at some point. I may
have sent him a text that said: This is so odd, that a couple of weeks or a week
after we have a meeting, now this is on, Russia, DNC. Odd. 2420·

(U) Goldstone did not recall any follow up from this exchange, nor did he learn
additional information regarding any possible linkage between the two events.2421(U) In this same time period following the June 9, 2016 meeting in Trump Tower, Rob
Goldstone had a series of communications with Shugart.
(U) Shugart told the Committee that around June 13, 2016, Goldstone called her andcame ·up to her office.2422 This was not unusual. During their conversation, Shugart asked
Goldstone ifhe had seen Trump Jr. recently, and Goldstone told her that several days earlier hehad had a meeting with Trump Jr. at Trump Tower. Shugart told the Committee:

He did say that he saw Don at a ridiculous meeting, where he went and they
supposedly had emails from the Democrats and dirt on Hillary and then it turned
out to be something about adoptions; and it was just ridiculous and it was juststupid. That's what he said to me. That was distilling down about 45 minutes of
conversation. 2423

(U) When asked, Shugart confirmed that Goldstone had specifically mentioned emails.
She said that it was difficult to recall what Goldstone had said about the emails, but that:
He said 'emails. 'I don't know if he identified them as 'Democrat' emails. The
word 'Democrat' was in there, because there was something about Russian
donors to Hillary, and I believe that was where the word 'Democrat' came . ...

2420(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 218-219.
(U) Goldstone Tr., pp. 218-219; Kaveladze Tr., pp. 108-110.
2422(U) Shugart noted that she did not remember the date of the interaction with Goldstone, she simply rememberedthat it was the day before she saw new reports regarding the hacking of the DNC. Shugart Tr., pp. 185-186; That
story was first published on June 14, 2016. Ellen Nakashima, "Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole
opposition research on Trump," The Washington Post, June 14, 2016.
2423(U) Shugart Tr., p. 184.
2421

379

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

But it was basically that was the dirt, was going to be Russian donors to Hillary's
campaign that they had through emails. 2424
(U) The following day, Shugart recalled seeing reports regarding the hack of the DNC
and connected the news with what Goldstone had said at their meeting the day before. Shugart
called Goldstone. She told the Committee, "After I saw the news report, I called Rob in 2016
and said: This sounds like what you were talking about. At which point he said: Oh, no; thatmeeting about the adoption, it was all-that's what it was; it was a stupid meeting. So at thatpoint, I was led [by Rob] to believe that I didn't hear what I thought I heard."2425(U) Shugart told the Committee that, "I just dropped it at that point." She and Goldstone
continued to see each other regularly, but they did not have further discussions of the meeting in
Trump Tower. Then, in June 2017, Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, contacted
Goldstone and asked about the June 9, 2016, meeting. Goldstone told Shugart about Garten'soutreach. Shugart recalled, "At that point I asked Rob: 'Okay, what was this meeting?' And hementioned the adoption again. I said: 'Who was at the meeting? Why was this such a big deal?"'
It was at that point, for the first time, that Goldstone told Shugart that Manafort and Kushner hadparticipated, as well as Veselnitskaya, and Goldstone described the focus on Browder, who hehad not mentioned previously. Shugart recalled, "And that's when I said to him: This sounds
much bigger than what you said a year ago." Shugart confirmed her sense that Goldstone's story
had changed, including from their discussion in June of 2016 when he mentioned emails, to the2016 phone call the following day when he said the focus was on adoptions, to the 2017 phone
call when he mentioned the focus on Browder. 2426
(U) On June 17, 2016, Trump sent a personal note of thanks to Emin and Aras Agalarov
regarding the painting. 2427 Goldstone appeared to transmit the letter to Emin Agalarov on June18, 2016.2428.

2424(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 199-200.
(U) The Committee notes this exchange because it is the only time that the Committee was told that emails werediscussed as derogatory information at the June 9, 2016 meeting. It is noteworthy that Shugart recalls the emails
being mentioned by Goldstone prior to the news of the DNC hack becoming public, and that she made theconnection between the news of the DNC hack and Goldstone's account of the meeting at the time. Nevertheless,
Shugart herself was not present at the meeting and noted that Goldstone is an "over-the-top personality, sometimes
hard to follow." The Committee found no other evidence indicating that emails were discussed at the June 9, 2016
meeting. The Committee was ultimately not able to reconcile this discrepancy. Shugart Tr., pp. 188, 191, 197.
2426
(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 188, 191, 197.
2427
(U) Letter, Trump to E. Agalarov and A. Agalarov, June 17, 2016 (TRUMPORG_18_000034).
2428(U) Email, Goldstone to E. Agalarov, June 18, 2016 (RG000087).
2425

380

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYOON A.LO JOUN TB.U MP

Dear Emin & Aras:
There a rc few things bette r than receiviug asensational gift from s omeone you admire a nd that's
what I've received from you. T he painting you sent
me is truly fantastic and a very tho ug htful gestu re!

I g reatly appreciate your friendship-- this is o nebirthday that 1 will always remember.
W ith a ll best wishes,(U) Following the June 9, 20 16, meeting in Trump Tower and the birthday painting
delivery, Goldstone continued to contact Trump Jr. and others on a range of topics. For example,
on June 24, 2016, Goldstone wrote to Trump Jr. after seeing that Trump was in Scotland, statingthat the Brexit vote that day "should boost your dad's campaign big time."2429(U) Goldstone also attempted additional outreach to the Campaign about VK. On June29, 2016, Goldstone emailed Dan Scavino, copying Trump Jr., Graff, and Sidorkov, reiterating

2429(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., June 24, 2016 (DJTJR0453).

381

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
his previous offers to create a "VOTE Trump 2016" page on the Russian social networking site.
In the email, Goldstone stated that Paul Manafort "had said he would welcome it."2430(U) Goldstone told the Committee that Sidorkov had been very persistant in wanting aconnection with the Trump Campaign. Sidorkov had previously been helpful to Emin Agalarov,and Goldstone now wanted to be helpful to him. Goldstone was not aware of Sidorkov being
directed by anyone to pursue the Trump connection, and Goldstone was unaware of Sidorkov
having any connection to the Russian Government or intell~gence services.2431(U) On July 20, 2016, after Trump Jr.'s, speech at the Republican National Convention,
Goldstone emailed him: "Greetings from Moscow where we all watched your great speech
tonight[.] Congratulations to you and of course to your father." 2432 On July 27, Trump Jr.
replied, "Thank you very much my friend," briefly described the experience of giving his speech,
and said he hoped to hear more from Goldstone soon.2433 Later that day, Goldstone responded
by telling Trump Jr. that the Agalarovs were being inundated with press requests regarding theirrela,tionship with Donald Trump, but that they were declining requests to comment. Trump Jr.
thanked Goldstone and commented that he was unconcerned about the press inquiries. 2434
(U) On October 7, 2016, Goldstone again reached out, this timeto Graff, to transmit aletter and a book from Aras Agalarov. Goldstone informed Graff via email that Aras Agalarov
wanted Goldstone to deliever the letter and book that same day, "ahead of Sunday's debate." 2435 ,Graff advised Goldstone that once the package was received she would hand it to Trump. 2436
Later on October 7 Goldstone wrote to Graff, "The package was delivered very late, so as
promised here is the scan and Roman will deliver the original along with the book from Aras to
Mr. Trump on Monday."2437 In the attached scanned letter from Aras Agalarov, which wasaddr~ssed to "Donald," Agalarov wrote that "[w]ith great interest I follow your electoral
campaign and cheer for your victories."2438 Agalarov's letter then made a series of economic andtrade observations and recommendations, including suggesting that Trump should promote a

2430(U) Email, Goldstone to Scavino et al., June 29, 2016 (DJTJR0454). Goldstone's email to Scavino included a
PDF ofa Trump VK page that Sidorkov sent Goldstone. Email, Sidorkov to Goldstone, June 23, 2016 (RG000089).
2431(U). Goldstone Tr;, p. 269.
2432(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., July 20, 2016 (DJTJR0457).
2433(U) Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone, July 27, 2016 (DJTJR0457).
2434(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., July 27, 2016 (DJTJR0489); Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone, July 27, 2016
(DJTJR0489).
2435(U) Email, Goldstone to Graff and Beniaminov, October 7, 2016 (DJTJR00229). Aras Agalarov's request thatthe materials be delivered prior to "Sunday's debate" is likely a reference to the presidential debate that took placeon October 9, 2016.
2436(U) Email, Graff to Goldstone, October 7, 2016 (DJTJR00230).
2437(U) Email, Goldstone to Graff, October 7, 2016 (DJTJR00230-231).
2438(U) Letter, A. Agalarov to Trump, October 5, 2015 '(DJTJR00232-00233).

382

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY"Made in USA" promotion campaign to target international markets. 2439 Agalarov suggested
that international trade exhibits "could become an important element of such [a] strategy" andstated that with his "27 years of trade show management experience," that a properly designed
trade show strategy could "bring significant economic results."2440 To accomplish this, Agalarov
suggested that a "new organization with worldwide representation for the purpose to promote
American goods and services could be formed." 2441 In a post-script, a handwritten note added,"November 8th is the day of my birthday. Your victory would be the best birthday present I haveever received. " 2442
(U) On the morning of October 14, following a number of emails between Graff,
Goldstone, and Beniaminov regarding logistics and delivery tim~g, the book from Aras
Agalarov, which was written in Russian, and the original letter, were delivered to Trump Tower
via FedEx. 2443 Beniaminov recalled that the book and letter from Aras Agalarov had been flown
to the United States from Russia, couriered by Kaveladze. 2444

(U) On October 27, 2016, Goldstone emailed Trump Jr. with the subject line, "Mazal
Tov on the new Hotel opening- looks amazing" and no text in the body of the email. Later thatday, Donald Trump Jr. responded, writing "Thanks Rob." 2445 Goldstone's email was likely areference to the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., which opened the day before.
(U) On November 5, 2016, Konstantin Sidorkov from VK again reached out to the
Trump Campaign, replying to Goldstone's email to Scavino from June 29. 2446 The Committee
identified no response to this email. Despite Graff and Scavino' s positive initial res"ponses
regarding VK, the Committee found no evidence to indicate that any Trump Campaig1;1 action
was taken on the proposal.
(U) On November 7, 2016, Goldstone emailed Trump Jr. requesting an invitation toattend an election night party with a mutual friend of Lara and Eric Trump. 2447 Later that day,

2439 (U)

Ibid.
Ibid.
2441 (U) Ibid.
2442 (U) Ibid.
2443(U) Email, Beniaminov to Graff, October 14, 2016 (DJTJR00235--00238).
2444(U) Beniaminov told the Committee that, due to Aras Agalarov's limited English, the letter was likely translated
or dictated, but that the handwriting at the end of the letter matched Aras Agalarov's handwriting. Beniaminov Tr.,
p. 272.
2445(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., October 27, 2016 (RG000140); Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone,(RG000140).
2446(U) Email, Sidorkov to Scavino, Trump Jr., Graff, and Goldstone, November 5, 2016 (RG000,143).
2447(U) Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr., November 7, 2016 (RG000145).
2440 (U)383

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Trump Jr. responded, "Sure Rob. CC'ing my asst Lindsay to coordinate for you."2448 Trump
Jr. 's assistant then added Goldstone to a VIP list as a guest. 2449 Goldstone told the Committeethat he did not attend the event.2450(U) On November 8, 2016, Election Day, Graff replied to an earlier email fromGoldstone asking if the book and letter from Aras Ag~larov hacl been received. Graff confirmedthat the book and letter were received, and apologized for the delay in responsiveness due to it
being an unusual time.· She asked that Goldstone, "Please explain this to Mr. Agalarov and that
Mr. Trump greatly appreciates his thoughtfulness and good wishes."2451(U) Also on Election Day, Goldstone sent Trump Jr. a text message, writing "What an
amazing night so far and you deserve a massive pat on the back for your incredible campaigning- looks like it's gonna pay off big tonight." 2452 At 2:42 a.m. the following morning, Goldstone ·texted Trump Jr.: "Mazal Tov!"2453(U) On November 9, 2016, Kaveladze emailed Goldstone to inform him that Aras
Agalarov wanted to send a congratulatory note to Trump and asked Goldstone to review a draftof the letter.2454 Later on November 9, Yana Gorokhova from the Crocus Group emailed
Goldstone the final signed letter.2455 Goldstone transmitted the scanned letter to Graff, askingthat she "kindly pass this letter from Aras and Emin Agalarov to Mr. Trump." 2456

2448(U) Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone and Santoro, November 7, 2016 (RG000145).
(U) Email, Santoro to Dumbauld, et al., November 7, 2016 (DJTJR00127).
2450(U) Goldstone Tr., p. 295.
2451(U) Email, Graff to Goldstone, November 8, 2016 (DJTJR00125).
2452(U) Text message, Goldstone to Trump Jr., November 8, 2016 (RG000146).
2453(U) Text message, Goldstone to Trump Jr., November 9, 2016 (RG000146).
2454(U) Email, Kaveladze to Goldstone, November 9, 2016 (RG000149).
2455(U) Email, Gorokhova to Goldstone, Beniaminov, Tropea, and Kaveladze, November 9, 2016 (RG00015l).
2456(U) Email, Goldstone to Graff and Trump Jr., November 9, 2016 (DJTJR00164).
2449

384

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

l

,,,

,I\

'[r

fl o. l'rt~1dent l.lect 01Jn., d I 1 rump

Dear IJonald,

Pled!>I.' .icrepl our warmei.l umgr.ttulallor,s on the O(;WS1on of you being elet."Ted rh.45,_ ?re)1der.1 of the United St.ares ofAmenca. We in Russia h.ive .lw;iys ">eenrooting ror YOll and now we an: very happy abollt your truly historic victory Peopleof our country held h111h hope~ tltat with you: arrival into the \\'hrle llouse, we will
flnally have a chant'(! to normallie Russian American relations. create ground forrebuilding the network of human and busincS! contacts
Once again the American people have demonstrated to the rest of the world thatthey could ~ rebellious and would never agree to be governed by corrupt pollttcal
elttes.
Last nrght, surrounded by our lnends and colleague$, we nervously followed theunfolding dram:i of the American electoral process. w, hav, reahtcd chatAmerlc.ins sincerely believe they C3n change their lives for the better and that they
assooace this noaon ot change with you Donald.
We a 1e proud to call you our true friend.
Best wishes to you and Amencan people

Emrn Ag.ilarov

Aras Agalarov(U) On November I 0, Emin Agalarov sent a text message to Trump Jr:

385

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Don! II Amazing run and a glorious victory! IIII Congratulations to you and yourdad, we are proud and happy for you IIIII Always at your disposal her [sic] inRussia) Emin and Aras Agalarov@2457(U) On November 13, Goldstone and Kaveladze exchanged text messages in which
Goldstone wrote, "So it seems we are all now in the President's inner circle!! So shocking."
Kaveladze responded, "I know. Unbelievable! We are all very excited," and indicated that Aras
Agalarov was receiving a lot ·of outreach from Russian media regarding Trump.2458(U) On November 20, 2016, Graff forwarded the November 9 congratulatory letter fromAras and Emin Agalarov, previously sent by Goldstone, to an assistant at the Trump
Organization. Graff wrote, "Can you please print this out and hand it to me. Important."2459(U) Graff told the Committee that Trump responded to the Agalarov's November.9 letterwith a note written in black pen.2460 Although the communication referenced by Graff was notproduced in response to Committee requests, an image of the Agalarov's November 9 letter, withwhat appears to be a note from Trump, is visible in public press reporting. 2461

2457(U) Text message, E. Agalarov to Trump Jr., November 10, 2016 (DJTJR00866). Separately, also on
November 10, Kelly Ridgway from the firm WMA, which was contracted on Emin Agalarov's behalf, sent an email
to Ric Salmon, who was helping to represent Agalarov. Ridgway outlined the potential benefits and risks ofrereleasing Agalarov's music video featuring Trump. Ridgway suggested that, if Goldstone and others wanted toproceed, they could be "more strategic online in [the video's] rollout; i.e. potentially geo-target it to the extremely
pro-Trump States on his socials, per the above electoral map, where it would be received more positively.
Potentially even as a 'dark post' promoted to those specific fans of Trump in those States only?" The Committee is
not aware of any information indicating that such an effort was operationalized on behalf of Agalarov. Email,Ridgway to Salmon, et al., November 10, 2016 (RG000169-170).
2458(U) Text message, Goldstone to Kaveladze, November 13, 2016 (RG000191); Text message, Kaveladze toGoldstone, November 13, 2016 (RG000191).
2459(U) Email, Graff to Macc'hia, November 20, 2016 (DJTJR00164). Graff told the Committee it was "notususual" to present documents in hard copy to show to Trump. Graff Tr., p. 76.
2460(U) Graff Tr., p. 74.
2461(U) HBO, "We spoke to Emin Agalarov about a conversation Donald Trump Jr. claimed to have forgotten,"Vice News, July 10, 2018. The date of reply from Trump is unknown.
/

386

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

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(U) Repeated Requests for a Follow-up to the June 9, 2016 Meeting in
Trump Tower(U) Following the election, Aras Agalarov' s interest in influencing U.S. policy
continued. In mid-late November, 2016, following the election, Aras Agalarov andVeselnitskaya made an attempt to get a second meeting with Trump representatives. This
request was transmitted through Kaveladze and Goldstone. 2462
(U) On November 23, Veselnitskaya sent Kaveladze an email with the subject line
"From RF," which likely refers to "Russian Federation."2463

2462 (U)Email, Goldstone to Graff, November 28, 2016 (DJTJROO 118).
The Committee does not have specific information regarding the meaning of" RF" in this context, but notesthat " RF" also appears in the document that was attached to that email, and is used in the following way: "The US
Department of Justice was informed of this as well as of other circumstances in July 2016 by the Office of theProsecutor General of the Russian Federation and by the RF Ministry of Interior under US-Russia MLA T." Email,
Veselnitskaya to Kaveladze, November 23, 20 I 6 (KA VELADZE00040, 00042).
2463 (U)387

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The document attached to the email was marked, "Confidential: November 22,
2016," and deals with the Magnitsk:y Act, William Browder and the Ziff brothers. The fourth
page of the document, which is otherwise blank, simply states, "NV iPad." The document
attached to the email is similar to, but not the exact same as, the May 31, 2016, document
believed to have been used at the June 9, 2016 meeting in Trump Tower. 2464

(U) The document sent by Veselnitskaya to Kaveladze on November 23 was emailed toGoldstone the same day. 2465
From: Ike Kaveladze<I

Subject: Synopsis
Dale: November 23, 2016 at 11 :00 AM
To:
Hello Rob
Enclosed please find synopsis of the topic Ms. Natalya wants to discuss with T people. She has arrived into NYC.
ThanksIke

20.16.11.22_Tr.doc(U) The initial email from Kaveladze to Goldstone on November 23 resulted in a seriesof emails and text messages in which Kaveladze sought to get the meeting scheduled while
Veselnitskaya was in New York. Goldstone made the request for the meeting, but was generally
skeptical that it would be accepted. 2466
(U) Kaveladze told the Committee:

I spoke with Ms. Veselnitskaya sometime in November of 2016 when she wastrying to initiate a second meeting with Trump people. I basically requested asynopsis of that second meeting, and she sent me pretty much the same thing she
sent the first time. . . . She basically was referring to that statement ofMr. Trump
Junior saying that: If we win, then we'll be glad to discuss. So pretty much
immediately, like two weeks after the win, she started to try. We politely-Rob

2464(U) Email, Veselnitskaya to Kaveladze, November 23, 2016 (KAVELADZE00041--00044) (with attachment).
(U) Email, Kaveladze to Goldstone, November 23, 2016 (RG000182).
2466(U) Emails, Kaveladze and Goldstone, November 23, 2016 (RG000186--000189); Text messages, Kaveladze
and Goldstone, November 27 and 28, 2016 (RG000195-196).
2465

388

Goldstone told me that it's absolutely unrealistic to arrange a meeting now.
People are unpacking, people are leaving for Washington, D. C. lt was pre-·Thanksgiving, and in every possible way they 're not interested in this topic rightnow, obviously, so there's no way. So we politely kind ofgradually tried to ·explain to her that the meeting is not going to happen, because she's like: I'mhere, but then I have to go to Moscow, and then I'm willing to come back; if they
confirm a meeting I would definitely come back, and stuff like that. So eventually
I'm telling her [Veselnitskaya] that the meeting is not going to happen. 2467

(U) While this account is generally supported by documents provided to the Committee,
it does not fully capture the extent to which Aras Agalarov and Veselnitskaya pushed for the
meeting. 2468·
(U) On November 23, 2016, Kaveladze, having already been met with skepticism fromGoldstone about a second meeting, indicated to Goldstone that Veselnitskaya was willing tochange her flight ifneeded. 2469 Several days later, on November 27, Kaveladze followed up with
Goldstone, apologizing for bothering him on a Sunday, and said that Veselnitskaya "called again
asking about the meeting with T [Trump] people."2470 Goldstone replied that he had reached out
but that there had been no response so far, and reiterated his skepti'cism that the meeting request
would be accepted. 2471 The following day, November 28, Kaveladze again followed up with ·Goldstone, writing, "Hello Rob, Any news regarding the meeting? Mr. A [Agalarov] just called
me re this." 2472·
(U) On November 28, having not received a response regarding scheduling the second
meeting, Goldstone sent Veselnitskaya's document directly to Rhona Graff: 2473

I
2467(U) Kaveladze Tr., pp. 111-112.
2468(U) Emails, Kaveladze and Goldstone, November 23, 2016 (RG000186-000189); Text messages, Kaveladze
and Goldstone, November 27 and 28, 2016 (RG000195-196).
2469(U) Email, Kaveladze to Goldstone, November 23, 2016 (RG000188).
2470(U) Text message, Kaveladze to Goldstone, November 27, 2016 (RG000195).
2471(U) Text message, Goldstone to Kaveladze, November 27, 2016 (RG000195).
2472(U) Text message, Kaveladze to Goldstone, November 28, 2016 (RG000195). It is not clear, from document
production or interviews who, exactly, Veselnitskaya was hoping to meet with. In her interview with theCommittee, Veselnitskaya claimed not to remember Aras Agalarov's efforts to arrange a second meeting for her in
November. Veselnitskaya Tr., pp. 82-83, 92. Veselnitskaya's recollection is inconsistent with statements by other·
witnesses and documents obtained by the Committee.
2473(U) Email, Goldstone to Graff, November 28, 2016 (DJTJR00160).

389

From: Rob Goldstone
Sent: Monday, November 28, 20~6 11:49 AM
To: Rhona Graff
Subject: For Mr Trump
Hi Rhona
Arns Agalarov has asked me to pass on this document in the hope ii can be passed on to the appropriate team.
If needed, a lawyer representing the case is in New York currently and happy to meet with any member of his transition team.
Best

Rob

(U) Goldstone confirmed that the request to send the document came from Aras
Agalarov. 2474 Goldstone believed that the request was important to the Agalarovs because"they'd asked again, and I didn't know why it was important to them, but I knew it must be
important to them or they wouldn't have made the ask." Goldstone told the Committee that, tothe best of his knowledge, neither Aras nor Emin Agalarov had any particular interest in
adoption issues. 2475
I(U) Later that day, Graff forwarded the email, and the attached document, to Steve
Bannon. She wrote: 2476
From:

Sent:
To:

Steve Bannon

Subject:
FW: For Mr Trump
Attachments: 2016.11.22_Tr.doc

Hi Steve:
The PE knows Aras well. Rob is his rep in the US and sent this on. Not sure how to proceed, if at all.
R

2474

(U) Goldstone said that Aras Agalarov would not ask him to do things directly, but such requests would be
relayed though Aras Agalarov's assistant or Emin Agalarov's assistant. Goldstone Tr., pp. 221-222.
2475(U) Ibid, pp. 222, 224-225.
2476(U) Email, Graff to Bannon, November 28, 2016 (DJTJR00160). Graff told the Committee that it was unusualfor her to email Bannon, but given that Trump had a relationship with Agalarovs, she was unsure what do with therequest. She said that Bannon never responded, and she does not know what he did with the document. Graff Tr.,
pp. 80-81.

390

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Bannon said that he did not remember receiving this email, and also did notremember reading the Veselnitskaya document that was attached. In.turn, Bannon did notremember what, if anything, he did .with the document. 24-77(U) On November 28, Kaveladze, who was in Moscow ~d had not re~eived a response
from Graff regarding the requested meeting, recommended to Veselnitskaya that she return to
Moscow. 2478
(U) Separately, at least one message following the.election appeared to deal with· overlapping business interests between the Agalarovs and the Trump Organization. On
December 13, 2016, Emin Agalarov sent Trump Jr. a text message about partnering with "theTrump furniture producers from Turkey.'.'2479

Hi Don! Hope all is well, quick question foryou. I've been in duscissuion [sic]with Trump furniture producers from Turkey to open a store and a distribution
Chanel [sicJ in Moscow. Just wanted to check with you ifyo.u·.are ok with us.partnering up with them and launching the project. Wanted to checkwithyou
before committing) thank you, Emin (Moscow)@2480·(U) Trump Jr did not recall what this message referred to, but that to his knowledge the
Trump Qrganization did not have additional business With the Agalarovs beyond what has been
covered. 2481
(U) Following the election, Aras Agalarov showed signs of continued interest in.·demonstrating his relationship with Trump. On February 15, 2017, Goldstone emailed Graff
requesting that she help Goldstone find a copy of Aras Agalarov's previous correspondence with
Trump. 2482 Goldstone explained that Aras Agalarov asked Goldstone to find a note from Trump
the prior year, but Goldstone could not locate it. It is not clear if a copy of the letter was everlocated.2483

ii.

(U) Additional Communications Following the June 9, 2016 Meeting in
Trump Tower

2477 (U)Bannon Tr., p. 45; The withholding ofTr~sition communciations due to claims by the White House of
potential execut.ive privilege limited the Committee's insight into what, if anything, was done with this document.
2478 (U) Text message, Kaveladze to Goldstone, November 28, 2016 (RG000196).
2479 (U) Text message, E. Agalarov to Trump Jr., December 13, 2016 (DJTJR00867).
2480 (U) Ibid.
2481(U) Trump Jr. Tr., pp. 39-41.
2482(U) Email, Goldstone to Graff, February 15, 2017 (RG000200).
2483(U) Email, Graff to Goldstone, February 24, 2017 (RG000209).

391

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In mid-2017, shortly prior to and following initial public reporting on the June 9,2016 meeting, there were a number of communications between participants, and in some cases
their associates, regarding the meeting. Lawyers for the Trump Organization, Trump Jr., andothers also contacted a number of the meeting participants. In most cases these communications
did not meaningfully contribute to the Committee's understanding of the meeting, and many are
not itemized in this Report.
\(U) On July 14, 2017, Jason Tropea sent Roman Beniaminov a screen shot of aconversation that Tropea had with Rob Goldstone "two weeks" earlier. In that conversation
Goldstone stated, regarding the June 9, 2016 meeting, "It's being made public apparently next
week[.] So will be lovely for us also[.] They want to know why [A]ras asked for it and who wasit a favor for[.] That will be lovely[.]" Tropea responded, "We can consider that relationshipdone[.]" Goldstone then replied, "I would think so. I begged him not to do the meeting at thetime and [E]min also[.] Said it was a huge favor that wasn't worth it[.] But maybe it was worth
it for [A]ras-we don't know who asked the favor!! Could have been the BIG man." 2484
(U) Additionally, some witnesses suggested that they felt that others were not giving
accurate public statements about the meeting, or felt that they were being pressured to shape theircomments in exchange for financial support with legal fees.
(U) Anatoli Samochomov has stated that he was contacted by Robert Arakelian, thepresident ofHRAGI, offering to cover his legal expenses ifhe was willing to confine hiscomments regarding the June 9 meeting to public statements already made by Veselnitskaya.
Samochomov said he did not believe that Arakelian knew what he was doing, but was "shocked"
that Arakelian would propose this over the phone, and declined to take money from HRAGI
because Samochomov did not want to be "beholden to them." 2485 Samochomov said that hewould not perjure himself just because HRAGI was a good client, would represent himself andwould be transparent. 2486
(U) Kaveladze has said that he believed that Trump Jr. 's public statements regarding theJune 9, 2016, meeting in Trump Tower were not accurate.' In particular, Kaveladze felt that thestatement the meeting focused on adoptions was not correct, and that the meeting had been
primarily about the Magnitsky Act, with only a few sentences in which adoptions werementioned. Additionally, Kaveladz~ felt that Trump Jr. had represented the meeting as being
shorter than it was, and that it was 30-40 minutes, rather than 20 minutes. 2487

2484(U) Text message, Tropea to Beniaminov, July 14, 2017 (RB000459).
(U) The SCO found that the offer was for $90,000 of legal fees. SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 122; see also FBI, FD302, Samochomov 7/12/2017; FBI, FD-302, Samochomov 7/1~/2017.
2486 (U) Ibid.
2487(U) FBI, FD-302, Kaveladze 11/16/2017.

2485

392

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee notes several arrangements related to participants or associates ofthe participants. Emin Agalarov, lrakli Kaveladze, and Jason Tropea all shared the same legal ·representation, Scott Balber. Tropea acknowledged that Emin Agalarov was covering his legal
fees. 2488 Balber had represented Donald Trump in at least one matter in 2013.2489(U) Information obtained by the Committee also indicates an effort by Agalarov to pay
for Goldstone's legal representation. On July 13, 2017, Beniaminov sent Tropea a text message,
writing: "When you get a chance, need to find out the balance on Emins [funds] here. Ike called
me, said he spoke with Emin and that he wants us to pay for Robs attorney [sic]."2490 Tropea
told th_e Committee, "I don't know if I physically made the check out or if it was paid in anothermanner, but I do recall talking about this."2491 Beniaminov said that he did not know whether
Goldstone's legal fees were ultimately covered by Emin Agalarov, but stated that his own were
not.2492·(U) Additionally, some of the participants have had continuing relationships following
the June 9, 2016 meeting. For example, Kaveladze and Veselnitskaya remained in contact andKaveladze facilitated at least two additional meetings between Veselnitskaya and Aras Agalarov.
The first of those meetings likely took place on December 3, 2016, and the second was likely inlate January 2017. Text messages between Veselnitskaya and Kaveladze do not provide·
meaningful additional information regarding these meetings with Agalarov. Kaveladze also
facilitated an introduction between Veselnitskaya and the Agalarovs' lawyer, Scott Balber.2493(U) Balber met with Veselnitskaya at least twice in early 2017. In text messages wi~
Kaveladze, Veselnitskaya rejected a proposed cafe for a meeting with Balber because there were
"too many ears," and advocated for a more private location. Veselnitskaya indicated that she
regretted not meeting with Balber earlier because she would have hired "them," referring toBalber and his team, to work on her case, but she noted that this would have prevented Balberand his team from working on the "government task" or "state assignment." Additionally,
Veselnitskaya expressed a desire to coordinate her briefings to the Russian Prosecutor General's
office with Balber' s strategy. She noted that she had previously attempted to do what Balber
was doing, but ha9 not had sufficient resources. The text messages between Veselnitskaya-and

2488(U) Tropea Tr., p. 98.
Kevin Cirilli, "Trump, Maher 'birther' feud" Politico, January 9, 2013.
2490(U) Text message, Beniaminov to Tropea, July 13, 2017 (RB000456).
2491(U) Tropea Tr., p. 98.
2492
Beniaminov Tr., p. 244.
Text messages, Veselnitskaya and Kaveladze December 2016 to Febru
01148--01170 ; Kaveladze Tr., p. 114;.
2489 (U)393

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Kaveladze do not offer additional information regarding the nature of Balber' s work or his
interactions with Veselnitskaya.2494'(U) On January 20, 2017, Rinat Akhmetshin and Veselnitskaya attended an inauguration
party in Washington, D.C., hosted by Dana Rohrabacher. 2495 , Kaveladze told the Committee that
he met with Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin, and Samochomov, at a dinner in New York for
Veselnitskaya's birthday, likely in February of 2017. At the dinner the Magnitsky Act was
discussed, and the others updated Kaveladze on their work. 2496
(U) Samochomov said that he has met Akhmetshin five or .six times since the June 9,
2016, meeting. 2497 Samochomov also visited Veselnitskaya in Russia in April 2017, related totheir work on the Prevezon case.2498(U) Akhmetshin told the Committee that he met with Kaveladze in Moscow in June
2017, where they discussed the June 9, 2016 meeting, which had not yet been made public, andAkhmetshin unsuccessfully suggested that, "we should tell the story on our terms" and that theyshould find friendly news outlets through which to tell the story. 2499 Akhmetshin told theCommittee that when he suggested publicly acknowledging the June 9, 2016, meeting to
Kaveladze, Kaveladze said, "Look, it's not my decision," and that, "I'm just an employee."2500(U) Goldstone spoke with Emin Agalarov, Kaveladze, Trump Organization counsel Alan
Garten, and counsel for Trump Jr. Alan Futerfas regarding the June 9, 2016 meeting. 2501
Kaveladze testified that Futerfas reached out to him in June 2017, to "collect information" about
the meeting and to "know what [Kaveladze's] recollection was." 2502 Outreach to Goldstone from
Garten happened as early as June 2, 2017.2503 On July 9, 2017, Garten and Futerfas copied

ext message
8-01170);·

Text messages, Veselnitskaya and Kaveladze, January 20, 2017 (KAVELADZE0 1158); Craig
Tim erg, et a., "In the crowd at Trump's inauguration, members of Russia's elite antici ated a thaw between
Moscow and Washin ton," The Washin ton Post, January 20, 2018
(U) Kave a ze Tr., p. 114.
(U) Samochomov Tr., pp. 84.
2498(U) FBI, FD-302, Samochomov 7/13/2017.
2499(U) Akhmetshin Tr., p. 113.
2500
(U) Ibid, pp. 113-114
2501(U) Email, Goldstone to E. Agalarov and Kaveladze (RG000263); Email, Futerfas to Goldstone, July 10, 2017
(RG000275); Email, Goldstone to Garten, June 2, 2017 (RG000257); Text message, Goldstone to Kaveladze, June2, 2017 (RG000280).
2502(U) Kaveladze Tr., p. 126-127.
2503(U) Email, Goldstone to Garten, June 2, 2017 (RG000257).
2497

394

Kaveladze on emails with Goldstone to coordinate and draft a public statement related to what
happened at the June 9, 2016 meeting. 2504
(U) On July 23, 2017, incoming White House Communications Director Anthony
Scaramucci wrote to Goldstone saying that Scaramucci officially started in August but that his
door was open, and that "Obviously there is still pressure on all sides, but ifwe remain consistentand united I don't envisage any issues we can't ride out."2505(U) The Committee did not find specific evidence that the relationships andcommunications outlined above resulted in inaccurate or incomplete testimony, but theCommittee's insight on this topic is limited.

7. (U) Artem Klyushin, Konstantin Rykov, and Associates(U) During the 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe Pageant, two Agalarov
employees, Artem Klyushin and his then-wife Yulya Klyushina, spent time with Donald Trump.
In particular, on Saturday, November 9, 2013, the day of the Miss Universe pageant, publicly
available information indicates that Klyushina and Klyushin. had some interaction with Trump atseveral points throughout the day. The Committee has little insight into the nature of theseinteractions.2506(U) According to Roman Beniaminov, "they [Klyushin and Klyushina] were an outside
firm that handled social media for Emin around the time of the contest."2507 Klyushina used asignature block iii some emails that indicated she was the General Manager of an entity called
the "Innovation & Development Agency." 2508 Klyushin and Klyushina were included on anumber of Emin Agalarov and Rob Goldstone' s emailsiJrior to, and following, the Miss
Universe pageant. Some of those emails related to Trump. 2509

2504(U) Emails, Futerfas, Alan Garten, Goldstone, and Kaveladze, July 9-10, 2017 (KAVELADZE00121-00123).
(U) Email, Scaramucci to Goldstone, July 23, 2017 (RG000247).- Additionally, the Committee notes theexistence of purported Joint Defense Agreements (IDA) between parties to the June 9, 2016 meeting. While IDA
arrangements are not inherently inappropriate, they do have the potential, along with other incentives, to influencecandor in testimony. For m9re on the Committee's. experience with JDAs, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. II.C.3.
2506(U) On November 9, 2013, Klyushina posted a photo of herself sitting with Donald Trump and Phil Ruffin,
noting that Trump was, "talking ...Again and again about Obama." Tweet, @AlferovaYulyaE, November 9, 2013.
2507(U) Beniaminov Tr., pp. 175-177; Klyushina later changed her last name to Alferova. Beniaminov was
unaware ofKlyushin or Klyushina being responsible for anything other than social media. Ibid
2508
(U) Email, Klyushina to E·. Agalarov and Goldstone, November 21, 2013 (RB0000629).
2509(U) Email, E. Agalarov to Klyushina, Klyushin, Goldstone et al., June 19, 2013 (RB0000606); Email, E. ·Agalarov to Goldstone, Klyushin, Klyushina, et al., June 21, 2013 (RB0000021); Email, E. Agalarov to Klyushin,
Klyushina, et al., January 29, 2014 (RB0000601).
2505

395

(U) Klyushin and Klyushina, along with Klyushin's associate Konstantin Rykov, wereactive regarding the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. 2510

(U) In his interview with the Committee, Emin Agalarov sought to distance himself from
Klyushin and Klyushina. Agalarov said that he terminated his work with them following theMiss Universe pageant because they were focused on self-promotion and Trump, rather than on
the work for which they were originally hired. However, in mid-January 2014 remarks for anaward ceremony, Emin Agalarov planned to thank Klyushin and Klyushina, among others,calling them part of his "Moscow 'family."'2511 Agalarov told the Committee he has no ongoing
relationship with either of them, and that a 2019 photo with Klyushin was just a courtesy.2512

i.

(U) Artem Klyushin(U) Apart from his work for the Agalarovs during the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, theCommittee has significant concerns regarding Klyushin.
(U) The Committee assesses that Klyushin is a Kremlin-linked bot developer who has
supported Russian influence operations on social media. Klyushin has publicly stated that heworks for the Russian Presidential Administration and has also been affiliated with the Russianrovided social media influence ex ertise to theStarting in approximately 2010, Klyushin and Klyushina co-owned theInnovation & Development Agency, also known as the Agency for Development of Innovative
Technologies (APRlT). In 2015, Klyushin said that APRlT had received Russian government
contracts. 2514 Klyushin's current company states that it is able to produce and amplify social
media content through more than 1,000 accounts and millions of subscribers on social media. 2515

251

Tweet, @AlferovaYulyaE, January 22, 2014. On January 22, 2014, Klyushina wrote on social media
that, "I'm sure @realDonald Trump will be great president! We'll support you from Russia! America needs an[]ambitious leader!"; On January 28, 2015, Klyushina announced on Twitter that Trump would be running for
President of the United States. Tweet, @AlferovaYulyaE, January 28, 2015. The Committee has no insi ht into thenature of Kl ushina's knowled e of these matters or what rom ted these statements.

,.
,,., January 14, 2014 (RB00000986); Email, E. Agalarov to
Wilson, Goldstone, et al., December 6, 2013 (RB00001567).

396

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Klyushin has also publicly stated that he "makes corrections to reality" and "changes emotional
and logical perceptions of situations."2516(U) In 2014, less than a year after working to promote Emin Agalarov during the Miss
Universe pageant, Klyushin played a central role in Russia's efforts to flood Ukraine's social
media platforms with pro-Kremlin propaganda. Klyushin associate and Kremlin-linked "chief
troll" Konstantin Rykov was also centrally involved in these efforts.2517
A May 2014 Department of State cable noted that the Kremlin had"unleashed an unprecedented social media propaganda campaign to shore up domestic support
for President Vladimir Putin's policy and to support anti-Kyiv protest activity on the streets ofsouthern and eastern Ukraine." The cable noted that both "official and allegedly unofficial social
media accounts have spewed forth an unceasing stream of disinformation and gained more andmore online followers." 2518 In particular, the cable noted that accounts including Klyushin(@artem_klyushin) and Konstantin Rykov (@Rykov) tweeted "pro-Kremlin patriotic
propaganda about events in Ukraine nearly 24 hours a day to tens of thousands - or in
Klyushin' s case, 1.4 million - followers." The cable noted that all the messaging is similar:
filled with hatred for the Ukrainian government, the United States and its policies, and Westernvalues. 2519

In June 2014 a U.S. diplomat working on Ukraine and Russia issues emailed a news article detailing
Russia's use of social media "trolls" to colleagues within the Department of State. The U.S. diplomat described thearticle, titled "Documents Show How Russia's Troll Army Hit America," as a "must read" about "how the Kremlin
is attempting to use [social media] to manipulate public opinion." The U.S. diplomat observed that Russia, "may beswaying people through sheer volume (or at least discouraging people from engaging)." That message and theaccompanying article were then forwarded by a senior State Department official to a smaller, more senior, groupclose to the Department's leadership. The senior official indicated that the article captured "[w ]hat we're upa ainst " and lamented that the mainstream media was not coverin the rowin social media threat from Russia.

397

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY·

398

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

- K l y u s h i n previously served as an aide to Ilya Kostunov, who currently runsa p r o - K r ~ l and training program funded by U.S.-sanctioned and indicted oligarch andinfluence operative Yevgeniy Prigozhin. 2531 The school, which is in St. Petersburg, focuses on
co-opting young Russians. It offers political training as well as media and social media skills
training. 2532
Klyushin began using U.S.-related hashtags in early 2016, was active onsocial media regarding the 2016 U.S. election, and participated in a U.S. election night party in
Moscow with other Russian supporters of Donald Trump. On September 28, 2017, Klyushin
claimed on social media that the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election would not have
happened "without my interference."2533 The Committee is not able to corroborate this claim.
The Committee assesses that Klyushin is linked to other Kremlin allies withdirect ties to the Russian Government who have been involved in foreign influence campaigns
through social media. Like Klyushin, several of these individuals claimed involvement in, orwere active during, the 2016 U.S. election.

ii.

(U) Konstantin Rykov(U) Klyushin is associated with a number of Kremlin-linked online influencers that areof concern to the Committee. Some of the individuals in this network have been involved in

399.

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Russian foreign influence operations targeting the elections of U.S. allies, have attempted toundermine U.S. allies by inflaming domestic tensions, and have claimed involvement in the 2016
U.S. presidential election.
Konstantin Rykov, who has been referred to as the "chief troll," is a known. close associate ofKlyushin and has engaged with Klyushin in running influence operations onsocial media. 2534 The Committee assesses that Rykov has la ed a si ificant role in the
Kremlin's forei n and domestic influence efforts,

Rykov claims to have knowledge of the involvement of hackers, WikiLeaks,
and Ca~alytica in the 2016 U.S. election. 2536 He also claims to have been in directcontact over Twitter with Donald Trump in 2012. 2537 The Committee obtained information that
calls at least one of these claims into significant doubt, most notably regarding the alleged
Twitter contact. 2538 Nevertheless, Rykov's level of access within the Russian government, hisconnections to online influence operatives, and his historical involvement in Kremlin influence
operations; make him a significant concern.
Rykov began receiving Russian government support in 2003, primarily toe x p a n d ~ f online influence efforts targeting a domestic audience by working with
Kremlin-linked organizations to fill the Russian internet with pro-Kremlin content and social
media commentary. 2539
However, more recently, Rykov's influence work has taken on a wide rangeof foreign targets that align with Russian government interests, intelligence activities andmessaging from state media outlets involved in propaganda efforts. 2540
Rykov and members of his network have been involved in efforts targeting the2534

European Union
2018, Chaillot Paper

Ins

14
2535
2536

2539
2540

(U) T 1s trans1t10n 1s consistent wit at er networks of Kremlin acked influence operatives that developed
their tradecraft domestically, refined it in Ukraine and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, and then eventually
expanded its reach to Western Europe, the United States, and now Afric;:t, the Middle East and elsewhere. See infra
Vol. 2.

400
J

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

United States and elsewhere. These efforts have targeted elections andsought to sow discord by amplifying societal divisions. 2541

The Committee assesses that Rykov is friendly with Russian Presidential
Admin~cial Timur Prokopenko, who managed the Kremlin's media influence
activities from 2012-2014 and who requested that a Kremlin-controlled institute finance Rykov's
influence operations.2546..
The Committee assesses that, in 2014, Rykov likely collaborate~ with theRussian Presidential Administration regarding a Russian influence operation targeting France, inr

401

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

support of the French National Front and Marine Le Pen. Rykov has also claimed involvementin the 2017 French presidential election.2547·.

involveRu.

The Committee assesses that as of 2014, Rykov has also been significantly
n influence operations targeting Ukraine, likely at the Kremlin's request. 2550

402

Rykov has received payments from the Presidential
Administration to develop Kremlin internet projects.2555

I -Aleksey Goreslavskiy, a Rykov associate and former colleague, has politicaloversight of online media in Russia's Presidential Administration.2557 ·•Rykov operates many websites, some of which are funded and controlled by
Russia's Presidential Administration. 2558

In addition to Klyushin, Rykov has ties to a number of other 'individuals
outside~ l i n who are associated with Russian intelligence services or pro-Kremlin
political parties, such as Leonid Reshetnikov, Aleksey Kondratyev, Aleksey Zhuraviev, German
Klimenko, Aleksey Chesnakov and Aleksandr Dugin. 2559•

403

• -Kondratyev is the Chair of the Security and Defense Committee in the
Russian Federation Council.
•~Klimenko is an adviser to President Putin and pro-Kremlin social media
expert.

l;~-'.(U) Dugin met with Steve Bannon in Rome in 2018. Bannon claimed that the meeting in2018 was their first interaction, and that the 2016 U.S. election was not discussed. 2565-

(U) SSCI Bannon Tr., pp. 416-417; Treasury, "Treasury Announces New Designations of Ukrainian Separatists
and their Russian Su orters," March 11, 2015.

404

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) As previously noted, Rykov was also active during the 2016 U.S. election, though
the full nature and scope of his activity are difficult to verify or disprove. Rykov began to showinterest in, and support for, Donald Trump shortly after Trump's campaign was announced.
Vzglyad is a pro-Kremlin news website founded in 2005 by Konstantin Rykov, and is funded
and controlled by the Russian government. 2567 On August 18, 2015, a representative from
Vzglyad reached out to Hope Hicks requesting an interview with Trump. 2568 No interview took
place.2569 However, two months later, on October 17, a Washington Examiner story titled "Putinloves Donald Trump," prominently featured'Rykov and his Kremlin ties. 2570 The same day thestory was published, Trump tweeted a link to it, writing, "Russia and the world has alreadystarted to respect us again!"2571
In addition to his. connection to Klyushin, Rykov maintains contact with an e t w o r ~ . and pro-Kremlin bloggers. and trolls, many of whom responded to calls by
Rykov to participate in U.S. election-related efforts online in 2016. Following the election,
many of those actors took steps to hide their activities.2572
Rykov, who owns the official domain for Putin's 2018 re-election campaign
putin2018.ru, as well as marinelepen.ru, registered a media aggregation website, trump2016.ru,
in August 2015. 2573 Rykov distributed polling data and memes, was active on social media, andorganized election-related events, at least one of which was attended by Klyushin.
Another one ofRykov's election events was attended by Anton KorobkovZemlyanskiy, a pro-Kremlin social media operative and bot developer whose activities havetargeted foreign countries including the United States. Zemlyanski was involved in Ukraine with
Klyushin and Rykov, and was removed from Twitter after he made an online death threat toward
a U.S. official in Moscow.· Zemlyanski's removal reportedly only provoked more threats fromhis associates. 2574

(U) Email, Georgi Asatryan to Hope Hicks, August 18, 2015 (DJTFP00005700).
SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 66.
·
2570 (U) David M: Drucker, "Putin love·s Donald Trump," Washington Examiner, October 17, 2015.
2571
Tweet realDonaldTrum October 17 2015.

2569 (U)405

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In addition to Klyushin and Zemlyanski, Rykov's gatherings in Moscow for the2016 U.S. election and inauguration were also attended by a range of other individuals such as
pro-Kremlin propagandist Maria Katasonova, Duma member Aleksey Zhuravlev, and Jack
Hanick, an American media consultant who is associated with U.S.-sanctioned oligarch
Konstantin Malofeyev and the pro-Kremlin propaganda media outlet Tsargrad TV. 2575

Following the 2016 U.S. election, Russian political elites congratulated
Rykov regarding the results of the U.S. election. Among others, Rykov was congratulated by the
Kremlin's Aleksey Zharich.2577 On social media, Rykov was told that "we are waiting for the
victory of Le Pen."2578 \- F o l l o w i n g Le Pen's 2017 defeat in the French presidential election, Rykov
told a journalist that he was disappointed that his support for Le Pen "did not work out the same
way that it did with the US President."2579

406

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

D. (U) Trump Tower Moscow
1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) During the 2016 U.S. presidential election cycle, Donald Trump and the Trump
Organization pursued a business deal in Russia. Michael Cohen, then an executive vicepresident at the Trump Organization and personal attorney to Trump, primarily handled andpursued these efforts.
(U) The Trump Organization had repeatedly sought a deal in Russia for decades, but nodeal had advanced beyond initial negotiations. In September 2015, approximately three months
after Trump declared his candidacy for president, Cohen received two offers from businessmen
with connections to Russia to build a "Trump Tower" in Moscow. 2580 One proposal came fromFelix Sater, a longtime business associate of Trump who had worked closely with the Trump
Organization on and off for over a decade. A second proposal came from Giorgi Rtskhiladze,another previous business partner of the Trump Organization and who had years before worked
with Cohen on building a Trump-branded property in Batumi, Georgia.
(U) Both proposals envisioned the construction of a Moscow skyscraper to be known as
Trump Tower Moscow, which would pair Russia-based developers and businessmen with the
Trump Organization in a licensing deal. This licensing deal would require the Russian developer
to finance and build the tower, while the Trump Organization, as the licensee, would receive anassortment of fees and payments for the use of the Trump brand.
(U) In September 2015, Trump authorized Cohen to pursue the Sater-related deal.
Cohen, through Sater, began negotiations with a Russia-based developer, Andrey Rozov andRozov's company, LC. Expert. By late October 2015, Sater, Cohen, and LC. Expert had agreed
on terms for a detailed Letter of Intent (LOI) .. The LOI laid out the main terms of a licensing
deal that promised to provide the Trump Organization millions of dollars upon the signing of adeal, and hundreds of millions of dollars if the project advanced to completion. By earlyNovember 2015, Trump and Rozov co-signed the LOI.
(U) Cohen kept Trump updated on the progress of the deal. While these·negotiations
were ongoing, Trump made positive public comments about Putin in _connection with his
presidential campaign. Cohen and Sater sought to leverage Trump's comments, as well as
subsequent comments about Trump by Putin, to advance the deal. Both Cohen and Sater atvarious times understood that both Putin's and Trump's comments could be useful in advancing
the deal.

2580(U) A third proposal, provided to Eric Trump, also arrived from individuals associated with the.Moscow city
government through Boris Epshteyn. This proposal is described infra Vol. 5, Sec. lli.D.3.v.

407.

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Sater told Cohen about high-level outreach to Russian businessmen and officials that
Sater claimed to have undertaken related to the deal. While Sater almost certainly inflated someof these claims, the Committee found that Sater did, in fact, have significant senior-level ties to a .
number of Russian businessmen and former government officials, and was in a position, throughintermediaries, to reach individuals close to Putin.
(U) Cohen and Sater also made plans for Cohen and Trump to travel to Russia as apredicate to finalizing a deal. Cohen instructed Sater to plan a trip for Cohen first; after Cohen'strip, the plan was for Trump to travel to Russia to mt!et with Putin in relation to the deal. Cohenalso contacted Dmitri Klokov, a Russian individual who had reached out about the deal and thepossibility of a meeting between Trump and Putin. While little is known about Klokov, thenature of the outreach and Klokov's ties to the Russian government suggest that his outreach
may have been sanctioned by the Russian government. Cohen ultimately declined Klokov'soffers.
(U) By the end of 2015, Cohen had become frustrated th.at the deal with Sater was notprogressing fast enough and began reaching out to the Kremlin directly to solicit the Russian
government's assistance. Cohen eventually made contact in January 2016 with a Russian
Presidential Administration aide to Dmitri Peskov, a senior Kremlin official and key advisor to
Putin. Cohen discussed the project in detail and reported to Trump that he had done so. As aresult of this direct outreach to the Russian Presidential Administration and Sater' s separate
efforts to conduct outreach to individuals in Russia, the Committee found that senior Russian
government officials including almost certainly President Vladimir Putin were aware of the deal
by January 2016.
(U) Cohen and Sater continued negotiations into the spring of 2016. Their effort
primarily focused on efforts to travel to Russia to advance the deal, but the Committee found noevidence of other concrete steps they took during this time. By June 2016, Sater, through his
contacts in Russia, had helped organize an invitation for Cohen to attend the St. Petersburg
International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Cohen initially agreed to travel to Russia andforwarded passport information to Sater. However, on June 14, 2016, Cohen and Sater met inperson in Trump Tower, and Cohen likely relayed that he would not be able to travel to Russia atthat time. Around that time, attempts to advance the deal stopped. ,2. (U) Past Efforts to Conduct a Real Estate Deal in Russia with Felix Sater(U) Donald Trump and the Trump Organization's pursuit of a real estate deal in Russia
extended over several decades and involved a variety of potential partners, including Felix Sater.
In the 1990s, Trump pursued developments in Russia with various American businessmen,
including Bennett LeBow, Howard Lorber, and others (described infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.I.4).
From approximately late 2013 to late 2014, the Trump Organization sought a separate licensing
408

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYdeal in Russia with the Crocus Group, a Russian real estate company owned and managed by the
Agalarov family (described infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.C.3.v).
(U) However, the most persistent effort involved Sater. Starting in the early 2000s, theTrump Organization and Donald Trump repeatedly sought assistance from Sater to close a realestate deal in Russia. For more than a decade, Sater sought to connect the Trump Organization
with Russian developers and investors in pursuit of real estate opportunities in Russia,
particularly in Moscow. Sater relied on an expansive network of personal and professional
contacts with Russian businessmen, senior Russian government officials (including from theintelligence services), and individuals connected to Eurasian organized crime. Most recently,
during the 2016 U.S. presidential election cycle, Sater was involved in efforts to build a realestate development commonly known as Trump Tower Moscow.

i.

(U) Felix Sater's Background and Ties to the Russian Government(U) In 1998, prior to his work with the Trump Organization, Sater came under federal
criminal investigation along with several other individuals for money laundering and stock
manipulation. At the time, Sater was in Russia working on a business deal to rent a transatlantic
cable from AT&T. 2581

iew
w1 the Committee, Sater reca e
Moscow. 2584

at e

ew e was emg surve1 e "ae time" in(U) According to Sater, in an effort to generate oodwill with the FBI in anticipation of aU.S. prosecution, Sater began providing information to
an individuar Sater met in
2585
Russia and who told Sater that he worked for the

2581(U) Transcript of Sentencing Before the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, United States v. Felix Sater, Case No. 98CR-1101-ILG (E.D.N.Y. October 23, 2009), p. 6; SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Felix Sater, April 4, 2018,
p. 58.

2582
2583(U) 1 id., pp. 22-23.
(U) Sater Tr., p. 70. Sater recalled being followed by a car and in coffee shops. Ibid., p. 71.
2585(U). Ibid., pp. 62--63; Benton Campbell, Letter to the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, Re: United States v. Felix Sater,
August 27, 2009, p. 3.
2584

409

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Sater recalled that in the course of his routine social interactions, which included
dining and consuming alcohol with Russian associates, he m e t - Sater recalledapproaching him during one such social occasion with approximately 20 individuals at a dinner:

I go to the bathroom, the guy follows me to the bathroom,-· He says:
I'd like your phone number; I'd like to talk to you tomorrow. I said: Sure. The
next day, I met him at an Irish pub. That's when he proceeded to tell me that I'msitting with very serious intelligence guys. 2586

(U) Sater began using his existing network, largely in Russia, to establish a network ofcontacts including intelligence officers, military operatives, and personnel at military researchfacilities in various countries. 2588 Sater explained that he was in contact with "mostly GRU[Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate] guys."2589(U) One of Sater' s primary contacts providing information at this time was Evgeny
Shmykov.

(U) Sater Tr., p. 9.
(U) Ibid., p. 61. Sater explained that he knew these GRU-affiliated individuals "because they were in control of
the telecommunications" and further explained that they "were all retired or semi-retired. Who the hell knows?"

2589

410

r

••
411

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In November 1998, Sater returned to the United States and surrendered to the FBI.
Sater pleaded guilty to participating in a racketeering enterprise and, as part of his plea, began
serving as a government cooperator. Over the course of approximately a decade, Sater was aprolific cooperator for the U.S. Government, providing information on "the most elusive anddangerous" individuals of interest to U.S. law enforcement.2593 Sater also served as a source of"valuable foreign intelligence" in a variety of national security areas. 2594

(U) Sater' s cooperation reveals a number of connections and accesses related to highlevel national security information. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Sater' s(U) Memorandum & Order, United States v. Felix Sater, Case No. 98-CR-1101-ILG (E.D.N.Y. July. 22, 2019),
p. 1.
.
2594
(U) Ibid

412

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
cooperation was "extraordinary."2595 Sater's cooperation covered a "depth and breadth rarely
seen," and included the provision of information on cyber crime, al-Qa'ida, Russian military anddefense matters, and Russian organized crime. 2596 Some of these topics included the U.S.
Government's highest priority national security matters. For example, Sater acquired satellite
phone numbers associated with Usama Bin Laden and information on Bin Laden's whereabouts
following September 11, 2001; the whereabouts of then-Taliban leader Mullah Omar; al,Qa'ida's internal structuring and financial capabilities; and ground reports related to battle
damage assessments during Operation Enduring Freedom. 2597 Sater also provided information
abo4t a variety of organized crime matters inside the United States, a number of which directly
contributed to high-profile prosecutions of organized crime figures. 259 ~ At Sater's sentencing, a
DOJ representative told a federal judge that "[t]here was nothing [Sater] wouldn't do. No task
was too big. He ... was the key to open a hundred different doors that [the FBI] couldn't open
prior to that time."2599·(U) Sater' s accesses came from his continued connections to Russian individuals andcriminal groups. Sater used his "connections with several high-ranking Russian military orformer military and KGB officers" as the source for the information he provided to the U.S.
Government, including much of the information described above. 2600 In addition, Sater provided
information about Russian organized crime leaders in Russia, including their identities, roles,
and U.S.-based operations.2601 He also participated in FBI undercover operations in Cyprus andTurkey targeting Russian criminals.2602 In addition to the Russian government information listed

2595(U) Transcript of Sentencing Before the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, United States v. Felix Sater, Case No. 98CR-1101-ILG (E.D.N.Y. October 23, 2009), p. 4. During the confirmation process for h.er appointment as Attorney
General, Loretta Lynch addressed the issue of Sater's cooperation, particularly as it related to the sealing of certain
records in Sater's case pertaining to his cooperation and sentencing. Lynch described the information provided bySater as a result of his cooperation with the government as "valuable and sensitive" and noted that the court had
twice upheld its order to seal much of the record. Letter, Lynch to Grassley and Leahy, February 9, 2015. Nearly
all of the record in Sater's case was unsealed by Judge Leo Glasser in 2019. Memorandum & Order, United States
v. Felix Sater, Case No.,98-CR-1101-ILG (E.D.N.Y. July. 22, 2019).
.
2596 (U) Benton Campbell, Letter to the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, Re: United States v. Felix Sater, August 27, 2009.
2597(U) Leslie R. Caldwell and Kelly A. Moore, Letter to the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, Re: United States v. Felix
Sater, October 19, 2009; Benton Campbell, Letter to the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, Re: United States v. Felix Sater,
August 27, 2009.
2598(U) Benton Campbell, Letter to the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, Re: United States v. Felix Sater, August 27, 2009.
2599(U) Transcript of Sentencing Before the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, United States v. Felix Sater, Case No. 98CR-1101-ILG (E.D.N.Y. October 23, 2009), p. 12; SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Felix Sater, April 4, 2018,p. 13.
.
2600 (U) Benton Campbell, Letter to the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, Re: United States v. Felix Sater, August 27, 2009,
p. 8.
'2601 (U) Ibid.
2602(U) Ibid.; Transcript of Sentencing Before the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, United States v. Felix Sater, Case No.
98-CR-1101-ILG (E.D.N.Y. October 23, 2009).

413

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

above relating to Shmykov, Sater also provided information about a number of Russian oligarchs
and their ties to organized crime. 2603

ii.

(U) Sater's Relationship with the Trump Organization(U) Sater first began working with the Trump Organization in the early 2000s while he
was an executive at Bayrock, a New York-based real estate and development company. Satermanaged Bayrock; his partner was Tevfik Arif, a former Soviet government trade official.2604(U) Arif has connections to Russia and Turkey, and information obtained by theCommittee suggests he was involved in Russian organized crime, money laundering, and humantrafficking dating back to at least 2000.

•(U) In 2010, Arif was arrested along with a group of others while aboard a luxury yacht
in Turkey as part of prostitution sting. 2605 The charges were eventually dropped. 2606•

(U) Sater, Arifs longtime business partner, suggested to the Committee that he believed
Arif engaged in human trafficking in the United States and elsewhere. 2607 According toSater, Arif brought "thousands" of women into the United States, primarily from
Ukraine. 2608

•

I

2603

(U) Benton Campbell, Letter to the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, Re: United States v. Felix Sater, August 27, 2009.
(U) Sater Tr., pp. 81-92; Craig Shaw, et al., "World leaders, mobsters, smog and mirrors," The Black Sea,
December 20, 2016.
2605(U) Craig Shaw, et al., "World leaders, mobsters, smog and mirrors," The Black Sea, December 20, 2016.
2606 (U) Ibid
2607
(U) Sater Tr.,
2604

26os

U Ibid2610 (U)
2611

1 id

(U) Ibid, pp. 37-38.

414

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I'-'-" Open source reporting indicates that Bayrock is connected to Mashkevich andthe Eurasian Group, a company controlled by Chodiev and Ibragimov. 2615•

(U) In approximately 2000, Bayrock, led by Sater and Arif, leased office space on the
24th floor of Trump Tower in New York, which ultimately led to Sater's introduction to Trump.
Trump's offices were on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, above Bayrock.2617(U) Sater and Bayrock's projects with the Trump Organization included a development
in Ft. Lauderdale and the Trump SoHo development in New York. Throughout this time, Saterinteracted with, and reported to, Donald Trump on deals. 2618
(U) In 2007, The New York Times revealed Sater's 1998 sealed indictment and hiscooperation with the U.S. Government. 2619 Sater appeared to cut ties with Bayrock in response.

(U) In late 2009 or early 2010, Sater and another associate, Daniel Ridloff, were
provided office space on the 26th floor of Trump Tower in return for their efforts to source
international deals. 2620 Several Trump Organization senior officers recalled that Sater had been

(U)(U) Sater Tr., pp. 26, 39.
2618(U) Ibid., pp. 83-84.
2619 (U) Charles V. Bagli, "Real Estate Executive With Hand in Trump Projects Rose From Tangled Past," The New
York Times, December 17, 2007.
2620(U) Sater described his mandate as "the world except Africa." Sater Tr., p. 35.
2617

415
I

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

successful in two separate deals and had "proven himself' as being able to deliver licensing
opportunities of a significant size. 2621 Sater was given the title of "Senior Advisor to Donald
Trump." 2622 Sater was not paid a salary, but was promised a share of proceeds from successful
business deals he brought in. Sater used business cards with the Trump Organization logo arid
traveled on behalf of the Trump Organization, meeting developers and other investors. 2623 This
arrangement, and Sater's office space on the 26th floor of Trump Tower only several office's
away from Trump, gave Sater greater access to Trump, allowing Sater the ability to see Trump
frequently and "pitch" business opportunities to him. 2624 During this time, Trump woµld see
Sater every day, generally more than once.2625 In general, Sater recalled that he had interactedwith Trump "hundreds" of times over the course of their relationship. 2626 After less than a year,
Sater left his advisory role to the Trump Organization without completing any new deals.2627

iii.

(U) Sater's History of Trump Development Work in Russia(U) Sater recalled working on a Trump project in Moscow as early as 2003 or 2004
when he took an "exploratory trip" to Russia to meet with real estate developers about
potentially building a Trump Tower. 2628 By 2004 or 2005, Sater had undertaken negotiations
related to a former pencil factory in the Moscow area. Sater explained that he had taken three orfour trips related to the Moscow project and would provide updates to Trump upon hi~ return. 2629
(U) Sater continued these efforts in the following years with a variety of different
developers and locations, including an opportunity involving a location in Moscow City slated
for a high-rise building.2630 Sater recalled making a licensing deal proposal to Russian oligarch

2621(U) See, e.g., SSCI Transcript of the Interview with D~nald J. Trump, Jr., December 13, 2017, p. 267.
(U) Sater Tr., p. 26.
2623(U) Ibid, pp. 32, 37-38.
_.
2624(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 174; Sater Tr., p. 26. A number of individuals associated with the Trump Organization
sought to distance themselves and the Trump Organization from Sater. For example, Keith Schiller, Trump's
longtime chief of security who had an office on the 26th floor in close proximity to Trump's office, claimed that hehad interacted with Sater "once, maybe twice." SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Keith Schiller, February 7,
2018, p. 127. Sater told the Committee that he interacted with Schiller "a couple times a day, a couple times a week,a couple times a month, depending ifl was there. But yes, I know Keith very well .... I've met him more than ahundred times .... and he's always around, so I would always bump into him, whether it was outside the elevator,
by the waiting room, downstairs getting coffe~, Many, many occasions I've met with Keith." Sater Tr., pp. 38-39.
Rhona Graff, Trump's longtime assistant who maintained an office immediately adjacent to Trump's on the 26th
floor, told the Committee that she recalled meeting Sater a "handful of times." Graff Tr., p. 190.
2625
(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 173-174. At that time, Cohen also worked out of an office on the 26th floor of Trump
Tower.
2626(U) Sater Tr., p. 260.
2627
(U) Ibid, p. 28.
2628(U) Ibid, p. 88.
2629(U) Ibid, pp. 88, 91-92.
2630(U) Ibid, pp. 95-96.
2622

416

)

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Sergei Polansky related to a "Federation Tower Trump." Polansky was the head of Mirax
Group, a large Russian real estate and development company, during that time. Sater recalled
Polansky telling him, "I'm the Trump of Russia; why doesn't he pay me?" 2631 Sater recalled
personally introducing "a few of Polonsky's partners or directors" to Trump as part of these
discussions. 2632 Sater ultimately became involved in Mirax. Sater also recalled discussing a
potential Trump project in Russia from approximately 2005-2008 with Pavel Fuks. Sater statedthat he knows Fuks "really well" and that they had "numerous" discussions "in Moscow, then in
New York" over several years about a potential Trump deal. 2633 Sater was eventually given a
one-year exclusivity deal with the Trump Organization for potential deals in Russia. 2634
(U) Sater explained that he pursued a large number of international deals which hepitched to Trump and the Trump Organization. As a result, he believed that there was not a"special affinity" to Russia, but that a variety of factors made the prospect of a Russia deal
"interesting."2635
Was there a specific affinity to Russia? No. But [the Russians] were rich, they had
money, and it would have been a good opportunity to make money, and thus
Russia was very much an interesting city. And because I speak Russian, because I
have relationships there, and because we knew developers there, it was quite
interesting. 2636

(U) Sater's interest in pursuing a deal in Russia, however, did not occur in complete
isolation. For example, in 2007, Donald Trump wrote a letter to Putin congratulating him on
Putin's being named "Person of the Year" by Time. 2637

Ibid.
(U) Ibid, pp. 96, 98.
2633(U) Ibid., p. 97.
2634(U) Ibid., pp. 94--95.
2635(U) Ibid, p. 36.
2636 (U) Ibid
2637
(U) Letter, Trump to Putin, December 19, 2007 (TRUMPORG_18_000046). The Committee did not obtain aclear explanation as to why this letter was sent, or whether any response was provided.
2631 (U)2632

417

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Oecembtr 19, 2007

rr ldent Vladimir Putin
Ru illn Ftderatlon

D nr Pre lden1 Putin:
ongnitulmlons on beloi named I im llUl"llJJoe' " ~fan of lh \ e:ir.. - ou
dclloltel) d ene II. \S )OU probubl tu,,c hr!lrd, l nm II hi!: fan of3our; l rake
care or ~ourself.
With bt whhe ,(U) While Trump was Sater's primary point of contact in the Trump Organization, Sateralso worked with Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Jason Greenblatt at various times during
his efforts. 2638 For example, in approximately 2006, Sater recalled traveling to Russia on
Trump' s request because both Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. would be traveling there, inpart to research potential deals. Sater recalled accompanying both Trump children during thistrip:
[Trump} said: My kids are going there; I'd feel a lot more comfortable ifyou
were there looking after them. There 's still a concern; they 're young. Do you
think you could go there? I said: No problem. And ! flew therefrom Europe,
because I didn 'tjly there with them, and I met them there. We stayed at the2638(U) Sater Tr., p. 93.

418

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

National Hotel together, and I did what their dad asked me, keep an eye on them .
. . . They were actually talking to other people about potential deals. He justwanted me there to sort of keep an eye on them, literally. I don't know aboutprotection, but-well, yes, I guess he wanted somebody that he knows and trusted
there to look after his kids. 2639
(U) On that trip Sater facilitated a tour of the Kremlin which Sater later referenced incommunications with Cohen during the 2016 presidential campaign. Sater told the Committee:

I contacted a very close friend ofmy partner Tevjik [Arif] and told them -- told
him that I needed to impress the Trump kids. And he made the arrangements for a
private tour of the Kremlin, where it was just me, [Ivanka Trump], I think it was
the curator for the Kremlin, and one security person, I guess somebody theequivalent of their Secret Service, and a translator, I remember. But thenafterwards the curator and translator, once we finished going through some of theNewseum-quality rooms, as we 're passing, the security guard says: That's the
boss's room. And he opens it and he shows an office. [Ivanka Trump] said: Can I
sit down behind the chair? I said: Let her. And he's like: You ,'re out ofyour mind.
I said: No, no; let her; just trust me; she's the daughter of a VIP from the US.;
what's she going to do, steal his pen? You're standing right here." And I
convinced him to let her sit in the chair. She sat in the chair, spun around two or
three times, said "Wow," walked out, and that was it. Then later we went todinner. 2640

Sater stated that the "close friend" of Arif was Telman Ismailov. Sater recalled
having ~eviously introduced to Ismailov b Arif and understood that at the time he was ·"very influential" in Moscow. 2641
~ Sat~r further
explained that years later Ismailov had a "major falling out" with Putin "because he was asked tobuild a hotel for the Sochi Olympics and he refused and then built a major hotel in Turkey, andthat was the beginning of his end."2643

3. (U) Trump. Tower Moscow Projects During the 2016 Presidential Campaign(U) During the 2016 election cycle, at least three proposals fo,r a Trump Tower project inMoscow came to senior employees of the Trump Organization.

2639(U) Ibid, pp. 99-100.

2640(U) Ibid, pp. 103-104.

2641

Ibid, . 104.

2642

419

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Two of these proposals came to Michael Cohen, then an executive vice president at
the Trump Organization and personal attorney to Trump, from individual~ with strong
connections in Russia who had done business with Trump and the Trump 'Organization iri thepast. The first of these proposals involved Felix Sater. The second involved Giorgi Rtskhiladze,another businessman who had previously_worked to build a Trump Tower in Batumi, Georgia,
and who also has significant ties to Russia. Both were offered to Cohen in September 2015,
shortly after Cohen's efforts to setup a meeting between Putin and Trump in New York. While
there is no direct evidence linking these proposals to Cohen's Kremlin outreach, the timing of the
proposals suggests there may be some link between the two.
(U) In the spring of 2016, Boris Epshteyn, a Trump Campaign surrogate and later
employee, brought a third proposal to Eric Trump. The Epshteyn proposal, which came throughindividuals connected to the Moscow city government, involved construction of a smaller hotelin Russia.

(U) Also during the 2016 elections, an individual named Dmitri Klokov contacted Cohento set up a potential Trump-Putin meeting, possibly in relation to the Trump Tower Moscow
discussions.

i.

(U) Attempts to Broker a Meeting Between Trump and Putin during the2015 United Nations General Assembly.

(U) On September 15, 2015, Cohen appeared on a radio program with conservative
media personality Sean Hannity. On the program, Cohen claimed that there is a "better thanlikely chance" that Trump would meet with Putin during Putin's upcoming trip to the United
Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. 2644 Cohen initially told the Committee that
he was 'just throwing it out there in order to have fun." However, Cohen later admitted thatprior to the Hannity show, he had engaged in efforts to arrange such a meeting. According toCohen, before his Hannity interview, he had conducted an internet search for the Kremlin, founda phone number, and called that number. 2645 The woman who answered spoke both English andRussian. Cohen recalled that he asked the woman if there was "[a]ny chance when President
Putin is in New York at the General Assembly he'd like to come by and have a burger with Mr.
Trump at the [G]rille?"2646 Cohen claimed the Kremlin representative responded by stating thatshe didn't think "protocol" would allow it, but that she would "let you know if we can."2647

2644(U) Andrew Kaczynski, "Trump's Lawyer: 'Better Than Likely Chance Trump May Even Meet With Putin'
During U.N.," BuzzFeed News, September 17, 2015.
2645(U) SSCI Interview of the Transcript with Michael Cohen, October 25, 2017, pp. 29-30.
2646(U) Ibid Cohen was referring to Trump Grille, a restaurant in Trump Tower in New York.
2647(U) Ibid

420

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Cohen provided the woman his phone number to follow-up. Cohen initially claimed to theCommittee that he never told Trump or anyone else in the Trump Organization or Trump
Campaign about the outreach or the idea for the meeting. 2648

(U) Cohen admitted in subsequent testimony with the Committee that much of thisoriginal account was false. Cohen had, in fact, discuss~d the potential Putin meeting with Trump"two o~ three" times and Cohen's outreach had been supported by Trump. 2649 Cohen recalled
Trump ·seeing press articles which suggested that then-President Obama would not meet with
Putin during UNGA. 265 Cohen recalled Trump rhetorically asking him "[h]ow stupid is our
President not to meet with Putin when he's here?" 2651 Cohen recalled telling Trump that it would
be "really cool" if "we can get [Putin] to come here and have a burger with you over at the
Trump Grille." 2652 Trump directed Cohen to "see if you can ma!(e it happen."2653 Cohen
subsequently conducted the initial outreach to the Kremlin. 2654°

(U) On September 10, 2015, after Cohen's initial outreach to the Kremlin but prior to the
Hannity appearance, a reporter with The New York Times reached out to Hope Hicks about thepossibility that Trump would meet with Putin in New York. 2655 Hicks immediately forwarded
the inquiry to Cohen and copied Corey Lewandowski, writing only "Michael?" in the body of theemail.2656 Cohen recalled that he informed Hicks and Lewandowski of his efforts to arrange ameeting between Putin and Trump at this time. 2657

2648(U) Ibid, pp. 30---31. Cohen later told the SCO that he had discussed this outreach with the then-President
Trump's attorney prior to his testimony before the Committee and that the President's attorney discussed keeping
Trump out of the narrative. In particular, the President's attorney expressed his belief that the story was not \ ·relevant, and that the story should not be included in his statement to the Committee. Cohen further recalled that heunderstood from this interaction that ifhe stayed on message and kept the President out of the narrative, thePresident would have his back. SCO Report, Vol. II, p. 142.
2649
(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 314.
2650 (U) Ibid.
2651 (U) Ibid.
2652 (U) Ibid.
2 53~ (U) Ibid.
2654(U) Ibid., p. 317.
2655(U) Email, Haberman to Hicks, September 10, 2016 (DJTFP00005761).
.
2656(U) Email, Hicks to Cohen and Lewandowski, September 10, 2016 (DJTFP00005761).
.
2657(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 317. Cohen's admission that he told Hicks arid Lewandowski, which is consistent with
Hick's email to Cohen, conflicts with what Hicks told the Committee. Hicks claimed that she didn't recall any
discussion of a potential meeting between Trump and Putin .. Hicks further explained Cohen's public comments on
Hannity by claiming Cohen was fabricating the possibility that a Trump-Putin meeting might occur, stating that
"Michael says a lot of things publicly that aren't accurate." Hicks Tr., p. 23. Cohen recalled Trump's reaction to
media attention to the issue was to simply "O]ust let them keep writing." Cohen Tr. II, p. 318.

421

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) As noted, Cohen recalled speaking to Trump several times about the proposed
meeting. 2658 Sometime a~er the September 15, 2015 Hannity radio interview, Cohen initiated asecond call with the representative of the Russian government. 2659 Cohen was told that ·"protocol" w:ould not allow the meeting to occur. 266 Cohen was under the impression that Putin
was informed of the outreach.2661 Cohen ultimately informed Trump that the meeting would not
happen. 2662°

(U) In late September 2015, Cohen received two Seemingly independent offers to build a
Trump Tower Moscow. The offers, one from Giorgi Rtskhiladze and one from Felix Sater,
arrived within days of each other.2663 Cohen admitted that he had never before received two
separate offers for the same building location at approximately the same time. 2664 Cohenclaimed that he did not believe that either offer was in any way connected to his outreach to the
Kremlin earlier in the month. 2665 Sater claimed that his outreach was undertaken at his own
initiative.2666 Rtskhiladze claimed that his outreach was undertaken at the behest of a businessassociate. 2667

ii.

(U) Felix Sater: Michael Cohen's First Trump Tower Moscow Line ofEffort During the Campaign

In September 2015, Sater and Cohen began discussing the possibility of building a Trump
Tower in Moscow. Efforts to move the deal forward continued until at least June 2016.

j

2658

(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 314.
(U) sea Report, Vol. II, p. 141.
2660
(U) Cohen Tr.-II, p. 315.
2661
(U) Ibid
2662(U) sea Report, Vol. II, pp. 141-142.
2663(U) Sater Tr., p. 93; Rtskhiladze Tr.,. 97-98
2664(U) Cohen Tr., p. 118.
2665
(U) Both Rtskhiladze and Sater have contacts connected to the Kremlin, particularly the office of DmitriPeskov. For example, Sater claimed that one of his close contacts, Emin Iskenderov, had access to Peskov and that
he had used Iskenderov to conduct outreach to Peskov. Sater Tr., p. 191; see also FBI, FD-302, Sater 12/15/2017;
FBI, FD-302, Sater 9/19/2017. Rtskhiladze has privately claimed that Peskov is his "good friend." Email,Rtskhiladze to Cohen, March 12, 2017 (RTSKHILADZE-0000245). Furthermore, a similar contact progression
involving Peskov's office likely occurred separately during the course of the Trump Moscow.project. In that case,the day after Cohen unilaterally made contact with Peskov's assistant in mid-January 2016, Sater contacted Cohen,
stating that it was "about Putin" and that "they called today," suggesting that Cohen's outreach did prompt Kremlin
involvement. Text message, Sater to Cohen, January 21, 2016 (FSS00131).
2666(U) Sater Tr., p. 108. Sater claimed that Trump's campaign created "a lot of good noise" which served as a "PRcampaign to get a Trump Tower Moscow built."
2667(U) Written Responses, Rtskhiladze, August 23, 2019. Rtskhiladze claimed that he reached out to Cohen after
his business associate, Simon Nizharadze, asked him to facilitate a deal between Trump and Vladimir Mazur, aRussian businessman. Ibid.
2659

422

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

a. (U) Origins of the Sater Proposal(U) In late September 2015, Sater called Andrei Rozov, the head of the Russian realestate development firm I.C. Expert, to present Rozov with the concept for a Trump Tower
Moscow. 2668
(U) A body of information suggests Rozov's personal and professional network likely
has at least some ties to individuals associated with Russian influence operations. For example,
Rozov's associate Stalbek Mishakov has significant ties to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch
who the Committee assesses undertakes a wide variety of Russian government influence
operations.

•(U) Sater said that he knew Mishakov and that Sater had met him a "bunch oftimes."2669
Sater at first stated that Rozov and Mishakov were "friends," before claiming that they
were "business associates" or "acquaintances."2670 Open source reporting corroborates
the connections between Mishakov and Rozov. For example, Mishakov and Rozov haveshared board positions at the same company.2671•,.__, For
years, Mishakov has maintained a series of board and senior executive positions withseveral ofDeripaska's companies, including as serving as Advisor to the General
Director at RUSAL Global Management BV CJSC. 2673 Sater also recalled that Mishakov
had managed at least one project for Deripaska in Moscow. 2674

2668(U) Sater Tr., pp. 107-109. The Committee did not have a record of the call in order to determine the specifictiming with certainty. Sater explained to the Committee that he had a longstanding relationship with Rozov. Saterand Rozov were both involved with Mirax Group since approximately 2007 or 2008. Sater stated that he and Rozovdeveloped a very close friendship and had conducted business together in the past. Ibid, p. 118.
2669
(U) Ibid, p. 121.
2610 (U) Ibid
2671
"JSC 'l MPZ IM. V.A. Kazakova,' General Meetin Decision," Inter/ax, September 17, 2007.
2672
2673

v," Reuters, undated.

2674
267S

see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.8.i and Vol. 5, Sec. III.J.4.

423

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) After contacting Rozov, Sater called Cohen and presented the idea for a Trump
Tower Moscow. 2680 According to Cohen, he and Sater were not in close contact prior to theinitial Trump Tower Moscow outreach. 2681 Sater and Cohen discussed an initial concept for the
project involving a skyscraper, one that would seek to be the tallest tower in Europe. 2682 Saterbelieved that a deal this large would require approval from the city government of Moscow andfurther suggested that approval from Putin would be necessary. 2683 Sater recalled that after
bringing the proposal to Cohen, Cohen sought and obtained approval from Trump to initiate thenegotiations. 2684 Sater recalled:·

I came to Michael and said: Michael, I have a potential Trump Tower deal in
Moscow that we could do; I have a good developer; I want to speak to Mr. T. He
said: Sure. He came back to me and said: Let's go. 2685
(U) Cohen recalled that in his initial discussion with Trump about Sater's concept for a
Trump Tower Moscow, Trump approved moving forward with the project but told Cohen to
closely monitor Sater.

After the conversation with Mr. Sater, I told Mr. Trump that there's anopportunity to develop the tallest building in the world in Moscow. He asked me
who it was with. I told him Felix is bringing the proposal, and he was like: Oy,
Felix! And I said to him: But you have to understand, Felix is not the partner in

2677(U) Ibid2678 (U)
2679

Ibid

(U) Ibid
2680(U) Sater Tr., pp. 118-119.
2681(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 168. Cohen described his contact with Sater in the years prior to this as "very infrequent"contact.
2682(U) Email communications at least as late as October show that Cohen and Sater were still focused on building
a tower designed to be among the tallest buildings in Europe. Email, Cohen to Sater, October 13, 2015
(TRUMPORG_MC_000164).
2683(U) Sater Tr., p. 147.
2684
(U) Ibid, p. 111.
268s (U) Ibid

424

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYthis. He's just the licensee's representative. And he's not involved. And Mr.
Trump said: Okay, keep him tight. Meaning, keep him on a tight leash. 2686
(U) After receiving Trump's approval to proceed, Cohen, Sater, and Rozov moved
quickly to agree to basic deal parameters. On September 25, 2015, Cohen, Rozov, and Sater
participated in a conference call with Sater translating.2687 Shortly thereafter, Cohen forwarded
architectural renderings for the project directly to Rozov.2688(U) Several days later, Rozov's "right hand man", Dmitry Chizhikov, sent Cohen a letterfrom Rozov, attaching a presentation describing Rozov's company, IC Expert.2689 In the letter,
Rozov wrote that "the tallest building in Europe should be in Moscow, and I am prepared tobuild it."2690 Rozov said that he was "optimistic" that the co-venture would become "a shining
example of business creating opportunities and significant good will between Russia and .the
U.S."2691·

b. (U) Signing of a Letter of Intent(U) By October 5, 2015, Cohen had drafted a Letter oflntent (LOI) which set forth termsof a license agreement between Trump Acquisition, LLC and I.C. Expert Investment Company,
which was wholly-owned by Rozov. 2692 The LOI called for a 120-story residential tower to bebuilt in Moscow and outlined a license fee structure that included a $4 million up-front fee to be
paid in various installments, followed by a percentage of fees to be paid to Trump Acquisition,

2686(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 182-183.
While Cohen initially claimed he never spoke to Rozov on the phone, he later admitted speaking to him on
the phone once, which largely required Sater to act as a translator. Cohen Tr. II, p. 188. Documentary evidence andRozov's statements to the SCO suggest that a conference call happened on Friday, September 25, 2015. Email, ·Chizhikov to Cohen, September 29, 2015 (MDC-S-000601-602) (attaching a letter to Cohen from Rozov); FBI, FD302, Rozov 1/25/2018. Also later that evening Cohen forwarded to Sater the architectural renderings that Cohen had
previously sent to Rtskhiladze. Email, Cohen to Sater, September 25, 2015 (MDC-S-000673--680). For more on
Cohen's effort with Rtskhiladze, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.D.3.iii.
2688(U) Email, Cohen to Rozov, September 25, 2015 (MDC-S-000681-688). This email was sent to an email
address associated with RAV Investments, which Sater described as the "Swiss family office at the time that
[Rozov] used as his sort of investment arm." Sater Tr., p. 116.
2689
(U) Sater Tr., pp. 115-116; Email, Chizhikov to Cohen, September 29, 2015 (MDC-S-000601-602) (attaching a
letter to Cohen from Rozov).
L
2690(U) Email, Chizhikov to Cohen, September 29, 2015 (MDC-S-000601-602) (attaching a letter to Cohen from
Rozov). Sater recalled, "Actually, we were debating on trying to figure out maybe the tallest building in the world.
But .we didn't want to put that in the letter so as not to spook anypne.... It would make it ten times harder to build."
Sater Tr., p. 123.
.
2691
(U) Email, Chizhikov to Cohen, September 29, 2015 (MDC-S-000601-602) (attaching a letter to Cohen from
Rozov).
r
2692(U) Email, Cohen to Sater, October 5, 2015 (MDC-S-000,641-651).

2687 (U)425

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

inter alia, gross sales fees, rental fees, and revenue fees. 2693 Subsequent revisions to Cohen's
initial draft would eliminate the 120-story requirement and change the building to a multi-use
facility that included residences, a hotel, office space, and other related amenities. 2694 The .
revisions also modified some license fees by providing for a reduction of sales fees in acascading percentage as sales increased; a hotel management provision that would allow Trump
International Hotels Management, LLC to operate the hotel for 25 years, collecting a percentage
of gross operating revenue, with the option to manage food and other services. 2695
(U) On October 9, 2015, Sater emailed Cohen to tell Cohen that Sater would be meetingwith Russian billionaire Andrey Molchanov in the coming days. 2696 Sater noted that
Molchanov's stepfather was in the St. Petersburg city government and that Putin had "worked
for him" in the past.2697 Sater sent a link to LSR Group, one of Russia's largest construction
companies and a major real estate developer. 2698 Sater explained that Molchanov plans to "doTrump Tower Moscow on his site."2699•(U) Molchanov is affiliated with LSR Group. 2700 Sater later told the Committee that hemet Molchanov in approximately 2008 and that while he knew Molchanov "is one of thelargest developers in Russia .... [h]e's also a friend." 2701•

- S a t e r knew Molchanov had previously served in the Russian government as astate senator and believed that Molchanov was well connected.2702 Sater further said that2693 (U)
2694

Ibid.
(U) Email, [Office scanner] to Cohen, November 2, 2015 (MDC-S-000618-636) (attaching a scan ofa signed

LOI).·
2695 (U)
2696

Ibid.
(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, October 9, 2015 (MDC-S-000595).
2697 (U) Ibid
2698
(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, October 9, 2015 (MDC-S-000593).
2699(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, October 9, 2015 (MDC-S-000595).
2700(U) Tatiana Voronova and Katya Golubkova, "Main Shareholder in Russian homebuilder LSR to keep control,"Reu-ers
Ma 29, 2019.
·
2701
Sater Tr., p. 128. Sater recalled that he was introduced to Molchanov through a very close mutual
frien , Maxim Temikov, who also served with Sater on the Mirax board. He explained that Temikov's first wife
was now married to Molchanov. Sater explained this network as the "St. Petersbur rou " who "all know eachother.... this is a sociall close connected rou of eo le." Ibid., . 131-132.

426

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
he believed Molchanov was "awith. ,,2703

Sater told the Committee that the Molchanov site Sater had referenced in his
October 9, 2015 email to Cohen was the ZiL factory, a defunct automobile and heavy equipment
manufacturing facility, which Sater described as the largest development project in Moscow.
Sater told the Committee that the meeting with Molchanov referenced in his email to Cohen did,in fact, take place.2708 Sater explained that he subsequently "spoke to [Molchanov] on a numberof occasions" about the Trump deal. 2709 According to Sater, Molchanov reacted positive! to theTrum ro'ect, but he and Molchanov never arrived at a com leted a reement. 2710

(U) On October 12, 2015, Sater emaile~ Cohen to inform him that Andrey Kostin, whom
Sater described as "Putin's top finance guy and CEO of 2nd largest bank in Russia," was "onboard and has indicated he would finance Trump Moscow." 2712 Sater attached a Wikipedia entry
for Kostin to his email. 2713•

Andrey Kostin is the chairman ofVneshtor bankand one of the lar est banks in Russia.

2703
2704
2705
2706

2101 (U)

Ibid.

2708

(U) Sater Tr., p. 129-130.
2709(U) Ibid., p. 130
2710
U Ibid
2711
2112
2713

-S-000638--640).

2714

427

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY••(U) In 2014, the U.S. Government imposed economic sanctions on VTB Bank pursuant'to the Ukraine-related sanctions program. 2718

(U) Sater told the Committee that although he never had direct communication with
Kostin, Kostin was indirectly contacted about the project "through people in Moscow." 2719 Sater
recalled that a contact in Moscow, whom he identified only as "Danny," "indicated that he[Danny] spoke to people at VTB and that they would be on board."2720 Sater also told theCommittee that he used Evgeny Shmykov, the former Russian intelligence officer, as a conduit
to VTB. 2721
(U) In his email to Cohen, Sater described VTB's support as "major for us" because of
Kostin's "position in Russia," where Kostin was "extremely powerful and respected." 2722 Sateralso told Cohen that the next step was to get Putin "on board."2723 To accomplish this, Saterclaimed he had set up a tentative meeting with "Putin and [his] top deputy" two days later. 2724
Sater recalled that his contact had told Sater with the identity of the top deputy, but Sater claimed
to the Committee that he couldn't remember the deputy's name .2725 Sater told the Committeethat the meeting was initially delayed, and ultimately never took place.2726-2718(U) Treasury, "Announcement of A ditional Treasury Sanctions on Russian Financial Institutions and on a
Defense Technology Entity," July 29, 2014.
2719(U) Sater Tr., p. 150-151.
2720(U) Ibid., pp. 139-140.
2721(U) ·Staff notes, SSCI Interview with Felix Sater, April 4, 2018.
2722(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, October 12, 2015 (MDC-S-000638-640).
2723(U) Ibid.
2724(U) Ibid.
2725(U) Sater Tr., p. 140.
2726
(U) Ibid., p. 141.

428

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On October 13, 2015, the day after his email to Cohen discussing Kostin and Putin's
top deputy, Sater sent Cohen an LOI with Rozov's signature.2727 In the email, Sater linked the
project to relations between the United States and Russia.2728
Lets [sic} make this happen and build a Trump Moscow. And possibly fix
relations between the countries by showing everyone that commerce & businessare much better and more practical than politics. That should be Putins [sic}message as well, and we will help him agree on that message. Help world peaceand make a lot of money. I would say that 's a great lifetime goal for us to go
after_2129(U) Approximately two weeks later, Trump countersigned the LOI. The Committee wasunable to determine the exact day the LOI was countersigned by Trump. However, on October
31, 2015, at 1:01 p.m. EDT, Sater emailed Cohen and asked Cohen to email the "signed LOI"
because Sater hadn't yet received it. Cohen eventually transmitted a signed LOI to Sater on
November 2, 2015.2730
Provided you are in agreement with these terms. please coun1crsiKT1 this LOI in 11,c spaceprovided below and return a copy to m, attention. We look forward to :,our timely
response.
Very truly yours

THE BOVC t AC K, 0\ LEDGED,
CO,' E T£D TO AND GREF.O TO BY:

2727 (U)Email, Sater to Cohen, et al., October 13, 2015 (MDC-S-000545).

2728(U) Ibid.
2729(U) Ibid.
2730 (U) Email, Cohen to Rozov, Chizhikov, and Sater, November 2, 2015 (MDC-S-000652-<i?0).

429

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Also on October 31, 2015, at approximately the same time that Sater was emailing
Cohen and asking for the signed LOI, Trump conducted a campaign rally in Norfolk, Virginia
designed to announce his policy plans for veterans. During the rally, and seemingly unprompted,
Trump made positive comments about Putin. Trump stated:

You know, I've made a lot of money. Deals are people, deals are people. And you
have got to analyze people, and I can look at people. I can tell you, I'll get alongwith Putin. I was on 60 Minutes with Putin. He was my stablemate three weeks
ago. We got the highest ratings in a long time on 60 Minutes. You saw that, right?
He was my stablemate. I believe I'll get along with him. It was Trump and Putin,
Putin and Trump._ I'd even let him go first if it makes us .friendly. I'll give up thename. I'll give up that place. But I was on 60 Minutes three weeks ago. I'll getalong with him. 2731"(U) Shortly thereafter, on November 3, 2015, Trump made similar comments at a press
conference.

I think our relationship with Russia will be very good. Vladimir Putin was on 60
Minutes with me three weeks ago, right? Putin. And they have one of the highest
ratings they had in a long time. So I'm going to give him total credit. But we will
have a very good relationship, I think, with Russia. Now maybe we won't, but I
believe we will have a very good relationship with Russia. I believe that I will
have a very good relationship with Putin. 2732

(U) According to Cohen, Sater told Cohen that Putin was aware of the Trump Tower
Moscow project and was supportive of it, a claim that Cohen relayed to Trump. 2733 Cohen statedthat he told Trump that Putin was "interested" in the project and that ifthere was agroundbreaking ceremony, Trump and Putin would be expected to be there. 2734
I told [TrumpJ that obviously Vladimir Putin, President Putin, would need toapprove the project, as I was told by Mr. Sater that Putin's people knew of thatproject. That he supposedly is interested and would approve it. 2735 -2731(U) YouTube, Trump Campaign rally, October 31, 2015, available at:www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl8BGvALQgQ (beginning at 1:01:38).
.
2732(U) C-SPAN, Presidential Candidate Donald Trump News Conference, November 3, 2015 (beginning at 24:23).
2733(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 34, 212. The Committee does not have direct evidence which reliably determines whether
Putin knew of the Trump Tower.
·
2734(U) Ibid, p. 34.
213s (U) Ibid\

430

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Cohen further believed that the Trump Moscow project, and particularly the signingof the LOI, affected Trump's thinking and rhetoric toward Russia and Putin on the campaign
trail. 2736 Cohen believed that Trump's public comments about Russia could have been
influenced by Cohen informing Trump that Putin was aware of, and had approved of, theproject.2737 When asked if Cohen had coordinated Trump's public comments about Putin, Cohen
stated that he hadn't, but pointed to the fact that he had conveyed Putin's awareness to Trumpand believed it was a factor in Trump's statements.2738
We had just executed the letter of intent. Mr. Trump goes out the same exact day
and he starts talking about what a great relationship that he can have with
Russia. What a great relationship I could have with Putin. He had Russia on his
mind because we just executed the LOL 2739
(U) Sater said that the connection between the project and the campaign was so obviousthat he didn't think the connection needed to be verbalized. He further understood that Cohen
was aware of the obvious connection.2740 Sater told the Committee that what Trump was saying
on the campaign trail could "help" the project move forward. 2741 Cohen's communications at thetime and subsequent testimony to the Committee reveal that he similarly connected Putin's
public comments about Trump to the project.2742 Cohen recalled linking Trump's comments
about Putin on the campaign trail to the Moscow project and he believed that Trump had aswell. 2743 Cohen also recalled that the project was designed with the theme of improved relations
between the United States and Russia, and included a "Friendship Square" in the designplans.2744 According to Cohen, Trump called his campaign "the greatest infomercial in thehistory of politics," which to Cohen suggested that the project's potential profitability was thepriority.2745 Cohen explained that the project would be a financially lucrative deal for everyone
involved and would be so for years beyond Trump's political candidacy.2746 As a result, eventhough he didn't believe Trump was going to win the election, Cohen wanted to proceed with thedeal.2747

2736(U) Ibid., p. 212.
Ibid.
Ibid. Cohen also recalled that he told Trump about Sater's proposal to offer the penthouse suite to Putin
personally in order to "drive up the numbers." According to Cohen, Trump responded, "Yeah, that's Felix, I mean
he's crazy." Ibid., p. 213.
2739
(U) Ibid., p. 212. 2740
(U) FBI, FD-302, Sater 12/15/2017.
2741(U) Sater Tr., p. 153.
2742 (U) Email, Cohen to Sater, December 17, 2015 (MDC-S-000689); Cohen Tr., p. 150.
2743
(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 259-260.
2744 (U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 9/12/2018; Email, Cohen to Sater, October 5, 2015 (MDC-S-000641-651).
2745(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 254.
2746
(U) Ibid., p. 226.
2141 (U) Ibid.

2131 (U)2738 (U)431

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Approximately 40 minutes after Trump's positive comments about Putin on
November 3, 2015, Sater sent Cohen an email asking for a clip of Trump's statements·, andlinking the Moscow deal and the U.S. presidential election.
Loved Putin/Russia reference. I need that part of the press conference cut into a
short clip to be played for Putin. Please get it done . .. [Andrey] wants to send it
to the Kremlin . ... I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald
elected . .. our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it. I
will get all of Putins [sic] team to buy in on this . ... Get me that clip I will get it
to Putin and his people quickly and it will help our cause and process. 2748
(U) Minutes later, Sater sent a second message to Cohen reiterating this point:
GET THAT CliP. Micheal [sic] we can own this story. Donald doesn't stare
down, he n(!gotiates and understands the economic issues and Putin only want{sicJ to deal with a pragmatic leader, and a successful business man is a goodcandidate for someone who knows how to negotiate. "Business, politics,
whatever it all is the same for someone who knows how. to deal" I think I can get
Putin to say that at the Trump Moscow press conference. If he says it we own thiselection. Americas [sic] most difficult adversary agreeing that Donald is a good
guy to negotiate. ISIS, oil, Middle East, etc etc. we can own this election. ...
Michael lets go. 2 boys from Brooklyn getting a USA president elected. This isgood really good. 2749
(U) Cohen.told the Committee that he couldn't recall sending the clip to Sater.

(U) In addition to linking the project to the election, Sater's November 3, 2015, email
suggested that he was seeking to engage individuals close to Putin on the project.
[A] very close person & partner to Putins [sic] closest.friend, partner and advisor
who has been with Putin ever since teenage years his.friend and partner (on thelargest shopping center in Moscow) is flying in to the private island in the
Bahamas Andrey [Rozov] rented next week. Everything will be negotiated anddiscussed not with flunkies but with people who will have dinner with Putin anddiscuss the issues and get a go ahead. 2750

2748(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, November 3, 2015 (MDC-S-000451).
(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, November 3, 2015 (MDC-S-000692).
2750(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, November 3, ·2015 (MDC-S-000451).
2749

432 ·

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In his follow-on message to Cohen minutes later, Sater added that his "next steps arevery sensitive with Putins [sic] very very close people."2751 Sater told the Committee that thiswas a reference to the Rotenbergs, a family extremely close to Putin.2752 Sater_ further stated that
the Rotenbergs' "friend and partner" with whom he was meeting in the Bahamas was Mikhail
Zayats (alternately, Ziats), who had partnered with the Rotenbergs on the Aviapark mall in
Moscow, the largest shopping mall in Europe. 2753
(U) A body of information supports Sater' s assertion that the Rotenbergs maintain an
close personal relationship with Putin. This information further indicates the Rotenbergs handle
special projects for Putin.
•(U) According to open source information, Arkady Rotenberg has been lifelong friends
with Putin. The two reportedly joined the same judo club at a young age and have been
friends since childhood.2754·•(U) The Rotenbergs have amassed their wealth -largely through obtaining lucrative
Russian government contracts. According to Department of the Treasury information,
Arkady and Boris Rotenberg's personal wealth increased by billions of dollars after Putinawarded them large contracts related to Gazprom and the Sochi Winter Olympics. 2755•

(U) The Rotenbergs have financed Russian state projects, including projects of special
interest to Putin.2756 Open source information suggests that some of these projects
involve covert or obscured funding for Russian state-directed projects. For example,
press reporting indicates that in 2013, companies affiliated with Arkady Rotenberg
transferred $231 million in loans to an offshore company with no repayment terms andwith no clear business purpose. 2757

•

2751

(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, November 3, 2015 (MDC-S-000692).
(U). Sater Tr., p. 155. This appears to include brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, as well as Arkady
Rotenberg's SO}!, Igor. Ibid., p. 156.
2753 (U) Ibid., pp. 157-158. Open source information confirms that Amma Development, controlled by Zayats, built
the over 500-store mall and that the Rotenbergs were the main investor. Anton Filatov, "Owners of Aviapark cansell half of the complex," Vedomosti, August 9, 2016 (Russian language).
2754(U) Jo Becker and Steven Lee Myers, "Putin's Friend Profits in Purge of Schoolbooks," The New York Times,
November 1, 2014.
'
2755 (U) Treasury, "Treasury Sanctions Russian Officials, Member Of The Russian Leadership's Inner Circle, And
An Entity For Involvement In The Situation In Ukraine," March 20, 2014.
2756 (U) Ibid.
2757(U) Joshua Yaffa, "Putin's Shadow Cabinet and the Bridge to Crimea," New Yorker, May 22, 2017.
2752

433

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYI(U) Sater also discussed Zayats as providing a potential pathway to the Rotenbergs, a
relationship that Sater called his "ace in the hole. " 2763 Sater relayed that his process inapproaching Zayats was similar to other tactics he used during the Trump Tower Moscow
efforts. Sater recalled:

Mikhail Ziats joined us [Sater and RozovJ in the Bahamas. So in answer to manyof the questions today, how would I get to anybody or how would I know, Mikhail
Ziats' partner was Arkady [Rotenberg] on one of the largest shopping malls in
Moscow. He's .friend[s] with Andrei [Rozov]. They 're flying in, we 're hanging out
for a week, fishing and diving together, me, Mikhail, and Andrei. Getting to themto push the agenda forward, that would be an example of how I would get thatagenda pushed forward. And this email describes who he is and what his relation
is to Putin. But Ziats didn't hear about this deal or have any real conversations
with me until he came to the Bahamas. When I told him about it, he was like: Yeah,
definitely; when you guys get a little closer, I'll push it, I'll speak to them. And he
was also enthusiastic because he would have gotten cut in. 2764
(U) Sater said that his efforts primarily involved contacting individuals who could put
him in touch with people with Kremlin access, which he felt was necessary to advance theproject. Sater claimed to have the ability to contact approximately a dozen individuals, who,

-2759

2763

2764

ater Tr., p. 19 .
(U) Ibid., p. 157.

434

within "one or two degrees of separation," "have Putin's ear."2765 Sater explained that he used
this professional and personal network in Moscow to conduct outreach to those with sufficient
Kremlin access to elevate the deal. 2766 He further explained that "because Mosco,w's a small
place literally for people of that caliber.... [e]verybody knows somebody who they cancall."2767(U) In addition to Shmykov (described above) and Zayats, both of whom represented apathway to Kremlin insiders, Sater described or partially identified several other potential
pathways to the Kremlin. For example, Sater stated that among these contacts he used was Emin
Iskenderov, a Russian developer whom Sater said had access to Kremlin insiders like Peskov.2768
Iskenderov's work in France developing large mixed use towers had previously brought him incontact with Putin.2769(U) Cohen recalled that there was "constant conversation and-or communication
between myself and Mr. Sater" during this time, particularly in efforts to locate land in order tomove the deal forward. 277 Cohen also recalled that he spoke with Donald Trump Jr. and lvanka
Trump about the project.

°

I spoke with Don and Ivanka, and Ivanka did not want John Fotiadis Design on
the property. Her feeling was with a project of this magnitude and importance,
you want what's called a Starchitect. A star architect. And she wanted me to put
out an RFP, request for proposal, but the one who she really wanted, thought
could do the best job on it, would be Zaha Hadid. The very famous architect.
Plus Ivanka was going to be involved in the project because there was going to bea spa inside the hotel that would be named after her. 2771.
(U) As a result, on November 24, 2015, Ivanka Trump received a response from Zaha
Hadid Architects to notify her that the firm intended to submit a "proposal for the new Trump
Moscow." 2772 After receiving this via email, she forwarded it to Cohen and Jerry Piro, thenSenior Vice Preside.nt for Design and Construction at the Trump Organization. 2773

2765(U) Ibid, pp. 149-151.
(U) Ibid
2767(U) Ibid, p. 141.
2768
(U) Sater Ti:., pp. 141-142, 191-192.
2769(U) See, e.g., Hermitage.fr., "Emin Iskenderov."
2770(U) Cohen Tr., p. 146.
2771
(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 201.
2772(U) Email, Ceccato to I. Trump, et al., November 24, 2015 (MDC-S-000598).
2773 (U) Email, I. Trump to Cohen and Piro, November 24, 2015 (MDC-S-000598); "Jerry Piro," Linkedln.com
profile.
2766

435

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Sater continued to push Cohen to travel to Russia. On December 1, 2015, Sateremailed Cohen, asking for a copy of Cohen's passport "for the Russian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs." 2774 Cohen responded to Sater the next day, attaching a scan of the identification pageof his passport. 2775

c. (U) Continued Efforts to Arrange Travel to Russia to Advance the,Deal(U) On December 17, 2015, Putin made positive public comments about Trump. Cohen
forwarded news alerts of press articles that relayed that Putin had called Trump "talented" and"very colorful" to Sater. In the body of the email to Sater, Cohen stated: "Now is the time. Callme."2776(U) In response to Cohen's email, Sater again worked to schedule a trip, this time asking
for passport scans for both Cohen and Trump.2777 On December 19, 2015, Sater emailed andsent a text message to Cohen requesting that Cohen call him because he had "Evgeny on theother line."2778 Sater told the Committee in his interview prior to the release of the SCO Reportthat his references to Evgeny were, to his recollection, Evgeny Shmykov. According to the
SCO, however, Sater's reference to "Evgeny" on the December 19 message was a reference toEvgeny Dvoskin, who at the time was associated with a Russian bank operating in Crimea. 2779
Through counsel, Sater later represented to the Committee that he may have used both Shmykov
and Dvoskin at varying times. 2780 As a result, while·this particular outreach appears to involve
Dvoskin, the identity behind Sater's other references to "Evgeny" remains unclear.
(U) Dvoskin is strongly connected to Russian organized crime and the Russian
intelligence services, particularly the FSB.2781

2774(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, December 1, 2015 (MDC-S-000592).
(U) Email, Cohen to Sater, December 2, 2015 (TRUMPORG_MC_000166-168) (attaching a scan of Cohen's
passport). Cohen did not prodqce this document until after pleading guilty to misleading the Committee. Sater
never produced this document to the Committee.
2776(U) Email, Cohen to Sater, December 17, 2015 (MDC-S-000689).
2777(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, December 19, 2015 (MDC-S-000600).
2778(U) Ibid.; Text message, Sater to Cohen, December 19, 2015 (FSS00097-98).
2779(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 76.
2780(U) Subsequently, Sater told the Committee through counsel that at some point he applied a "scorched earth"policy in attempting to reach out to anyone possible to assist with the Trump project-potentially also including
Dvoskin. Sater suggested through counsel that given the records obtained by the SCO, Sater could have used
Dvoskin to obtain an invitation letter from a Russian bank (described below), but believed he used Shmykov forother unspecified outreach.
2781(U) For open source reporting on Dvoskin, see, e.g., Evgeny Zhuravlev and Elena Nizovaya, "Controversial
Russian Bankers Target Crimea," Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, June 3, 2015; Evgenia
2775

436

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I
I
I

I

Pismennaya and Irina Reznik, "The Russian Ex-Con With a Thriving Banking Business in Crimea," Bloomberg,,tl 7 2016.

-(U) Ibid., p. 4.
Ibid.
2786 (U) Ibid.
2787 (U) Ibid., p. 7.
2788 (U) Ibid., p. 13.
2189 (U) Ibid.
2790(U) Ibid., p. 14.
2191 (U) Ibid.
2192 (U) Ibid.
2793(U) Ibid., pp. 13-14.
218s (U)437

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) In 2015, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control added
GenBank to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list for as part of its Ukrainerelated sanctions program. 2796

(U) In his December 19, 2015 messages to Cohen, Sater explained that the meetings in
Moscow he was working to setup related to the Trump project should not appear overtly
political, but the meetings would be with Putin and other Kremlin insiders.

Invitations & Visas will be issued this week by VTB Bank to discussfinancingfor
Trump Tower Moscow. Politically neither Putins [sic] office nor Ministry ofForeign Affairs cannot issue [the] invite, so they are inviting
commercially/business. VTB is Russia's 2[ nd] biggest bank and VTB Bank CEO
Andrey Kostin, will be at all meetings with Putin so that it is a business meeting
not political. We will be invited to Russian consulate this week to receive invite &have visa issued. 2797

(U) Later that day, Cohen sent Sater images of every page of his passport.2798 Once
Cohen sent the photos of his passport, Sater recalled that he sent the images on to "Evgeny"
along with a copy of his own passport in order to apply for a visa to Russia. 2799 Soon thereafter,
Sater told Cohen that "[t]hey" needed a copy of Trump's passport.280 Cohen responded bytelling Sater that sending Trump's passport was "premature" and that he would do so only after
his own successful trip to Moscow and the setting of a specific date for the meeting between
Trump and Putin. 2801

°

2795

Similarly, according to open source reporting, Dvoskin
was a ey p ayer m the money laundering market and had close ties to the FSB. "The Rise and Fall of an FSB-Run
Money Laundering Empire," The Moscow Times, August 3, 2019. Dvoskin's GenBank opened its first branch in
Crimea two weeks after Russia's 2014 invasion and rapidly expanded to 175 branch locations to become one of thelargest banks in the region. Evgenia Pismennaya and Irina Reznik, "The Russian Ex-Con With a Thriving Banking
Business in Crimea," Bloomberg, April 7, 2016.
2796(U) Treasury, "Russia/Ukraine-related Sanctions and Identifications," December 22, 2015.
2797(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, December 19, 2015 (MDC-S-000600).
2798(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, December 19, 2015 (FSS00099-110).
2799(U) Sater Tr., pp. 173-174.
2800(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, December 21, 2015 (FSS00l 10).
2801
(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, December 21, 2015 (FSS00l 11).

438

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On December 29, 2015, Cohen sent a message to Sater asking if there was any
response "from Russia."2802 Sater responded that "they" would be sending invitations, which
Sater anticipated would arrive after the New Year's holiday. 2803 When the invitations didn't
immediately arrive, Cohen became agitated with Sater. The following day, December 30, Cohen
told Sater that he had lost the deal, and that Cohen would be contacting his "alternate,"presumably a reference to Rtskhiladze. 2804 Cohen expressed his frustrations over the pace of thedeal and his disappointment that Sater couldn't deliver on his promise on an "invitation from abanker. " 2805 ·(U) Cohen's messages to Sater reveal one potential cause for Cohen's sense ofurgency-Cohen's efforts to please Trump. Cohen told Sater that he was going to terminate the
LOI and cease working with Sater, telling Sater that "[n]ot you or anyone you know will
embarrass me in front of Mr. T when he asks me what is happening."2806 Sater, for his partclaimed that he had kept his "mouth shut for you and your team" despite negative press articles
written about him personally. 2807 Further, Sater told Cohen that he had "played my hand withpeople I make money with and you telling me scrap it. Really upsetting, really."2808(U) Sater told the Committee that he called Shmykov to find a solution. Sater recalled
telling Shmykov that Cohen was "freaking out" and that as a result, Sater "need[ed] aninvitation. "2809 By the morning of December 31, Sater had produced a letter on GenBank
letterhead purporting to be an invitation for Cohen to come to Russia. 2810 According to Sater,these efforts with Shmykov resulted in the GenBank letter being generated quickly, even though
it was the holiday period.2811 Shmykov told Sater that the letter was a "placeholder."2812 At thetime, Sater told Cohen that the letter had been sent "3 days ago but went to my spam," eventhough, in reality, the letter had just been produced.2813

2802(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, December 30, 2015 (FSS00I 12).
(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, December 30, 2015 (FSS00l 12).
2804
(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, December 30, 2015 (FSS00l 13).
2805(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, December 30, 2015 (FSS00l 16--117).
2806(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, December 30, 2015 (FSS00119-120).
2807(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, December 30, 2015 (FSS00l 18).
2808(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, December 30, 2015 (FSS00l 16).
2809
(U) Sater Tr., pp. 188-189, 191.
2810
(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, December 31, 2015 (FSS00123).
2811(U) Sater Tr., p. 189.
2812 (U) Ibid.
2813(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, December 31, 2015 (FSS00123).
2803

439

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

,. Verizon ?

5 :52 PMDec 31, 2015, 8 42 AM(U) Sater's recollection of Shmykov' s involvement in this letter may not be accurate. As
described infra, Sater repeatedly recalled in his interview with the Committee that Evgeny
Shmykov was involved in his outreach on the Trump Moscow project. Sater later admitted to
the Committee that he may have also contacted Evgeny Dvoskin, and the SCO determined on thebasis of call records that Dvoskin was, in fact, the individual involved in the outreach at thattime. Dvoskin himself is an owner and executive at GenBank, which suggests he was involvedin the production of this letter.2814(U) At the same time that he sent the GenBank letter to Cohen, Sater told Cohen that theplanned meetings would be held with senior Russian government officials. Sater claimed thatthe invitation was "thru Putins [sic] administration, and nothing gets done there without approval

2814(U) Evgenia Pismennaya and Irina Reznik, "The Russian Ex-Con With a Thriving Banking Business in
Crimea," Bloomberg, April 7, 2016.

440

from the top."2815 Sater further said that the planned meetings in Moscow with Cohen would be
to discuss "goals, meeting agenda and meeting time between Putin & Trump" with "Ministers in US that's cabinet level and with Putins [sic] top administration people," which "most likely
will include" Dmitry Peskov.2816 Sater later explained to the Committee that Emin Iskenderov, a,Russian developer known for his efforts to develop a multi-billion dollar project in Paris, "hadaccess" to Peskov. 2817 As a result, Sater believed he had the ability to arrange a meeting between
Peskov and Cohen. 2818
(U) Cohen questioned Sater as to why the letter had come from GenBank and not from
VTB Bank, telling Sater that he thought Sater was "speaking to VTB." 2819 Sater explained that
GenBank was "owned 50% by Government and is run as a junior for VTB."2820 Sater further
explained that the VTB Bank Chairman was away until January J 1, and this letter was sent in an ·effort to obtain a letter before·his retum. 2821 Cohen again became agitated with Sater,complaining that the invite didn't come from VTB Bank directly and was written by "some noname clerk at a 3rd tier bank.'"2822 Cohen explained to the Committee, "Each conversation I had
with [Sater], he keeps touting VTB Bank. VTB Bank. VTB Bank. And then all of a sudden you
get this bank."2823 Cohen told Sater to stop working on the project, stating that Cohen would"handle this myself.''2824
d. (U) Cohen's Outreach to the Kremlin to Advance the Project(U) dn January 11, 2016, Cohen emailed Peskov's office at pr_peskova@prpress.gof.ru,
a typographic error that apparently caused the email to not be delivered.2825 It is uncle~ how
Cohen acquired this email address. In the request, Cohen asked to speak with Sergei Ivanov,Putin's chief of staff.2826 The following day, a media contact of Cohen's emailed him a phone

2815(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, December 31, 2015 (FSS00124).
Text message, Sater to Cohen, December. 31, 2015 (FSso·o124-125).
2817(U) Sater Tr., p. 191.
2818
(U) Ibid
2819(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, December 31, 2015 (FSS00125).
2820(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, December 31, 2015 (FSS00125). ·2821(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, December 31, 2015 (FSS00125-126).
2822(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, December 31, 2015 (FSS00129).
2823(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 231. As noted infra, both VTB Bank and GenBank were sanctioned by the U.S.
Government under its Ukraine-related sanctions program targeting Russian government-connected entities. Cohen
was unaware of these sanctions targeting either bank, and stated that, in addition, it "didn't matter to me" whether
the banks were sanctioned. Cohen explained that he believed the Russian developer, not the Trump Organization,
would be responsible for financing the deal, and thus Cohen did not think that any sanctions "would have been aproblem." Ibid., pp. 233-234.
2824(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, December 31, 2015 (FSS00130).
2825(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 74.
2826 (U) Ibid
2816 (U)

I

441

\

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

number for Peskov's office.2827 Cohen told the Committee that he conducted an internet search
for Peskov's office and obtained the email address info@prpress.gov.ru. 2828 Cohen emailed the
below request addressed to Peskov:
Dear Mr. Peskov,
Over the pastfew months, I have been working with a company based in Russia
regarding the development of a Trump Tower-Moscow project in Moscow City.
Without getting into lengthy specifics, the communication between our two sides
has stalled. As this project is too important, I am hereby requesting yourassistance.
I respectfully request someone, preferably you; contact me so that I might discuss
the specifics as well as arranging meetings with the appropriate individuals.
I thank you in advance for your assistance and look forward to hearing from you
soon_2s29(U) Peskov is a high-level Kremlin insider and a key advisor to Putin .

•II(U) Two days later, on January 16, 2016, Cohen also emailed the corrected email addressfrom his initial request, Pr_peskova@prpress.gov.ru, with a request to speak with Ivanov. 2833

2827(U) Email, Santucci to Cohen, January 12, 2016 (MDC-S-000450).
(U) Cohen Tr., p. 204; Email, Cohen to info@prpress.gov.ru, January 14, 2016 (MDC-S-000690).
282
9, 2016 (MDC-S-000690).
2828

2830

!bi .
Ibid
.
(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 74; Email, Cohen to Pr_peskova@prpress.gov.ru, January 16, 2016
(COHEN_MICHAEL-ORG-00249332).
2831 (U)2832 (U)2833

442

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Cohen did not initially produce either email to the Pr_peskova email account to theCommittee, nor did he acknowledge their existence. 2834 Cohen also initially testified, falsely,that there was no reply to his email to the info@prpress.gov.ru account. 2835
(U) However, Cohen would later admit that several days after his initial email, on
January 20, 2016, he received a response from Elena Poliakova, Peskov's Chief of Staff. 2836 In
the email, which was written from her personal account, Poliakova said that she had been trying
to get in touch with Cohen and requested that Cohen contact her at a phone number which she
provided.2837(U) Poliakova, in her role as Peskov's Chief of Staff, has exceptional access within the
Kremlin .

•

I

I

2834

(U) After his guilty plea, Cohen eventually produced the second email to Pr_peskova@prpress.gov.11,1. See
Email, Cohen to Pr_peskova@prpress.gov.ru, January 16, 2016 (COHEN_MICHAEL-ORG-00249332).
2835(U) Cohen Tr., p. 74.
2836(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 287-288.
2837 U Ibid.

2842

443

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) After receiving the email from Poliakova, Cohen recalled dialing the number
Poliakova provided him and speaking with Poliakova for approximately 20 minutes. 2843 During
the call, Cohen recalled discussing the Trump Moscow project with Poliakova. 2844 Cohen
described Poliakova as "extremely professional" and "very detailed in her questions regarding
the project."2845 Specifically, Cohen recalled Poliakova asking about the property, including thearea, size, and square footage. 2846 Cohen did not have a specific memory of speaking with
Poliakova about other details of the project, such as a proposed Frie~dship Square, but presumed
he did so.2847 Cohen stated that Poliakova had "really done her homework," and while Cohen
was not certain, his recollection was that, at the time of the call, Poliakova already "knew about
I.C. Expert [Rozov's development company] and she knew about the deal."2848 Cohen recalledthat Poliakova stated she would assemble notes on the information Cohen relayed and "passthem along," which Cohen understood to mean pass the notes on to Peskov or someone else in
the Russian government who would handle the project.2849 Poliakova told Cohen that theywould be in touch with Cohen or with I.C. Expert. 2850
(U) On January 21, 2016, the day after the phone call with Peskov's assistant Poliakova,
Sater contacted Cohen via telephone call and text message. 2851 Sater told Cohen that he needed
to speak with him about an "important" matter, stating: "It's about Putin they called today." 2852
Sater later recalled that this reference to Putin was not a specific reference to any outreachdirectly from Putin's inner circle. Sater left open the possibility that his comments were
prompted by some other event or indirect outreach, stating that he did not "really remember what
triggered it, whether it was a call from Emin [Iskenderov], Evgeny [Shmykov or Dvoskin],
Andrei [Rozov], whoever." 2853 Cohen, however, linked Sater's renewed outreach to the call with
Peskov's aide. Cohen recalled that at the time, Sater gave him the impression that a Russian

2843(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 287-288.
lb id.
(U) Ibid., p. 289.
2846(U) Ibid., p. 290.
2847(U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 9/12/2018.
2848(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 290,293.
2849(U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 9/12/2018.
2850 (U) Ibid.
2851(U) The Committee has no record of communications between the two from the previous disagreement on
December 31, 2015, when Cohen told Sater he should stop working on the project, until these communications on
January 21, 2016.
·
2852(U) Text messages, Sater to Cohen, January 21, 2016 (FSS00131).
2853(U) Sater Tr., p. 194. Sater claimed to the Committee that his comment was "bullshit"-which he defined as
exaggeration or puffery and which in his view was acceptable as part of business efforts. Sater said however, that
his comment was not a "lie." Sater repeatedly claimed that he would never "intentionally lie" to Cohen. Satersuggested his comments could have been in reaction to a call from Evgeny or any other event. Given Evgeny's
connections, including his reported ties to Peskov, it is possible outreach from Peskov through an intermediaryoccurred. Ibid., p. 195.
2844 (U)2845

444

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYgovernment person reached out to Sater. 2854 Cohen thought the phone call with Poliakova had aneffect. 2855
(U) Later that day, Sater and Cohen exchanged a number of calls and texts. , They
discussed a draft invitation for Cohen to come to Moscow. Sater asked Cohen to review the draft
invitation letter and "make whatever changes you want..... [t]ry to take a look tonight I want to
get it to them so they have it for the moming." 2856 Later that evening, Cohen and Sater
exchanged drafts of the invitation letter, which included the following draft text:

In furtherance of our previous conversations regarding the development of the
Trump Tower Moscow project, we would like to respectfully invite you to Moscow
for a working visit. During this historic meeting, we wish to discuss further theneeds to create this five star, one of a kind and world class project. Your visit will
help to acquaint you with Moscow through "round table discussions" devoted toanalysis, and the prospects of development and the construction business in
Russia. While in Moscow, we intend to visit and discuss with you the various landplots available suited for construction of this enormous.Tower as well as to give
you the opportunity to co-ordinate a follow up visit to Moscow by Mr. Donald
Trump. 2857'\
(U) Several days later, on January 25, 2016, Sater sent a signed letter from an individual
named Andrey Ryabinskiy on letterhead from a Russian company called MHJ. 2858 Sater claimed
that this was "another group from Evgeny." Sater stated that Evgeny was "excited about it andhe was speaking to various other people."2859 The text of the letter was identical to that of thelast draft of the requ~st edited by Cohen several·days earlier. Minutes after Sater sent the letterto Cohen, Sater sent a follow-up email to Cohen asking for travel dates for Cohen and Trump
because Sater had received "another call this morning asking for it."286 Cohen responded, "willdo."2861°(U) At some point shortly after Cohen's call with Peskov's assistant, Cohen told Trump
about the call. Cohen recalled telling Trump that he had spoken with "someone from the.

2854

(U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 9/12/2018.
Ibid
2856
(U) Text messages, Sater to Cohen, January 21, 2016 (FSS00134).
2857(U) See Emails, Cohen and Sater, January 22, 2016 (MDC-S-000691).
2858(U). Email, Sater to Cohen, January 25, 2016 (MDC-S-000541-542) (attaching a signed letter to Cohen from
Ryabinskiy).
2859(U) Sater Tr., p. 197.
2860(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, January 25, 2016 (MDC-S-000540); ·Text message, S.ater to Cohen, January 25,
2016 (FSS00135).
2861(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, January 25, 2016 (FSS00135).
2855 (U)445

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Kremlin" about the Trump Tower Moscow project. 2862 Cohen also recalled making a comment
to Trump about the assistant's professionalism, adding that he wished some, of the Trump
Organization's assistants "would be this prepared."2863 Cohen recalled that at some point in thisapproximate time period he also discussed the possibility of traveling to Russia with Trump. 2864
Cohen recalled that Trump did not express concerns about traveling to Russia while apresidential candidate if it would aid the deal. 2865 According to Cohen, Trump instructed Cohento speak with then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski about dates for potential travel to
Russia. 2866 Cohen recalled speaking with Lewandowski shortly thereafter. 2867 Cohen also
requested a copy of Trump's passport from Trump's primary assistant, Rhona Graff.2868 Cohen
recalled Graff bringing him Trump's passport, but no records or testimony obtained by theCommittee indicate that Trump's passport was ever transmitted to Sater.2869(U) After speaking with Lewandowski, Cohen recalled receiving proposed dates for thetrip to Russia. 2870 As noted below, text messages between Sater and Cohen on January 26, 2016,
suggest that Cohen had already provided Trump proposed travel dates by that time. 2871
(U) On January 26, 2016, Sater asked Cohen ifhe would speak directly on the phone"with the guy coordinating to arrange all the calls so you can speak first person·to everyone."2872
Cohen replied, "Now," to which Sater responded, "Ok 2 minutes."2873 It is unknown ifa calltook place, although later that day Sater sent a text to Cohen about the Russia travel plans:

I think you should make it a bit more flexible for yourself JS 1 week of Feb is thisMonday. Since you gave DT dates, you can do anytime that's good for you in
February or March. Completely your call, either way it's set they are waiting(U) sea Report, Vol. II, p. 136.
(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 289.
2864(U) Ibid, pp. 269-270.
2865(U) Ibid; sea Report, Vol. I, p. 78.
2866(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 269.
2867(U) Ibid, p. 268.
2868(U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 76.
2869(U) Ibid, pp. 76-77.
2870(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 273. Lewandowski claimed that "there was never a discussion that I'm aware of, that I was
privy to, inside the campaign of ever going to Russia in any way, shape, or form." Lewandowski Tr., p. 52. Other
documentary records about separate proposed trips suggest Lewandowski's recollection of this topic was notaccurate.
2871(U) Text messages, Cohen and Sater, January 26, 2016 (FSS00137-138). According to the messages, Cohenappears to have suggested dates occurring after March 2016.
2872(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, January 26, 2016 (FSS00136).
2873(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, January 26, 2016 (FSS00137).
2862

2863

446

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
and will walk you into every office you need to make sure you are comfortable for
DT trip. 2874
(U) Cohen recalled that he and Sater continued to have "many" conversations and that hehad pressed Sater to identify a property for the project.2875 Sater recalled that there was a "lull"in the project, with less activity, but Sater was unable to explain why this occurred.2876

e. (U) Revitalized Efforts in 2016
(U) Later that spring, however, Cohen and Sater resumed their activity around the
project and the possibility of traveling to Russia. On April 20, 2016, Satertexted Cohen that"[t]he People wanted to know when we are coming?"2877 Cohen responded, "I need to talk toyou." Several days later, Sater sent a text to Cohen describing an additional conversation "with
Moscow":

I had a chat with Moscow. ASSUMING the trip does happen the question isbefore or after the convention. I said I believe, but don't know for sure, that[] it's
probably after the convention. Obviously the pre-meeting trip (you only) canhappen anytime you want but the 2 big guys where [sic] the question. I said I
would confirm and revert. I explained that ONLY you will be negotiating all thedetails. I want to make sure no one tries to go around u~, that's why I said that.
Michael it's completely in your hands, probably a quick trip by you would be theperfect move, that locks it in and no one else can elbow in at that point. Let meknow about If I was right by saying I believe after Cleveland and also when you
want to speak to them and possibly fly over. 2878
(U) Cohen responded to Sater, stating: "My trip before Cleveland. Trump once hebecomes the nominee after the convention."2879 Sater responded that he was "on it."2880 Sater
told the Committee that he "absolutely" understood that the Moscow project was still active at
this time. 2881 According to Sater, he and Cohen had agreed that Cohen would travel with Sater to
Russia first, and that "right on the heels" of their trip, Trump would travel to Russia. 2882

2874 (U)Text message, Sater to Cohen, January 26, 2016 (FSS00137-l38).
(U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 9/12/2018.
2876(U) Sater Tr., pp. 203-204.
2877 (U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, April 20, 2016 (FSS00140); SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 77.
2878(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, May 4, 2016 (FSS00141-143).
2879(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, May 4, 2016 (FSS00143).
2880(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, May 4, 2016 (FSS00143).
2881(U) Sater Tr., pp. 206-207.
2882(U) Ibid, p. 171.
2875

447

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The following day, May 5, 2016, Sater again messaged Cohen. In his message,
Sater indicated that Peskov wanted to invite Cohen to attend a high-profile economic forum in
Russia called the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). 2883

Peskov would like to invite you as his guest to the St. Petersburg Forum whir:h is .
Russia's Davos it's June 16-19. He wants to meet there with you and possibly
introduce you to either Putin or Medvedev, as they are not sure if 1 or both willbe there. This is perfect. The entire business class of Russia will be there as well.
He said anything you want to discuss including dates and subjects are on thetable to discuss. 2884
Sater recalled that at some point, he and "Evgeny" had discussed the matter and decided that it
was best to make the visit more about business and appear less political. 2885 As a result, Saterand Evgeny worked to arrange an invitation for Cohen to SPIEF.2886 SPIEF, according to its
website, has been.held since 2006 "under the auspices of the President of the Russian Federation,
who has also attended each event. " 2887
(U) Cohen responded to Sater the following day, stating, "[w]orks for me."2888 Sater
later explained to the Committee that he believed Peskov was the "perfect" fit with whom towork on the project because Sater wanted to have .a large media event and ribbon cutting, andthat Peskov, as press secretary, would be the best Kremlin insider to work with} 889 Saterclaimed that he had had discussions with "Evgeny" to this effect. 2890 Sater recalled "Evgeny''telling him that "[o ]f course we'll get Dimitri [Peskov]."2891(U) Sater responded to Cohen, describing. his rationale for why Cohen should attend

SPIEF:

2883(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, May 5, 2016 (FSS00143-145). In late 2015 and again in March 2016,
Trump was separately invited to SPIEF by then-Deputy Prime Minister Prikhodko. SCO Report, Vol. I, pp. 78-79.
A draft response to Prikhodko declining the offer was prepared for Trump's signature by Graff in late March 2016.
The letter stated that Trump had existing commitments related to his Campaign, and that "[o]therwise, I would havegladly given every consideration to attending such an important event." Email, Graff to Macchia, March 31, 2016
(TRUMPORG_16_000133-134) (attaching an unsigned letter from Trump to Prikhodko).
2884(U) Text messages, Sater to Cohen, May 5, 2016 (FSS00143-145).
2885(U) Sater Tr., p. 174. Sater told the FBI that Shmykov said Peskov wanted to invite Cohen to SPIEF. FBI, FD302, Sater 12/15/2017.
2886(U) Sater Tr., pp. 143-144.
2887(U) Forumspv.com, "About the Forum."
2888(U) Text message, Cohen to Sater, May 5, 2016 (FSS00145).
2889(U) Sater Tr., p. 208.
2890
(U) Ibid
2891(U) Ibid448

Not only will you probably sitwith #1 or #2 but the whole biz community is there
I'll be running around setting nice $100 mill deals [smiling emoji] And you will
come back and the whole campaign team can kiss your ass. Keep this very very
close to the vest, otherwise half a dozen idiots will try to jump on your coat tails.
If 1t goes great you are a hero, if it doesn 't all you did was go to an economic
forum to check out the business. Bro this is why you got me ~orking in the
shadows. I will make sure you are clean as a whistle either way. For you 0
downside. But I know this is going to turn into 1. A major win for Trump, makes
you the hero who bagged the elephant and 2. Sets up a stream of business
opportunities that will be mind blowing. All from 1 short trip. I couldn't havedreamed of a better situation with no downside. 2892

(U) In early June 2016, Cohen and Sater continued discussing plans for attending SPIEF.
In a June 9, 2016 text message, Sater relayed to Cohen that he was filling out paperwork for their"badges'.' for the conference and that Cohen should receive ·an email invite soon.2893 Sater told
Cohen that "Putin is there on the 17th very strong chance you will meet him as well."2894 Sater
later explained to the Committee that his offers to Cohen related to high-level meetings,
including potentially with Putin, were real and attainable. 2895 Sater believed he could, in fact,obtain a very high.level meeting for Cohen or Trump if either traveled to Russia. 2896

(U) On June 13, 2016, Sater forwarded Cohen a formal electronic invitation to SPIEF
addressed to Cohen, along with login instructions to access information about the confetence. 2897
Sater also forwarded a blank Russian visa application form to Cohen.2898 Sater had separately
reached out to a SPIEF official in charge of "official delegations" to request assistance toexpedite his and Cohen's visas. 2899 In response, Sater was. sent letters asking that he and Cohenbe provided visas to attend SPIEF; Sater was told that obtaining the visas should only take one
~~

.

2892

(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen (FSS00146-148). The exact date of this message is unknown, but it occurred
after May 5, 2016, and before June 9, 2016.
2893(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, June 9, 2016 (FSS00149).
2894(U) Text message, Sater to Cohen, June 9, 2016 (FSS00149).
2895(U) Sater Tr., p. 213.
2896 (U) Ibid
2897
(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, June 13, 2016 (FSS00081-84).
2898(U) Email, Sater to Cohen, June 13, 2016 (FSS00086-94).
2899(U) Email, Sater to Lemondzhava, JUI).e 14, 2016 (FSS00091).
2900(U) Email, Lemondzhava to Sater, June 14, 2016 (FSS00091-94).

449

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYSPIEF'16
ST. PETERSBU RG

I NTERNATIONALECONOMICFORUM
JUNE 16-18, 2016
INFORMATION LETTER
Dear Mr Cohen.
We are plea~ed to present an ,nlormat,on lelier covenng the r&rms olpartic,pat1on and reg1srra11on procedure lor lhe SL Peter'lburg lnttrna110nal
Economic Forum ISPIEA.

I. The SI. Peler~rg International Economic Forum registration procedure
1 In order lo part1c1pare ,n lhe Forum. you must confirm your dec1!>10n v1d the
Personal web office on the Forum websit e at ..,_ I ru ~ 1>~ , o
If youdecide not to participate ,n the Fol\.lm we request that you 1nlorm us of yourdec1S1on by checking the rele-,anl box using lh• Personal web offlce.
? The Per$onal web offke ,s a pnvatP and secure area on the Forum website
conta1nong per~on.il part1c1p1nl data, 1nformauon on ntquested services andp~rsonalul'd l'orum programmu for part,c,pantis Access to the Personal web
office ,s granted on entering a valid individual Usemame and Pusword

USERNAMf;
448719C::
f.

PA5SWORO

k59itl----.

(U) Deal Efforts Cease(U) Text messages from Sater to Cohen suggested that, as of the morning of June 14,
2016, Sater continued to believe that Cohen would be traveling to Russia with him and continued
to ask Cohen to respond to him regarding visas.2901 Messages and testimony from both Sater andCohen indicate that on the afternoon of June 14, 2016, Cohen and Sater met in the atrium of
Trump Tower in New York.2902(U) Neither Cohen nor Sater claimed to have a specific memory of the June 14, 2016,
meeting in the Trump Tower atrium. Sater claimed that he and Cohen possibly discussed the
Trump Tower Moscow deal and what the next steps would be, but didn' t have a clear
recollection.2903 Sater recalled that Cohen backed out of the trip after he received his invite to
SPIEF and after the passport photos were filed with "Evgeny," but could not recall with certainty

2901(U) Text messages, Sater to Cohen, June 13-14, 2016 (FSS0015 l ).
(U) Text messages, Sater and Cohen, June 14, 2016 (FSS00l53); Sater Tr., pp. 221- 222.
2903
(U) Sater Tr., p. 222.
2902

450

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYwhen this occurred. 2904 Sater recalled: "[Cohen] turned around and said: I can't go. At the last
· minute he said: I can't go; let's wait until after Cleveland."2905 Cohen also did not recall the
specifics of the June 14, 2016 meeting, but similarly recalled that he decided not to go to Russia
at the last minute. Cohen recalled deciding not to go because he felt the invitation did not comefrom the highest level in Moscow:[A]ccording to Felix, I was supposed to be receiving the invite-from again, I
forget who, but it was somebody of tremendous significance in this. Again, it wasplane tickets and the hotel and meetings and everything. And next thing, I receivefrom Mr. Sater is a hyper/ink to the application. To log on, put in your credit
card, in order to go to the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. 2906

. (U) Through at least June 2016, Cohen said that Trump viewed the Moscow project thesame way Cohen did, as an "oppm:tunity that was active."2907 Cohen came to this understanding
because Trump would, on a "regular basis," ask Cohen about the stafus of the Russia project. 2908
Cohen recalled:·

In other words, Mr. Trump is out there on the rally, in the public, stating there's
no Russian collusion, there's no involvement, there's no deals, there's noconnection. And yet, the following day, as we 're walking to his car, he's askingme, "How's things going with Russia? "2909(U) Cohen understood that Trump was "interested in the project" and recalled that hehad spoken to Trump "ten to twelve" times during the course of the negotiations, which lasted
from September 2015 to at least until June 2016.2910

2904(U) lbid,p.177.
(U) Ibid
2906(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 308. For image, see FSS00238 .
2907.
(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 71.
290s (U) Ibid
2909 (U) Ibid, p. 41.
2910(U) Ibid, pp. 207,266. Cohen initially told the Committee that he spoke to Trump about the project only threetimes, and that the last of these conversations occurred just before the Iowa caucus. Cohen later admitted that thiswas an intentionally false statement. As with other instances where he previously misled the Committee, Cohenclaimed that he did so "[b]ecause I was staying on message, which was, again: There's no Russian involvement.
Minimal/no business dealings. No collusion. No contacts; That was the messaging. I was staying on it." Cohen
stated that although he was never explicitly ordered to lie, Cohen understood that by making these statements tohim, Trump wanted Cohen to stick to Trump's own message relating to Russia. Cohen said: "I knew exactly what
he [Trump] was saying. And he knew exactly what he was saying." Ibid., pp. 34, 36.
290s

451

(U) After the Republican National Convention in July 2016, Sater stated that it became ·obvious that there was "just no way that a presidential candidate could build a tower in a foreigncountry."2911 As a result, efforts on the project ceased.2912

iii.

(U) Giorgi Rtskhiladze: Michael Cohen's Second Trump Tower Moscow
Line of Effort During the Campaign(U) In addition to Cohen's attempts at a Trump Tower Moscow project with Felix Sater,
Cohen also communicated with Giorgi Rtskhiladze, a businessman with whom he had previously
worked, about a similar project proposal in Moscow. Rtskhiladze had previously worked with
the Trump Organization, and Cohen in particular, on at least two other business projects.2913(U) The first of those past projects involved a licensing deal between the Trump
Organization and Silk Road Group, a company headquartered in Tbilisi, Georgia. Tue.project
involved a potential real estate development in Batumi, Georgia. As part of the project, Cohentraveled to Georgia several times in 2012, including one trip with Trump. While the Batumi
project was never completed, the Trump Organization received approximately $1 million from
George Ramishvili of the Silk Road Group in connection with the project.2914 Cohen said that hehad heard that the Silk Road Group was "very well connected" to the Georgian government, andthat he had witnessed this personally, including Ramishvili's interactions with then-GeorgianPresident Mikheil Saakashvili.2915 Cohen noted that despite the foreign nature of the company
and its foreign government ties, Cohen conducted only "very minimal" due diligence on thecompany, which amounted to "Google searches, just to see whether or not there was anythingthat popped out at us that would make the deal not palatable."2916(U) The second project with Rtskhiladze involved a possible development in Kazakhstan
in approximately 2011. Cohen and Rtskhiladze traveled to Kazakhstan as part of initial effortson the project. 2917 Cohen and Rtskhiladze contacted John Fotiadis, a U.S.-based architect, and
had Fotiadis create architectural renderings for a skyscraper. This project failed to materialize,
but the Fotiadis building design would ultimately be revisited by Cohen in September 2015 aspart of a potential Trump Tower Moseow project.2918

2911(U) Sater Tr., p. 202.

2912 (U)

Ibid

2913

(U) Cohen Tr., p. 103.
2914
(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp: 143-144.
2915(U) Ibid, pp. 144-150.
2916(U) Ibid, p. 145.
2917
(U) Cohen Tr., pp. 108-109.
2918(U) Ibid, p. 11 I.

452.COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -R,USSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Over the course of their relationship, Cohen recalled introducing Rtskhiladze to
Trump on multiple occasions, both in Trump's office in New York and in Georgia during
Trump's trip there in connection with the Batumi deal. 2919 Cohen stated that he and Rtskhiladze
were friends and that he spoke to, and spent time with, Rtskhiladze on a "regular basis."2920(U) In approximately late September 2015, Cohen received a call from Rtskhiladze, whocalled to offer Cohen a potential business deal in Russia for the Trump Organization.2921
According to Cohen, on the call, Rtskhiladze said he "had a group that he wanted to talk to about
doing a Trump Tower Moscow."2922 According to Rtskhiladze, Simon Nizharadze, a businessassociate ofRtskhiladze's, had requested he contact Cohen to facilitate a potential licensing deal
between Vladimir Mazur and the Trump Organization. 2923
(U) After receiving the offer from Rtskhiladze, Cohen recalled that he reached out toFotiadis and requested the previous renderings done for the skyscraper planned for
Kazakhstan. 2924 On September 22, 2015, Cohen received updated architectural renderings from
Fotiadis.2925 The plans were updated with a new site location of "Moscow City Site 20."2926
Later that day, Fotiadis sent updated site renderings using "Site 22," and further updated therenderings the following day with what Fotiadis envisioned as the iconic feature at the top of thebuilding that could house "[t]he Tallest Restaurant in Moscow."2927 Cohen forwarded theserenderings to Rtskhiladze. 2928

On September 24, 2015, Rtskhiladze emailed Cohen a draft
document in Russian. Rtskhiladze wrote that it was a letter to the mayor of Moscow, who at the
Sob anin. 2929 Rtskhiladze described Sob anin as the "second u in

2919(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 141.
(U) Ibid, p. 158.
2921
(U) Ibid, p. 160.
2922
(U) Ibid, pp. 160-161.
2923(U) Written Responses, Rtskhiladze, September 16, 2019.
2924(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 160-161.
2925(U) Email, Fotiadis to Cohen, September 22, 2015 (MDC-S-000452-455).
2926 (U) Ibid
2927
(U) Email, Fotiadis to Cohen, et al., September 22, 2015 (MDC-S-000472); Email, Fotiadis to Cohen, et al.,September 23, 2015 (MDC-S-000463).
2928 (U) Email, Cohen to Rtskhiladze, September 22, 2015 (MDC-S-000493-498); Email, Cohen to Rtskhiladze,
September 22, 2015 (MDC-S-000499-506).
2929(U) Email, Rtskhiladze to Cohen, September 24, 2015 (MDC-S-000507).
2920

2930

U Ibid

2931

453

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Rtskhiladze told Cohen that Sobyanin was "aware of the potential project and willpledge his support."2934 Rtskhiladze explained that with Sobyanin's support, the only spot
remaining in Moscow City will be "dedicated to Trump tower and financed." 2935 At Cohen'srequest, Rtskhiladze provided a translation of the draft letter.2936 Ac.cording to Rtskhiladze's
translation, the letter noted that the Trump Organization had been "approached by the Global
Prospect LLC a Moscow based real estate development company co-founded by one oflegendary Russian architects, developer and statesman Mr. Michael Posokhin."2937 The
translation of the letter also claimed the project would be of "monumental proportions" andwould be "housed in the heart of the Moscow City development." 2938 The project would "act asa symbol of stronger economic, business and cultural relationships between New York andMoscow and therefore the United States and the Russian Federation."2939 In an effort to pursue a"close dialogue with you and your administration," the letter invited Sobyanin to New York.
Rtskhiladze noted that he and Cohen should discuss the letter later that day. 2940

(U) On September 27, 2015, Rtskhiladze emailed Cohen to relay information about the
proposed development. In the email, Rtskhiladze told Cohen that Mikhail Posokhin and Simon
Nizharadze would be the two primary individuals involved in the venture. 2941 Mikhail Posokhin
is a widely-known Russian architect and developer who has completed a large number ofRussian government projects, including renovations of many Kremlin offices and residences, aswell as the residence of the Russian President (Kremlin Building Number 1), according to
Posokhin's personal website. 2942 Posokhin has also designed tl}.e tallest building in Russia andworked on projects for the Moscow city-level government in Russia. 2943
(U) In his email to Cohen, Rtskhiladze also described the project's design, which'would
have two parts-a Trump residential building and Trump World Tower-both located at the(U) Email, Rtskhiladze to Cohen, September 24, 2015 (MDC-S-000507).

Ibid.
(U) Email, Rtskhiladze to Cohen, September 24, 2015 (MDC-S-000567-568).
2937 (U) Ibid
293s (U) Ibid
2939
(U) Ibid
2940 (U) Ibid
2941
(U) Email, Rtskhiladze to Cohen, September 27, 2015 (MDC-S-000471).
2942(U) Posokhin.ru, "Mikhail M. Posokhin."
2943(U) Ibid
293s (U)2936

454

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Moscow City site.2944 Rtskhiladze further informed Cohen that a "project presentation" for the
Trump residential building will be ready in several days and that the Trump World Tower project
concept "is being shared with the presidents [sicI cabinet and Moscow mayor ."2945 Cohen told
the Committee that he recalled that Rtskhiladze was planning to provide a briefing to officials in
Moscow, but that Cohen was not involved in that briefing.2946(U) Cohen ultimately decided to not pursue a Moscow project with Rtskhiladze andinstead pursued the project with Sater.2947

iv~(U) Dmitry Klokov(U) In addition to communicating with both Sater and Rtskhiladze in the fall of 2015,
Cohen also had contact with another Russian national, Dmitry Klokov, in the same timeframe.
Cohen believed that Dmitry Klokov was a weightlifter who had previously represented Russia at
the Olympics.2948 According to information obtained by the SCO, the individual who contacted
Cohen was not the Olympic weightlifter, but was the director of external communications for a.
large Russian energy company. In addition, Klokov previously served as the press secretary to
Russia's Minister ofEnergy.2949(U) On November 16, 2015, Ivanka Trump received an email from Klokov's wife. 2950
According to Cohen, Ivanka Trump called Cohen and told him that she had received an email
about the Trump Tower Moscow project.2951 Ivanka instructed Cohen to contact Klokov, and to"[b]e nice," and report back to her.on the outcome of the outreach.2952 According to Cohen,
Ivanka Trump also forwarded the initial outreach from Klokov's wife. 2953 When asked iflvanka
Trump's instruction to Cohen was about the Trump Tower Moscow project or about a potential
meeting between Putin and Trump, Cohen said that it was a "combination of the two." 2954

2944(U) Email, Rtskhiladze to Cohen, September 27, 2015 (MDC-S-000471).
Ibid.
2946
(U) Cohen Tr., p. 121.
2947
(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 161.
2948
(U) Cohen Tr., p. 169.
2949(U) sea Report, Vol. I, pp. 72-73; "Russia & CIS: Business and Financial Daily," Vol. XX, Issue 241,
Interjax, December 27, 2011 (stating that Dmitry Klokov is an advisor to Sergei Shmatko); "Russian Energy
Minister Elected Chief of CIS Electric Power Council," Inter/ax, May 25, 2012 (stating that Dmitry Klokov was thepress officer to Alexander Novak).
2950(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 242; sea Report, Vol. I, p. 72.
2951(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 242,251.
2952 (U) Ibid.' p. 251.
2953
(U) Ibid., p. 242.
2954(U) Ibid., pp. 251-252.

2945 (U)455

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVE TIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Shortly thereafter, Cohen spoke to Klokov on the phone. Cohen stated that Klokov
already knew about the project in Moscow. 2955 While Cohen didn't have specifics on how
Klokov knew of the Trump Moscow project, Cohen suggested that Klokov could have known
about the project because "people were talking about it in Moscow."2956 Cohen told theCommittee that Klokov claimed he had "relationships with the government," that he could "helpwith this Trump Moscow proposal, and it would be great if all parties were able to meet and todevelop this property in Moscow."2957 Cohen claimed that Klokov was "adamant about me
yoming to Moscow and to bring Mr. Trump to Moscow for the two to meet."2958(U) The following day, November 18, 2015, Klokov emailed Cohen to emphasize a "fewimportant aspects" of the phone conversation between Klokov and Cohen. 2959 In the email,Klokov claimed that he was not affiliated with any business, but was instead a "trusted person"
focused on "political synergy."296 Klokov stated that "our person of interest" is "ready to meet ·your candidate."2961 Cohen understood that our person of interest referred to Putin.2962 To
facilitate the meeting between Putin and Trump, Klokov told Cohen that he would introduce
Cohen to "the close person" during Cohen's trip to Moscow, which Klokov would facilitate. 2963
Klokov claimed that the "close person" had spoken to Putin about the potential meeting with
Trump. 2964 Klokov said that "we" would facilitate all aspects of the Putin-Trump meeting,including the security, transportation, and accommodation, but that the meeting "has to be
informal."2965 Further, Klokov told Cohen that Cohen's business development efforts should be
separated from the proposed "informal" meeting between Putin and Trump. 2966 Klokov
emphasized that although these would be bifurcated, ultimately the meeting would yield evenlarger business opportunities which would have "the most important support."2967°(U) Cohen quickly responded to Klokov's email, copying ivanka Trump. In his
response, Cohen reemphasized that the Trump Organization had signed an LOI with a local
developer and that it was his intention to travel to Russia related to that project.2968 Cohen told

2955(U) Cohen Tr., p. 167.
(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 245; Cohen Tr., 167.
2957
(U) Cohen Tr., pp. 165-166.
2958(U) Ibid, pp. 169-170.
2959(U) Email, Klokov to Cohen, November 18, 2015 (MDC-S-000597).
2960 (U) Ibid
2961
(U) Ibid
2962(U) Cohen Tr., p. 174.
2963
(U) Email, Klokov to Cohen, November 18, 2015 (MDC-S-000597).
2964(U) Ibid2965 (U) lb id.
2966(U) Ibid2967 (U) Ibid
2968(U) Email, Cohen to Klokov and I. Trump, November 18, 2015 (MDC-S-000492).
2956

456

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Klokov that he would "gladly meet with you and your contact" during this trip. 2969 Cohen,
however, advised Klokov that he would advise Trump to not travel to Russia except in thecontext of an "official visit."297 Cohen said that he was scheduled to speak with the local
developer later that day and would contact Klokov thereafter. 2971°

(U) Klokov responded to Cohen the following day, November 16, 2015, andreemphasized that his focus was not on the immediate business project, but rather arranging an
informal meeting between Putin and Trump. 2972 Klokov again stated that the meeting "hasalready been discussed" with Putin, who Klokov claimed was "knowledgeable about it andwould gladly meet your client."2973 Klokov focused again on his goal of creating "synergy on agovernment level," but made clear that the Putin meeting would have lucrative businessoutcomes :2974
Now, your client is a candidate and hardly any other political move c,ould becompared to a tete-a-tete meeting between them. If publicized correctly the
impact of it could be phenomenal, of course not only in political but in a businessdimension as well. I don't have to tell you that there is no bigger warranty in any

project than consent of the person of interest.

(U) Cohen again responded to Klokov in an email in which he continued to focus on the·business project with I.C. Expert. Cohen further recalled in his testimony that it was ·"always"·
about the project, and that political considerations were not the driving force. 2975 In particular,
Cohen told Klokov that "our LOI developer" was "in talks" with Putin's "Chief of Staff' toarrange the formal invite for Putin and Trump to meet. 2976 Cohen stated that he had been invited
to Moscow by the developer prior to Trump's travel to "view 3 potential sites and to meet with
the Chief of Staff."2977 Cohen said that he would be "honored" to meet with Klokov while in
Moscow "to discuss any thoughts you might have that could enhance the project."2978

2969 (U)

Ibid.
Ibid.
2911 (U) Ibid.
2972(U) Email, Klokov to Cohen and I. Trump, November 19, 2015 (MDC-S-000671).
2973 (U) lb id.
2974 (U) Ibid.
2975(U) Cohen Tr., p. 191.
2976
(U) Email, Cohen to Klokov and I. Trump, November 19, 2015 (MDC-S-000671). At that time, the Chiefof
Staff of the Russian Presidential Executive Office was Sergei Ivanov. Cohen later sought to contact Ivanov directlyin January 2016.
2911 (U) Ibid.
291s (U) Ibid
2910 (U)457

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee did not obtain any further communications between Cohen and
Klokov. Cohen recalled that he relayed the "the sum and substance of my conversation" with
Klokov to Ivanka Trump, as she had requested. 2979 Cohen further stated that he "may have" told
Trump about the outreach, but did not recall whether he had such a conversation.298 Cohen said
he did not recall whether he informed anyone else in the Trump Organization of the outreach
during this time period. 2981°v.

(U) Moscow City Government: Boris Epshteyn's Trump Tower Moscow
Attempt(U) In addition to Cohen's efforts with Sater and Rtskhiladze, a third version of abusiness deal for a hotel in Russia was brought to the Trump Organization during the campaign
through Boris Epshteyn, a Trump Campaign surrogate and later employee. In the spring of 2016,
Epshteyn received the proposal from contacts he had in the Moscow city government, and shared
it with Eric Trump, with whom Epshteyn had long been friends. The Committee has no
indication that the Trump Organization took any action related to the proposal.

•

2979

(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 252.
(U) Ibid., p. 253.
2981 (U) Ibid.
2980

2

458

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

•

I
I

I

•

2984
2985
2986

l . , p• •(U) Ibid., p. 48.
2987(U) Ibid., p. 49.

diplomats expelled from the United States," Tass, March 29, 2018;

459

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The panel Epshtey~ participated in inclµded representatives of the Moscow city
government; including Sergey Cheremin, a minister in the Moscow city government in charge ofexternal relations and investment.

•

I

I(U) In early 2016, these same individuals affiliated with the Moscow city government
reengaged Epshteyn about a potential Trump deal in Russia, ultimately sending him blueprints
for a hotel. 2998 According to the email chain produced by Epshteyn, the blueprints originatedwith a secretary for Cheremin in April 2016. Cheremin's secretary forwarded the plans to an
email address that included the name Shutenko, likely affiliated with Oleg Shutenko, Cheremin's
deputy in the Moscow city government. 2999

(U) Epshteyn recalled sharing these blueprints with Eric Trump and discussing the offerwith him. 3000 According to Epshteyn, Eric Trump said that he would "take a look" and that the

299

Ibid.
(U) Ibid., pp. 17-18.
2997(U) Ibid., p. 18.
2998(U) Epshteyn Tr., pp. 18-19.
2999(U) Emails, Shutenko and Klementieva, April 22, 2016 (BF.Epshteyn.SSCI.Prod.l 13018.000002-3).
3000(U) Epshteyn Tr., p. 36.
2995 (U)2996

460

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

opportunity "[c]ould be interesting," but that his overall reaction was "extremely tepid." 3001
Epshteyn claimed that nothing ever came of the offer. 3002
(U) The Committee did not seek to interview Eric Trump. The Committee does not havefurther information related to what action, if any, was taken by the Trump Organization on the
proposal.
_,
4. (U) Efforts to Mislead the Public and Congress about Trump Tower Moscow(U) A number of individuals, particularly Michael Cohen, engaged in efforts to mislead,minimize, or otherwise hide the details and scope of efforts to build a Trump Tower Mo'scow
during the 2016 ~residential campaign.
(U) As described by Cohen in his testimony to the Committee and elsewhere, Cohenbelieved that there was a discrepancy between then-candidate Trump's public statements on the
campaign trail stating that he had no business deals related to Russia, ·and the approximatelynine-month effort to build Trump Tower Moscow in 2015 and 2016. During the campaign,
Cohen also undertook efforts to maintain the secrecy of the negotjations. 3003
(U) After the election, Cohen was part of an alleged joint defense agreement (IDA) withan unknown number of other Trump-affiliated individuals, including Trump himself, the Trump
Organization, Jared Kushner, lvanka Trump, Felix Sater, and others. Anumber of issues aroseas the Committee sought testimony and documents from Cohen that likely related to thefunctioning of this alleged IDA, including the withholding of documents and intentionally false
statements made by Cohen to the Committee and released publicly. 3004

(U) One such issue involved outreach related to Dmitry Klokov. Cohen initially told theCommittee that a communication came into the Trump Organization requesting that Cohen speakwith Klokov. 3005 Cohen's then-attorney, Stephen Ryan, told the Committee that thecommunications were privileged and therefore not produced. Ryan stated:

Let me make a representation on the record about it. There's a communicationfrom Lana Alexander, 3006 who wrote to the Trump Organization and she

3001(U) Ibid., pp. 25, 36.
(U) Ibid., p. 27.
3003(U) Email, Cohen to Rozov, Chizhikov, and Sater, November 2, 2015 (MDC-S-000652....{i70) ("It is extremely
important that the nature and content of the attached LOI not be disclosed until such time as the parties have either
concluded the definitive agreement documents or have agreed to a mutual statement.").
3004(U) See also infra Vol. 5, Sec. II.C.3.
·
3005(U) Cohen Tr., p. 164.
3006
(U) A/k/a Lana Erchova.
3002

461

represented that she is Mr. Klokov 's wife, and it's in a trail of documents about· two or three pages long that there's privileged communication in and so it's notbeen produced to you yet. 3oo7
(U) Cohen later told the Committee that Ryan claimed that the communication was
privileged at the request of Abbe Lowell, who at the time served as attorney to Ivanka Trumpand Jared Kushner. 3008 Cohen also told the Committee that the communication was not, in fact,
privileged and testified about its contents in his second interview with the Committee. It is
unclear why Ryan ever considered the communication privileged.
·(U) On other matters, multiple emails between Michael Cohen and Russian government
officials-which were responsive to the Committee's document request-were never produced
to the Committee. The withheld emails included outreach to the Kremlin's press office seeking
to speak with Putin's chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov, as well as a response from Dmitri Peskov' s
assistant seeking to discuss the Trump Moscow project. During Cohen's initial interview,, Cohen's then-counsel Stephen Ryan told the Committee that Cohen was not involved in the
production of documents to the Committee. 3009 Ryan stated that Cohen's emails from his Trump
Organization account were produced to Cohen and his counsel by the Trump Organization "offthe Trump [Organization] server."3010 During that same interview, Cohen made false statements
to the Committee about these communications with Russian government officials. 3011 Cohenalso transmitted his false statements about his outreach to the Kremlin on the project to the press
and to the public generally; giving the false impression that Cohen had not communicated in a
substantive way with the Russian government regarding the project. 3012
(U) Cohen eventually pleaded guilty to making intentionally false statements to thisCommittee and to the HPSCI related to the Trump Tower project. 3013 Cohen eventually admitted
to receiving an email response from a Russian government employee; ultimately, he admitted
contacting her and conducting a substantive conversation about the Trump Moscow project inJanuary 2016. 3014 Cohen told the Committee that the email response, which he never produced
to the Committee, was never provided to him by the Trump Organization, another member of thealleged JDA. 3015 The Committee was unable to determine the accuracy of this claim. However,

3007(U) Cohen Tr., p. 164.
(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 244--245.
3009(U) Cohen Tr., p. 128.
3010
(U) Ibid
3011(U) Criminal Information, United States v. Michael Cohen, Case No: 18-CRIM-850 (S.D.N.Y. November 29,2018).
3012(U) Ibid
3008

Ibid(U) Cohen Tr. II, pp. 287-288.
301s (U) Ibid3013 (U)3014

if true, this lends support to the conclusion that Cohen's initial false statements to the Committee
were aided by other members of the alleged IDA, namely the Trump Organization.
(U) Furthermore, drafts of Cohen's prepared statement that included this and other false
or misleading statements was "circulated through all of the various individuals" who read it and,according to Cohen, these individuals "knew the information was false." 3016 Cohen"suspect[ed]" that Trump had seen the statement. 3017 He further said that he believed Trump
knew that the statement was false because "my conversations _with him took place for several
months after the January date that's referenced in this statement." 3018 Cohen also said that, after
he was indicted in the Southern District of New York, he discussed a potential pardon for
himself with Jay Sekulow "more than a half dozen times." 3019 Cohen further stated that heunderstood that the pardon discussions had come from Trump through Sekulow. 3020

3016(U) Ibid., p. 21.
(U) Ibid., pp. 22-23.
3018(U) Ibid., p. 22.
3019(U) Ibid., p. 55.
3020(U) Ibid., p. 378.
3017

463

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

E. (U) George Papadopoulos
1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) In early March 2016, following a short stint working for the Ben Carson campaign,
George Papadopoulos asked Trump Campaign advisor Sam Clovis about joining the Trump
foreign policy team. On March 21, 2016, Trump publicly announced his foreign policy team,which included Papadopoulos and four others. 3021 Throughout the campaign .and following theelection, Papadopoulos proffered himself as a conduit between the Trump team and foreign
governments, including Russia, Egypt, and Greece.
(U) During his initial conversations with Clovis in early March, Papadopoulos learned
that "a principal foreign policy focus of the Campaign was an improved U.S. relationship with
Russia." 3022 Papadopoulos, on his own initiative, met and communicated repeatedly withindividuals throughout 2016 to advance the Campaign's relationship with Russia, including
London-based Professor Joseph Mifsud and Mifsud associates Olga Polonskaya and Ivan
Timofeev. Papadopoulos believed Mifsud, Polonskaya, and Timofeev were connected to theRussian government, and worked with them on ways for the Campaign to engage with theRussian government.

3021(U) Philip Rucker and Robert Costa, "Politics: Trump questions need for NATO, outlines noninterventionist
foreign policyt The Washington Post, March 21, 2016.
3022(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017; Statement of the Offense ,r4, United States v. George
Pap_ado oulos CaseNo. l:17-cr-00182-RDM ,D.C. Octobers 2017.
3023

464

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee found that the Trump Campaign's rush to name and assemble theforeign policy team-without thorough vetting-resulted in their recruitment of inexperienced
advisors, over whom they exerted little control. Ultimately, the foreign policy team exposed the
Trump Campaign to significant counterintelligence vulnerabilities.
(U) Papadopoulos used multiple avenues to pursue a face-to-face meeting between
Trump and President Putin. Papadopoulos believed that he was operating with the approval-or
at least not the explicit disapproval-of senior Campaign leadership, who he kept apprised of his
efforts. Papadopoulos never successfully scheduled a meeting between Putin and Trump.
(U) Most Campaign staff ignored Papadopoulos's engagements with foreign
governments, although sonie encouraged his efforts. The Committee did not find any evidence
that the Campaign ever asked Papadopoulos to cease these engagements. However, on several
occasions, the Campaign asked him to stop his interactions with the foreign press on its behalf,
and in October 2016, several senior Campaign staffers discussed ending Papadopoulos's rolewith the Campaign, but never did so. Papadopoulos continued to work with the Campaign
through the presidential Transition, during which time he assisted several foreign governmentsthough not Moscow-in establishing contact with. campaign officials.

Papadopoulos' s contacts with Mifsud and Sergei Millian, the President of theRussia-American Chamber of Commerce (RACC), are highly suspicious.
Millian is a Belarusian-bom American citizen, and as of 2018 was the president of the RussianAmerican Chamber of Commerce and a real estate broker in New York Ci . Furthermore
Millian has had a workin relationshi with Trum since 2007.

Both Mifsud and Millian exhibited behavior consistent with intelligence tradecraft, and bothhave significaQt ties to Russian government and business circles. Papadopoulos did not seem toconsider himself a target for foreign intelligence services, despite being associated with apresidential campaign and his ongoing interactions with foreign government officials.
•(U) Mifsud's use of Polonskaya as a proxy to further induce contact with Papadopoulos
is consistent with intelligence tradecraft.

•(U) Millian's connections to the virtually non-existent RACC, combined with the odd
nature of his request that Papadopoulos pursue a job with the Trump administration, arealso consistent with intelligence tradecraft.

3024

465

(U) The Committee found Mifsud was aware of an aspect of Russia's active measures
campaign in the 2016 election and that Mifsud told Papadopoulos what he knew. The timing ofMifsud's visit to Moscow and his subsequent conversation with Papadopoulos are consistent
with the timeline of the GRU's cyber penetration of the DNC and DCCC, several weeks before
any information about that activity was public. Furthermore, the information Mifsud conveyed
to Papadopoulos was consistent with the GRU's information disclosure operations intended todamage the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. 3025

information on the FBI's counterintelligence investigation, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. IV.

(U) Papadopoulos held a purely advisory role on the Campaign-he was never formal
Campaign staff nor was he part of Trump's inner circle-and most Campaign staff and otheradvisors he interacted with were dismissive of his efforts. Some senior members of theCampaign viewed Papadopoulos as a liability, particularly in his interactions with foreign
governments and press outlets.

3025(U) See infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.B.

466

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee notes that Papadopoulos engaged with more than just the Russian
government. He also communicated with government officials from Egypt, 3026 Israel, 3027
Japan, 3028 and the United Kingdom. 3029 However, Papadopoulos's interactions to engage Russia
occurred through non-government interlocutors.
{U) Papadopoulos never sought to conceal his efforts to make contact with Russian
officials; on the contrary, he sought opportunities to demonstrate his networking to high-ranking
Campaign officials, like Corey Lewandowski and Steve Bannon. Papadopoulos wanted tomaintain his own identity as a conduit; he never put Mifsud or Timofeev directly in contact with
the Campaign, or vice-versa.

(U) Although the Committee's insights are substantially limited by incomplete document
production and witness testimony, the Committee assesses that Papadopoulos was not a witting
cooptee of the Russian intelligence services, but nonetheless presented as a prime intelligencetarget and potential vector for malign Russian influence.
2. (U) ,Limitations on the Committee's Investigation(U) The FBI first interviewed Papadopoulos on January 27, 2017, in connection with its
counterintelligence investigation. On July 27, 2017, FBI agents arrested him for making false
statements during this January 2017 interview. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making these
false statements on October 5, 2017. 3030 The FBI made some relevant records available to the3026(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Elshemy, September 15, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000617); see also Emails,
Papadopoulos ai:id Bannon, September 16-18, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000621- 627). Between September 16,
2016, and September 18, 2016, Papadopoulos and Bannon exchanged dozens.of messages relating to a potential
engagement between President El~Sisi of Egypt and Trump, ultimately confirming a dinner meeting at 9:00 p.m. on
Monday, September, 19, 2016. During this email exchange, Bannon asked Papadopoulos to email a briefing in
advance of the meeting with President El-Sisi, which Papadopoulos sent noting that "while in Athens over dinnerwith Greek defense minister lastMay, he personally introduced me to the Egyptian defense minister and the rest
became monthly consultations with the Egyptians in DC." There are an additional two email messages related tothis conversation that were redacted when produced to the Committee. Bannon told the Committee that he mistook
Papadopoulos for a separate Campaign staffer and never meant to engage with Papadopoulos on this issue. Bannon
Tr., pp. 95-98.
3027(U) Email, Leibovich to Papadopoulos, June 27, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000703).
3028(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Bannon, September 15, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000615).
3029(U) Email, Goshko to Papadopoulos, November 9, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000643).
3030 {U) Plea Agreement, United States v. George Papadopoulos, Case 1:17-cr-00182-RDM (D.D.C. October 5,2017). During the course of its investigation, the FBI discovered that Papadopoulos also possessed a valid Greek
passport. See FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9 ~ 1 9 / 2 0 1 .
.

467

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCommittee, including: notes from its interviews with Papadopoulos, 3o31 · ~s well as a detailed
timeline of Papadopoulos's activities from March 2016 through August 2017. 3032
(U) The Committee tried several times to interview Papadopoulos. In discussing a
potential appearance before the Committee, Papadopoulos insisted .certain topics be outside thescope of the interview, a condition which the Committee rejected. Ultimately, the Committee
received two separate document productions from Papadopoulos. The first tranche of
documents, produced on June 19, 2017, was incomplete. That production also appeared to be
curated and annotated by Papadopoulos, and painted a misleading representation of the facts
related to his activities. Papadopoulos included with the documents a written statement that
included numerous false or misleading statements similar to those he origip.ally made to theFBI. 3033 The second tranche of documents, produced on June 6, 2019, was more compreherisive,
but still omitted non-email communications, including text messages and social media messages,that the Committee believes Papadopoulos may still possess. 3034 . The Committee also reviewed
public transcripts of Papadopoulos's testimony to other congressional committees.
(U) The Committee tried several times to contact .and interview Mifsud, to no avail.
These efforts included a letter sent to Mifsud on March 22, 2018, inviting him to appear for aninterview with the Committee. While the letter resulted in several exchanges with Mifsud's
alleged legal counsel, those attempts ultimately ended in November 2018, when his attorneys
claimed to have lost contact with their client.

3. (U) Joseph Mifsud and Other Central Figures(U) Mifsud played a central role in Papadopoulos's attempts to engage the Russian
government on behalf of the Trump Campaign. The Committee's awareness of Mifsud's
activities is limited to document production and testimony from other witnesses, informationfrom the Executive Branch, and open source research, in the absence ofMifsud's documents andtestimony.

3031(U) These documents included some redactions.
(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9 / 1 9 / 2 0 1 - - The timeline was used during September 2017 FBI
interviews of Papadopoulos.
·
3033(U) Schedule A Response, Papadopoulos (GP-000038-GP-000040).
3034(U) The Committee makes this assessment based on other document productions, testimony from other
witnesses, and other information available to the Committee. For example, Papadopoulos testified to the U.S. Houseof Representatives about his communications with Mifsud using Facebook, but did not produce any communicationstransmitted. via Facebook to the Committee. See House Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with
George Papadopoulos, pp. 159-160.
3032

468

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Mifsud introduced Papadopoulos to Olga Polonskaya and Ivan Timofeev.
Polonskaya is a Russian citizen who Mifsud used as a proxy for his activities. 3038 Polonskayacommunicated with Papadopoulos up until, and after, the 2016 election. 3039 Papadopoulos also
mistakenly thought Polonskaya was Putin's niece. 3040 Timofeev is another member of the Valdai
Discussion Club with whom Papadopoulos communicated through at least July 2016. 3041
Papadopoulos engaged both Polonskaya and Timofeev, along with Mifsud, as part of hisoutreach to Russia.

According to FBI records and documents produced to the Committee,
Papado~Polonskaya remained in contact through the election. 3045 On a single day in
October 2016, Papadopoulos and Polonskaya exchanged nearly seventy messages. 3046 During

3035
3036
3037
3038 (U)House Ju 1c1ary Committee Transcript oft e Interview with George Papadopoulos, p. 17; Email, Mifsud to
Papadopoulos and Timofeev, April 18, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000863.
3039(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/201
3040(U) House Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with George Papadopoulos, p. 17.
3041
See, e. ., Email Pa ado oulos to Timofeev June 12, 2016 &P GP File 2018 001002).
3042

1 i .
Ibid
3045 (U) Email, Papadopoulos to Polonskaya, November 9, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000980); FBI, FD-302,
Papadopoulos 9 / 1 9 / 2 0 1 3046 (U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/201
3043 (U)3044 (U)469

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

this conversation, Polonskaya demonstrated an awareness of Papadopoulos's intent to run for
public office. 3047
(U) Simona Mangiante, an Italian attorney who worked for the European Parliament
until 2016, first interacted with Papadopoulos in approximately September 2016, when he sent
her a Linkedln message, noting that he had previously worked for the organization that
Mangiante had just joined, the London Center oflntemational Law Practice (LCILP). 3048
Mangiante and Papadopoulos initially communicated via Skype or WhatsApp, until
Papadopoulos met Mangiante in person at the airport in New York in the spring of 2017. 3049
Man:giante married Papadopoulos on March 2, 2018. 3050 Mangiante has an independent, separate
connection to Mifsud.
·(U) According to Mangiante, she was introduced to Mifsud at some point between 2009
and 2016 through Gianni Pittella, the former head of a political group within the Europ"eanUnion. 3051 Mangiante described Pittella as "someone I am very close to,'' and further stated that
Pittella was "someone who is very close to Mifsud."3052 Mangiante characterized Mifsud as
being affiliated with a number of universities in Europe, including the Link Campus University
in Rome, Italy; the University of East Anglia; and the University of Stirling in the United
Kingdom; as well as serving as the Director of the London Academy ofDiplomacy. 3053 During
Mangiante's three month employment at the LCILP, which ended in late October 2016, Mifsud
also became a director at the LCILP. 3054
4. (U) Papadopoulos Engages with Foreign Governments, Inflating Campaign
Role(U) The Committee used .limited document production and interviews to evaluate
interactions Papadopoulos had throughout 2016 with foreign officials, Mifsud, and members of
the Trump Campaign, and the corresponding counterintelligence threats those activities
represented. 3055

3047(U) Ibid According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing, Papadopoulos filed a Statement of
Candidacy (FEC Form 2) to run for the 25 th District in the State of California on October 29, 2019.
3048(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with SimonaMangiante, March 11, 2019, p. 82.
3049(U) Ibid, pp. 81-82.
3050(U) Kim Janssen, "Mueller witness George Papadopoulos weds Italian sweetheart at Chicago',s City Hall,"
Chicago Tribune, March 6, 2018.
3051(U) Mangiante Tr., pp. 15-16.
3052(U) Ibid., p. 25.
3053(U) Ibid, pp. 17, 20-21.
3054(U) Ibid, pp. 25-26; Email, Mangiante to Mifsud, Idris, et al., October 22, 2016 (SSCI-SMP-0010-11).
3055(U) This does not purport to be an exhaustive list of Papadopoulos's activities, many of which remain unknown
to the Committee.

470

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYi.

(U) Papadopoulos Seeks a Role on a Campaign(U) Papadopoulos first reached out to the Trump Campaign in the summer of 2015, andwas referred to Michael Glassner, the National Political Director for the Trump Campaign, by
Corey Lewandowski, the Trump Campaign manager at the time. 3056 Papadopoulos expressedthat he was seeking "an advisory role to Mr. Trump on matters of energy security and U.S.
policy in the Eastern Mediterranean." 3057 In September 2015, Glassner told Papadopoulos that
the Trump Campaign was not hiring policy advisors. 3058·

(U) From late 2015 until February 2016, Papadopoulos held a paid position with the Ben
Carson campaign. 3059 After leaving, Papadopoulos reached out to a contact at the LCILP to ask
ifLCILP was hiring, noting that he had finished his role with the Carson campaign. 3060 By earlyFebruary 2016, he agreed to join LCILP and began working in London. 3061
(U) Around the same time, Papadopoulos sent messages to Lewandowski and Glassner,
again expressing interest in joining the Trump Campaign. 3062 On March 2, 2016, Papadopoulos
sent Glassner another email message, reiterating his interest. 3063 The same day, a representativefrom the Trump Campaign responded to Papadopoulos with the subject line, "follow up fromMichael Glassner," to confirm that Papadopoulos would like to be introduced to Sam Clovis,
who was the National Co-Chair and Chief Policy Adviser for the Trump Campaign and was atthat time charged with forming a foreign policy team for the Trump Campaign. Papadopoulos
said yes. 3064
(U) Clovis told the Committee that the goal for creation of the foreign policy team wasto alleviate pressure the Trump Campaign was receiving regarding the candidate's foreign policy
and national security experience. In Clovis's words:[W]e were desperate to ·try to get the press off our backs ... these were people
who had approached the campaign at one time or another and had enough rankor enough street cred or I should say at least had credentials that looked like we
could possibly put them together on this national advisory team . ... My job was

3056(U) Emails, Papadopoulos and Glassner, August 4, 2015 (B&P GP File 2018 000695).
Ibid(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 81.
3059 (U) Ibid
3060
(U) Ibid, Vol. I, pp. 81-82.
3061(U) Ibid, Vol. I, p. 82.
3062(U) Ibid Papadopoulos did not produce these communications to the Committee.
3063(U) Ibid Papadopoulos did not produce this communication to the Committee.
3064(U) Emails, Lutes and Papadopoulos, March 2-3, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000701-702).

3051 (U)3058

471

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYto put that list together, put it together, get a press release that let Hope, Hope
Hicks, put a press release out on it, those kinds of things. Essentially, that was it.
Once we had done that, the press backed off and I moved on to other things, and I
never worried about cultivating that group ever again. 3065
(U) Hicks also said that in March 2016, then-candidate Trump was "repeatedly asked
about who [was] advising him on foreign policy. So we were as a campaign feeling pressure to
put something together." 3066
(U) Clovis and Papadopoulos spoke on March 6, 20 i 6, about Papadopoulos joining theforeign policy team, and they may have discussed Russia. According to an August 2017
interview with the FBI:

Papadopoulos recalled having a telephone interview with Sam Clovis ... on or
about March 6, 2016, during which the topic of Russia came up. Clovis noted theimportance ofRussia to the foreign policy team. Papadopoulos rememberedtelling Clovis he did not have any Russian contacts during that call. 3067
(U) This is in contrast to what Clovis stated in his interview with the Committee, during
which he stated, "I think my advice to George [Papadopoulos] has always been: No to
Russia. " 3068
(U) On March 6, 2016, Clovis wrote an email update to senior Campaign members,
including Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Corey Lewandowski, Michael Glassner, and Stephen
MiUer, explaining that he had "made contact with everyone in the matrix ... I have already had
lengthy discussions with Walid [Ph]ares and George Papadopoulos. Both are on board."3069
According to a "Policy Team Matrix" document attached to the email, Papadopoulos was tosupport foreign policy issues and was the sole individual assigned to support energy issues. 3070

(U) Clovis sent another email, entitled "National Security Advisory Committee," toIvanka Trump, Kushner, and Glassner on March 16, 2016: "As you asked for today, find

3065(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Sam Clovis, September 28, 2017, pp. 14-16.
(U) Hicks Tr., pp. 9-10.
3067(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 8/11/2017.
3068(U) Clovis Tr., pp. 78-79.
3069(U) Email, Clovis to Ku~hner, I. Trump, Lewandowski, Glassner, and S. Miller, March 6, 2016
(DJTFP00009899-9900). The Committee understands "on board" to indicate that the individuals had expressed
their desire, and perhaps commitment, to joining the national security/foreign policy advisory team the Campaign
was seeking to establish.
3070(U) "Policy Team Matrix," March 6, 2016 (DJTFP00009911).
3066

472

attached the list of those from whom I. have commitments to the team. " 3071 Papadopoulos islisted in the attachment as "Oil and Energy Consultant; Hudson Institute; Expert on
Mediterranean, Caspian, and Middle Eastern energy and Israel; degrees from University College
London, DePaul University and Universite Catholique de Louvain."3072(U) On March 21, 2016, Trump announced some of the foreign policy team during ameeting with the editorial board of the The Washington Post. During this meeting, Trump
characterized Papadopoulos as, "an energy and oil consultant, excellent guy." 3073
ii.

(U) Papadopoulos Meets Joseph Mifsud and Olga Polonskaya(U) On March 14, 2016, around the same time that he joined the )'rump Campaign,
Papadopoulos first met London-based professor Joseph Mifsud (also known as Joseph diGabriele) while traveling in Rome, Italy. According to statements to the FBI, Papadopoulos said
that he had traveled to Rome from approximately March 12 to March 17, 2016, with several
other members ofLCILP, in order to meet with individuals at the Link Campus.Uriiversity. 3074
The LCILP had arranged the trip and invited Papadopoulos, who accepted because he "justwanted to go to Rome." 3075 An individual named Nagi Idris, another director at LCILP,
facilitated the introduction between Papadopoulos and Mifsud while they were in Rome. 3076
Although Mifsud worked for LCILP, Papadopoulos had not previously met him. 3077

(U) Mifsud's interest in Papadopoulos appeared entirely reliant on Papadopoulos's
association with the Trump Campaign. According to the .statement of offense for
Papadopoulos's guilty plea:
Initially, [Mifsud] seemed uninterested in .defendant Papadopoulos. However,after defendant Papadopoulos informed [Mifsud] about his joining the [Trump]Campaign, the Professor appeared to take great interest in defendant
Papadopoulos.· Defendant Papadopoulos was interested in [Mifsud] because,
among other reasons, [Mifsud] claimed to have substantial connections with

,1 (U) Email, Clovis to I. Trump, Kushner, Lewandowski, and Glassner, March 16, 2016 (DJTFP000099539956).
3072(U) Ibid.
3073(U) Post Opinions Staff, "A transcript of Donald Trump's meeting with The Washington Post editorial board,"
March 21, 2016.
3074(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 8/10/2017.
301s (U) Ibid. .
3016 (U) Ibid.
3011 (U) Ibid.
307

473

Russian government officials, which defendant Papadopoulos thought could
increase his importance as a policy advisor to the Campaign. 3078
(U) Papadopoulos similarly told the FBI:

Papadopoulos '[s] first impression was that Mifsud was arrogant. His negative
attitude towards Papadopoulos continued until Mifsud found out Papadopoulos
waspart of the Trump campaign. Mifsud then began to turn on the charm with
Papadopoulos 'and tried to impress him. Mifsud told Papadopoulos he was aformer diplomat with access to European leaders. Mifsud offered to help
introduce Papadopoulos to the right people through his contacts. 3079
(U) FBI technical analysis of Papadopoulos' s cell phone indicates that Mifsud sent
Papadopoulos a text message on March 22, 2016, writing: "My number: joseph'."3080(U) Papadopoulos told the House Judiciary Committee that Mifsud subsequently sent
him an email stating that "it's very important for us to meet in London. I have to introduce you
to somebody very important."3081 According to Papadopoulos's statement of offense, Mifsud
introduced Polonskaya to Papadopoulos as a relative of Vladimir Putin and as someone who had
connections to senior Russian government officials. 3082 Papadopoulos testified to the House ofRepresentatives: "[M]y understanding was I was talking to a very senior level diplomat's family
member from Russia." 3083 He also testified that Idris reiterated Mifsud's claim, stating "[t]his is
Putin's niece or the Russian President's niece."3084 On March 24, 2016, Papadopoulos met withMifsud and Olga Polonskaya, 3085 a Russian-national, at the Holbom Hotel. 3086.

(U) Papadopoulos recalled that they discussed U.S.-Russia trade issues during themeeting, and noted that Polonskaya was escorted by an unknown male who did not join them. 3087

3078(U) Statement of the Offense ~5, United States v. George Papadopoulos, Case No. 1:17-cr-00182-RDM(D.D.C. October 5, 2017).
3079(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 8/10/2017.
3080(U) FBI, FD-1057, "George Papadopoulos," August 14, 2018. Papadopoulos provided the mobile phone he had
used in the United Kingdom to the FBI for technical analysis.
3081(U) House Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with George Papadopoulos, .p. 17.
3082(U) Statement of the Offense ~7, United States v. George Papadopoulos, Case No. 1:17~cr-00182-RDM(D.D.C. October 5, 2017).
·
3083(U) House Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with George Papadopoulos, p. 17. Papadopoulos
did not produce this email to the Committee.
3084(U) Ibid Papadopoulos did not produce the referenced email to this Committee.
3085(U) Documents produced to the Committee show Polonskaya also used the name "Olga Vinogradova," which
the Committee believes is Polonskaya's maiden name. Olga Polonskaya may also be spelled "Polonskaia."
3086(U) House Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with George Papadopoulos, p. 17.
3087(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017.

474

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE -.RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Papadopoulos's wife, Mangiante, told the Committee that Papadopoulos thought Polonskaya was
President Putin's niece because of the way Mifsud introduced her to Papadopoulos. 3088
(U) Papadopoulos later explained that Polonskaya, who could barely speak English
during their in-person meeting, then began communicating with him via electronic means inmore fluent English. Papadopoulos characterized a transition in their relationship, shifting from"seemingly obscure girl ... to now the interlocutor with Mifsud to the Russian Government forme."3089- O n the same day, March 24, 2016, almost certainly after his meeting withMifsud~aya, Papadopoulos performed internet searches for the following terms: 3090
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

"russian president""russian president niece""russian president niece olga""russian president brother and sister""joseph mifsud""next Vietnam prime minister""russian ambassador uk""putin's niece""putin's niece, olga""me~dvedev's niece, olga""olga putin""vladimir putin's brother and sister""Olga Medvedev"(U) This is the first example of a pattern the Committee observed in Papadopoulos's
behavior, where after a meeting he spent time conducting internet research on individuals he met,or, presumably, the topics discussed at the meeting. While several of Papadopoulos's searches
are focused on finding additional information on Polonskaya, Papadopoulos later noted in
documents produced to the Committee that "[a] quick google search will demonstrate that Putin
has no siblings."3091·

3088(U) Mangiante Tr., pp. 109-110. The March 24, 2016, meeting between Papadopoulos, Mifsud, andPolonskaya occurred prior to Mangiante's first encounter with Papadopoulos.
3089 (U) House Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with George Papadopoulos, pp. 17-19. ·.
3090(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/201·
3091(U) Schedule A Response, Papadopoulos (GP-000038--GP-000039).

475

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITT
(

I

-

'

ION ONLY(U) On the same day, March 24, 2016, following his meeting with Mifsud and
Pqlonskaya, Papadopoulos sent an email to members of the Trump foreign policy team with thesubject "Meeting with Russian leadership--including Putin," stating:I just finished a very productive lunch with a good friend ofmine, Joseph Mifsud,
the director of the London Academy of Diplomacy -- who introduced me to bothPutin's niece and the Russian Ambassador in London -- who also acts as the
Deputy Foreign Minister.
The topic of the lunch was to arrange a meeting between us and the Russian
leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump. They are keen tohost us in a "neutral" city, or directly in Moscow. They said the leadership,including Putin, is ready to meet with us and Mr. Trump should there be interest.
Waiting for everyone's thoughts on movingforward with this very important·issue.
Furthermore, Mifsud is good friends with the soon to be next prime ministf!r of
Vietnam. He askedfor me to join him on a trip there to meet with the next leader-perhaps this is of interest to the rest of the campaign team as wel/?3092(U) Papadopoulos testified to the House Judiciary Committee that he lied to the Trump
Campaign about being introduced to the Russian Ambassador in London, clarifying that he"never met the Russian ambassador, just to make that completely clear."3O93(U) Minutes after Papadopoulos's email to other Campaign advisers and staff, Clovis
replied to the entire group, stating:George,This is most informative. Let me work it through the campaign. No commitments
until we see how this plays out. My thought is that we should not go forward.withany meetings with the Russians until we have had occasion to sit with our NATO
allies, especially France, Germany, and Great Britain. We need to reassure ourallies that we are not going to advance anything with Russia until we haveeveryone on the same page.
More thoughts later today. Great work.

3092(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Page, Clovis, Harrell, Kellogg, Misazawa, Kubic, Schmitz, Phares, and Glassner,
March 24, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000649).
.
3093(U) House Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with George Papadopoulos, p. 19.
476

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYSam3094- F B I records indicate that on March 26, 2016, Papadopoulos performedinterne~"Andrei Klimov" and "Ivan Timofeev."3095 This search occurred more than
three weeks prior to Papadopoulos's April 18, 2016, introduction to Timofeev through Mifsud,suggesting that Mifsud may have raised Klimov or Timofeev, or both, during his engagementwith Papadopoulos.

iii.

(U) The Foreign Policy Team Meets(U) Clovis sent an email to the newly-established Trump Campaign's foreign policy
advisory team on March 28, 2016, stating: "I just got off the phone with Senator Jeff Sessions of
Alabama. He passed along that a meeting is being scheduled for 10 am eastern on Thursday, the31st. Location to follow. Please let me know if you are going to be able to attend." 3098
Papadopoulos wrote back to the group thirty minutes later, "Sam, I will be there too. Flying inon the 30th." 3099
(U) Papadopoulos stated that at the March 31, 2016, national security meeting of thencandidate Trump's foreign policy advisors held at the Trump International Hotel in Washington,
D.C., he proposed the idea of arranging a meeting between Putin and Trump. 3100
(U) Papadopoulos recalled telling the group in attendance that "Putin wants to meet" andthat the response to his suggestion from Trump was something to the effect of "I like the

3094
·
(U)

Email, Clovis to Papadopoulos, Page, Harrell, Kellogg, Misazawa, Kubic, Schmitz, Phares, and Glassner,
March 24, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000649).
3095(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/201
3096
U Valdaiclub.com, "Andre Klimov."
3097

3098

(U) Ema1, C ov1s to Papa opoulos, Page, Gassner, et al., March 28, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000475).
(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Clovis, Page, Lewandowski, S. Miller, Glassner, et al., March 28, 2016 (B&P GP
File 2018 000475).
3100(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017.
3099

477

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

idea"3101 who subsequently asked Sessions for his opinion of the proposal. 3102 Papadopoulos
believed that Trump and Sessions were somewhere between tacitly supportive of his idea andvery supportive of his idea, and he left the meeting with the impression that "these guys wanted
this." Papadopoulos also told the FBI that he did not recall anyone at the meeting objecting to
the proposal and that he rather felt he had received a "thumbs up." 3103
(U) A picture of the meeting published on Trump's Instagram account showed that
Sessions and members of the foreign policy advisory team, including J.D. Gordon,
Papadopoulos, and Joseph Schmitz attended the meeting.3104(U) Clovis told the Committee that his first in-person encounter with Papadopoulos wasat the March 31, 2016, meeting:That 's where I really got the sense, at that meeting, that he was there for himself
and not for the campaign, and I felt like ii was a mistake that we had included
him . ... I just thought he was very self-serving, very much on the make. I just

Ibid.
Ibid.
1101 (U) Ibid.
1101 (U)3102 (U)3104(U) lnstagram, @realDonaldTrump, March 31, 2016 ("Meeting with my national security team in#W ashingtonDC. #Trump2016").

478

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYnever-I never trusted him after that. ... Everything he did, he did on his'own,
and we always had to go back and correct him afterwards. It got to the point,
really, it got bad quickly, so we essentially cut him loose quickly in my view. I
never trusted him with anything. 3105
(U) Gordon told the Committee that he did not recall Papadopoulos proposing any
outreach to the Russian government or Russian individuals, but did confirm that Papadopoulos
was fully on board with Trump's desire to have a better relationship with Russia. 3106
(U) Papadopoulos referenced his proposal again with two of the other foreign policy
advisors. On April 5, 2016, Phares sent an email message to Papadopoulos; in which he wrote"Let's think about how to engage your Arab and Mideast contacts either in London or inDC." 3107 Papadopoulos replied from Tel Aviv, Israel, "And of course the Russians, as I
mentioned during our meeting."3108 On April 10, 2016, Papadopoulos also sent an email
message to Carter Page, another foreign policy advisor to the Trump Campaign, in which heasked if Page was available for a phone call "to discuss the outreach to Russia and theCaucasus," noting that they "both have experience dealing in that part of the world, so also
wanted to look into any synergies." 3109 Page responded with an attempt to schedule a Skypeconversation. 3110

(U) Papadopoulos recalled having a Skype call with Page, and in particular recalled Page
telling him to "stop showing off." 3111 Although Papadopoulos did not remember exactly why
Page had told him that, he surmised that "it was likely a result of Papadopoulos' efforts tocoordinate with the Russians in late March 2016." 3112 When Page testified to the Committee, herecalled speaking with Papadopoulos "once on the phone."3113
iv.

(U) Papadopoulos' Contact with Polonskaya and Mifsud Accelerates(U) As an apparent follow-up to the March meeting with Mifsud, Papadopoulos e-mailed
Polonskaya on April 10, 2016, stating:

3105(U) Clovis Tr., pp. 70-71. .
(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview w i t h ~ 14, 2017, p. 69.
3107(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9 / 1 9 / 2 0 1 ~310s (U) Ibid.
3109
(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Page, April 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001057).
3110(U) Email, Page to Papadopoulos, April 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001057).
3111(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 11/7/2017.
3112(U) Ibid
3113(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Carter Page, August 21, 2017, pp. 146-147.
3106

479

COMMITTEE SENSI'fIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYThis is George Papadopoulos, Donald Trump's advisor. We met with Joseph in
London. The reason for my message is because he sent an email that you tried
contacting me. I never received your sms. I was in Israel for business 'and now I
am back in London. Are you still in London? Ifyou are it would be a pleasure tomeet again. If not, we should have a call and discuss some things. 3114

Polonskaya responded the next day, April 11, 2016, copying Mifsud on the email and stating "I
am now back in St. Petersburg. I thank you for our meeting. I would be very pleased to support
your initiatives between our two countries and of course I would be very pleased to meet you
again."311s,(U) Papadopoulos responded back to Polonskaya on the same day, April 11, 2016,
stating, "I think a good step would be for me to meet with the Russian Ambassador in London
sometime this month.... I would like to discuss with him, or anyone else you recommend, about
a potential foreign policy trip to Russia." 3116 Papadopoulos included a link in the email to a
Jerusalem Post opinion article that he characterized as "beneficial to send around." 3117 The
opinion article summarized Papadopoulos's remarks at an April 2016 luncheon with research
associates at an Israeli think tank which included:•(U) "Unlike President Barack Obama, who weakly attempted to 'reset'
relations with Russia and then spent the latter part of his tenure isolating andsanctioning Russia, Donald Trump would 'overtly seek' serious engagementwith Russia on a range of common concerns."•(U) "Trump ... sees Russian President Vladimir Putin as a responsible actor
and potential partner."•(U) "The US and Russia must work to counter Chinese expansionism in Asiaand the Middle East. ... Therefore, a policy of isolating Russia is 'notsustainable. "' 3118

(U) In response to Papadopoulos's email, Mifsud wrote back to Papadopoulos on thesame day, April 11, 2016, that "[t]his is already been agreed. I am flying to Moscow on the 18th

3114(U) Emails, Papadopoulos to Polonskaya, April 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000975). The Mifsud emailreferenced by Papadopoulos was not produced to the Committee.
3115(U) Email, Polonskaya to Papadopoulos and Mifsud, April 11, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000967).
3116(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Polonskaya and Mifsud, April 11, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000967).
3117(U) Ibid
3118(U) David M. Weinberg, "Know Comment: The Donald's Foreign Policy," Jerusalem Post, April 7, 2016.

480

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

for a Valdai meeting, plus other meetings at the Du~a. We will talk tomorrow." 3119 The
Committee does not know what, specifically, Mifsud meant by "[t]his is already been agreed."
Papadopoulos wrote back to Mifsud and Polonskaya eight minutes later, "Excellent. See you
tomorrow." 3120
(U) On April 12, 2016, Papadopoulos appears to have had breakfast with Mifsud, basedon his last April 11, 2016, email and ipformation made available from the FBI's timeline.
•(U) Papadopoulos's schedule had a calendar entry for April 12, 2016, at 9:30 a.m. forone hour, for "Andaz hotel breakfast Liverpool St (9:30)."3121• (U) The same day, at 9:44 a.m., Mifsud emailed Papadopoulos and NawafObaid
regarding "Libya CONFIDENTIAL."3122 Papadopoulos also had another calendar
entry for April 13, 2016, for one hour, for "1 pm Lunch at Four Seasons," with Nawaf
Obaid. 3123
(U) Polonskaya added to Mifsud's response the following day, April 12, 2016, that she:already alerted my personal links to our conversation and your request. The
Embassy in London is very much aware of this. As mentioned we are all very
excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump: The RussianFederation would love to welcome him once his candidature [sic] would beofficially announced. 3124

The Committee does not have any insight into Polonskaya's connection to the Russian Embassyin London.
v.

(U) Mifsud Introduces Papadopoulos to Ivan Timofeev(U) On April 18, 2016, the same day that Mifsud had told Papadopoulos he was flying to
Moscow, Mifsud introduced Ivan Timofeev, Director of Programs at the Russian International
Affairs Council (RIAC), 3125 to Papadopoulos via email. Timofeev has led the "Euro-Atlantic

3119(U) Email, Mifsud to Polonskaya and Papadopoulos, April 11, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000967-968).
Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud and P ~ l , 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000968).
(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/201,,__3122 (U) Ibid.
.
_
3123 (U) Ibid.
3124(U) Email, Polonskaya to Mifsud and Papadopoulos, April 12, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000971).
3125(U) According to the Kremlin's website, the RIAC was established by a Russian presidential decree on
February 3, 2010, as a non-profit partnership by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ofRussia and the Ministry of
Education and Science of Russia to "organise interaction between Russian scientific organisations and foreign think
3120
, (U)
3121

481

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Security" program at the Valdai Discussion Club since 2015 and has served as a professor at the
Academy for Military Science in Russia since 2013, according to open source information.3126
In the initial introductory message, Mifsud wrote:
Dear George, Ivan,
As promised I had a long conversation today in Moscow with my dear friend Ivan
from RIAC about a possible meeting between the two ofyou. Ivan is ready tomeet with you in London (or USA or Moscow). I am putting the two ofyou intouch to discuss when and where this potential meeting can actually take place.
Best wishes for your endeavours ...
Kind regards,
Joseph3121(U)- According to the Valdai Discussion Club's website, Mifsud appeared as part of apanel discussion in Moscow in April 2016, alongside Stephan Roh. 3128 Timofeev moderated thediscussion, which focused on the geopolitical and oil market implications after a recent gatheringof oil-producing nations. 3129
(U) Papadopoulos responded the same day, April 18, 2016, suggesting that he andTimofeev meet in London later in the month. 3130 In a series of email messages, Timofeev andPapadopoulos scheduled a Skype call for Friday, April 22, 2016. 3131 .

tanks on matters of international relations." The RIAC is founded by and receives funding from the Russian
government. Kremlin.ru, "Dmitry Medvedev signed an order to create a non-profit partnership, the Russian Council
for International Affairs," February 4, 2010 (Russian-language version dated February 3, 2010).
3126(U) Russiancouncil.ru, "Ivan Timofeev."
3127(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos and Timofeev, April 18, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000863).
3128(U) Valdaiclub.com, "Valdai Club Discusses Main Trends and Scenarios of Global Energy Development,"
April 19, 2016. Mifsud later introduced Papadopoulos to Roh, in August 2016, as described infra.
3129(U) Ibid. The recent gathering of oil producing nations referred to a summit held in Doha, Qatar, which failed
to produce an agreement on oil output and pricing among the leaders of the world's largest oil producers. Javier
David, "Oil producers send crude reeling after output deal fails in Doha," CNBC, April 18, 2016.
3130(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud and Timofeev, April 18, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000863).
3131(U) Emails, Timofeev and Papadopoulos, April 18-21, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000863-866).

482

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On April 21, 2016, Papadopoulos sent an email message to Mifsud with the subject"Meeting tomorrow," in which he asked if the professor was "[f]ree to meet tomorro~ for afollow up?" 3132
(U) During an interview with the FBI, Papadopoulos recalled:[H]aving a Skype call with Timofeev on April 22, 2016 which he believed was thefirst of two Skype calls he had with Timofeev in total. Papadopoulos could notremember any details about what was discussed during the call; however hesurmised the two likely discussed relations .between Russia, Israel, Cyprus, andChina. The two may also have discussed setting up a potential meeting between
Timofeev and Papadopoulos; however, Papadopoulos could not recall that withany certainty. Papadopoulos then reiterated he had been pushing hard for ameeting with the Russians after his initial conversation with Clovis on March 6,
201,6. 3133
(U) Following the Skype call, Timofeev wrote, "George, thank you for an extensive talk!
I propose to meet in London or in Mo~cow. What do you think?" 3134 Papadopoulos responded:

Regarding a meeting - how about we set one up here in London with the .
Ambassador as well to discuss a process moving forward? Can you come neit
week? It's my objective to set the groundwork for a potential trip and tounderstand the US.-Russia relationship before I submit to my team. 3135
(U) Timofeev responded to Papadopoulos on April 24, 2016, stating, "Next week istotally impossible, for I have to renew my visa. I shall also need to consult with Minister
Ivanov."3136 The next day, April 25, 2016, Timofeev wrote to Papadopoulos:

Dear George,
I have just talked to Igor Ivanov-the President of RIAC and former Foreign
Minister ofRussia. His advise [sic] is to start preparation.of the Moscow visit via

3132(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud, April 21, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000867).
(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017. In an earlier email, Timofeev noted that "we" are online waiting toconnect via Skype, suggesting another individual may have been on the call with Papadopoulos and Ti)nofeev.
Email, Timofeev to Papadopoulos April 22, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000959).
·
3134(U) Email, Timofeev to Papadopoulos, April 22, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000960).
3135(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Timofeev, April 22, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000960).
3136(U) Email, Timofeev to Papadopoulos, April 24, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000960).
3133

483

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
the Russian Embassy in Washington,for the issue is ofpolitical kind. Would you
be available for a quick talk today?
Keep in touch,Ivan.3137(U) According to FBI records, Papadopoulos searched Linkedln for "alisher usmanov"on April 24, 2016. 3138 The Committee has no indication as to why Papadopoulos would conduct
this search, but based on Papadopoulos's previous behavior, it would be logical to assume that
Timofeev may have raised Usmanov in conversation. According to Forbes, Usmanov is an
Russian business magnate, who was estimated to have a net worth of $12.6 billion in March
2020.3139

I(U) Between April 25, 2016, and April 27, 2016, Papadopoulos and Tiinofeev
exchanged emails to coordinate another Skype call to discuss Timofeev's email from April 25,
2016, regarding Igor Ivanov's advice to plan the Moscow visit via the Russian Embassy inWashington. The email exchange concluded with a message from Papadopoulos, noting, "I havea couple of minutes to talk now before Mr. Trump's speech, I am on [S]kype." 3143

3137(U) Email, Timofeevto Papadopoulos, A p ~ G P F i l e 2018 000961).
(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/201'11111111111111
3139
U Forbes rofile "#106 Alisher Usmanov."
3138

3140
3141
3142

484

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Papadopoulos recalled speaking with Timofeev via Skype on April 27, 2016. 3144
Papadopoulos characterized the interaction as "strange," as he remembered Timofeev being
overly formal during the call. 3145 Papadopoulos also described hearing static noises on the call,which Papadopoulos thought suggested that someone was recording the call. 31~6vi.

(U) Other RelevantPapadopoulos Meetings in April(U) On April 19, 2016, Papad,?Poulos met an individual named Oleg Lebedev. In an
email sent the same day, P~padopoulos wrote, "Was very nice meeting you tonight. I am
sending you my recent piece and linkedin profile. See you tomorrow." 3147 In response, Lebedev
wrote back to Papadopoulos, "Great meeting you, and look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
Lets [sic] make Byzantium great again. Good to connect on Linkedin, could not find you on
Facebook."3148 According to FBI interviews, Papadopoulos met Lebedev at the Byzantium Cafein London, through Lebedev's wife, Maria Alexopoulou. 3149 Papadopoulos recalled_that
Lebedev was a big Trump supporter in Russia and had told Papadopoulos that Russia is a friend
ofTrump. 3150 Lebedev claimed to-have contacts in the Russian government. 3151 Papadopoulos
thought Lebedev was in the oil business in Moscow but had a house in London with his wife. 3152

vii.

(U) Papadopoulos Meets with Mifsud in London, Discusses "Dirt" on
Clinton·(U) Papadopoulos met with Mifsud on the morning of April 26, 2016, at the Andaz Hotelin London, for breakfast. During the breakfast, Mifsud, who had just returned from a trip to
Moscow where he had met with high-level Russian government officials, stated that the Russians
had dirt-in the form of emails-on Hillary Clinton. 3153 Papadopoulos described Mifsud as

3144(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017.
Ibid.
3146 (U) Ibid.
3141 (U) Ibid.
314s (U) Ibid.
3149(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 8/11/2017.
3150(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017.
3151 (U) Ibid.
3152 (U) Ibid.
.
3153(U) Statement of the Offense '1[14, United States v. George Papadopoulos, Case No. 1:17-cr-00182-RDM(D.D.C. October 5, 2017). By April 26, 2016, the GRU had already penetrated and collected information from the
DNC and DCCC networks, as well as John Podesta's email account. For a discussion of the GRU's hack-and-leakcampaign, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.B.

3145 (U)485

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY.
.
COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
"giddy ... like he had something he wante_d to get off his chest" prior to his conveying theinformation about the Clinton emails. 3154
(U) When asked by the FBI to explain what Mifsud told him about the Russians having
dirt on Clinton, Papadopoulos told the FBI the following:·")

Mifsud had just returned.from a trip to Moscow where he met with the Duma[Russian Parliament], attended a forum, and had meetings related to academics.
When referring to the dirt, Mifsud told Papadopoulos ''.they have her emails" andspecifically mentioned they had "thousands" of them: Papadopoulos could notrecall if Mifsud mentioned the names of the individuals he met with in Russia. ...

)When asked what Papadopoulos thought when he heard the information from
Mifsud, Papadopoulos recalled it being "a strange thing to hear. H Papadopoulos
inquired ofMifsud how he could know such information, io which Mifsud stated,"they told me." When Papadopoulos referred to Mljsud's statement of "they told
me, " Papadopoulos extended both of his hands and pointed at himself with bothindex fingers. 3155·

Following the breakfast meeting, around noon on April 26, 2016, Mifsud
emaile~los an article titled, "US-Russian relations; the middle cannot hold." 3156 The
article, published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies on Aprif 14, 2016, criticizedPresident Obama's approach to geopolitical relations between the United States and Russia
following the invasion of Crimea, noting the Obama's administration approach was the "middle
way." 3157 In response to Mifsud's email, approximately four hours later, Papadopoulos replied,"Thank you for this, Joseph. Very informative." 3158

3154(U) House Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with George Papadopoulos, p. 21.
(U) FBI, FD-302, PapadopoulosW19/2017.
3156(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, April 26, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000933-935).
3157(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, April ~ F i l e 2018 000933-935).
3158(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/201 . . . . . . . . . .Papadopoulos did not produce this email to theCommittee.
·
·
. · ·
3159
(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 8/11/2017 ("Papadopoulos stated to the best of his recollection he remembers
Clovis being upset after Papadopoulos said, 'Sam, I think they have her emails.' Papadopoulos then reiterated he ·was not certain if that event actually happened or ifhe was wrongfully remembering an event which did notoccur.").
3155

486

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

viii.

(U) Papadopoulos Meets Australian Diplomats(U) On April 19, 2016, Christian Cantor, a Political Counsellor at the Embassy oflsrael.
to the United Kingdom in London, introduced Papadopoulos to Erika Thompson, a PoliticalCounsellor at the Australian High Commission in London. 3160 The introduction occurred via
email, in which Cantor stated "George is a current Tr[u]mp advisor ... I'm sure you'll find very
interesting things to talk about." 3161 Papadopoulos testified to the House Judiciary Committeethat he had been introduced to Cantor via one of his friends who was an economic counselor at
the Embassy oflsrael to the United States, and that he understood Thompson to be Cantor's
girlfriend. 3162

(U) On April 20, 2016, Thompsqn replied to Cantor's email, suggesting that she andPapadopoulos meet following President Obama's visit to the United Kingdom. 3163 Papadopoulos
replied to Thompson the next day, suggesting that the two meet on Tuesday, April 26, 2016. 3164
The Committee assesses that Papadopoulos and Thompson met on April 26, 2016, as previously
coordinated, sometime following Papadopoulos's breakfast engagement with Mifsud.
(U) On May 9, 2016, Thompson wrote Papadopoulos, thanking him for "meeting on
Friday" and checking to see if Papadopoulos would be "still be up for a meeting with [her] boss,
Alexander Downer." 3165 She suggested grabbing "a drink with him tomorrow? Maybe around6?"3166 Thompson proposed the Kensington Wine Rooms, located in the Kensington Borough in
London, for the engagement, as her boss, Sir Alexander Downer, Australia's High Commissioner
to the United Kingdom, lived nearby. 3167 Papadopoulos agreed. 3168•

(U) Documents publicly released by the Government of Australia show a calendar
appointment on Downer's calendar for May 10th titled, "6.00 pm - Meeting with
George Papadopolous [sic], Adivsor [sic], Donald J Trump for President," which
included a link to Papadopoulos's Linkedln profile as well as a heavily redacted

3160 (U)Email, Cantor to Papadopoulos and Thompson, April 19, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000428).
Ibid (Ellipses in original). Cantor also sent a similar introductory email to an individual at the Embassy of
Poland to the United Kingdom on April 20, 2016. Email, Cantor to Papadopoulos, et al., April 20, 2016 (B&P GP
File 2018 000431).
,
3162 (U) House Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with George Papadopoulos, pp. 31-32.
3163 (U) Email, Thompson to Papadopoulos and Cantor, April 20, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000427).
3164 (U) Email, Papadopoulos to Cantor and Thompson, April 21, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000428).
3165(U) Email, Thompson to Papadopoulos, May 9, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000435).
3166 (U) Ibid3161 (U) Ibid
3168
(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Thompson, May 9, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000436).

3161 (U)487

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION <;)NL YCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
diplomatic cable prepared by Downer on May 11, 2016, to Canberra titled, "UK: US:
Donald Trump - Views from Trump's Adviser."3169(U) Although the email between Thompson and Papadopoulos indicates they met on
Friday, May 6, 2016, the Committee does not have any indications as to where they met or what
was discussed.

- J u s t after midnight on the morning of May 10, 2016, Papadopoulos searched
for the ~ r m s on the internet: "australian high comm. london," "current australian
government," prime minister of australia," "malcolm turnbull conservative," "kensington winerooms," "erika thompson," and "erika thompson australia."3170 Papadopoulos also visited theLinkedln site for an individual named Erika Thompson. 3171"
In the late-afternoon on May 10, 2016, and prior to the meeting with
Downer, Papadopoulos again searched the internet for "Kensington Wine Rooms," "australianhigh comm. london," and ''alexander downer." 3172 Later that evening, at approximately eleveno'clock, Papadopoulos performed an internet search for "The Waterway."3173(U) On May 10, 2016, Thompson and Downer met with Papadopoulos. After theengagement, Papadopoulos sent Thompson an email stating, "[g]reat time tonight. Thanks forthe introduction. See you soon."3174.(U) There are some inconsistencies in the stories surrounding the evening of May 10,
2016. 3175 Papadopoulos told the FBI that he recalled the encounter occurring at the Waterway
Pub rather than the Kensington Wine Rooms. 3176 One possibility is that the FBI andPapadopoulos may have conflated the reference to the May 10, 2016, meeting at the Kensington
Wine Rooms with the April 26 or May 6 meetings the Committee surmises occurred between ·Papadopoulos and Thompson. An alternative hypothesis is that Papadopoulos and Thompson
departed the Kensington Wine Rooms on May 10, 2016, and met up later at the Waterway Pub,
which would be consistent with Papadopoulos's internet search for the Waterway at 11 :07 p.m.

3169(U) Mark Di Stefano, "Australia Says It's 'Ready To Confirm' A Key Meeting That Led to the Investigation
Into Trump's Russia Links," BuzzFeed News, ~·3170(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/201.,_.....
3111 (U) Ibid.
3172(U) Ibid
3113 (U) Ibid
3174
(U) Email, Thompson to Papadopoulos, May 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000425) .
3175.
(U) The serial ambiguities and inconsistencies attached to Papadopoulos's activities on May 10, 2016, might
have been mitigated or even explained away, had the Committee benefitted from the testimony of either Downer orPapadopoulos-both of whom declined the Committee's invitation to be interviewed.
3176(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017.

488

Papadopoulos told the FBI that he recalled having several drinks with theAustralians,specifically "three drinks, made with gin." 3177 Papadopoulos also recalled being
intoxicated after those three drinks.3178 When specifically asked, Papadopoulos stated he did notrecall telling the Australians about the Clinton-related emails. 3179

3111 (U)3178•(U) The Kensington Wine Rooms describes itself as having "a reputation as one of
London's best wine bars" and offers numerous wine tastings, either through self-serve
dispensers or by the glass.3180 The drinks menu for the Waterway notably includes asection labeled "Gin & Things." 31 81•(U) Papadopoulos testified to Congress that he and Downer " had one drink" and was"certainly not drunk" during the May 10, 2016, meeting, which seems to contradict
the three gin drinks described above. 3182•

(U) Downer stated during a televised interview that he, along with anotherindividual, met Papadopoulos at the "Kensington Wine Bar" at 6:00 P.M., for about
an hour.3183

Ibid.

(U) Ibid.
1 119 (U) Ibid
3180 (U) Winerooms.london, "Kensington Wine Rooms."
3181 (U) Thewaterway.co.uk, "The Waterway Drinks Menu."
3182 (U) House Judiciary Committee Transcript of the Interview with George Papadopoulos, pp. 41-42.
3183 (U) Sky News Australia, Interview with Alexander Downer, May 9, 2019, available atyoutube.com/watch?v=ygck.FL8m2Ws (beginning at 4:50).
FBI, FD-1057, "Dissemination oflnvestigation Opening," July 31, 2016.
3185(U) Ibid.
1 186 (U) Ibid.
3184 (U)489

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

ix.

·(U) Papadopoulos Edits Trump's Mayflower Speech(U) While Papadopoulos was engaged with Timofeev and Mifsud in London, he also
consulted on preparations for an upcoming Trump foreign policy speech. On April 23, 2016,
Stephen Miller, senior policy advisor for the Trump Campaign, sent an email only to
Papadopoulos with the subject "confidential-dose hold," which attached the "outline ofremarks for wed." 3190 Six minutes later, Papadopoulos wrote back to Miller, "Looks solid. Ifneeded, I have some input/bullet points I can add this weekend." 3191 Miller replied one minutelater stating, "Thanks. Whatever works for you." 3192

3187(U) Ibid The SCO Report states that Papadopoulos suggested that the Russian government may assist the
Trump Campaign to a representative of a foreign government on May 6, 2016. The Committee cannot determine
why the SCO believed this occurred on May 6, 2016. A DOJ Office of the Inspector General report also indicatesthat the interaction between Papadopoulos and a friendly foreign government occurred in May 2016. DOJ, Office of
the Inspector General, "Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane
Investigation," December 2019 (TS/SCI versio~after DOJ 0/G FISA Report, December 2019), p. 52.
3188(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview w i t h _ , July 30, 2018, p. 41.
3189(U) Ibid, pp. 41--42.
3190(U) Email, S. Miller to Papadopoulos, April 23, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000503).
3191(U) Email, Papadopoulos to S. Miller, April 23, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000503).
3192(U) Email, S. Miller to Papadopoulos, April 23, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000503).

490

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) After a series of back and forths, Papadopoulos sent Miller his edited version of theoutline on April 25, 2016, stating, "Please find my edits attached. Look forward to your 'thoughts. I'll stay up. Should I send to anyone else on the team? I.e. Sam or Paul."3193 M11ler
and Papadopoulos then exchanged a series of emails in short succession regarding
Papadopoulos's availability for surrogacy opportunities, during which Papadopoulos stated:

I was recently hosted by the Israeli government after I delivered a talk at anenergy and security conference there. They are ready to host Mr. Trump when
the time is right for him (and have also invited him to a big conference the largest
newspaper there is hosting in July that Netanyahu will also be speaking at). The
Russian government has an open invitation by Putin for Mr. Trump to meet him
when he is ready as well. The advantage of being in London .is that thesegovernments tend to speak a bit more openly in "neutral" cities. 3194
(U) Miller told the Committee that he did not recall this email exchange until the SCO
showed it to him. He further stated that "it's possible that I didn't even reply to it-or that I gave
sort of a flip reply. But I certainly didn't engage on it substantively."3195(U) On the same day, April 25, 2016, Papadopoulos also sent Clovis his edits for theforeign policy speech. 3196 Clovis testified to the Committee that he (Clovis) did not have anyrole with the foreign policy speech delivered at the Mayflower Hotel, nor did he have any role inconsolidating or relaying comments received on the speech.3197.

.

(U) A comparison of Papadopoulos' s edits to the outline that Miller sent to
Lewandowski on April 25, 2016, show that Papadopoulos' s suggested edits to the speech outline
were largely rejected. 3198

_ (U) On April 27, 2016, after Trump delivered the foreign policy speech at the Mayflower
Hotel, 3199 Papadopoulos sent the following message via email to Miller, "Great speech today
from Mr. Trump. If you have a chance for a [S]kype session tomorrow or Friday, let me know.

3193(U) Emails, S. Miller and Papadopoulos, April 23 and 25, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000503-508).
(U) Email, Papadopoulos to S. Miller, April 25, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000506).
3195(U) Miller Tr., pp. 56-57.
3196 (U) Email, Papadopoulos to Clovis, April 25, 2016 (DJTFP000ll 104-11109) (attaching one document).
3197 (U) Clovis Tr., pp. 74-75. Lewandowski testified to the Committee that "if somebody wanted to have input on
a foreign or domestic policy speech, that person would be routed directly to Stephen Miller." Lewandowski Tr., p.
47.
3198 (U) Email, S. Miller to Lewandowski, April 25, 2016 (DJTFP000 11110-11114) (attaching two documents).
3199 (U) For additional information regarding candidate Trump's foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel, seeinfra Vol. 5, Sec. III.G.
3194

491

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Have some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right. " 3200
Papadopoulos told the FBI that the "interesting messages" did not pertain to what Mifsud had
told him one day prior. 3201 The subsequent seven messages exchanged relating to this email
conversation were redacted by Papadopoulos when produced to the Committee. 3202

(U) Also on April 27, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote Lewandowski an email message withthe subject "Messages from Russia" in which he wrote:

Great speech today by Mr. Trump. Glad I could assist. The reason for mymessage is because I wanted to ask ifyou are free for a call tomorrow or Friday
to discuss Russia's interest in hosting Mr. Trump. Have been receiving a lot ofcalls over the last month about Putin wanting to host him and the team when thetime is right. 3203
(U) Lewandowski and Papadopoulos exchanged three messages in an attempt toschedule a call, though the Committee does not believe the two discussed the matter at that time.
Papadopoulos resurrected this particular email thread again on June 1, 2016, which is described
below. 3204
x.

(U) Papadopoulos Uses the Speech to Encourage a Meeting with Russian
Leaders(U) Following the April 27, 2016, foreign policy speech, Papadopoulos re-initiatedcontact with Mifsud and Polonskaya in an apparent effort to coordinate a meeting between the
Trump Campaign and officials with the Russian Federation. The day after the speech,
Papadopoulos asked them separately if they had heard Trump's Mayflower speech. 3205
Polonskaya replied on April 29, 2016, that she had seen Trump's speech and told Papadopoulos,"I agree with many things .... And I like the fact that his (your) position towards Russia is muchsofter than many of the Republicans and Democrats. " 3206 Papadopoulos responded later on April
29, "I am now in the process of seeing if we will come to Russia. Do you recommend I get intouch with a minister or embassy person in Washington or London to begin organizing the3200(U) Email, Papadopoulos to S. Miller, April 27, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000507).
(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017.
3202(U) See B&P GP File 2018 000507-508.
3203(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lewam;lowski, April 27, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001036).
3204(U) Emails, Papadopoulos and Lewandowski, April 27-28, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001036-1037).
3205(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Polonskaya, April 28, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000985); Email, Papadopoulos toMifsud, April 27, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000877).
3206(U) Email, Polonskaya to Papadopoulos, April 29, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000985).
3201

492

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

trip?" 3207 Polonskaya replied later that day, stating, "I think it would be better to discuss thisquestion with Josef [Mifsud]," 3208·
(U) Possibly in response to Polonskaya's suggestion, Papadopoulos wrote to Mifsud on
April 29, 2016: "I haven't heard from the Russian embassy or anyone about sending an
invitation. I need an answer by next weds for my campaign."3209 Mifsud replied two minutes
later, asking ifhe should call Papadopoulos. 3210 The Committee cannot confirm whether
Papadopoulos and Mifsud spoke and, if they did, exactly what was discussed. However, on
April 29, 2016, three hours after Polonskaya suggested that Papadopoulos speak with Mifsud,
Papadopoulos wrote to her indicating that he had called Mifsud. 3211
(U) Papadopoulos also got back in touch with Timofeev. Between April 27, 2016 andApril 30, 2016, Papadopoulos and Timofeev exchanged five email messages to "Follow up" anddiscuss specifics. Timofeev, minutes after Papadopoulos's likely call with Mifsud, wrote to
Papadopoulos: "Please, do send me a draft letter to the Ambassador. I will look through it andpropose my followup [sic]." 3212 Papadopoulos replied six minutes later, stating:

The draft letter I send cannot be better than Mr. Trump's precise speech on his
intentions to repair US.-Russia ties. I assume the speech was widely covered.
We have already been invited by four countries to visit in the summer and ourschedule is moving at a very fast pace. For this reason, I have until Weds to givemy team an update on the potential trip to meet Mr. Putin. I am supposed to be in
Greece on Monday to meet with officials there, but can come back to London next
week to arrange a meeting with people here in a "neutral" city. The message
should be, we are keen to meet and discuss US.-Russia ties and where they canbe improved. 3213
(U) Possibly as a follow-up to their conversation on April 29, Mifsud wrote
Papadopoulos an e-mail on April 30, 2016, with the subject line "RUSSIAN REPLY" in which
he stated:

I have discussed this opportunity with Min. Ivanov. He proposed to start with theRussian Ambassador in Moscow. George (you will need to draft a letter (Ivan is

3207(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Polonskaya, April 29, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000989).
(U) Email, Polonskaya to Papadopoulos, April 29, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000989).
3209(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud, April 29, 2016 (B&P GP.File 2018 000878).
3210(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, April 29, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000878).
3211 (U) Email, Papadopoulos to Polonskaya, April 29, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 00991).
3212(U) Emails, Papadopoulos and Timofeev, April 27-30, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 00965-966).
3213 (U) Email, Papadopoulos to Timofeev, April 29, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 00965-966).
3208

493

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

ready to help you ... please contact him urgently) and he will provide his follow up
to you. As/or the contacts, Ivan (and others- through Olga) will make anenquiry in Moscow how to proceed. 3214
(U) The "RUSSIAN REPLY" email from Mifsud started a discussion as to whether the
Trump Campaign needed to·ask for an invitation to Moscow. Papadopoulos noted for Mifsudthat "Mr. Trump's speech should have been the signal to meet" and that "My campaign won't beinterested in asking to visit Moscow. Guests are either invited or they are not." 3215 Mifsud
agreed and told Papadopoulos that he had ''just spoken to them" and that "[t]hey will let you
know who to meet to organise it with an invite."3216 Papadopoulos responded, "Excellent, thankyou for your critical help on this, [J]oseph. It's history making if it happens." 3217
(U) Timofeev wrote to Papadopoulos and Mifsud four days later on May 4, 2016, stating
he had spoken with his colleagues at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and thatthey are "open for cooperation."3218(U) Papadopoulos forwarded Timofeev's May 4, 2016, email to Lewandowski on thesame day, with the subject "Fwd: (Russian outreach)" and asked, "What do you think? Is thissomething we want to move forward with?"3219 Lewandowski forwarded the message from
Papadopoulos.to Clovis five minutes later. 322 Clovis responded back to Lewandowski less than
one hour later: "I think there are some legal issues we will have to mitigate, ,meeting with foreign
officials as a private citizen. Let me check and I will get back to you today." 3221 Papadopoulos
forwarded the same May 4, 2016, email from Timofeev to Clovis on May 5, 2016, with the text,"Russia updates." 3222 .

°)(U) The Committee did not obtain any communications in which Clovis or otherCampaign leadership telling Papadopoulos to cease his interactions with Timofeev or Mifsud
regarding Russia.
(U) On May 7, 2016, Papadopoulos replied to Timofeev's May 4 email, stating that thedelay in responding was due to "shuffling that has occurred since Mr. Trump clinched the3214(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, April 30, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 00915) (ellipses in original).
(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud, April 30, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 00916).
3216(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, April 30, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 00916).
3217(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud, April 30, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 00917).
3218(U) Email, Timofeev to Papadopoulos, May 4, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 00997).
3219(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lewandowski, May 4, 2016 (DJTFP000l 1398).
3220(U) Email, Lewandowski to Clovis, May 4, 2016 (DJTFP00011399-11400).
3221(U) Email, Clovis to Lewandowski, May 4, 2016 (DJTFP000l 1401)
3222(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Clovis, May 5, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000997).
3215

494

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYnomination. I will get back to you and Joseph soon on this. Glad the MF A is interested." 3223 In
response to Papadopoulos's May 7, 2016, email, Mifsud replied five minutes later, asking
Papadopoulos to call him. 3224 Papadopoulos and Mifsud exchanged several emails to coordinate
a phone call via Skype. 3225 Although the Committee cannot confirm whether Papadopoulos andMifsud spoke, the Committee believes they did based on the emails exchanged. 3226
(U) On May 13, 2016, Mifsud wrote a long proposal to Papadopoulos for the way ahead, ·including his first offer of serving as a surrogate for the Campaign and a liaison of sorts to
Europe:Further to our recent conversations, I am pleased to give you an update ofwhat
we discussed.
1. We will continue to liaise through you with the Russian counterparts in terms
ofwhat is needed for a high level meeting of Mr. Trump with the RussianFederation.
2. I will set up interviews for you with IL Giornale and Corriere della Sera in·
Italy focusing on Mr. Trump's foreign policy perspectives.

3. Ifprovided with key speaking/highlighted points I will use them in the next
European Council on Foreign Relations meeting to be held in June in The
Hague.
4. I wi1/ liaise with the European Parliament about the possibility of aninvitation to Brussels for Mr. Trump. ·5. Once updated, I can use specific points during·the campaign to b,e turned into
articles in the European media - I can also be a central point ifyou wish tosustain key agreed foreign policy and diplomatic points for the campaign in
Europe and the Middle East (I am often asked to chair important debates e.g.
the Doha Forum and other fora in Morocco/Bahrain etc.)
6. I am extremely keen to support Mr. Trump's campaign in foreign policy issues
with Europe, the Middle East and North Africa - and wish to do so from

3223

(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Timofeev and Mifsud; May 7, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000997).
(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, May 7, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000997-998).
3225(U) Emails, Mifsud and Papadopoulos, May 7, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000998).
3226(U) Emails, Papadopoulos and Mifsud, May 7-13, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000891-893, 997-1004).
3224

495

Europe and also with my links inside the USA (e.g. the Washington
Diplomatic community and publications).
7.

If needed, I can also prepare and sign op-eds sustaining Mr. Trump 's
campaign.

8. Once the campaign gets started - I would be keen to be on any shows as a'neutral' opinion maker and expert in support ofMr. Trump vis-a-vis global
issues.
9. I am also extremely interested info/lowing Mr. Trump throughout some of his
campaign trail and reporting back to European media as an 'independent'
opinion maker.
10. I am open to any suggested action plans which the team might wish to makenow and the future and to contribute with my knowledge to the campaign from the inside or the outside.
I will be getting back to you by telephone or for a meeting next week when I am in
London. 3227
r(U) The Committee has,no indication that Papadopoulos pursued Mifsud's proposal toact as a Campaign surrogate or liaison.
(U) Separately, Papadopoulos wrote an email message to Lewandowski on May 14,
2016, providing updates on European security and energy topics. In his email, Papadopoulos
also stated that "[t]he Greek and Cypru governments, the EU Parliament and Russian
governments have also relayed to me that they are interested in hosting Mr. Trump."3228 The
next day, on May 15, 2016, Lewandowski forwarded the message to Clovis. 3229 . Later that day,Clovis wrote an email message with the subject, "Update, Part II" to Lewandowski, copying
Glassner and Hicks, in which he included as the third bullet of the message: "-Still working on
the ins and outs of going to. Russia as a candiqate." 3230 When asked whether the bullet poirit
within Clovis's update related to Papadopoulos's effort, Clovis stated:

No, no. It was a discussion that we had had in the campaign about a foreign trip.
. . . The trip-Russia was going to be an add-on because we were going to go to

3227(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, May 13, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000891).
(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lewandowski, May 14, 2016 (DJ1FP00011535).
3229(U) Email, Lewandowski to Clovis, May 15, 2016 (DJ1FP00011536).
3230(U) Email, Clovis to Lewandowski, et al., May 15, 2016 (DJ1FP00011537-11538).
3228

496

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

the UK., Germany. We'd have done a European swing and maybe an Israel
swing as a foreign. trip, and Russia would have been only after we had considered
whether it was legal and all the other aspects of it. 3231
When Lewandowski was asked about the same point, he told the Committee:. · To the best of my recollection we knew from day one we weren't doing any
overseas travel. ... there was never a discussion that I'm aware of that I was
privy to, inside the campaign. of ever going to Russia in any way, shape, orform.3232(U) The Committee notes the discrepancy between the contemporaneous emailcommunication written by Clovis and the later testimony of Clovis and Lewandowski. The
Committee gives greater credibility to the written records, which suggest that the Campaign was
at least open to the idea of a foreign trip.

xi.

(U) Papadopoulos Conducts High-Level Meetings in Greece(U) Papadopoulos used a trip to Greece to burnish his credentials oil the campaign, but
he also took the opportunity to repeat Mifsud's information about Clinton's emails.
Papadopoulos informed the Campaign that he was travelling to Greece. On May 18, 2016,
Papadopoulos sent an email message to Lewandowski relaying that he had been "invited to meetwith the Greek foreign minister later this week in Athens (he is an old acquaintance of mine)"
and asked Lewandowski ifthere was "[a]ny message you want me to send Greece from thecampaign? (they are hoping Mr. Trump wins and are planning to extend an invite to Mr. Trump~hen I see the foreign minister)."3233 The Committee has no record of a Lewandowski response.
(U) The next day, May 19, 2016, Papadopoulos sent a similar message to Clovis, once .
again asking, "is there any message from the campaign you would like for me to send Greece? I
was told they are going to extend an invitation to Mr. Trump when I see the foreign minister." 3234
Clovis responded, "No, just keep your counsel and report back."3235(U) Papadopoulos then wrote Paul Manafort, then the Trump Campaign's convention
coordinator, on May 21, 2016, stating that he was in Athens, Greece to meet with the Greek
Foreign Minister and the Defense Minister, and that the Greek government would be sending an·

3231(U) Clovis Tr., pp. 76.
(U) Lewandowski Tr., p. 52.
3233(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lewandowski, May 18, 2016 (DJTFP00021405).
3234(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Clovis, May 19, 2016-(DJTFP00021409).
3235(U) Email, Clovis to Papadopoulos, May 19, 2016 (DJTFP00021409).
3232

497

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY .-"official invitation for Mr. Trump to visit Greece sometime should his schedule allow." 3236
Papadopoulos also stated that "[r]egarding the below message, Russia has been eager to meet
Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have [sic] been reaching out to me to discuss. I thought itwould be prudent to send to you .... I am free to discuss if you are free. " 3237 The message
included the May 4, 2016, email from Timofeev to Papadopoulos. 3238
(U) Manafort sought to quell Papadopoulos' s efforts. He forwarded the May 21, 2016,
message to Rick Gates the same day and added, "Lets [sic] discussi We need someone tocommunicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign
so as not to send any signal."3239 Gates responded to Manafort on May 21, 2016, and suggested
having the Campaign's correspondence coordinator handle the communication, noting "This is
the person responding to all mail of non-importance. It would be a general letter."3240 The
Committee is not aware of any further actions by Manafort or Gates on this issue. For more on
Paul Manafort, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.
(U) Three days later, on May 24, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote Timofeev and asked if the
Trump Campaign had communicated with him. 3241 When Timofeev stated that he had notreceived any communication, Papadopoulos began to coordinate a phone call with him. 3242
Between May 29, 2016, and June 2, 2016, six email messages were exchanged between the two
individuals, though the Committee cannot confirm if the two spoke. 3243
(U) Papadopoulos told the FBI that during his May 2016 trip to Athens, he told Greek
Foreign Minister Nikos Kotsias (also spelled Kotzias) what Mifsud had told him on April 26,
2016, regarding the Russians having emails related to Secretary Clinton. 3244 Papadopoulos
recalled Kotsias's reaction:

Kotsias told him in Greek, "don't tell this to anyone, " as if Kotsias had alreadyknown that information. Papadopoulos assessed Kotsias' response was too swift
and Kotsias was not shocked when Papadopoulos told him that information.
Papadopoulos never discussed that topic with the Greeks again. ... When asked

3236(U) Email, Papadopoulos to,Manafort, May 21, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001013). Papadopoulos app'eared tobe resending a nearly identical email he had attempted to send minutes earlier. See Email, Papadopoulos toManafort, May 21, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000999).
.
3231 (U) Ibid
323s (U) Ibid
3239
(U) Email, Manafort to Gates, May 21, 2016 (DJTFP00011621-DJTFP00011622).
3240(U) Email, Gates to Manafort, May 21, 2016 (DJTFP00011621-DJTFP00011622).
3241(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Timofeev, May 24, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000999).
3242(U) Emails, Papadopoulos and Timofeev, May 26-29, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000999-1000).
3243(U) Emails, Papadopoulos and Timofeev, May 29-June 2, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001000-1001).
3244(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017.

498

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

why Papadopoulos told Kotsias about the Russians having Clinton's emails,
Papadopoulos [said he] had a nervous reaction and blurted the information out
to Kotsias. 3245
(U) As noted previously, the Committee has no reliable indication that Papadopoulos
shared this same information with anyone on the Campaign. Furthermore, the Committee has no
additional information as to why Papadopoulos would share the information with the Greek
Foreign Minister.
(U) Papadopoulos was in Greece from at le~st May 17, 2016, through May 27, 2016,
according to press reporting analyzing Papadopoulos's social media accounts. 3246 During his
visit, Papadopoulos met with Kotsias, and with the Greek Minister of Defense, Panagiotis"Panos" Kammenos. 3247 Vladimir Putin traveled to Greece on May 27, 2016; Kammenos
greeted Putin upon his arrival in Athens, on what appears to be the same day Kammenos met
with Papadopoulos. 3248

I

324s (U)
3246

Ibid.
(U) Mitch Prothero and Vera Bergengruen, "Key Trump Officials Met with a Putin Ally During Inauguration
Weekend," BuzzFeed News, March 26, 2018.
3241 (U) Ibid.
3248(U) Ibid.; Griff Witte, "For Trump adviser at center of Russia probe, a rapid rise and dramatic fall in his

499

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On May 29, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote to Clovis that Kammenos was "willing to
make a private trip to NY to meet Mr. Trump (or in Athens)" and that Kotsias "wants to invite
Mr. Trump to Athens for an official trip." 3253 On May 31, 2016, Papadopoulos sent an email to
Hicks with the subject, "Messages from Athens for Mr. Trump," in which ht? wrote:
Wanted to send you some messages I received from ministers/president of Greece.
/just met with the Greek president. They are all very excitedfor Mr. Trump, hope
he wins and if he passes through Athens anytime, all doors here are open forhim.3254(U) Months later, on the evening prior to the inauguration, Kammenos was photographedwith Papadopoulos at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, DC. 3255 Separately, Kammenos was
also photographed with Reince Preibus at the St. Regis Hotel on January 19, 2017 and with bothBannon and Preibus at the Hay Adams Hotel on January 21, 2017. 3256
(U) On June 7, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote to Hope Hicks, offering to brief Trump on his
recent travel and interactions with Israeli, Egyptian, Greek, and Cypriot officials. 3257 Hicks
suggested Papadopoulos engage with Miller, who suggested that he and Papadopoulos speak bytelephone the following weekend, June 10-12, 2016. 3258 On June 10, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote
to Miller: "Tried calling, couldn't get through, I'll be free for the next hour or I'll try tomorrowsame time." 3259 The Committee does not know whether Miller and P~padopoulos ultimately
spoke by telephone. 3260·

xii.

(U) Papadopoulos Plans a Campaign Staff Visit to Moscow(U) In June, Papadopoulos reinitiated his·,push for Campaign interactions with Moscow,reaching out to senior Campaign officials and to Mifsud and his contacts. Papadopoulos started
this renewed effort by resuming the April 27, 2016, email conversation between himself and
Lewandowski, in which Papadopoulos suggested, the Campaign follow the Mayflower speech

3253(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Clovis, May 29, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000741). In the same email,Papadopoulos wrote that he was "invited to Cairo to meet with the Foreign Minister and Defense Minister (after acall was put in by the Greek defense minister)."
3254(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Hicks, May 31, 2016 (DJTFP00022220).
3255(U) Mitch ·Prothero and Vera Bergengruen, "Key Trump Officials Met with a Putin Ally During Inauguration
Weekend," BuzzFeedNews, March 26, 2018.
3256 (U) Ibid
3257
(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Hicks, June 7, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000509).
3258(UJ Emails, Hicks, Papadopoulos, and S. Miller, June 7, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000509-510).
3259(U) Email, Papadopoulos to S. Miller, June 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000510).
3260(U) See B&P GP File 2018 000510--511. The Committee notes that three messages component to the email
conversation were redacted when produced to the Committee.

500with a meeting between Trump and Putin. On June 1, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote to
Lewandowski: "Do you want to have a call about this topic with Russia or is it off the table forthe time being? Wasn't sure if we were following up with it." 3261 Responding that day,
Lewandowski wrote: "Can you connect with Sam Clovis? He is running point."3262
Papadopoulos subsequently wrote Clovis an email on June 1, with the subject line "Messages
from Russia" in which he stated: "I have the Russian MFA asking me if Mr. Trump is interested
in visiting Russia at some point. Wanted to pass this info along to you for you to decide what's
best to do with it and what message I should send (or to ignore)."3263(U) When Clovis was specifically asked about Papadopoulos's June 1, 2016, email
during an interview with the Committee and Papadopoulos's outreach related to outreach to
Russia in this time period, Clovis could not recall Papadopoulos reaching out to him about theRussia topic. 3264 He further suggested Lewandowski told Papadopoulos that he (Clovis) was·"running point" because: "Corey [Lewandowski] didn't want to deal with anybody. So anybody
that he didn't want to deal with, I dealt with." 3265
(U) When asked about Papadopoulos's efforts to arrange a meeting between Trump and
Putin, Clovis told the Committee that he told Papadopoulos "it was a bad idea ... I think it's areally bad idea, George."3266 The Committee did not identify any written communications inwhich Clovis expressed this view to Papadopoulos.
(U) Shortly thereafter, Papadopoulos turned back to his conversations with the Russians,
reiterating his own interest in a visit in a series of emails. He wrote Timofeev on June 11, 2016:"Dear Ivan, I am free to come visit Russia ifthere is interest."3267 Timofeev replied back to
Papadopoulos the following day, stating: ''Just landed from Beijing, Visit to Moscow is an
excellent idea. Will be at [S]kype on Tuesday [June 14, 2016]."3268 Papadopoulos replied backtwo minutes later, writing: "I am going on holiday tomorrow until morning of June 21, [2016,]
but will do my best to get online. In the meantime, if you see who is interested in meeting in
Moscow I can begin preparations to come visit Moscow by the end of the month directly from
Thessaloniki."3269 Four minutes later, Papadopoulos sent an additional email to Timofeev inwhich he wrote: "I am open to meeting everyone even at the highest level. I think it would be

3261(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lewandowski, June 1, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001036).
(U) Email, Lewandowski to Papadopoulos, June 1, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001036).
3263 (U) Email, Papadopoulos to Clovis, June 1, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001023).
3264(U) Clovis Tr., p. 78-79.
·
326s (U) Ibid
3266
(U) Ibid, pp. 72-73.
3267(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Timofeev, June 11, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001001).
3268(U) Email, Timofeev to Papadopoulos, June 12, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001001).
32 9~ (U) Email, Papadopoulos to Timofeev, June 12, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001002).
3262

501

most productive especially before the debates begin."3270 Papadopoulos also separately noted: "Ineed to let my boss know who wants to meet with me in Moscow to confirm that's why I
ask." 3271 Timofeev responded: "I have got a good reaction from the US desk at the MF A as I
told you .... But to get higher level the best option would be to have a letter from Mr. Trump
about your visit, asking for such meetings." 3272
(U) A few days later, Papadopoulos returned to pitching Lewandowski on a trip. On
June 19, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote an email message to Lewandowski with the subject line
"New message from Russia" in which he wrote:

The Russian ministry offoreign affairs messaged and said that if Mr. Trump isunable to make it to Russia, if a campaign rep (me or someone else) can make it
for meetings? I am willing to make the trip off the record if it's in the interest of
Mr. Trump and the campaign to meet specific people. I'm currently in Greece so
not far. Or if someone else wants to go, just wanted to pass this along so I know
who to forward the message to. 3273
Lewandowski wrote back six minutes later: "I am almost certain that he [Trump] won't be able
to make it." 3274
(U) Meanwhile, Carter Page, another member of the foreigQ. policy team encouraging
Trump to visit Russia, was about to depart for his own trip to Moscow. According to FBI
records, on July 5, 2016, Oleg Lebedev sent·Facebook messages to Papadopoulos, informing himthat Page would be in Moscow and might have unofficial meetings with the Russian MF A. 3275
The Committee does not know how Lebedev was aware of Page's impending presence or
activities in Moscow, or how Papadopoulos responded. Page spent July 4 to 9, 2016, in
Moscow, speaking at the New Economic School and engaging in limited government
meetings. 3276

3270(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Timofeev, June 12, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001002).
(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Timofeev, June 12, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001002).
3272(U) Email, Timofeev to Papadopoulos, June 12, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001002).
3273(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lewandowski, June 19, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001035).
3274(U) Email, Lewandowski to Papadopoulos, June 19, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001035).
Lewandowski was fired from the Campaign the next day.
3275
(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017. The Committee understands this to be the same Lebedev that
Papadopoulos met on April 19, 2016, in London.
3276(U) For more information on Page's trip to Moscow, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.F.4.iii.
3271

502

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On July 15, 2016, Papadopoulos sent an email message to Timofeev proposing a
Trump Campaign. staff trip to_ London to meet with President Putin's office and the Russian
MFA. 3277 The FBI discussed this email with Papadopoulos:

Papadopoulos was advised he had sent Timofeev an email, stating "Because of
the time difference I will email you what I have in mind. A meeting for August or
September in the UK (London) with me and my national chairman, and maybe
one other foreign policy advisor and you, members ofpresident putin 's office andthe mfa to hold a day of consultations and to meet one another. It has been
approved from our side. Kindly let me know what else you need and dates thatworkfor everyone." Papadopoulos confirmed he was referring to Clovis andPhares when he referenced the national chairman and the other foreign policy
advisor in his email. 3278·
(U) Papadopoulos did not produce the email to Timofeev to the Committee. However,Papadopoulos sent a very similarly worded email to Mifsud on July 14, 2016, suggesting ameeting in "[A]ugust or September between you, me, Ivan, my two colleagues, members ofpresident putin'.s office and the mfa to meet and greet and hold a day of consultations."3279(U) In 2018, Timofeev spoke with journalists about his interactions with Papadopoulos,
stating: "We did not close the door to the guy, but we did not take it seriously .... He was very
·enthusiastic. He was very interested in Russia and improving relations,-but he seemed to be so
unprofessional and so unprepared for a serious conversation." 3280 Timofeev further stated that
Papadopoulos never sent a formal request for ~(visit.to Ru·ssia, outlining particulars such as who
would attend or what topics would be discussed. 3281
(U) Throughout this timeframe, Papadopoulos continued frequent contact with Mifsud
on a variety of issues, from press inquiries to a potential role for Mifsud on the Campaign.
•(U) Mifsud sent Papadopoulos an email on June 16, 2016, with the subject line "urgent
contact."3282 Mifsud wrote that he would like to "touch base and have a catch up" with
Papadopoulos, particularly pertaining to answering some queries from Italian

3277 (U)FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017.
Ibid.
3279
(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud, July 14, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000814).
.
.
3280(U) Marshall Cohen, "'Unprofessional' Papadopoulos couldn't deliver on promises, his Russian contact says," ·CNN, June 7, 2018. The Committee did not attempt to interview Timofeev.
3281 (U) Ibid.
3282(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, June 16, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000873).
3278 (U)503

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
newspapers, one of which Mifsud induded in the message. 3283 Mifsud also wrote, "On
the 27/28 I am at the Hague for the high level internal annual meeting of the ECFR andon the topic is [sic] the US presidential elections. I would like to have a briefing fromyou on Mr. Trump's foreign policy to be able to argue 'your' corner."3284•(U) Between July 5, 2016, and July 17, 2016, Papadopoulos ·and Mifsud exchanged overa dozen email messages to coordinate a phone call. 3285 The Committee does not knowwhether a conversation ultimately took place.

•(U) Between July 25, 2016, and July 27, 2016, Papadopoulos and Mifsud exchangednine email messages to coordinate a phone call.3286 The Committee cannot confirm
whether a conversation took place, but surmises one did based on a subsequent July 27,
2016, email. 3287•

(U) On August 22, 2016, Papadopoulos offered Rick Dearborn, a Campaign official,"other information" on Russia and Libya. 3288 When Dearborn replied that he would liketo see it, Papadopoulos stated he would "talk to some contacts of mine in the ministry of
foreign affairs of Italy ... and Russia to get you some primary sources andinformation." 3289 Papadopoulos then sent an email message to Mifsud on the same day,August 22, 2016, in which he asked, "Dear Joseph, Do you have any updates on Libya
you can send my way?" 3290 Mifsud sent Papadopoulos a file titled "Tlie current situationand the main priorities for Libya.docx." 3291 The Committee does not have any evidence
that Papadopoulos sent the document or any derivative information regarding Libya to
the Campaign. 3292·
. I(U) On July 27, 2016, Papadopoulos tQld Clovis and Walid Phares, via email, that
Mifsud was willing to host "us with the UK officials and other governments for consultations-

Ibid
Ibid
(U) Emails, Mifsud and Papadopoulos, July 5-17, 2016 (B&P.GP File 2018 000813-817).
3286(U) Emails, Mifsud and Papadopoulos, July 25-27, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000819-821).
3287(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud, July 27, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001168).
3288(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Dearborn, August 22, 2016 (DJTFP00031906).
3289(U) Emails, Papadopoulos and Dearborn, August 22, 2016 (DJTFP00031906).
3290(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud, August 22, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000831).
3291(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, August 23, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000831).
3292(U) Papadopoulos sent at least four follow-up emails to Dearborn between August 22 and August 31, 2016',
which addressed a range of topics including natural gas issues in Russia, Greece, and the United States andgeopolitical issues in the Baltics, but the topic of Libya was conspicuously absent. Email, Papadopoulos to
Dearborn, August 23, 2016 (DJTFP00031908); Email, Papadopoulos to Dearborn, August 24, 2016
(DJTFP00031910); Email, Papadopoulos to Dearborn, August 24, 2016 (DJTFP00032025); Email, Papadopoulos to
Dearborn, August 31, 2016 (DJTFP00033641).
3283 (U)3284 (U)3285

504

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

in Europe and Russia." He called Mifsud his "colleague" and said Mifsud's organization, theLondon Academy of Diplomacy, works closely with Boris Johnson's office. 3293 The Committee
has no indication that is true. Papadopoulos then wrote to Mifsud:
Excellent call. We are looking forward to the letter detailing that the London
Academy of Diplomacy would like to host the trump team, and officials from the
UK and Russia (separately). Confirmed participants.from our side include:
Walid Phares, foreign policy advisor, Sam Clovis, head ofpolicy and George
Papadopoulos, foreign policy advisor. 3294
(U) On July 31, 2016, Mifsud wrote to Papadopoulos, again suggesting that Mifsud begiven a formal role with the Campaign, including organizing meetings on behalf of Trump's
Campaign (emphasis in original):-'

As mentioned, I wish to be officially accredited and invited to follow Mr. Trump's
campaign (with an on the ground - US trail - for a period to be defined with theaim ofpresenting the European (the extended EU- UK, Balkans, etc.), Russianand Mediterranean media, think tanks, institutions, and public opinion (biogs,etc.) with an [sic] realistic view ofyour campaign, with particular reference toForeign Policy (and all the other pertinent issues. I would also need to be briefed
periodically on all foreign affairs issues pertinent to this role. This would justify
my academic and professional interest. An agreement on this must precede allother actions.
I will organize in London and in other European capitals meetings withindividuals; think tanks, media and foreign policy advisors.from countries in
Europe (wider Europe), UK, the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and the Russian Federation (the meeting that we have discussed would be under this umbrellathe focus to these meetings would be the clear and specific Foreign Policy issues
being put forward by Mr. Trump during his campaign. 3295

(U) The Committee has no indication that Papadopoulos passed on Mifsud's request to
the Campaign, or that Mifsud ever procured greater access to Campaign officials.
(U) On August 8, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote an email message to Dearborn stating that
he ''was invited to Russia's largest energy conference of the year to talk about global energy
market dynamics .... lfMr. Trump believes it's in the US interest to cooperate with Russia,

3293(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Clovis and Phares, July 27, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018-000726) ..
(U), Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud, July 27, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001168).
3295(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, July 31, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000829).
3294

505

· COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY...__

something I wholeheartedly believe as well, I'm happy to represent the campaign's ideas aswell." 3296 Dearborn replied the next day: "George, I can't authorize you to go on behalf of thecampaign. " 3297

(U) Mifsud sent an email on August 10, 2016, introducing Papadopoulos to StephanRoh, whom Mifsud described as "a Swiss Lawyer with offices in Germany, Switzerland, Russia,
the Gulf and China, with whom I have been collaborating for some time on major international
projects including Link Campus that you have visited this year." 3298 It is unclear why Mifsud
sought to make this introduction. As part of the nine-message exchange, Roh wrote to
Papadopoulos on August 15, 2016, "Joseph reminded me that you might want to speak about atrip to Moscow ... it would be my pleasure to give some advice." 3299 The Committee does notknow if the two ever connected for a conversation on the phone or in person.
(U) Papadopoulos wrote an email to Clovis on August 15, 2016, with the subject, "Tripabroad (you and I)" in which he stated:

Have had requests from UK, Greek, Italian and even Russian government for
closed door workshops/consultations abroad. ... I wanted to know if there is stillinterest for the two or three of us to go on that trip? If not I'll let them know and
we can potentially hold a private [S}kype call. All meetings can potentially bedone in London at the London Academy of Diplomacy. 3300
The same day, Clovis responded to Papadopoulos: "I just don't see any way for me to travel
before the election. I have too much to do that requires me to be in the states. I would
encourage you and Walid to make the trips, if it is feasible." 3301

(U) On August 15, 2016, Papadopoulos responded to Mifsud's July 31, 2016, email
stating "[u]nfortunately, our national co-chairman, Sam Clovis,informed me today he cannot
travel abroad at this stage of the election. However, will now see if Walid [Phares]can make it
and he is supposed to tell me today. " 3302 Phares engaged with Papadopoulos on the potential
travel, noting to Clovis that he would "reach out to George to discuss possibilities for us," andtold Papadopoulos that he was open to engagements at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.,

3296(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Dearborn, August 8, 2016 (DJTFP00030553).
(U) Email, Dearborn to Papadopoulos, August 9, 2016 (DJTFP00030553).
3298(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos and Roh, August 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000833).
3299(U) Emails, Papadopoulos, Mifsud, and Roh, August 10-15, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000833-835).
3300(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Clovis, August 15, 2016 (DJTFP00014224).
3301(U) Email, Clovis to Papadopoulos and Phares, August 15, 2016 (DJTFP00014224). This document, among
others, evidence Clovis's at least tacit support for Campaign engagements with foreign governments, including
Russia's. This stands in contrast to representations Clovis made during his testimony to the Committee.
3302(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud, August 15, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000830).
3297

506

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYprior to the potential trip. 3303 Phares did not mention the potential trip to London with
Papadopoulos during his interview with the Committee, though he indicated some familiarity
with Papadopoulos's other travel to Israel and Greece during the Campaign. 3304
xiU.

(U) Papadopoulos's Interactions with Sergei Millian(U) Sergei Millian, the President of the RACC, initially reached out to Papadopoulos via
Lindedin on July 15, 2016. His message to Papadopoulos stated that he had."insider knowledge
and direct access to the top hierarchy in Russian politics (president circle, ministers, governors
level)."3305 Because both Sergei Millian and Papadopoulos refused to participate in an interview
with the Committee, there is scant information on how the two men connected or the scope of
their interactions. However, by August 5, 2016, Papadopoulos had sent an email to Anthony
Livanios, the CEO of U.S. Energy Stream, and copied Millian, proposing to Livanios that they
have a Skype call with Papadopoulos's "friend," Sergei Millian. 3306 The Committee does notknow whether the call took place.
(U) On August 8, 2016, Millian sent Papadopoulos an agenda and details of an energysector conference in Moscow. In the message he wrote, "I would need your bio as theconference organizers requested it."3307 Less than one hour later, Papadopoulos wrote, "Thanks
my friend. Let me talk to the campaign and get back to you tomorrow." 3308(
(U) After the presumed Skype call with Millian and Livanios, Millian sent an email
message to Papadopoulos on August 9, 2016, in which he stated:
It will be my pleasure and honor to arrange energy meetings, extensive briefings
from top energy experts in Russia and Europe (including top executives andgovernment decision makers)~ scheduling your speaking arrangements andanything else that is within my scope of connections and business experience.
Nevertheless, handling NATO documentation is outside ofmy expertise andinterests. Ifyour Boss held the office, it would be a reasonable request if
authorized by [the White House].

3303(U) Email, Phares to Papadopoulos and Clovis, August 15, 20i6 (DJTFP00014282).
(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Walid Phares, August 16, 2017, p. 88.
3305(U) Linkedln message, Millian to Papadopoulos, July 15, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001175).
3306·(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Livanios and Millian, August 5, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001102).
3307(U) Emails, Millian to Papadopoulos, August 8, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001100).
3308(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Millian, August 8, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001100).
3304

507

I am willing and confident that I can be ofgreat assistance to you in your private
or public goals in Russia. Hope you understand me and my concerns. 3309
(U) The Committee does not have any additional context regarding Millian'sreference to "handling NATO ,documentation," though it assumes the topic was discussed
during the Skype call.

(U) Millian wrote Papadopoulos an email with the subject line "US Russia relations", onAugust 22, 2016, in which he provided Papadopoulos a link to a U.S. Department of State
website, commenting that "this is a good link to start reviewing regarding the topics of political,
security, and energy relationship." 3310 The link is to the 2013 Joint Report of the U.S.-Russia
Bilateral Presidential Commission.
(U) On September 12, 2016, Millian was scheduled to pick Papadopoulos up at New
York's LaGuardia airport for a meeting. 3311 Although the Committee does not know what thetwo discussed, on September 13, 2016, Millian wrote an email to Trump attorney Michael
Cohen: "I'm friends with Greek American George Papadopoulos, who says he is now yourofficial compaign [sic] advisor on foreign policy from Ben Carson group. He asks questions
about you. Do you know George?"3312 The Committee has no record of a response from Cohen.
(U) On November 5, 2016, Millian forwarded Papadopoulos an email message that hehad originally sent to Hicks on November 2, 2016, rebutting the purported falsehoods contained
within an October 31, 2016, Financial Times article written about Millian, titled, "The shadowy
Russian emigre touting Trump." 3313 Millian included the following note to Papadopoulos:

I just wanted you to know that I wrote this for Mr. Trump. I have no doubt thatforces that invested so much into H will try to steal the elections. Otherwise, all
the money they paid will go to waste.
Please be very cautious these last few days. Even to the point ofnot leaving yourfood and drinks out ofeye sight. I saw you in my dream with two men in blackwith angry faces hiding behind your back. 3314~

3309(U) Email, Millian to Papadopoulos, August 9, 2016 (B&P.GP File 2018 001102).
(U) Email, Millian to Papadopoulos, August 22, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001104). ·3311(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Epshteyn, September 12, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000603-608).
3312(U) Email, Millian to Cohen, September 13, 2016 (DJTFP00018152-DJTFP00018155).
3313(U) Email, Millian to Papadopoulos, November 5, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001088).
3314 (U) Ibid
3310

508

In the original note to Hicks-·which itself was a message Millian said he had sent to Michael
Cohen-Millian offered to hold a press conference to correct the record regardfog thisrelationship with Trump, but noted he would not do so unless the Campaign approved. 3315
Millian had no official title or role with the Campaign. The Committee does not know why
Millian forwarded the note or why Millian included the warning· to Papadopoulos.
(U) Millian and Papadopoulos stayed in touch past the election and as late as August
2017. According to ari interview wlth the FBI, Papadopoulos met with Millian inNovemb~r2016. 3316 Papadopoulos stated that he thought the meeting was strange because Millian was·throwing out "crazy numbers" for a potential business deal with Papadopoulos, who was not paidby the Trump campaign nor paid by the Trump Transition Team. 331 7. According to the FBI
interview with him, Papadopoulos further recalled:

While the two spoke ofpotential business ideas, Millian encouraged
Papadopoulos to concur-rently pursue attempts to obtain employment in theadministration. When Papadopoulos told Millian he was not interested in a job in
the administration, "the meeting kind of stopped. " Papadopoulos felt as if
Millian 's composure was different after that moment and Millian went fromcordial to a completely different person. 3318 :(U) Simona Mangiante, Papadopoulos' wife, told the Committee that Millian offered
Papadopoulos a salary of $30,000 per month as part of the business proposal. 3319
(U) On August 10, 2017, Millian forwarded an email message to Papadopoulos from a
Washington Post reporter who had asked Millian about his interactions with Papadopoulos. 3320
Millian forwarded the message with the comment, "FYI: I will not comment. These folks arehatchet job writers and are sponsored by Amazon owner." 3321 This is the last record of contact
the Committee has between Millian and Papadopoulos. For additional information on Millian,see infra Vol. 5, Sec. IV.B.

xiv.

(U). Papadopoulos Meets

3315(U) Email, Millian to Hicks, November 5, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001088-1089).
(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017.
3311 (U) Ibid.
3318(U) Ibid.
3319(U) Mangiante Tr., pp: 133-134.
3320(U) Email, Millian to Papadopoulos, August 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 001074).
3321 (U) Ibid.
·
3316

509

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) According to Papadopoulos' s testimon
received an unsolicited email from2016.
According to Papadopoulos,
him $3,000 to write a paper for him. 332

in early September
offered to fly Papadopoulos to London, and pay(U) ~ 20, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote Clovis an email message with thesubject line , _ , , in which he wrote:

Had a very productive meeting within [L}ondon. We talked
strategy among other things. He liked what I had to say about US policy in the
Middle East/eastern Mediterranean and wants to help on China briefs. He said
you two met as well and talked about similar issues. 3326
(U) According to an August 2017 interview with the FBI:

Papadopoulos authored a paper for [REDACTED] in London and traveled to
London in September of 2016 to meet with [REDACTED] [REDACTED]. Duringthat meeting, [REDACTED} asked Papadopoulos about the hacking of the DNC,
which Papadopoulos found to be odd Papadopoulos relayed to [REDACTED}
that he did not know anything about the topic and was taken aback by hisquestioning. Papadopoulos felt as if [REDACTED} may have been trying to set
him up. That meeting was also [REDACTED} a bit of an antagonistic meeting.

3322
3323
3324

(U) House Ju 1c1ary Committee Transcript of the Interview with George Papadopoulos, pp. 101, 108.
U Ibid, . 101.

3325
3326

(U) Emai, Papadopoulos to Clovis, September 20, 2016 (DJ1FP00023908).

510

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY[REDACTED] financed the writing of that paper and paid for Papadopoulos'
flight and his hotel. 3327

(U) The Committee received written responses from2020.3329

xv.

on February 28,(U) Campaign Officials Attempt to Restrain Papadopoulos(U) As mentioned above, Clovis claimed to the Committee that, as early as March, he
was concerned that including Papadopoulos on the foreign policy advisory team had been a
mistake. 3330 The first explicit negative feedback from senior Campaign staff to Papadopoulos
seems to have come in May, after Papadopoulos gave an interview in the British press. On May
4, 2016, The Times of London published comments from Papadopoulos, identifying him as "aforeign policy adviser to the Republican frontrunner," in which he called upon the United
Kingdom's Prime Minister, David Cameron, to apologize to Trump and noted that an invitation
for Trump to visit the United Kingdom had not yet been extended. 3331 On May 5, 2016, Clovis
sent an email to Papadopoulos with the subject "Call Me ASAP," in which he wrote:

You are in real hot water with the campaign over your comments to the Britishpress. You need to call me asap. No more discussion with any press until you
hear otherwise or have spoken to me about your current situation. Nothing goesout without approval ofNew York. Period. 3332
(U) While the content of Papadopoulos' s remarks seems to have surprised the Campaign,
the Committee notes that Papadopoulos was keeping the Campaign's communication director
generally informed of his interactions with the press:

3327(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 8 / 1 0 / 2 ~ s in original as produced by DOJ). The Committee
assesses the redacted name in this text to b e - - .
3328
3329

(U) Letter, SSCI to
Apri 3, 2019; Letter, SSCI t o - July 30, 2019; Written Responses,1111,
February 28, 2020.
3330(U) Clovis Tr., pp. 70-71.
3331(U) Francis Elliott, "Say Sorry to Trump or risk special relationship, Cameron told," The Times (London), May
4, 2016.
3332(U) Email, Clovis to Papadopoulos, May 5, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000750).

511

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) On April 29, 2016, Papadopoulos sought permission from Hope Hicks, theCampaign's communications director, to accept an interview with a different media
outlet, the BBC. 3333 Hicks replied in the affirmative three minutes afterwards. 3334•

(U) On May 7, 2016, Papadopoulos' wrote two emails to Hicks asking if he could
participate in an interview with BloQmberg and explaining the context surrounding theinterview with The Times of London. 3335 Papadopoulos noted that "the [U .K. Prime
Minister]' s office wants to host me next week for them to let me know when they hope to
expect Mr. Trump to visit the UK." 3336 Hicks responded to Papadopoulos, "All
good!"3337(U) Papadopoulos continued to pursue public speaking opportunities on behalf of theCampaign, and senior staff continued to show their concern. On July 7, 2016, Papadopoulos
forwarded an email message to Dearborn from the American Jewish Committee asking him to
pai;ticipate as a panelist at a July 20, 2016, event in Cleveland, Ohio. 3338 Dearborn subsequently .
forwarded the message to Mashburn and Gordon and noted: "I don't know that I trust him to
speak for the campaign -- thoughts?" 3339
(U) On August 2, 2016, in an email conversation about press engagements and Carter
Page, Dearborn wrote, "Carter Page and George Papadopoulos are problematic with the press.
I've been clear with George he can't jump without asking. I don't know Carter."3340(U) On August 16, 2016, Hicks, Stephen Miller, and other Campaign staff exchanged
emails in response to a negative press inquiry about a ·separate national security advisory teammember, in which Hicks stated, "Do'we need to do some cleaning up of our original advisers?
This, carter page, Papadopoulos?"3341 Miller responded, "Yes. Several of the clovis names
should be removed. " 3342 When Hicks responded by asking how "we go about this swiftly andquietly" and adding then-Campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Miller responded, "The bestsolution is to constitute a new fp team with the names we want." 3343 ·3333(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Hicks, April 29, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000748).
(U) Email, Hicks to Papadopoulos, April 29, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000748).
3335(U) Emails, Papadopoulos to Hicks, May 7, 2016 (DJTFP00021356).
3336 (U) Ibid
3337
(U) Email, Hicks to Papadopoulos, May 7, 2016 (DJTFP00021356).
3338(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Dearborn, July 7, 2016 (DJTFP00030089-30092).
3339(U) Email, Dearborn to Mashburn.and Gordon, July 7, 2016 (DJTFP00030089-30092).
3340(U) Email, Dearborn to Hicks, S. Miller, and J. Miller, August 2, 2016 (DJTFP00013777).
3341(U) Email, Hicks to S. Miller, et al., August 16, 2016 (DJTFP00014394).
3342(U) Email, S. Miller to Hicks, et al., August 16, 2016 (DJTFP00014394).
3343(U) Email, Hicks to S. Miller, Manafort, et al., August 16, 2016 (DJTFP00014394); Email, S. Miller to Hicks,
Manafort, et al., August 16, 2016 (DJTFP00014394).
.
3334

512

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Hicks told the Committee that by August 2016, her position on the contributions ofPage and Papadopoulos was fairly clear:·

My general feeling on them {Page and Papadopoulos] was that it was not worth
keeping up appearances of some foreign policy committee. We had enoughproblems and I didn't need any more with people that we had no control over, noknowledge of their activities and, frq.nkly, their positions on things. They weren't
making contributions, so I didn't see the point in trying to field these media
inquiries that had nothing to do with us. It wasn't as if we were benefiting fromtheir participation or lack thereof I felt strongly about ending their involvement,
which there wasn't any. 3344 ·(U) Although Campaign staff told the Committee, with the benefit of hindsight, that they
had ongoing concerns about Papadopoulos, they were inconsistent in their contemporaneous
written e".aluations. On July 25, 2016, Clovis sent an email message to Paul Manafort, copying
Dearborn, Kushner, Trump supporter Elliott Broidy, andponald Trump Jr., in which he included
a policy document. 3345 Under the "Energy" sec\ion of the document, Clovis wrote, "I have madecontact with a number of energy folks, but we already have two energy experts on tether. Carter
Page and George Papadoupolos [sic] are great ass.ets." 3346 When asked whether Clovis agreed
with his July 25, 2016 assessment that Page and Papadopoulos were great assets to theCampaign, Clovis told the Committee, "No, not at all .... I don't know how I ever would have said that, but I guess I did." 3347·
(U) Papadopoulos also attempted to involve himself as a more formal surrogate for theCampaign, probably in an att.empt to have some travel expenses compensated. On August 20,
2016, Papadopoulos sent an email to. Trump Campaign official Bo Denysyk, asking to have
travel expenses covered for campaign-related events with Greek-American donors. 3348 Denysyk
noted that "[t]he campaign does not normally cover expenses for someone who is not formallyon the surrogate list of speakers," but offered to see if Papadopoulos could be vetted as a formal
surrogate. 3349 When Denysyk subsequently checked with others on the Trump Campaign, Clovis
responded: "George is an advisor but is not officially with the campaign. This has been the casefrom the beginning. " 3350 Papadopoulos also asked Bryan Lanza, deputy communications

3344(U) Hicks Tr., pp. 17-18.
(U) Email, Clovis to Manafort, Dearborn, Kushner, Broidy, and Trump~ 0 0 0 1 2 6 8 9 DJTFP00012695) (attaching one document). Broidy was using the a d d r e s s ~3346 (U) Ibid
3347
(U) Clovis Tr., pp. 80-81.
3348(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Denysyk, August 20, 2016 (DJTFP00023546).
3349(U) Email, Denysyk to Papadopoulos, August 20, 2016 (DJTFP00023545).
3350(U) Email, Clovis to Denysyk and Cobb, August 22, 2016 (DJTFP00023544).
3345

513

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

director for the Trump Campaign, on August 22, 2016, whether the Campaign had a "weekly callfor the surrogates to keep everyone updated on the,issues." 3351 Lanza then told an associate:"Please add Mr. Papadopoulos to the daily call and talking points."3352(U) Lanza also endorsed Papadopoulos speaking to the press, long after Hicks expressed
her opinion that he should stop. On September 9, 2016, Papadopoulos asked Lanza what hethought about "a request from interfax Russian news agency with ksenia baygarova on USRussia ties under a president trump .... If the campaign wants me to do it, can answer similar to
the answers I gave in April while in Israel."3353 The next day, Lanza told Papadopoulos: "Youshould do it. The Russia/US Syria agreement is a good example of why we want a partnershipwith Russia. " 3354·
(U) Steve Bannon, who starting in mid-August served as the CEO of the Trump
Campaign, also-told the Committee he saw Papadopoulos as a non-factor on the Campaign, but
his assertions in his interview often did not match the documentary record.. For example,
Bannon engaged in a lengthy email exchange with Papadopoulos related to scheduling a meeting
between Trump and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. 3355 Bannon, however, told theCommittee that he did not remember obtaining Papadopoulos' s email address and that he did notmean to email Papadopoulos. 3356 Instead, he explained that during the entire exchange with
Papadopoulos, he thought he was emailing George Gigicos, the Campaign's head of advance. 3357
Bannon also briefly communicated with Papadopoulos regarding the Japanese government in
September 2016 and regarding the Greek government in January 2017. 3358

xvi.

(U) Attempts to Separate Papadopoulos from the Campaign(U) Papadopoulos's second big misstep in the press led to the clearest direction to stop
associating himself publicly with the Campaign from Campaign senior leadership. On
September 30, 2016, Inter/ax published an interview with Papadopoulos-likely the one Lanza

3351(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lanza, August.22, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000472).

3352(U) Email, Lanza to Papadopoulos and Spoleti, August 22, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000472).
(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lanza, September 9, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000469--470).
3354(U) Email, Lanza to Papadopoulos, September 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000469--470).
3355(U) See, e.g., Emails, Bannon and Papadopoulos, September 16-18, 2016 (SKB_SSCI_0000605--608).
3356(U) Bannon Tr., pp. 89, 96.
3357(U) Ibid., pp. 95-98. Bannon's explanation for the mistake was that his email must have autopopulated
Papadopoulos's email, despite the fact that Bannon said he could not remember ever emailing Papadopoulos before.
Although it is impossible for an email application to autopopulate an address that is not in the contacts and has neverbeen emailed before, Bannon had no theory as to how he could have emailed Papadopoulos, and agreed that, in lightof how autopopulate works, he understood how the Committee might find his explanation unbelievable. Ibid.
3358(U) Emails, Papadopoulos and Bannon, September 15, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000615); Emails;
Papadopoulos, Bannon, and Flynn, January 4--6, 2017 (B&P GP File 2018 000635).
3353

514

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
had authorized. 3359 In an October 3, 2016 email conversation, several members of the Trump
Campaign, including Clovis, Alan Cobb, Dearborn, Denysyk, and John Mashburn discussed how
to respond to the interview. 3360 As part of the discussion, Denysyk stated, "[u]nless you have .
approved George giving these types of interviews on behalf of the campaign, I suggest that Sam
or I call him and tell him to cease-and desist speaking on behalf of the campaign unlessspecifically approved by Mash and Sam." 3361 Dearborn replied the same day and stated, "Shuthim down." 3362
1(U) Denysyk emailed Papadopoulos on October 3, 2016, component to a discussion with
Papadopoulos about a Greek-American coalition, and wrote:Also, please remove your title as Foreign Policy Advisor to the campaign. Rick and Sam
confirmed that you have been an informal resource and not an Adviser.
More broadly, Rick has asked me to thankyoufor the policy activities you have been
involved with but you cannot any longer speak on behalf of the campaign or publicly
comment on what the campaign position is on any issue. You can refer people to thecampaign website.
We have had numerous co_mplaints about your Interfax interview. I hope you understand.
For reference, Alan and Sam agree with this decision. 3363
Papadopoulos initially replied "[n]ot an issue, Bo," but said as a result he would not be able to"further assist on this or any other coalition."3364 The following day, Papadopoulos also wrotethat the development would affect his support for a Greek-Americans for Trump coalition:
I have been predominantly working with the leadership in NY over the past months on
numerous initiatives. As far as they told me, they did not give or were aware ofan order
to effectively sideline me from the campaign for the interview I gave. Will wait for theirinstructions on me continuing as a surrogate/advisor before I decide on the [Greek- ·Americans for Trump] coalition. 3365

3359 (U)"George Papadopoulos: Sanctions have done little more ~an to tum Russia towards China," Interfax,
September 30, 2016.
3360(U) Emails, Clovis, et al., October 3, 2016 (DJTFP00018382).
3361(U) Email, Denysyk to Clovis, et al., October 3, 2016 (DJTFP00018382).
3362(U) Email, Dearborn to Denysyk, et al., October 3, 2016 (DJTFP00018382).
3363(U) Email, Denysyk to Papadopoulos, October 3, 2016 (DJTFP00035676-35677). ·3364 (U) Email, Papadopoulos to Denysyk, October 3, 2016 (DJTFP00035676-35677).
3365(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Denysyk, October 4, 2016 (DJTFP00035676).

SISDenysyk replied to Papadopoulos, "Up to you and will pass this along to Rick and Sam," towhich Papadopoulos replied:

Please do, Bo. I was i,iformed by top people in the campaign, that the buck stops with
Steve Bannon on this issue. Steve and I coordinated Mr. Trump's high level meetings
during UN week. Ifhe tells me he wants me o./Jtheleam, of course, I will immediately
step down. In the interest of the team, howe,ver, I will refrain from any other interviews
or appearances until there is a final verdict. 3366
(U) Papadopoulos sent an email to Boris Epshteyn, a Trump Campaign-surrogate andemployee, on October 4, 2016, stating that he had been "told by a couple folks in the campaign,
Rick Dearborn, Sam Clovis, (both via [B]o Denysyk)" that he was "effectively now off thecampaign" because of his recent interview and asked Epshteyn for clarification on whether thatstatement was accurate. 3367 Papadopoulos sent a similar note to Glassner twenty minutes later,
who responded: "News to me-I suggest you follow up directly with Steve Bannon or Jason
Miller."3368.
(U) Papadopoulos had already emailed Bannon on October 3, 2016:

I'm effectively off the campaign, for giving an interview on US poliby in the
Middle East/Russia after I was approved to do it and spoke on my\,.behalf (not the
campaign,s [sic}). Can you confirm/deny the validity of this please? You are theCEO so I wanted to make sure I asked you before moving back to London to takeup my work placement again. 3369
Bannon initially forwarded the note to Jason Miller early on October 4, and asked him,
"What's up with this???" 3370 Miller responded to Bannon almost immediately, and stated: "I'venever even heard of this person." 3371 Bannon subsequently also replied to Papadopoulos on
October 4: "Who told u that[?]" 3372 Papadopoulos stated that the decision had come from "Rick
Dearborn and Sam Clovis (via Bo Denysyk)."3373 The Committee is not aware of any further
action that Bannon took regarding Papadopoulos's inquiry.

3366(U) Email, Denysyk to Papadopoulos, October 4, 2016 (DJTFP00035676); Email, Papadopoulos to Denysyk,
Clovis, and Dearborn, October 4, 2016 (DJTFP00035676).
3367(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Epshteyn, October 4, 2016 (DJTFP00018498).
3368(U) Email, Glassner to Papadopoulos, October 4, 2016 (DJTFP00018500).
3369(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Bannon, October 3, 2016 (SKB SSCI-0001768).
3370(U) Email, Bannon to J. Miller, October 4, 2016 (SKB_SSCI-0002093). ·3371(U) Email, J. Miller to Bannon, October 4, 2016 (SKB_SSCI-0001771).
3372(U) Email, Bannon to Papadopoulos, October 4, 2016 (Slq3_SSCI-0002092).
3373(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Bannon, October 4, 2016 (SKB_SSCI-0001769).

516

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INYESTIGATION ONLY(U) On October 5, 2016, in response to a query from Epshteyn about whether "George[was] still part of [the] campaign," Cobb wrote: "George got way off the reservation on an issue,
but I don'.t think he is 'off the campaign."'3374 Upon further inquiry by Cobb, he subse,quently
wrote back to Epshteyn: "Dearborn is telling me that George has been told to cease and desist
several times." 3375 In response, Epshteyn suggested that "Dearborn send him a formal letter toend his 'confusion.' " 3376

(U) On October 5, 2016, Clovis sent Papadopoulos the following email message:

Not sure what all is going on with you right now, but I wanted to ask that you notrepresent yourself as a spokesperson or surrogate for the campaign. I am notsure I fully understand why this has come up, but for the sake of the campaign
and everyone involved, we need to keep distractions to .a minimum right now.
I know you understand. Thanks. Please acknowledge receipt of this email. 3377
(U) Despite Denysyk's and Clovis's emails, the Committee notes Papadopoulos
remained active and engaged with the Campaign, to include engagements with media associatedwith Greek and Russian interests.
·(U) On October 9, 2016, Papadopoulos sent an email message to Epshteyn with thesubject "Russia strategy," in which he wrote:

It's obvious Mr. Trump has expressed that it's important to cooperate with Russia
in Syria. ... I support this completely. I'm free to discuss this week with you
about how to articulate it even more with your help if it's in the interest of theprincipal. 3378
(U) On October 19, 2016, Mifsud sent an email to Papadopoulos inviting him to speak to
a session of the European Council on Foreign Relations on "any issue or topic related on the3374(U) Emails, Cobb and Epshteyn, October 4-5, 2016 (DJTFP00018820).
(U) Email, Cobb to Epshteyn, October 5, 2016 (DJTFP00018835).
3376(U) Email, Epshteyn to Cobb, October 5, 2016 (DJTFP00018835).
3377(U) Email, Clovis to Papadopoulos, Cobb, and Dearborn, October 5, 2016 (DJTFP000:35692). Papadopoulos
responded that he did not want to be a distraction, but also said "as long as it's understood that the
Greek/Jewish/Armenian fund raisers and coalition groups I was on the verge of putting all together will likely notcome to fruition if they know I'm not representing the campaign anymore." Email, Papadopoulos to Clovis, et al.,- October 5, 2016 (DJTFP00035694). Denysyk told the Committee in his interview that Papadopoulos also was· asked
to stay out of this type of coalition building. Denysyk Tr., p. 30; see also Email, Clovis to Dearborn, Cobb, andDenysyk, October 5, 2016 (DJTFP00035689) ("He's been told several times to steer clear ofrepresenting the
campaign. If need be, I can communicate with him these issues.").
3378(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Epshteyn, October 9, 2016 (DJTFP00019321).
3375

517

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

· Trump campaign, putting your views forward:" 3379 He further stated in the email that "theattendance to this meeting is strictly by invitation and normally has top politicians, journalists,
diplomats in London and will be curtailed by number." 3380 Papadopoulos responded several
hours later stating that he was not sure he could make a trip to London as he "decided to go backon the campaign until the end."3381··'··(U) On October 26, 2016, Papadopoulos sent Lanza an email regarding media requests
from "Greek American newspapers _and CNN Greece"3382 Lanza replied shortly after
Papadopoulos sent the initial email, copying an associate to help assist Papadopoulos in booking
the engagement. 3383
(U) Less than one hour after·sending the initial email to Lanza on October 26, 2016,
Papadopoulos then forwarded a request from a U.S. correspondent for Antenna TV Greece toLanza and Lanza's associate on the previous email. 3384 Papadopoulos sent the e-mail to Bannon
and Lanza' s associate just prior to sending the email to Lanza. 3385

(U) Also on October 26, 2016, Papadopoulos received an email from a producer
claiming to be from "the U.S. State Department's TV Rain Russia Media CoOp program" whostated she had received his contact information from Richard Weitz. 3386 The producer requested
that Papadopoulos participate in an interview with two Russian journalists who were going to bein Washington, D.C. after the election. 3387 Papadopoulos agreed to do an interview on
November 14, 2016. 3388
xvii.

(U) Mifsud Reacts to the Election

3379(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, October 19, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000837).
(U) Ibid.
3381(U) Emails, Papadopoulos and Mifsud, October 19, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000837).
3382(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lanza, October 26, 2016 (B&P GP.File 2018 000437).
3383(U) Email, Lanza to Papadopoulos and Henning, October 26, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000437).'3384(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lanza and Henning, October 26, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000439).
3385(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Bannon and Henning, October 26, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000439). In a separate
email to Bannon, Papadopoulos clarified that he mistakenly forwarded the message to Bannon, and should have sent
it to Bryan Lanza instead. However, Papadopoulos did not produce this communication to the Committee. See
Email, Papadopoulos to Bannon, October 26, 2016 (SKB_SSCI-0001373).
3386(U) Email, Schmidt to Papadopoulos, et al., October 26, 2016 (HUD00000198). According to the Defense One
website, Weitz is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at the Hudson Instituteand an "Expert" with the WikiStrat consultancy. DefenseOne.com, "Author archive: Richard Weitz." Foradditional information on WikiStrat and its founder Joel Zamel, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.J.3.
3387 (U) Ibid.
3388(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Schmidt, et al.) October 26, 2016 (HUD00000198).
3380

'518

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On November 1, 2016, Mifsud sent an email to Papadopoulos with the subject "Howare you?" in which he wrote, "[L]et us start thinking of the post-US elections - anything you
can/wish to share? I hope it goes well for you." 3389

(U) On November 10, 2016, Mifsud sent an email to Papadopoulos, congratulating him
on Trump's victory and asking: "I wondered if you and I can touch base and prepare yourpresentation in London and also to see ifwe can work together." 3392 Papadopoulos responded toMifsud's note, stating that he "[w]ould be happy to work together. What do you have inmind?" 3393 Mifsud responded the next day:As there are much [sicJ requests from Europe, Russia and Middle East on Mr.
Trump's foreign policy focus liaising with institutions and think tanks will be on
top of the agenda. We can offer a service to these via you. I would be happy to
fly to meet with you in the USA in the first week of December and have a meetingwith you (and with others that you might wish to identify).
I will fly to where you will be and meet face to face there. If I can be of any
support here please do let me know. 3394

3389

Email Mifsud

3390

Lee Smith, "The Maltese

Ph
3391
3392

(U) Ema1, Mt su to Papa opou os, Novem er 10, 2016 (B&P GP Fie 2018 000841).
Email, Papadopoulos to Mifsud, November 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000842).
3394(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, November 11, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000842-843).
3393 (U)519

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYr(U) Mi:(sud sent another email to Papadopoulos on November 11, 2016, regarding aphone call Mifsud had with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) about generalforeign policy topics, including the U.S. posture towards Russia, Iran, Israel, and Saud\ Arabia as
well as offering to "brief you or your team on the view from the Europeans."3395'(U) Mifsud reached out again on November 16, 2016, stating that he was "veryinterested in meeting with you during my visit to the USA ·which will .start on the 3rd December
until the 9th • I can meet you at any time or1any place that you wish - Washington or New
York." 3396 On November 18, 2016, Mifsud again asked Papadopoulos:'"[w]here and at when
can we meet? I would be willing to travel to where is more convenient for you. There are anumber of issues that I would like to discuss with you." 3397 Mifsud sent another email message
to Papadopoulos on Decembe_r 2, 2016, again stating "[a]s mentioned I will be in the US fromtomorrow. Can you kindly let me know where and how' we can meet? I would be ·willing tocome to Chicago for the meeting."3398 On December 6, 2016, Mifsud again reached out toPapadopoulos, stating, "Dear George, I hope you are well. I am in US. Is a meeting still
possible?"3399-(U) Despite the multiple emails from Mifsud, the Committee has seen no indication that
Papadopoulos responded, and the Committee does not know if Papadopoulos and Mifsud met
subsequent to the election.

xviii.

(U) Papadopoulos Coordinates Multiple Foreign Engagements for theTransition(U) After the election, foreign governments sought points of contact who could secure aphone call with the President-Elect's Transition Team. Representatives from the UK, Cyprus,
Egypt, Taiwan, and Greece all leveraged Papadopoulos as an interlocutor. The Committee has
no evidence suggesting that the Russian government used Papadopoulos as a conduit 3400
(U) On November 9, 2016, the Head of the Political Team for the British Embassy to theUnited States sent Papadopoulos an email with the subject "Request for a call between the
British Prime Minister and President-elect" which stated: "[T]he Prime Minister is keen to secure
an early call with President-elect Trump. We have already registered this request with thetransition team but have now belatedly realised that perhaps the campaign would have been the

3395(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, November 11, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000845).
(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, November, 16, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000847).
3397(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, November 18, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000849).
3398(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, December 2, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000851).
3399(U) Email, Mifsud to Papadopoulos, December 6, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000853).
3400(U) For more on Russia's approach to the Trump Transition team, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.K.
3396

520

right approach." 3401 The message also included a letter of congratulations from United Kingdom
Prime Minister Theresa May which the Embassy was "keen to ensure reaches the candidate assoon as possible."3402 Papadopoulos separately forwarded the letter to Bannon, Hicks, andGlassner within an hour of receiving the email from the British Embassy. 3403·
(U) On November 9, 2016, Leonidas Pantelides, the Ambassador of Cyprus to theUnited States, sent Papadopoulos via email a letter from the President of Cyprus to PresidentElect Trump. 3404 Papadopoulos forwarded the communication to Bannon and Glassner. 3405
(U) On November 10, 2016, Yasser Elshemy, a Counselor at the Egyptian Embassy inWashington, sent Papadopoulos an e-mail with the subject line "letter from Foreign Minister to
VP 'Pence'," stating that the Egyptian Ambassador to the United States "is looking forward tomeeting Vice President 'Pence' to deliver the congratulation letter addressed to him from
[Egypt's] Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry."3406 Papadopoulos passed the message on to
Glassner. 3407 On November 18, 2016, Elshemy sent an email to Papadopoulos with the subject"meeting- urgent" asking Papadopoulos to "grab a lunch together, we need to follow up manythings we discussed before the elections results." 3408 In a subsequent note, Elshemy clarified that
he needs "help to set a meeting between Amb. Reda and Mr. Bannon in DC on the earlier
convenience. [W]~ also need an access point to Mr. Pence office." 3409 One minute later,
Papadopoulos wrote back, "Ok will call and ask him what he can do." 3410
(U) On November 10, 2016, Papadopoulos received an email message from Seth
Cropsey of the Hudson Institute, recommending that President-Elect Trump call Tsai Ing-Wen,
the President of Taiwan to "assure her of Trump administration solidarity.in defense of Taiwan..
a call would also tell Xi Jinping that Trump takes security in the region seriously, especially

3401(U) Email, Goshko to Papadopoulos, November 9, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000643).

3402 (U)

Ibid.

3403

(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Bannon, November 9, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000644); Email, Papadopoulos to
Glassner, November 9, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000644); Email, Papadopoulos to Hicks, November 9, 2016 (B&P
GP File 2018 000644).
3404(U) Emails, Pantelides to Papadopoulos, November 9, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000671) .
3405.
(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Bannon, November 9, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000671); Email, Papadopoulos to
Glassner, November 9, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000671).
3406(U) Email, Elshemy to Papadopoulos, November 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000669).
3407·(U) Email Papadopoulos to Glassner, November 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000669).
3408(U) Email, Elshemy to Papadopoulos, November 18, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000619).
3409(U) Email, Elshemy to Papadopoulos, November 18, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000619).
.·,
3410(U) Emails, Papadopoulos and Elshemy, November 18, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000619). The Committee
notes that two additional emails follow Elshemy's acknowledgement of Papadopoulos's note, but those emails wereredacted when produced to the Committee. See B&P GP File 2018 000619-620.

521

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
the South China Sea."3411 Cropsey resent the email to Papadopoulos on November 11, 2016. 3412
On November 11, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote to Cropsey, "I set up [Trump's] calls with prime
minister May and president sisi. If the leader of Taiwan wants a call, may you have her send a •formal letter I can then forward from my email? That's how it worked for sisi and may," 3~ 13 In
a separate email message on the same day, but as part of the same conversation thread,
Papadopoulos wrote "Regarding Australia ditto. I had a couple nice conversations over gin in
London with their former foreign minister and current high commissioner to the U.K., Alexander
Downer where we discussed the relationship." 3414,
(U) Papadopoulos, however, was about to travel to Greece, and was keeping senior
members of the Trump Transition Team apprised of his engagements. On December 9, 2016,
Papadopoulos passed on a purported request from the Prime Minister of Greece to meet with
President-Elect Trump in early January 2017 to Bannon. 3415 In an email the following day,December 10, 2016, Papadopoulos further stated that he "[s]poke with the Greek defense
minister. 3416 They want to sign a government to government agreement with the USA for all
rights to all energy fields offshore. Strategic foothold in the Mediterranean and Balkans."3417
Bannon replied to the note, adding Michael Flynn and Kathleen Troia (K.T.) McFarland to thecommunication, both of who were-senior national security officials on the Transition Team. 3418
Papadopoulos then wrote to the_ group on December 10, 201.6, that the Greek defense minister
had "earmarked the island of [K]arpathos for a potential listening post and air base for the US"
and further stated "A base on [K]arpathos is key to controlling sea lines of communication in the
Aegean/plan b should Incirlik once again become unusable." 3419 The following day, December
11, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote to Flynn's Transition Team email address, passing along the .
phone number for Kammenos, the Greek Defense Minister, noting that the "[l]ine is not secure,
however. He can pass along a secure number when you both find the .time to discuss." 3420

3411(U) Email, Cropsey to Papadopoulos, November 11, 2016 (HUD00000191).
(U) Email, Cropsey to Papadopoulos, November 11, 2016 (HUD00000191).
3413(U) Emails, Papadopoulos to Cropsey, November 11, 2016 (HUD00000l,72).
3414.(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Cropsey November 11, 2016 (HUD00000 191-192).
3415(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Bannon, December 9, 2016 (B&P GP F:ile 2018 000609).
3416(U) According to Greek press reporting, Papadopoulos and Kammenos had lunch in Piraeus on Saturday,
December 10, 2016, where Papadopoulos described himself as a "representative of Trump."
Kourdistoportocali.com, "World Exclusive: George Papadopoulos. and Panos Kammenos in 'Dourabei, '" December
10, 2016.
3417(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Bannon, December 10; 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000609).
3418(U) Email, Bannon to Papadopoulos, Flynn, McFarland, December 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000609).
3419(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Flynn, Bannon, McFarland, and Kellogg, December 10, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018
000610).
3420(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Flynn, December 11, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000610).
3412

522

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Papadopoulos again reached out to Bannon on January 4, 2017, relaying a requestfrom the Greek Foreign Minister for a phone call with Trump. 3421 Bannon responded, add,ing
Flynn, which Papadopoulos used to also request a meeting with the Egyptian ambassador. 3422
xix~(U) Papadopoulos Angles for an Administration Position(U) Despite what Papadopoulos purportedly told Millian, he used the Transition period
and into January to point out what he saw as his contributions to the Campaign, almost certainlyin the hopes c,f gaining an administrati9n position. On November 11, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote
to Clovis:.
·

I made the introduction between Mr. Trump and president Sisi based primarily on
the trust the region has on my work etc. Have met with the highest levels of the•aforementioned countries and established robust and positive ties. The paper I
wrote forwas well received as well and provided .
· insight. 34(U) On December 22, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote to Lanza asking him for guidance
regarding interviews with media outlets, as he was "getting some interview requests from
Russian media."3424 Lanza provided some guidance back to Papadopoulos, indicating that "[w]eare telling everyone pursuing Admin[istration] jobs to pass on all interviews."3425 Papadopoulos
wrote back to Lanza minutes later, "Thank you for letting me know. In that case [I] am passing
on the interviews."3426·(U) Papadopoulos sent Bill Graus, Managing Director for the financial services company
Alex. Brown, an email on January 5, 2017, thanking him for meeting that day and included ashort bio and resume "for consideration by the Trump administration."3-427 The next day, Graus
forwarded the message to Dearborn, copying Michael Karloutsos 3428 stating, "[s]pecifically he is

3421(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Bannon, January 4, 2017 (B&P GP File 2018 000635).
(U) Email, Bannon to Papadopoulos and Flynn, January 4, 2017 (B&P GP File 2018 000635); Email,Papadopoulos to Flynn and Bannon, January 6, 2017 (B&P GP File 2018 000635).
3423(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Clovis, November 11, 2016 (DJTFP00024754).
3424(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lanza, December 22, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000451).
3425(U) Email, Lanza to Papadopoulos, December 22, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000451).
3426(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lanza, December 22, 2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000463).
3427(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Grous, January 5, 2017 (B&P GP File 2018 000465-467).
3428(U) Michael Karloutsos became the U.S. Department of State Deputy Chief of Protocol, and is the son of Father
Alexander Karloutsos. See Rob Tomoe, "How Philly restaurant owner landed a top State Department job," The
Philadelphia Inquirer, August 11, 2017; "Michael Karloutsos: Serving as Layperson," The National Herald, August17, 2015. Alexander Kaloutsos, according to the FBI, is conn_ected to Preibus and Kotsias. FBI, FD-302,
Papadopoulos 9/19/2017. According to press reporting, Papadopoulos reached out to Alexander Karloutsos shortly
after being named to the Trump Campaign; Karloutsos helped Papadopoulos make contacts with Greek business and

3422

a

523

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
looking to fill the role held by Amos Hochstein, the special envoy and coordinator forinternational energy affairs and leads the bureau of energy resources at the ,state department, if aposition on the national security council is not available." 3429

(U) Papadopoulos followed up with Dearborn on January 9 and January 17, 2017, notingin the latter email that he had "[b]een in talks with Steve Bannon and Mike Flynn about various
things and have been assisting on key issues already." 3430

(U) Papadopoulos, in an email communication with Lanza on January 17, 2017, also·mentioned that he had "[b]een aiming for either a post on the NSC, or specifically, the special
envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs (currently held by Amos [H]ochstein)."3431
On March 4, 2017, Papadopoulos sent a message to Michael Cohen inwhich he wrote, "Michael, Hope all is well. Are you free for a meeting next week? Wanted totalk about my value added to the administration among other things. Definitely want to comeonboard. [B]est, George." 3432 The Committee has no record of a response from Cohen.
(U) The Committee has no indication as to whether the Transition Team considered
Papadopoulos for a position in the administration.
5. (U) Counterintelligence Concerns about Papadopoulos's Interactions

government officials. Griff Witte, "For Trump adviser at center of Russia probe, a rapid rise and dramatic fall in his
ancestral land," The Washington Post, December 10, 2017.
3429(U) Email, Grous to Dearborn, Karloutsos, and Papadopoulos, January 6, 2017 (B&P GP File 2018 000465467).
3430(U) Emails, Papadopoulos to Dearborn, January 9 and 17, 2017 (B&P GP File 2018 000466-467).
3431(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Lanza, J a n u2017~ 7 &P GP File 2018 000674).
3432(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/201
3433(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with An rew McCabe, February 14, 2018, pp. 30-31.
3434 (U) Ibid.
3435(U) Ibid., p. 33.

524

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Papadopoulos was first interviewed by the FBI on January 27, 2017. 3438 According
to DOJ's sentencing memorandum, Papadopoulos's "lies to the FBI in January 2017 impeded theFBI' s investigation ... [and] substantially hindered investigators' ability to effectively question
the Professor [Mifsud] when the FBI located him in Washington, D.C. approximately two weeks
after the defendant's January 27, 2017 interview." 3439 Specifically, Papadopoulos
misrepresented specific sequencing concerning his affiliation with the Trump Campaign and his
interactions with Joseph Mifsud. 3440 Papadopoulos falsely claimed to have received theinformation on the Russian's possessing "dirt" on Clinton from Mifsud prior to Papadopoulos'saffiliation with the Trump Campaign and attempted to minimize the extent and importance of his
communications with Mifsud. 3441

3436(U) L. Page Tr., p. 40.
(U) Ibid., pp. 39-42.
3438(U) Government's Sentencing Memorandum, United States v. George Papadopoulos, Case No. 1:17-cr-00182RDM (D.D.C. August 17, 2018).
3439 (U) Ibid.
344□ (U) Ibid.
3441 (U) Ibid.
3437

525
)

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

526

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

F. (U) Carter Page
1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) Carter Page was the only member of the Trump Campaign's foreign policy advisers
publicly identified as a Russia "expert." Page had previously lived in Russia and worked on
Russia policy and energy issues. For these reasons, Page was a subject of interest to Russian
officials, including Russian intelligence, which had in previous years interacted with Page. As
such, the Committee sought to understand Page's role on the Trump Campaign, his connection to
the Russian intelligence services, and any connection between him and Russian interference inthe 2016 presidential election.
(U) Prior to joining the Ti:ump Campaign, Page communicated with, met, and provided
private business information to Russian SVR officers in New York, whom the FBI believed wereacting in a manner consistent with attempts to recruit Page. Page later was referred to as "Male1" in the complaint filed against three SVR officers in January 2015 in federal court in theSouthern District of New York. Page later publicly identified himself as "Male-1" on several
occasions, including to Russian officials in New York at the United Nations General Assembly.

(U) Trump named Page as one of his foreign policy advisers as part of an effort tobolster the public perception that Trump had substantive foreign policy advisers in early 2016.
Trump met once with a group of these and other foreign policy and national security advisers on
March 31, 2016. Page was not in attendance and never subsequently met with Trump. The
Committee found no evidence to suggest that Page made significant contributions to speeches orpolicy initiatives for the Trump Campaign.
(U) In July 2016, Page was invited to make two addresses in Russia, including an
address during the commencement ceremonies at Moscow's New Economic School (NES), an
invitation extended because of his perceived role in the Trump Campaign. At thecommencement ceremony, Page had a brief exchange with then-Deputy Prime Minister Arkady

3445

527

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Dvorkovich, about whom the Committee has counterintelligence concerns. In December 2016,
following his separation from the Campaign the previous September, Page traveled to Moscow
again, where he had a longer meeting over dinner with Dvorkovich.
(U) The Committee found no indication that Page had useful Campaign information for
the Russian intelligence services to extract, nor meaningful influence for them to exploit.
Despite Page having little influence on the Campaign, interested Russians may have perceived
him as more closely connected than he was. Page was receptive to Russian outreach, and thesponsors of the NES speech in 2016 made clear that they invited Page because of his perceived
role in the Trump Campaign.
·(U) The Trump Campaign directed Page's separation from the Campaign in ~eptember
2016 because of the unwanted media attention he was generating.
(U) Many media reports agout Page's activities in Russia in 2016, as well as almost all
assertions in the "Steele dossier," remain unverified. In addition, Page's claims to the Campaign
regarding his activities in Moscow remain unsubstantiated.

2. (U) Background on Page and Limitations on the Committee's Investigation(U) Between.2003 or 2004 and 2007, Carter Page lived and worked in Moscovy. 3446 Page
worked for Merrill Lynch at the time, and told the Committee that his primary client was theRussian state-owned energy firm Gazprom. 3447 .
· ·(U) Page, along with other individuals formally associated with the Trump'Campaign,
was a target of interest for foreign governments seeking to gather information on the Campaign.
Page also advocated for better relations with Russia, a position in concert with Moscow's official
perspective and consistent with cai:ididate Trump's minimalist posture that sought better relations
with Moscow. 3448

The Committee had some limited insight into the Russian government andinterest in Page:

executive named Sergei Yatsenko, who Page described as "a pretty well-connected guy." Yatsenko later served on
the board of Page's company, Global Energy Capital. C. Page Tr., pp. 30, 33-34, 94.
3448(U) See, e.g., C. Page Tr., pp. 154.

528

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY,(U) The SCO Report cited an email from Russian Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov
responding to an inquiry about whether Peskov wished to facilitate introductions for Page to
Russian officials during Page's July 2016 visit, to which Peskov responded, "I have read about[Page]. Specialists say that he is far from being the main one. So I better not initiate a meetingin the Kremlin. " 3450
(U) The Committee interviewed Page and members of the Trump Campaign who
interacted with Page. The Committee also reviewed communications and other documents
related to Page. The interviews and materials did not provide a thorough understanding of all of
his activities while in Russia during his two visits in 2016.
(U) The Committee had significant challenges in its attempt to understand Page's
activities, including his role as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump Campaign. After ,weeks ofnegotiation and an eventual Committee subpoena, Page produced some electronic documents,
some of which included his own annotations and alterations to the original document form, and529

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

sat for an interview that lasted six and a half hours. Page's responses to basic questions weremeandering, avoidant, and involved several long diversions. Despite the meticulous records
Page kept on his personal hard drive detailing his daily routines, he was unable to recall any
details of his trips to Moscow, or the names of senior Russian officials with whom he met,
despite using his engagements with them to build his credentials within the Campaign.
3. (U) Page and U.S. and Russian Intelligence Services(U) Prior to 2016, Page had encounters with both U.S. and Russian intelligence.
i.

(U) Page and U.S. Intelligence Prior to 2016

(U) Page voluntarily met with U.S. intelligence officials and law enforcement, from CIA
and FBI, on several occasions from roughly 2008 through 2013. 3451 He told the Committee that"the CIA guys would invite me out to lunch from time to time in New York." 3452 In a letter tothen-Director Corney of the FBI, he acknowledged, "Having interacted with members of the U.S.
intelligence community including the FBI and CIA for many decades." 3453

3451
3452

C. Page Tr., pp. 227,231.
(U) C. Page Tr., pp. 227, 231.

3453
3454

530

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYii.

(U) Page and Russian Intelligence(U) Page told the Committee that he knew of no instance where he was approached by
Russian intelligence officers related to the 2016 U.S. election. 3457 However, the Russian
intelligence services had previously approached Page years prior to his involvement with the
Trump Campaign in an effort to explore an intelligence collection relationship with him. Afterthe FBI publicly exposed those Russian intelligence officers, Page told the FBI that he was "onthe books" with the Russian intelligence services. 3458

(U) Beginning in New York City in 2008, Page was approached by, and met with,
Russians he was later informed were intelligence officers. According to the SCO Report, Page
met with Alexander Bulatov, a Russian official assigned to the New York Consulate, and "later
learned that Bulatov was a Russian intelligence officer." 3459 In 2013, another Russian

531

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

intelligence officer, Victor Podobnyy, similarly formed a relationship with Pag~ and met with·
him numerous times. 3460·
(U) In 2015, Buryakov, Podobnyy, and a third Russian intelligence officer, Igor
Spory~hev, werejndicted for conspiring to act as unregistered agents of a foreign.
3461
govemment.
In the complaint, FBI recordings. of the Russians in April'2013 reveal them.
speaking disparagingly of "Male-I" and of their attempted· use ofMale-I as an intelligencesource for Russia. 3462''

(U) Accoi:ding to the complaint, FBI agents interviewed Page in June 2013, where he_,described meeting Podobnyy at a conference in New York City as well as subsequent emails andencounters, where he shared reports about energy matters? 463(U) Page deduced he was Male-I when he read the 2015 complaint. 3464 He has sincethen openly referred to himself as Male-I, including in.his interview with the Committee. 3465 · In
March 2017, Page· suggested to the FBI that he had referred to himself as Male-l in a meetingwith a Russian official at the United Nations (UN). 3466 When the FBI later asked him about thisin a subsequent interview, Page stated that everyone fa Russia knew he was.Male-I, and that his
encounter with the Russians at the UN did not portray Page correctly and that Page wanted
nothing to do with espionage. 3467
(U) In his interviews' with the FBI, Page described his relationship with Russ'ian
intelligence as being "on the books," a colloquial term for being an intelligence source. During a
March 30, 2017, interview, FBI agents attempted to explain how the Russian intelligence
services worked, and suggested that the Russian intelligence services had been trackin~since his ears livin inRussia. 3468 The agents further, and specifically, stated that t h e might consider Page either an unwitting or witting "on therecord" source for intelligence gathering. 3469 Page questioned the assessment, yet said "I'm .sur~
I'm on the books," and "they know who I am." 3470 The following day, the FBI again asked Page(0) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 96.
(U) Complaint, United States v. Evgeny Buryakov, et al., (S.D.N.Y. January 23, 2015).
3462(U) Ibid,,, 32-34.
3463 (U) Ibid
3464(U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 97 (describing Page introducing himselfas "Male-1" to Russian officials in NewYork).
3465(U) C. Page Tr., p. 53.
3466(U) FBI, FD-302, Page 3/16/2017.
3467(U) FBI, FD-302, Page 3/30/2_017.
3468(U) Ibid
3469(U) Ibid
3470(U) Ibid
3460
3461

1532

. COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

ifhe knew what it meant to be "on the books."3471 Page reiterated that he considered himself tobe "on the books," but objected to any characterization that he was ''working with" the Russian
intelligence services. 3472
4. (U) Page and the Trump Campaign(U) Ed Cox, chairml;lll of the New York Republican Party, first met Page around 2008,
when they both worked on the McCain presidential campaign. 3473 Cox recalled also
encountering Page at Council on Foreign Relations events in New York, where both weremembeJ;'s. 3474 On December 31, 2015, Page emailed Cox, stating that he was "cautiously
optimistic that the next Administration might finally offer a change of direction in U.S.-Russia
relations," and.that "recent statements by Trump give me renewed hope."3475 He asked if Cox
had any recommendations "as to how onemight be able.to support [Trump], including by
becoming one of his delegates."3476 Attached to the emaii was a draft opinion piece by Page tqat
he wrote for Global Policy, titled "Trump, Putin and the Possible End of the Second Cold War,''that concluded, "Trump's stance toward Russia reflects optimism for a fresh approach, and this
could serve as an important legacy of his candidacy." 3477 The next day, Cox forwarded theemail along with the attachment to Corey Lewandowski, introducing him to Page. 3478 On
January 2, 2016, Lewandowski responded, "happy to meet anytime," and the two arranged tomeet at Trump Tower on January 12, 2016. 3479
(U) Lewandowski told the Committee he did not recall the meeting, but said it waspossible that it was among the many meetings he held at the time. 3480 Sam Clovis, the J).ational
co-chair of the Trump Campaign who served as the policy director for the Campaign, recalled
the meeting, which included Michael Glassner, another Campaign official at the time. 3481 Clovis
told the Committee: "I showed up in New York one morning early and I walked up into the fifth.floor area [at Trump Tower] .... Corey [Lewandowski] ~nd Michael [Glassner] are there, andthere's a guy with them, and Corey says: This is Carter Page; get to know him; he wants to3471(U) FBI, FD-302, Page 3/31/2017.
(U) Ibid.
3473(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Ed Cox, March 19, 2018, p. 16.
3474(U) Ibid., p. 17.
3475(U) Email, Page to Cox, et al., December 31, 2015 (DJTFP00009580--9581).
3476 (U) Ibid.
3477(U) Ibid. It does not appear that this article was ever published. Global Policy is a journal based at Durham
University. Page had previously published articles there.
3478(U) Email, Cox to Lewandowski, et al., January 1, 2016 (DJTFP00009595).
3479 (U) Email, Page to Lewandowski and Cox, January 2, 2016 (DJTFP00009595); Emails, Page, Lewandowski, etal., (DJTFP00009611-9612).
3480(U) Lewandowski Tr., pp. 20, 29.
.
3481(U) Clovis Tr., pp. 48-49; see also SSCI Transcript of Interview with Michael Glassner, August 10, 2018, p. 31(recalling briefly meeting Page while Page was meeting with Lewandowski in Lewandowski's office).
3472

533

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

help." 3482 Clovis and Page discussed Page's background and desire to help the Campaign. 3483
Later that day, Page sent an email thanking Clovis and Glassner for the meeting, and forwarding
them the draft opinion piece. 3484
(U) On February 17, 2016, Page emailed Clovis, Glassner, and Lewandowskito say that
Page had heard that Trump was in the .process of assembling a foreign policy advisory team. 3485
Page wrote that he wished to "express my interest in contributing as a member of that team.
Although I have little to gain from this personally, I'm committed to supporting Mr. Trump's·
efforts to make America great again. " 3486 He included a bio highlighting his academic andprofessional experience op energy and foreign policy issues, including Russia. 3487 Clovis
responded the following day, su~gesting that Page call him for additional information. 3488

i.

(U) The Trump Campaign's National Security Advisory Committee is
Formed(U) On March 21, 2016, Trump released five names of his foreign policy advisers,
including Page, during a meeting with The Washington Post editorial board. 3489 The Committee
interviewed several members of the Trump Campaign to understand how this group WijS formed,
and how Page came to be one of the original members.
(U) Ten days later, Trump held his first-and only-meeting of the Campaign with his"national security team," which included several of the previously announced foreign policy
advisers, at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. 3490 Page was traveling and did notattend. 3491
(U) As described elsewhere in this Report, the formation of a foreign policy and national
security team was undertaken in large part to respond to public scrutiny over the lack of expertiseon the Campaign. 3492 Clovis recalled in p~rticular that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump asked
him in mid-March to start assembling this team, which would be formed around then-Senator

3482(U) Clovis Tr., pp. 48--49.
(U) Ibid, p. 49
3484(U) Email, Page to Glassner and Clovis, January 12, 2016 (DJTFP00009643).
3485(U) Email, Page to Clovis, et al., February 17, 2016 (DJTFP00009815-9816).
3486 (U) Ibid.
3487
(U) Email, Page to Clovis, Lewandowski, and Glassner, February 17, 2016 (DJTFP00009815).
3488(U) Email,_Clovis to Page, February 18, 2016 (DJTFP00009817).
3489(U) Opinions Staff, "A transcript of Donald Trump's meeting with The Washington Post editorial board,"
March 21, 2016.
·
3490(U) Instagram, @realDonaldTrump, March 31, 2016.
3491(Uj Clovis Tr., p. 15; Gordon Tr., p. 51.
3492(U) See infra Vol. 5, Sec. lli.E.
3483

534

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE..., RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Jeff Sessions. 3493 Clovis recalled that the Campaign was "desperate to get the press off ourbacks."3494(U) In early March 2016, Clovis started assembling names for all of the planned policy
teams, including foreign policy and national security and conveyed a policy team "matrix" viaemail to Kushner, lvanka Trump, Lewandowski, Glassner and Stephen Miller on March 6, which
included Page under "Foreign Policy." 3495 On March 16, Clovis emailed Kushner, Ivanka
Trump, Lewand9wski, and Glassner; "As you asked for today, find attached the list of thosefrom whom I have commitments to the team." 3496 Clovis included short bios, about which headded, "The abbreviated versions hardly capture the accomplishments of these i~dividuals."3497
This appears to be the first time this group is referred to as the "National Secui-i:ty Advisory
Committee," chaired by Sessions. The list includes Page's academic credentials, his current roleas "Founder and Managing Partner" of Global Capital Energy, LLC; and his previous position as"Deputy Branch Manager, Merrill Lynch, Moscow."3498 Two days later, Kushner responded to
Clovis, asking, "How would you rate this team? Will people think its [sic] impressive?"3499 To
which Clovis responded:

I like the team well enough. ... I don't think we can play ·"match the list" rightnow. I have interviewed, vetted and have paperwork on llll the folks on our list .
and am very comfortable working with them. Some of them are already sending{nputs that are most helpful. 3500··
(U) On March 21, Clovis submitted an updated list of eight individuals for potential"National Security/Foreign Policy Team Recruiting," where he stated that he had "secured
NDAs [non-disclosure agreements] from the following•individuals." 3501 The list again included
Page. 3502 Clovis told the Committee ·that all eight original members of the Campaign's National
Security Advisory Committee were people who had previously reached out to the Campaign, toeither him or Lewandowski, Glassner, or members of the Trump family. 3503 Clovis ve~ed theadvisers by conducting Google searches on them "to make sure we didn't have any immediate

3493(U) Clovis Tr., p. 13 .
(U) Ibid, p. 14.
3495(U) Email, Clovis to Kushner, et al., March 6, 2016 (DJTFP00009899-9912).
3496(U) Email, Clovis to Kushner, I. Trump, Lewandowski, and Glassner, March 16, 2016 (DJTFP00009953. 9954).
.
3497 (U) Ibid
3498
(U) Ibid
3499(U) Email, Kushner to Clovis, et al.; March 18, 2016 {SSCI 2017-4105-0002).
3500(U) Email, Clovis to Kushner, et al., March 18, 2016 (SSCI 2017-4105-0002-3).
3501(U) Email, Clovis to Lewandowski, Glassner, Hic:[cs, and S. Miller; March 20, 2016 (DITFP0001O078-10082).
3502 (U) /bid
3503
(U) Clovis Tr., pp. i6-17.
.

3494

535

\

,I

land mines out there ... but there was an urgency because we were just getting pounded.in thepress. I think that the urgency of that overcame a more deliberate approach." 3504 Clovis added,"Those eight people were the eight that I could find in that short a notice that I could put on
there. " 3505
(U) Trump Campaign staff interviewed by the Committee downplayed the significanceof the National Security Advisory Committee as well as Page's role. J.D. Gordon, a former
director of the Trump Campaign's National Security Advisory Committee told the Committeethat it was ''just an advisory committee. They didn't even set foot in our [Campaign] office,didn't have a badge, didn't have a DonaldTrui:np.com email account." 3506 Hope Hicks, theCampaign's press secretary, told the Committee, "I think there was an understanding that thisgroup was put together when nobody wanted to be associated with our campaign or ourcandidate."3507 Of Page, she said:·

I think describing him as an "adviser" is inaccurate. I don't know who he wasadvising, but he was not advising the candidate or the policy team . ... He wasjust a person whose name got slapped on a list for a committee because we didn't. have anybody else. 3508
(U) Nevertheless, in some instances, Page may have been given reason to believe hisaccess extended further than it did. On March 22, 2016, Clovis emailed Page and other membersof the foreign policy and national security advisory team. 3509 Clovis wrote:· Gentlemen, Expect a call from Mr. Trump today at some point: I was asked for·your numbers this morning. Given the events of the day, expect to be asked somequestions about what we need to be doing about the unfolding events. 3510
Subsequent communications indicate that Page prepared and waited for.the call, which did not.
take place. 3511 As noted above, Page never met or spoke with Trump.
·
·

ii.

(U) Page On The Campaign

3504(U) Ibid, pp. 45-46.
(U) Ibid, p. 50.
3506(U) Gordon Tr., p. 42.
3507(U) Hicks Tr., pp. 20-21.
3508(U) Hicks Tr., p. 20.
.
3509(U) Email, Clovis to Page, Papadopoulos, Schmitz, et al., March 22, 2016 (Page Production).
3510(U) Ibid Clovis was likely referencing a series of terrorist attacks that had occurred earlier that day in Brussels.
3511(U) Email, Page to Clovis, March 23, 2016 (DJTFP00010094); Email, Page to Clovis, March 22, 2016
(DJTFP00010092).
3505

536

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Almost immediately after the March 21, 2016, announcement of the advisorycommittee, the media began to focus on Page's Russia-related interests. On March 23, 2016,
Page sent an email to Clovis about media outreach regarding Page's role as a Campaign adviser
and his Russia background. 3512

(U) J.D. Gordon told the Committee that Page attended several informal gatherings ofthe foreign policy and national ·security advisory team. In the first week of June 2016, Pageattended a dinner with other Campaign advisers, and in late June or early July 2016, Pageattended an advisory committee meeting at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington. 3513 Sessions
attended the event and spoke with Page briefly. 3514 In August 2016, Page attended a dinner
hosted by Keith Kellogg, another Campaign adviser, at Kellogg's home that was also attended by
the other foreign policy advisers. 3515
(U) Page frequently emailed members of the Trump Campaign on Russia policy matters.
For example, on January 30, 2016, before being announced as a foreign policy adviser, Page
emailed Glassner and Clovis, and copied Lewandowski. He wrote:

Following up on our discussions about Russia earlier this month and Fox's
obnoxious failed comments regarding the Putin-Trump relationship this week, I
wanted to share with you a few thoughts and suggestions about some massive
additional potential upside for the campaign. I spent the past week in Europe andhave been in discussions with some individuals with close ties to the Kremlin. The
possible game-changing effect which Mr. Trump could have in bringing the end of
the new Cold War that Obama and George W Bush managed to create in recent
years has literally brought a new exceptionally high level of optimism in Moscow
and across the country. Given the essential strategic position that Russia has in
the world as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, etc., the effect of
Mr. Trump could be nothing short ofmonumental. Through my discussions withthese high level contacts, it is their belief that a direct meeting in Moscow
between Mr Trump and President Putin could be arranged 3516
(U) In his interview with the Committee, Page claimed that he could not remember
which well-connected individuals to whom he was referring in this email. 3517

3512(U) Email, Page to Clovis, March 23, 2016 (DITFP00010094).
(U) Gordon Tr., p. 64.
3514(U) Ibid; Page Tr., 148-149, 256.
3515
(U) Gordon Tr., p. 65.
3516(U) Email, Page to Glassner, Clovis, and Lewandowski, January 30, 2016 (DJTFP00009674).
3517(U) C. Page Tr., p. 94. Page suggested he may have been referring to Sergei Yatsenko, but Page was not clear
about this point.
3513

537

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In the same email, Page also sent a notice of his upcoming attendance at a one-day
J.P. Morgan Securities "Gazprom Investor Day" in New York. 3518 In the email Page wrote:

the US. Government's failed sanctions policy has severely hindered thedevelopment of Gazprom in recent years with potential catastrophic
consequences for the people of Russia. They too are eagerly awaiting the massivechanges which Mr. Trump has readily positioned himself to soon bring. 3519
Clovis replied later that day, thanked Page, and said that he would be in touch the following
week.3520(U) On February 7, 2016, Page again emailed Clovis, Glassner and Lewandowski, notingthat Forbes had ranked Putin as the most powerful world leader, and that, in Russia, relationships
are very important. 3521 Page continued: "As I have alluded to before, there is no question that a
Trump visit to Moscow and related meetings with Putin would prove to be the most importantcampaign event in the history of U.S. politics."3522(U) On February 17, 2016, Page wrote an email to the same three Campaign officials
regarding the February 2014 release of the phone conversation between the former Assistant
Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to
Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, a story he would repeatedly cite as an example of Clinton's
mismanagement of foreign policy. 3523 During this 2014 call, Nuland is recorded discussing thecomposition of the Ukraine opposition as well as criticizing the European Union support for
Ukraine. 3524 The link to the released phone conversation was first posted on Twitter by an aide
· to then-Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. 3525

(U) On March 16, 2016, the Trump Campaign released a brief ten-second video on
Instagram featuring Hillary Clinton barking followed by a clip of Putin laughing that concluded:"We don't need to be a punch line! Make America Great Again!" 3526 Kremlin spokesperson ,3518(U) Email, Page to Glassner, Clovis, and Lewandowski, January 30, 2016 (DJTFP00009674).
Ibid
3520
(U) Email, Clovis to Page, Glassner, and Lewandowski, January 30, 2016 (DJTFP00009676).
3521(U) Email, Page to Glassner, Clovis, and Lewandowski, February 7, 2016 (DJTFP00009721-00009722).
3522 (U) Ibid
3523
(U) Email, Page to Glassner, Clovis, and Lewandowski, February 17, 2016 (DJTFP00009814).
3524(U) "Leaked Audio Reveals Embarrassing U.S. Exchange on Ukraine, EU," Reuters, February 6, 2014.
3525(U) The leaked phone conversation was widely reported at the time. See, e.g., ibid For more information on
this topic, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.
3526(U) Instagram, @realDonaldTrump, March 16, 2016. The clip showed video of Putin and an ISIS fighter insuccession and suggested that these were America's "toughest opponents."
3519 (U)538

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Dmitry Peskov responded publicly the next day: "It's an open secret for us that demonizating
Russia and whatever is linked to Russia is unfortunately a mandatory hallmark of America's
election campaign." 3527 Peskov's comment was widely covered in the U.S. press. 3528, Page sent
an email on March 17, 2016, to Clovis linking to a Reuters article writing:
I know people who work closely with the [spokesman] from the Kremlin . ...
Perhaps the more relevant responses to yesterday's Instagram video were manyof the amazing comments written in Russian. Clearly there's an extraordinarylevel of excitement from the people of that country regarding the new potential for
relations between our 2 global powerhouses. Make the World Great Again. 3529
(U) Also on March 17, 2016, Page sent Clovis one of several documents that Page
created for the Campaign, seemingly at his own initiative, which he referred to as both the"President's Daily Brief' and the "Candidate's Daily Briefing." 3530 These documents presented
Page's analysis in a bulleted briefing slide format, and covered a range of topics, but often
focused on Russia. 3531 The briefmg slides and accompanying emails from Page portrayed Putin
as a victor in Syria, complimented Russian forces' stabilizing role in Syria, and criticized the
U.S. military's lack of effectiveness in Syria as well as U:S. "meddling."3532_ The documents,
which also covered Ukraine, were critical of NATO, particularly regarding its strategy ofdeterring Russia, and advocated for a strong personal relationship between the top leadership in
Washington and Moscow. 3533 The Committee found no evidence indicating that these
documents were used by the Campaign.
(U) On May 9, 2016, Page emailed Gordon a list of more than ten examples of media
requests he had received fa which he confirmed_his role as an adviser to the Campaign but
otherwise offered "no comment." 3534 In the same email, Page stated he had received offers for"speaking engagements in Russia and the Middle East," including from a "close advisor of_
President Putin," Sergey Karaganov, and asked for a copy of the approval form for Campaign

3527(U) Andrew Osborn and Dmitry Solovyov, "Kremlin says Donald Trump pre-election clip demonizes Russia,"
Reuters, March 17, 2016.
3528(U) See, e.g., Michael Birnbaum and Andrew Roth, "The bromance between Trump and Putin is over," The
Washington Post, March 17, 2016.
·
3529(U) Email, Page to Clovis, March 17, 2016 (DJTFP00009958).
.
3530 (U) Email, Page to Clovis, March 17, 2016 (DJTFP00009962-9963); Email Page to Clovis, March 19, 2016
(DJTFP00010056-10057); Email, Page to Clovis, March 22, 2016 (DJTFP00010090-10091); Email, Page to
Clovis, March 23, 2016 (DJTFP00010094-10095).
\
3531 (U) Ibid
3532
(U) Email, Page to Clovis, March 17, 2016 (DJTFP00009962-9963).
3533 (U) Email, Page to Clovis, March 22, 2016 (DJTFP00010090-10091); Email, Page to Clovis, March 23, 2016
(DJTFP000 10094-10095).
3534(U) Email, Page to Gordon, May 9, 2016 (DJTFP00000097-98).
L...

539

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
advisers to seek approval for such events. 3535 Page told the Committee that he met Karaganov inthe late 1990s and again when Page lived in Moscow from 2004 to 2007, but he provided noclear explanation for the invitation he was referring to in the May 9 email, but suggested that it
may have come as a result of Karaganov's involvement with a Russian university. 3536 In the late
April 2016 email exchange that led to Page's invitation to speak at the New Economic School(NES) in Moscow (described below), Andrej Krickovic, an academic acquaintance of Page at the
Moscow Higher School of Economics (HSE), offered to connect Page to Karaganov. 3537
(U) Karaganov has been a dean at the HSE since 2003 and has served as chairman of a
Russian state-funded think tank, the Valdai Discussion Club since 2004. 3538 Karaganov has also
served as an adviser to the Kremlin and to President Putin, including as a foreign policy adviser
to the Russian Presidential Administration from 2001 to 2013 and Chairman of the Russian
Presidium on Foreign and Defense Policy. 3539 Karaganov is known for advising the Kremlin on
Russian opportunities for expansionism, at U.S. expense, around the world. 3540

(U) Gordon responded to Page's May 9 email later the same day and provided the speech
and media forms requested. 3546 Gordon expressed his gratitude, writing, "lfwe had 10 Carter
Pages ... imagine what we could do!" 3547 Gordon, however, also advised Page that all membersof the advisory committee were "keeping a very l9w profile right now" due to a George

3535 (U)
3536

Ibid.
(U) C. Page Tr., pp. 219-221.
3537(U) Email, Krickovic to Page, April 25, 2016 (Page Production).
3538(U) HSE.ru, "Sergey A. Karaganov."
3539 (U) Ibid.
3540(U) In 1994, Karaganov gave a speech that suggested that Russia had to be committed to defending the interestsof Russians who lived in Russia's "near abroad," which was then dubbed the "Karaganov Doctrine." There are
numerous references in open source information since 1994, of the "Karaganov Doctrine." See, e.g., Andrew
Stuttaford "Meet Ser e Kara anov "National Review, A ril 10, 2014.
3541
3542 (U)/. id.
Ibid.
3~44 (U) Ibid.
3545 (U) Ibid.
3546(U) Email, Gordon to Page, May 9, 2016 (DJTFP00000099).
3541 (U) Ibid.
3543 (U)540

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE. SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Papadopoulos interview that went poorly, as well as the transition of focus from the primary to. general election. 3548
(U) Nevertheless, Page continued to draw media attention about his role in the Campaign
and specifically his views on Russia. On June 11, 2016, Gordon emailed Campaign officials
Rick Dearborn and John Mashburn with the subject line "Carter Page, Gazprom & MediaEngagement."3549 Gordon discussed Page's history of speaking with the press and suggested thatwhile Page was generally helpful, he was "difficult to manage," espec'ially as it related to thepress. In the email, Gordon noted that he "wanted to draw your attention to National Review
piece on Carter," which referred to Page as an "out-and-out Putinite," who is "tight with the
Kremlin's foreign-policy apparatus and has served as a vehement prop'agandist for it."3550
Gordon also alluded to a recent inquiry to Page by The Washington Post's Tom Hamburger andsuggested that any resulting piece would be damaging to the Campaign. 3551

(U) The same day, Page initiated an email thread by writing to Hope Hicks including
draft responses to questions posed to Page by The Washington Post. 3552 Most of the questions
focused on Page's role in the Campaign and his views on Russia policy. 3553 Hicks forwarded theemail to Stephen Miller and Lewandowski, asking, "Can you please advise? I don't know Carter
well or the extent of his involvement."3554 Shortly thereafter, on June 14, 2016, The Washington
Post published the first article on the DNC hack. 3555 Although the article was neither written by
Hamburger nor about Page, Page emailed Hicks and Gordon with a link to the article, writing,"Looks like T_om & Co concocted another fairytale instead of the original inaccurate attack job
against DJT, me and my firm ... at least so far." 3556m..

(U) Page Travels to Russia, July 2016

(U) Page sought and received approval from then-Trump Campaign manager Corey
Lewandowski to travel to Russia in July 2016, in order to make two addresses at the NES in
Moscow. Lewandowski explicitly told Page this would be speaking in his own capacity and not
related to the Campaign.

354s (U)Ibid.
Email, Gordon to Dearborn and Mashburn, June 11, 2016 (DJTFP00002990-2991).
3550 (U) Ibid.; Robert Zubrin, "Trump: The Kremlin's Candidate," National Review, April 4, 2016.
3551(U) Ibid.
3552(U) Email, Page to Hicks, June 11, 2016 (DJTFP00002888-2892).
3553 (U) Ibid.
3554(U) Email, Hicks to S. Miller, June 11, 2016 (DJTFP00002887-2892).
3555(U) Ellen Nakashima, "Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole opposition research on Trump," The
Washington Post, June 14, 2016.
3556(U) Email, Page to Hicks and Gordon, June 14,.2016 (DJTFP00003226).
3549 (U)541

(U) Page's invitation from the NES was based solely on their perception of Page as anadviser to the Trump Campaign. Page's invitation to Russia was proffered by the rector of the
NES, Shlomo Weber. 3557 Weber told the Committee that he had first heard of Page through two
individuals at the HSE. The first of these individuals was his son, Yuval Weber, an American
academic who was on the faculty of the HSE. 3558 The second was another academic whom
Weber did not know as well, Andrej Krickovic, who was also at the HSE and had first met Page
when Krickovic was an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and Page was working at Merrill
Lynch in Moscow. 3559

(U) On April 25, 2016, Krickovic emailed Page with the subject line "Introducing
Shlomo Weber," opening his email with: "It's been a while since we last talked. I've been·
following the news and did not have chance [sic] to congratulate you on your new appointment.
Great news!" 3560 Krickovic further stated:
The reason I'm writing you is to introduce Professor Shlomo Weber . ... He isinterested in engaging with the Trump campaign on Russia issues. I don't know
Shlomo personally; but I am very good.friends with Yuval Weber, his son... Yuval
reached out to me to make the introduction to you. Do you still have the time tocome to Russia these days? We'd love for you to give a talk on US Russia
relations, and your thoughts about how they could change under a Trump
presidency. 3561
(U) Page responded the same day, but was noncommittal and concerned about speaking
on Trump's foreign policy before the.policy was formed. 3562·
(U) Page made reference to Trump's upcoming foreign policy speech at the Mayflower
Hotel, saying that it would "not give extensive details of the kind that you've envisioned for sucha talk." 3563 He also referred to the negative press he was already receiving and said: "So suffice
to say, I need to be careful."3564 Krickovic responded, expressing his understanding of Page's

3557(U) Weber was a native of the Soviet Union who left in the 1970s to immigrate to Israel, losing his Soviet
citizenship. In the early 1990s, he immigrated to the United States and had a career as an academic for over two
decades. Upon his retirement from his academic position in the United States in the 2010s, he became a guest
lecturer at Moscow's NES, and-eventually became the rector of the school, a position he held until 2018. SSCITranscript of the Interview with Shlomo Weber, December 3, 2018, p. 5.
·
3558(U) Weber Tr., pp. 8-9.
3559(U) Ibid.; FBI, FD-302, Krickovic 8/15/2017.
3560(U) Email, Krickovic to Page and Y. Weber, April 25, 2016 (Page Production).
3561 (U) Ibid.
3562(U) Email, Page to Krickovic, April 25, 2016 (Page Production).
3563 (U) Ibid.
3564 (U) Ibid.

542

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

"reluctance to speak publicly .... Perhaps after Mr. Trump wins and you are head of the Russia
desk at State you can come and give a talk to our faculty. " 3565 . He concluded by asking that Page
let him know when next he's in Moscow: "Perhaps we can even arrange a private meeting with
our dean, Sergei Karaganov. As you know he has quite some influence in high places here. It
would be really good to get a dialogue going."3566(U) On April 26, Shlomo Weber emailed Page: "Thank you for your interest and thewillingness to meet with me. I look forward to getting together _in Moscow next time you are
there or otherwise connecting over the phone or video."3567 Weber then stated:

Allow me to add that 1 am a Russian-born US citizen and staunch Republican. ...
I would be very happy to contribute my expertise on foreign and economic affairs... to a successful Republican presidential candidate. 3.568
Page responded that he had not yet finalized his plans to travel to Moscow, but that he would bein touch once he .had. 3569
"•

I....

r

(U) On M~y 3, Shlomo Weber emailed Page again: "I understand that those are earlydays and I realize that you have multiple connections in Moscow. I just would like to let you
know that NES would be happy to host you." 3570 Page responded; asking for clarification ifNES
would -be willing to pay for the travel for him to give a lecture. 3571 Page again noted that he wasunder media scrutiny and that he needed to be careful to "make sure I don't create any perceived
conflicts of interest in my firm's dealings." 3572 _Weber responded on May 12, 2016:
I talked with several people here and we would like to invite you to NES. You cangive a talk here and, possibly, in some other places. We will cover your travel
and accommodation expenses. One of the options could be our graduation
ceremony on July 8. 3573

3565(U) Email, Krickovic to Page, April 25, 2016 (Page Production).
Ibid.
.
3567
(U) Email, S. Weber to Page, April 26, 2016 (Weber Production).
3S68 (U) Ibid.
.
3569(U) Email, Page to S. Weber, April.26, 2016 (Weber Production).
3570(U) Email, S. Weber to Page, May 3, 2016 (Weber Production).
3571(U) Email, Page to S. Weber, May 5, 2016 (Weber Production).
3S72 (U) Ibid.
3573(U) Email, S. Weber to Page, May 12, 2016 (Page Production). Instead ofresponding directly to Page, Shlomo
Weber forwarded to Page an email from his son, Yuval Weber, that included what appeared to be a response to Page
purportirig to be from Shlomo Weber. While it is unclear why this occurred, this was at least the second such
instance of a message from Shlomo Weber to Page coming from an originally forwarded message. It is possible thatsome of Shlomo Weber's correspondence with Page was written or approved by Yuval Weber.
3566 (U)543

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Page replied to Weber's offer the same day and conditionally accepted the offer:."That sounds
great Shlomo .... Please note that we have some internal procedures
the campaign so I willneed to get approval." 3574

for(U) Shlomo Weber told the Committee that:

There was some interest to see, to learn a little bit more about [Trump] and his
potential policy towards Russia was tremendous, so that's what we thought, if
somebody is working on his campaign, it could be of interest to Russia, forstudents, for [theJ general public. ... I thought that at this time that the campaignof then-candidate Trump was really lacking in expertise about foreign policy, andparticularly about Russia. And !just thought that maybe we informing the
campaign about the Russian issues will be a goodthing to dq. 3575
(U) Weber also told the Committee, "Because of [Page's] role in this campaign wethought it would be good," and said, "the hope was we would hear something from a potentially
important person. " 3576·
(U) Page raised the invitation to speak at NES with J.D. Gordon and asked for theCampaign speech request forms, which Gordon provided him on May 14. 3577 On May 16, Page
emailed Gordon, Phares, and Clovis with a link to the speech President Obama gave at the NES
commencement in 2009. Noting Obama's NES speech, Page proposed that Candidate Trump
take Page's place at the upcoming event. 3578 Two days later, Page submitted the speech request
form to Gordon. 3579
(U) A little over one month later, on June 19, 2016, Page emailed Gordon, Lewandowski
and Hicks, copying Clovis, and stated:

I'm resending this Campaign Advisor Speech Request Form which I submitted
over a month ago . ... I'm literally saying nothing about the campaign so I don 't
think this .administrative procedure is relevant in this case. Butplease let meknow as soon as possible in case anyone might have any reservations. 3580

3574(U) Email, Page to S. We~er, May 12, 2016 (Weber Production).
(U) Weber Tr., pp. 10-11.
3576(U) Ibid., pp. 19, 21.
(3577(U) Email, Gordon to Page, May 14, 2016 (QJTFP00000140-l41). ,3578(U) Email Page to Gordon, Phares, and Clovis, May 16, 2016 (DJTFP00000 182).
3579(U) Email, Page to Gordon, May 18, 2016 (DJTFP00000208-209).
3580(U) Email, Page to Gordon, Lewandowski, Hicks, and Clovis; June 19, 2016 (DJTFP00003431).
3575

544

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY .

(U) Page also renewed his suggestion that Trump attend, stating "[a]s I had alsopreviously suggested, I'm sure they would love to have Mr. Trump speak at this annual
celebration." 3581 Page added: "Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich is a board
member and a graduate who will likely be in attendance."3582(U) Regarding Page's repeated requests, Gordon told the Committee:[Page] sent me the request. I did not pass it on. But he started to ask me more
about it, and I would still tell him it's a bad idea. So eventually he went to thecampaign leadership in New York and he got permission to go. 3585
(U) On June 19, 2016, Lewandowski wrote to Page: "Carter-- If you want to do this, itwould be out side [sic] of your role with the DJT for President campaign. I am certain Mr.
Trump will not be able to attend. " 3586
(U) Lewandowski told the Committee that he recalled the email on that day, because it
was the day before he got "fired from the campaign." He said:

I was trying to be kind: I'm certain Mr. Trump will not be able to attend You
have no formal role in the campaign, so you asking me permission I don't
understand, because you don't work for us. You've .never signed a nondisclosureagreement. You don't get paid by the campaign. You have no role in the
campaign. So ifyou want to do this, it would be outside ofyour role with the DJI
for President campaign, is what I was very clear. 3587

3585(U) Gor on Tr., p. 55.
Email, Lewandowski to Page, Gordon, Hicks, and Clovis, June 19, 2016 (DJTFP00003437).
3587(U) Lewandowski Tr., p. 32.

3586 (U)545

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY._._COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Despite meeting Page briefly in January of that year, Lewandowski added:[A]n individual who I don't think I had ever met before is asking for permission to
go to a place to give a speech on something I know nothing about, and is not partof the team I'm running, didn 't raise a red flag to me because I didn 't have any
authority to agree or not agree to let him do something. 3588
(U) As noted previously, the week before his departure for Moscow, Page attended adinner meeting of the Campaign's foreign policy and national security advisers at the Capitol
Hill Club in Washington. As the meeting was ending, Page had a brief encounter with Sessions,whom Page informed about his upcoming travel to Moscow to give a speech. 3589 According toPage, there was no meaningful response from Sessions. 3590
(U) Page was in Moscow from July 4, 2016, through July 9, 2016. Near the start of histime in Moscow, Page had dinner with Shlomo Weber, Krickovic, and several others, some ofwhom were affiliated with NES and HSE. 3591 This was the first time Weber met with Page.
Weber arrived over two hours late and could not recall to the Committee the specific substanceof the discussions that night, but recalled that it generally dealt with U.S.-Russia relations andhow the relationship might evolve. 3592 Weber recalled that while Page was in Moscow Page
made several references to Igor Sechin, but that he had no knowledge of any meeting between
Page and Sechin in Moscow. 3593...___, He is widely referred to in open source
reporting as being one of the most powerful figures inside Putin's,inner circle. 3595 The

3588(U) Ibid, pp. 33-34.
(U) C. Page Tr., pp. 148-149.
3590(U) Ibid ("[I]t was like in one ear and out the other for him.") Asked about this encounter by HPSCI, Page said
Sessions "had no reaction whatsoever." HPSCI Transcript oflnterview with Carter Page, November 2, 2017, pp.
68--69.
3591(U) Weber Tr., pp. 84-86.
3592(U) Ibid, p. 87.
.
3593(U) FBI, FD-302, Weber 7/28/2017 ("Weber recalled that Page kept going on and on about 'Igor Ivanovich,Igor Ivanovich, Igor Ivanovich' which is how Page referred to Igor Sechin .... Weber made it clear that Page neverdiscussed meeting Sechin, but he did talk about Sechin a lot."); Weber Tr., p. 121 ("[Page] was making allusions to
Igor Sechin but not about a meetin ." .
·
3589

3S94
3595

(U) See, e.g., Henry Foy, "'We nee total about Igor': the rise of Russia's most powerful oligarch," FTMagazine, March 1, 2018.

546

information from the "Steele Dossier," discussed infra Vol. 5, Sec .. IV.B, asserted that Page hada meeting with Sechin during this July 2016 visit.
·(U) Page told the Committee he met with Andrey Baranov, who he had known since hisdays living in Moscow and who, in 2016, was the head of investor relations for Rosneft, thecompany run by Sechin. 3597 During the July visit, Page and Baranov met one evening at a
Morgan. Stanley social event to watch the European Cup. 3598 Page said no deals were discussed
during this meeting, 3599 although he told the FBI that the subject of Sechin came up, but in an
immaterial way. 3600
(U) On July 5, 2016, Page sent an email to Shlomo Weber and his assistant to ask themto remove reference to Page's role as a Trump adviser on the school's website announcing hisrole in the commencement. 3601 However, Weber told the Committee that throughout this process
Page gav:e the impression that he was an adviser to the Trump Campaign and that "[n]obody everdoubted" he was a Campaign adviser. 3602 Weber said that in the preparations for the speech, it
was not clear whether he wanted to be mentioned as an adviser of the Campaign publicly andthat the public interest in the election was "quite substantial at this juncture."3603- T h e r e are indications that news of Page's visit reached senior levels of the
Kremlin. Denis Klimentov became the press secretary of the NES in the fall of 2016. 3604 Page
had repeated direct contact with Klimentov starting as early as his July 2016 trip to Moscow,t f h" h d lt "th tht R . Id.
r t k" ! t
P ! '
I

3596

(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 225.
(U) C. Page Tr., pp. 156-157.
359s (U) Ibid.
3599(U) Ibid., p. 157.
3600
(U) FBI, FD-302, Page 3/30/2017.
3601(U) Email, Page to S. Weber and Ovchinnikova, July 5, 2016 (Weber Production).
3602(U) Weber Tr., p. 67.
3603(U) Ibid., pp. 66, 70.
3604(U) FBI, FD-302, Denis Klimentov 6/9/2017. Klimentov told the FBI that he was not employed at NES at thetime of Page's July 2016 speech atNES but attended at the request of Weber. However, at least as early as July 8,
2016, Klimentov was communicating with Page about the speech and media outreach.
3605(U) See Emails, Page, Klimentov, et al., July 8, 2016-June 4, 2017 (Page Production).
3597

547

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

business partner, Dmitriy Klimentov, is a U.S.-based public relations consultant who is a former
acting New York bureau chief for, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti. 3609 Dmitriy
Klimentov maintains regular contact with Dmitry Peskov, who is the Press Secretary for the
President Putin. 3610 Dmitriy Klimentov told the FBI that he contacted Peskov about Page's July
visit, in the event Peskov wanted to facilitate any meetings. 3611 According to Klimentov, there
was no interest in meeting Page and Peskov responded that Page was not high-level enough tomeet.3612.
(U) Page gave two speeches in Moscow. On July 7, he gave a ~peech to the NES that hetitled, "The Evolution of the World Economy: Trends and Potential." The speech was amplified
online by Russian nationalist influencers, some of whom have significant ties to the Russian
government and Russian intelligence services, and one of whom attended the event and asked
Page a question regarding Trump and sanctions. 3613 The next day, at the commencement
ceremonies, Page gave short talk that he titled "Maximizing personal potential in uncertain
times: past and future." 3614 Page made no mention of the U.S. 2016 presidential campaign ineither set of prepared remarks.

a(U) At the second event, the commencement ceremonies on July 8, Page had ·a brief
encounter with Dvorkovich .. According to Weber, who observed the encounter but was not closeenough to he~r what was said, the two shook hands and "talked for a couple of minutes."3615
Page told the Committee his encounter with Dvorkovich lasted a "maximum [of] 10 seconds,"'-

3606 (U)3601 (U)

Ibid.
Ibid.
(U) Ibid., p. 29.
3610(U) FBI, FD-302, Dmitri Klimentov, 11/27/2018.
3611 (U) Ibid.
3612(U) Ibid. The SCO obtained an email from Peskov where Peskov stated "I have read about [Page]. Specialists
say that his is far from being the main one. So I better not initiate a meeting in the Kremlin." SCO Report, Vol. I, p.
100.
3613
(U) See Twitter, @A_G_ Dugin, July 7, 2016; Twitter, @KatasonovaMaria; Facebook post, Konstantin Rykov,
July 7, 2016. Katasonova appears to have attended the event and asked Page a question related to Trump and U.S.Russia relations. See YouTube, youtu.be/adJscX0j4CY, July 7, 2016.
3614(U) Document, "Maximizing personal potential in uncertain times: past and future" (Page Production).
3615(U) Weber Tr., p. 59.
36os (U)
3609

\

548

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
which he described as a "sort of a brief, in-passing moment," where Dvorkovich gave "warmpleasantries."3616(U) While in Moscow, Page emailed Trump Campaign staff member Tera Dahl, copying
J.D. Gordon, to inform them that he was overseas and could not attend a m.eeting with aEuropean delegation sponsored by the Transatlaµtic Parliamentary Group on Terrorism that
hoped to meet with the Clinton and Trump Campaigns. 3617 Page wrote:

On a related front, I'll send you guys a readout soon regarding some incredible
insights and outreach I've received from a few Russian legislators and senior
members of the Presidential Administration here. Suffice to say that after
watching their national economy and relationships with Europe get derailed by
Washington mismanagement with disastrous consequences over recent years,
Russians from the highest levels ofgovernment to the. average man on the street
have a new optimism and hope for the future based on Mr. Trump's common
sense statements about his foreign policy approaches over the past year. 3618
(U) Later the same day, Page emailed Gordon, Dahl and Walid Phares with the subject
line: "Feedback from Russia - Executive Summary," to which he attached a document with thesame title. 3619 The document began with the statement: "On Thursday and Friday (July 7 & 8,2016), campaign advisor Carter Page presented before gatherings at the New Economic School(NES) in Moscow including their 2016 Commencement Ceremony."3620 The first bullet stated:

Russian Deputy Prime Minister and NES Board Member Arkady Dvorkovich also
spoke, ·before the event. In a private conversation, Dvorkovich expressed strong
support for Mr. Trump and a desire to work together toward devising better
solutions in response to the vast range of current international problems. Basedon feedback from a diverse array of sources close to the Russian Presidential
Administration, it was readily apparent that this sentiment is widely held at alllevels of the government. 3621
(U) The Committee asked Page ·about the source of his ''incredible insights," the private
conversation with Dvorkovich, and the "diverse array of sources close to the Russian Presidential
Administration" that he wrote about in this email. As was the case with his January 30, 2016
I

3616

(U) Ibid., p. 175.
(U) Email, Page to Dahl and Gordon, July 8, 2016 (DJTFP00004021).
361s (U) Ibid.
3619(U) Email, Page to Dahl, Gordon, and Phares, July 8, 2016 (DJTFP00004022-4023).
3620 (U) Ibid.
3621 (U) Ibid.
3617

549

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY/email to Glassner, Clovis, and Lewandowski, Page had difficulty recalling his allegedly highlevel engagements. He told the Committee that he was referring to: the exchange withacademics over dinner on July 5; one encounter he had with a staff member who worked for a
Duma (Russian parliament) member and whose name he could not recall; and, the handshakewith Dvorkovich at the commencement ceremony on July 8. 3622 Page told the Committee thatthe unnamed Duma staffer and Dvorkovich were the only two people that'he directly interactedwith in the Russian government during the trip. 3623 Page allowed that his written comments fromthe email relating to outreach from Russian legislators "may have been an exaggeration."3624(U) Page's visit to Moscow in July drew international media attention. While still in
Mo.scow, Page emailed Gordon and Hicks, copying Clovis:'

I wanted to give you a quick heads up about a few developments during my
Moscow trip. ... I have been doing everything possible to keep a low
profile ... and to the extent people do learn I'm here, ensuring they all understandthat my visit is outside of my role with the campaign. But given the vast
outpouring of support for Mr. Trump and the strong social network in Russia, a
few journalists caught wind of my presence in Russia and have been following myevery move closely. As always, I have been avoiding any media interview until
otherwise instructed. 3625
(U) Gordon forwarded the email to Mashburn and Dahl, with the comment: "FYI. We
probably ought to print this out for our files." 3626
(U) Page's July speeches in Moscow were monitored by American businessman Paul
Erickson, Russian national Maria Butina and Russian government official Alexander Torshin. A
July 18, 2016 exchange between Butina and Torshin revealed Butina's interest in Page:

Butina: Right now I would rather meet with Carter Page. He's Trump's advisor
for the RF and heads the pro-Russian group. He was in Moscow at a meetingwith Putin last year. Canyoufind out how wefe~l about him?
Torshin: I'll try, but tomorrow. Not long ago one of his advisors was in
Moscow. I don't remember the lasi name.

3622(U) C. Page Tr., pp. 176-177.
(U) Ibid, pp. 181-182. Katasonova, described above, introduced herself as an assistant to a Duma official
when asking Page a question during his NES speech. See YouTube, youtu.be/adJscX0j4CY, July 7, 2016.
3624(U) Ibid, p. 181.
3625
(U) Email, Page to Gordon, Hicks, and Clovis, July 7, 2016 (DJTFP00003920) (second ellipsis in original).
3626(U) Email, Gordon to Mashburn, et al., July 7, 2016 (DJTFP00003920).
3623

550

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Butina: ... Thank you very much for the information. Carter Page is his name.
This is very important. I have not yet agreed to a meeting with him. It depends·on your opinion. 3627
For more information on Torshin and Butina, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.H.
(U) Page attended the GOP cw1vention held in Cleveland from July 18 through July 21,
2016. At one of the receptions, Page and Gordon had a brief encounter with Sergei Kislyak,
Russia's Ambassador to the United States. Page told the Committee it was the first time he had
met Kislyak, and that Page offered the Ambassador his business card, but that the Ambassador
did not offer Page his card in return. 3628
(U) The media attention from Page's July 2016 visit to Moscow followed Page until
after he was dismissed from the Campaign in September 2016.
(U) The media attention regarding Page's travel to Moscow also drew political attention.
On August 27, 2016, Senator Harry Reid, Senate Minority leader, wrote and publicly released aletter to FBI Director James Comey. 3629 The letter expressed Reid's concern about Russianinterference in the 2016 elections and quoted former Acting Director of CIA Michael Morrell,declaring candidate Trump an "unwitting agent" of Russia and the Kremlin. While naming no
Trump Campaign officials, the letter does state:
For example, questions have been raised about whether a Trump advisor who has
been highly critical of U.S. and European economic sanctions on Russia, and who
has. conflicts of interest due to investments in Russian energy conglomerate
Gazprom, met with high-ranking sanctioned individuals while in Moscow in Julyof 2016, well after Trump became the presumptive nominee. (The same individual
recently broke precedent by giving a speech critical of U.S. policy while in
Moscow.) Any such meetings should be investigated and made a part of the
public record. 3630

(U) Following his return from Moscow in July, Page continued to email his opinions on
media reports regarding Russia to Campaign staff and other Campaign advisory committee

3627(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, July 18, 2016.
(U) C. Page Tr., pp. 253-262; see also Gordon Tr., pp. 37-42.
3629 (U) Letter, Reid to Corney, August 27, 2016. Reid's letter to ComeofEi ht" member with CIA Director Brennan.
3628

551

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - :RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYmembers. His emails, which covered topics ranging from the hack of the DNC to the U.S. rolein Ukraine, were often conspiratorial and generally reflective of Russian policy positions: 3631

(U) On July 28, 2016, Page emailed Hicks and copied Clovis and Gordon about being
contacted by a "barrage ofreporters over recent days." 3632 Page wrote that he would "continue
avoiding all interview requests" but continued to offer the Campaign his "help in the media
department." 3633 Hicks forwarded the email to Stephen Miller, and asked, "Who can weigh in
here?" 3634 Miller responded: "[N]one of our FP guys should be doing any interviews on [R]ussia
right now:" 3635 To which Hicks responded: "Agreed!!! !"3636(U) On September 13, 2016, shortly before he was separated from the Campaign, Page
, sent an email to the other Campaign foreign policy and national security advisers and several
Campaign staff. 3637 In the email, Page commented on an upcoming event which he planned toattend at the Council on Foreign Relations that would feature then-Vice President Joe Biden. 3638
Page proposed asking Biden a question regarding his son's work in Ukraine. 3639 .AnotherCampaign adviser, Bert Mizusawa responded the next day: "Mentioning Biden's children could
backfire."3640 To which Kubic added: "I agree with Bert - not sure you should use his son to baithim."3641
iv.

(U) Page Leaves the Trump Campaign(U) Page's profile in the U.S. media increased following his July 2016 visit and speeches
in Moscow. It was not until September 2016, however, that the Campaign moved to dismiss him
because he had become a media distraction.

(U) On August 2, 2016, in response to yet another media query about Page which Page
appears to have accepted without permission, Hicks reached out to Stephen Miller, Dearborn,

3631
3632

(U) See, e.g., Email, Page to Clovis, et al., July 24, 2016 (DJTFP00004447).
(U) Email, Page to Hicks, et al., July 28, 2016 (DJTFP00004499).

Ibid(U) Email, Hicks to S. Miller, July 28, 2016 (DJTEP00004499).
3635(U) Email, S. Miller to Hicks, July 28, 2016 (DJTFP00004499).
3636(U) Email, Hicks to S. Miller, July 28, 2016 (DJTFP00004499).
3637(U) Email, Page to Mizusawa, Kubic, Papadopoulos, Clovis, Phares, et al., September 13, 2016
(DJTFP000l 7287).
3638 (U) Ibid3639 (U) Ibid
3640
(U) Email, Mizusawa to Page, Kubic, Papadopoulos, Clovis, Phares,.et al., September 14, 2016'(DJTFP000l 7286-17287).
3641(U) Email, Kubic to Page, Mizusawa, Papadopoulos, Clovis, Phares, et al., September 14, 2016
(DJTFP000 17286).
3633 (U)3634

552

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
and Jason Miller in order to find someone who could speak with Page about the intervie~. 3642
Stephen Miller responded, writing: "We need to stop this," to which Hicks responded: "I do notknow Carter. He's sent me a few emails, but I think someone with authority should.remind him
he does not speak for the campaign, or Mr. Trump and we strongly advise against this (all via
phone)."3643.

(U) Late on September 22, 2016, Michael Isikoff emailed Jason Miller with questions
about Page, prior to publishing a story about alleged U.S. intelligence focus on Page and his rolein the Trump Campaign. 3644 Miller sent an email to Hicks and other Campaign staff, stating:"I'm pretty sure we've answered re: Carter Page l00x previously, but I forgot ~he answer."3645
Hicks responded to Miller: "He has no role. We are not aware of any of his activities, past or
present. " 3646
(U) On September 23, Isikoffpublished the article, which generated additional media
queries about Page to the Campaign.· In an email regarding the article Stephen Miller wrote:"We should say he's not an advisor, he's never advised Mr. Trump, and has made nocontribution to the c1:tmpaign. Speaking for myself, I've never spoken to him, and wouldn't
recognize him ifhe were sitting next to me." 3647 Hicks emailed Dearborn, Stephen Miller,
Clovis, and Jason Miller: "For the final time, we need to cut ties with Carter.... Please advise as
to how we do this logistically and Jason and.I will strategize on not looking reactionary!" 3648
Dearborn responded: "Sam, you ,know him best yes? I've never met or talked with him." 3649

(U) On the same day, September 23, 2016, Page reached out to Hicks, Jason Miller, andothers with a proposal for a long press statement, formatted under the official Trump Campaign
logo, that addressed the press queries about him. 365 Fifteen minutes later, Jason Miller
responded to Page's email, "Carter.- let's talk in the morning. I had a different direction inmind."3651°

3642 (U)Email, Hicks to S. Miller, Dearborn, and J. Miller, August 2, 2016 (DJTFP00023340);
Email, S:Miller to Hicks, Dearborn, and J. Miller, August 2, 2016 (DJTFP00023340); Email, Hicks to S.
Miller, Dearborn, and J. Miller, August 2, 2016 (DJTFP00023339-23340).
3644 (U) Email, Isikoffto J. Miller, September 22, 2016 (DJTFP000l 7694); see Michael Isikoff, "U.S. Intel officials
probe ties between Trump advisor and Kremlin," Yahoo News, September 23, 2016.
3645 (U) Email, J. Miller to Hicks, 'S. Miller, et al., September 22, 2016 (DJTFP00017694). ,3646(U) Email, Hicks to J. Miller, S. Miller, et al., September 23, 2016 (DJTFP00017694).
3647(U) Email, S. Miller to Hicks, et al., September 23, 2016 (DJTFP000l 7740).
3648(U) Email, Hicks to Dearborn, et al., September 23, 2016 (DJTFP000l 7705).
3649 (U) Email, Dearborn to Hicks, et al., September 23, 2016 (DJTFP000l 7711).
3650(U) Email, Page to J. Miller, et al., September 23, 2016 (DJTFP000l 7783-17784).
3651(U) Email, J. Miller to Page, et al., September 23, 2016 (DJTFP000l 7783).

3643 (U)553

(U) On September 25, 2016, Kellyanne Conway, then-Campaign manager; publicly
stated that Page was "certainly not part of the campaign I'm rurining." 3652 In a forwarded email
to Hicks, Conway wrote, "Mr. Trump saw this segment and called me to say he has no idea who
Carter Page is and wants to be sure he has never met him. May be best to check that he did notactually meet with him at any point and be ·sure Clovis, et. al [sic] remove Page's name frommaterials, website."3653 Hicks responded, incorrectly: "He did meet with him one time in March ·at the old post office with a group of about 12 other people. They have never interacted or
spoken since." 3654 As noted previously, Page did not attend the publicized meeting of the othernational security and foreign policy advisers with Trump on March 31, 2016.
(U) The Campaign made no formal statement severing its relationship with Page.
According to Clovis, Jason Miller communicated Page's termination to him. Clovis testified to
the Committee: "The last I left it with the campaign was Jason Miller was going to take care ofthat. My job was to tell Carter to knock it off, as a person who knew him. As far as I know,
Jason was the one that laid down the law to him." 3655
(U) Very early on September 26, 2016, Page sent an email to Eric Trump and copying
numerous other Campaign staff and advisers telling him that: "I wanted you to know that I havedecided to take a leave of absence from my work on the campaign." 3656 He attached a letter,
dated the d~y before, that he said he intended to send to FBI Director James Comey. 3657 Eric·
Trump forwarded this email to Hicks with the message: "I know nothing of this guy. Do
you?" 3658 Hicks responded:

Know of him. He was listed on an initial foreign policy adviser board Sam Clovis
put together in the spring. He has never met or spoken to DJT or anyone on the
campaign except Sam for that matter. It has now come to light he has ties to theRussian government so of course people are pushing it out as if he is the person
whispering in DJT's ear. Nonsense. Regardless, we requested he resign. I haveno idea why he is directing that to you. 3659

As noted, aspects of Hicks's statement are incorrect - although Page never met the candidate, he
did meet occ~sionally and often communicated with various members of the Campaign staff.

3652(U) David Cohen, "Conway denies Trump campaign ties to Russia figure," Politico, September 25, 2016.
(U) Email, Conway to Hicks, September 25, 2016 (DJTFP000 17849).
3654(U) Email, Hicks to Conway, September 25, 2016. (DJTFP000l 7849).
3655(U) Clovis Tr., p. 67. The Committee did not interview Jason Miller.
3656(U) Email, Page to E. Trump, et al., September 26, 2016 (DJTFP00018044-18045).
3657(U) Ibid
3658(U) Email, E. Trump to Hicks, September 26, 2016 (DJTFP00018044).
3659(U) Email, Hicks to E. Trump, September 26, 2016 (DJTFP00018046).
3653

554

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The letter Page addressed to FBI Director Corney, dated September 25, 2016 stated,in part: "I am writing to request the FBI' s prompt end of the reported inquiry regarding mypersonal trip to Russia in July 2016 - an investigation which has been widely mentioned in the
media." 3660 Among other things, Page noted: "I have not met this year with any sanctioned
official in Russia despite the fact that there are no restrictions on U.S. persons speaking withsuch individuals."3661 He also stated in the letter that he had "interacted with members of the
U.S. intelligence community, including the FBI and CIA for many decades." 3662
(U) The first FISA order on Page was approved October 21, 2016. 3663
(U) Media attention on Page, and Page's continuing engagement with the media,
continued to distract the Campaign into the presidential Transition. On the day that Page
announced his "leave of absence" to Eric Trump, he gave a long interview to The Washington
Post. 3664 Also on that same day, Page emailed a link to the article to Clovis, Hicks, Miller, Bert
Mizusawa and Joseph Schmitz, and stated: "now that I've finally begun to defend myself, we'restarting to quickly set the record straight for everyone."3665 Page also asked Clovis to send him acopy of the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) he recalled signing when he joined the Campaign
as an adviser. 3666 Hicks forwarded the email back to Clovis with the request: "Please make sure
his NDA was in fact counter signed. Send him a copy and please ask him to stop talking. He is
not being helpful. He has never spoken to or met Mr. Trump."3667
5. {(J) Page Returns to Russia, December 2016
(U) Following the election and his separation from the Campaign, Page returned to
Moscow in mid-December 2016. Page told the Committee that he paid his own way to Moscow· in December.3668 Shlomo Weber, who saw Page while he was in Moscow, told the Committee
he did not know why Page visited. 3669

3660(U) Letter, Page to Corney, September 25, 2016 (DJTFP00018045).
Ibid.
3662 (U) Ibid.
3663 (U) The Carter Page FISA order and renewals are examined in detail in the DOJ OIG FISA Report. While there
were several problems with the FBI's FISA renewals for Page, the Committee assesses that Page's previous ties to
Russian intelligence officers, coupled with his Russian travel, justified the FBI's initial concerns about Page.
3664 (U) Josh Rogin, "Trump's Russia adviser speaks out, calls accusations 'complete garbage,"' The Washington
Post, September 26, 2016.
3665 (U) Email, Page to Clovis, et al., September 26, 2016 (DJTFP00018048-18049).
3666 (U) Ibid.
3667 (U) Email, Hicks to Clovis, et. al, September 26, 2016 (DJTFP00018052).
3668(U) C. Page Tr., p. 287.
3669(U) Weber Tr., pp. 135-137.
3661 (U)555

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE ..... RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On December 12, 2016, Page made a live televised presentation from the auditoriumof the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, which is a news organization of theRussian govemment. 3670 Denis Klimentov, who in December was the press secretary for the
NES, told the FBI that Page contacted the news agency on his own, and the agency
enthusiastically accepted, based on Page's notoriety by that time. 3671
(U) While Weber insisted that the NES had nothing to do with Page's December
visit, 3672 he did accept Page's request to introduce him at the public speech, which was sparsely
attended, :µiostly by Russian and international journalists. Video of the event shows that, among
the logos of Russia state media that appear behind Page on the electronic screen, the NES logo
also appears. 3673'·
(U) Page's speech included criticisms of Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as a referenceto "conspiracy theories about Wikileaks used to distract from disastrous information revealed onher illegal mail server."3674 Page praised Rex Tillerson, who had been nominated to be Secretaryof State, and inserted a reference to Igor Sechin, who Page stated he "didn't meet ... but it would
have been a great honor." 3675 Page stated that there was "nothing there" on reports of Russia'sintervention in the U.S. presidential election. 3676 Page also said, when asked about whether he's
met with Trump, ·"I've certainly been in a number of meetings with him." 3677

(U) Weber convened a small dinner for Page during this visit, which included Klimentov
and a Vice Rector ofNES. 3678 Weber said that once Page arrived in Russia, Page asked that
Weber invite Deputy Prime Minister Dvorkovich to meet with him, which Weber did, notexpecting Dvorkovich to accept. 3679 According to Weber, Page made the request because "itwould be good t.o discuss the future relationship under the new president." Dvorkovich was the .
only request Page made. 3680

3670(U) See YouTube, "LIVE: Former Trump adviser Carter Page holds presentation in·Moscow," December 12,
2016.
3671
(U) FBI, FD-302, Denis Klimentov 6/9/2017.
3672(U) Weber Tr., pp. 135-137.
3673(U) See YouTube, "LIVE: Former Trump adviser Carter Page holds presentation in Moscow," December 12,
2016.
·
3674
(U) Ibid, starting at 14:14, 23:57, and 25:45 (related to the Clintons); at 22:54 and 24:25 (related to WikiLeaks)
3675(U) Ibid, starting at 15:30 (related to Tillerson); at 12:43, 16:23, and 22:42 (related to Sechin).
•
3676(U) Ibid, starting at 42:08.
3677(U) Ibid, starting at 29:54. While the Committee is aware that Page attended events in which T~mp spoke, theCommittee is not aware of any instance in which Trump and Page attended the same "meeting."
3678(U) Weber Tr., p. 160.
3679
(U) Ibid, pp. 156 -157, 164.
3680
(U) Ibid, p. 157.

556

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Weber said he was "shocked" that Dvorkovich showed up. 3681 He'did not stay forthe full dinner, but only for about 30 to 35 minutes. 3682 Weber recalled that Page did not speak
much, but that Dvorkovich spoke of "[f]uture relationships" and the "[e]conomic relationship"
between Russia and the United States. 3683 Weber told the Committee that although the"economic relationship" and "difficulties of the relationship" were discussed, sanctions were notexplicitly mentioned. 3684 Dvorkovich also "explained that the Russia would like to be a friend of
the United States."3685(U) Page told the Committee he once again met with Andrey Baranov of Rosneft during
his December 2016 trip. 3686
(U) The information produced by Page for the Committee does not include many detailsof his time in Moscow, in either July or December, nor was Page able to account for much of histime on the ground in Moscow in his interview with the Committee. The Committee has nofurther insight into Page's other meetings or activities there.
6. (U) Page During the Transition(U) Page told the Committee that he "sent a note" and "talked with a few people in thetransition, that ifl could help in any way, you know, I would be open to that." 3687 According tothe-SCO Report:

On November 14, 2016, [Page] submitted an application to the Transition Teamthat inflated his credentials and experiences, stating that in his capacity as a
Trump Cpmpaign foreign policy advisor he had met with "top world leaders" and"effectively responded to diplomatic outreach efforts.from senior government
officials in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, {and] the Americas. " Page
received no response from the Transition Team. 3688

3681(U) Ibid, p. 164. Despite attending the dinner with Page and Dvorkovich in Moscow, in interview with theFBI, Klimentov denied knowing about any meeting between Page and Dvorkovich. FBI, FD-302, Denis Klimentov
6/9/2017. Separately, Klimentov may have met with Page in the United States shortly before Page's December
2016 trip. According to Page's personal schedule he maintained on his computer, on Nov~mber 26, 2016, Page andKlimentov were scheduled to meet for lunch in New York. "travel and work records.xlsx" (Page Production).
3682(U) Weber Tr., pp. 170-171.
·
3683 (U) Ibid, pp. 167-168. .
3684(U) Ibid., pp. 168-169.
3685(U) Ibid, p. 168.
3686
(U) C. Page Tr., p. 287.
3687(U) Ibid, p. 295.
3688(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, pp. 102-103 (internal citations omitted).

557

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Twice during the Transition Page was explicitly asked in writing by Donald
McGahn, who at the time remained counsel to the Trump Campaign, to stop making
misrepresentations of his association with the Trump. Campaign in the media. On December 22,
McGahn sent Page a letter instructing Page to stop associating himself with the Campaign. 3689
On December 25, 2016, Page sent a lengthy email to Hicks, copying McGahn, K.T. McFarland,
and Keith Kellogg. 3690 While the email reprises and expands on Page's objections to the way heperceived himself to having been treated, it includes in one section:

A long list of top U.S. foreign policy leaders have contacted me to offer theirsupport to the Trump Administration's agenda. The same holds for even mo.re
senior Russian leaders, but I won't mention them in writing out of risk of somenew bogus media controversy or federal investigation. 3691
(U) On January 16, 2017, McGahn again wrote to Page, citing the previous letter from
December 22, 2016. He wrote:
Given that you have no role with Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., or the
President-Elect 's Transition Team, or with any other entity associated with Mr.
Trump, we ask that you immediately cease suggesting to anyone that you areanything other than a former member ofan advisory committee who neveractually met with the President-Elect. 3692
7. (U) Page in the "Steele Dossier"(U) J,lage is featured rominentl in what is referred to as the Steele dossier, materials
prepared in 2016 by former
officer Christopher Steele. 3693 Of
the 17 reports that comprise the 35-page publicly available Steele dossier, first released in its
entirety by BuzzFeed on January 10, 2017, Page is named in eight of them.

(U) Regarding assertions in the Steele dossier about Page, the Committee heard
testimony from Michael Cohen that he never met Page. 3694 Page told the Committee he nevermet Paul Manafort, but included him only once on a group email, for which he was chastised by

3689(U) See Letter, McGahn to Page, January 16, 2017 (DJTFP00027831) (referring to a prior December 22, 2016
letter to Page). The Committee asked for all Donald Trump for President, Inc., materials jn its document production
request, but did not obtain a copy of the December 22, 2016 letter.
3690(U) Email, Page to Hicks, McGahn, McFarland, and Kellogg, December 25, 2016 (DJTFP00025723).
3691 (U) Ibid.
3692(U) Letter, McGahn to Page, January 16, 2017 (DJTFP00027831).
3693(U) Ken Bensinger, et al., "These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties to Russia," BuzzFeed News, January
10, 2017.
3694(U) Cohen Tr., p. 245.

558

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

others on the Campaign. 3695 He told the Committee he never met, nor "heard of," Igor
Diveykin. 3696 Page has publicly and repeatedly denied meeting with Igor Sechin. 3697 Other thanthe dossier's assertions that Page traveled to Moscow in July 2016 and served as a foreign policy
adviser to Trump-facts which were readily available in news reports at the time of their
inclusion in the dossier-the Committee did not find any information that corroborates theallegations related to Page in the dossier. For more information on the dos~ier, see infra Vol. 5,
Sec. IV.B.

3695(U) C. Page Tr., pp. 196-197, 214.
(U) Ibid., pp. 165-166.
3697(U) See, e.g., HPSCI Transcript of the Interview with Carter Page, November 2, 2017, p. 101.

3696

559

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

G. (l.[) Trump's Foreign Policy Speech at the Mayflower Hotel
1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) On April 27, 2016, Trump gave a high-profile speech at the Mayflower Hotel inWashingtort, D.C., the first formal campaign presentation of his approach to foreign policy. 3698
Immediately before the speech, some members of the Campaign, including Trump, Kushner, andpossibly Sessions, briefly met the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak, along with other select"VIPs" in a corner of the room where the speech was given. The Committee examined whether
anything-related to this event raised counterintelligence questions.
(U) The Committee found no evidence that foreign interference occurred during or as aresult of the April 27, 2016, Trump campaign speech held at the Mayflower Hotel. The
Committee found that language in the speech about Russia was drafted by the Campaign's seniorspeech writer, Stephen Miller, and was consistent with the candidate's views.
(U) The Mayflower speech was organized by the Washington-based Center for the
National Interest (CNI), a nonpartisan think tank, at the request of the Trump Campaign. Dmitri
Simes, the president of CNI, worked with the Campaign to organize the event. 3699
(U) Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak, along with other members of the Washington
diplomatic corps, was invited to the speech by Simes, with the Campaign's knowledge. Trump
met Kislyak for the first time in a small VIP receiving line arranged briefly before the speech.
Kislyak also spoke to Kushner and expressed to him Russia's interest in Trump's position on
improved bilateral relations if Trump were elected.
·(U) The Committee could not reliably determine whether then-Senator Jeff Sessions, thechairman of the Campaign's National Security Advisory Committee, met and spoke with Kislyakat the event. Sessions did not recall meeting the ambassador at this event, but allowed that it waspossible and asserted that ifhe had spoken with Kislyak, "[I]t would've been .... nothing
improper."3100

3698(U) On March 21, 2016, Trump gave a speech on U.S.-Israeli relatio•ns before the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C.
3699
(U) Simes is a Russian scholar who emigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1970s, and who has written about
Russia since. In the early 1990s, Simes served as senior advisor to former President Richard Nixon, andaccompanied Nixon on his last private trips to the Russia in the early 1990s. In his years at CNI, Simes had also hadinteractions with Alexander Torshin and Maria Butina. See infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.H.
3700(U) SSCI Transcript of the Open Hearing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, June 13, 2017.

560

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

2. (U) The Mayflower Speechi.

(U) Organizing the Event(U) Simes and Jared Kushner first discussed the concept of the speech after they met in
New York City in March 2016, at a luncheon hosted by a member of CNI's board where Henry
Kissinger, at the time an honorary chairman of the CNI board, spoke. Kushner requested ameeting with Simes for later in the month, but then reached out to Simes by phone and raised thepossibility of CNI hosting Trump's first foreign policy speech, a request Simes and CNI
accepted. 3702 Simes stated that he and the Center wanted to provide a platform for a serious,
foreign policy pronouncement, not a campaign event, and offered that CNI, in addition to hostingand organizing the logistics of the event, would avail the Campaign of the substantive national
security advice of CNI' s members. While the Campaign agreed to CNI organizing and hosting
the event, no one in the Campaign relied on CNI' s expertise. Simes also told the Committeethat "[w]e never had substantive interactions with Mr. Trump." 3703
(U) The Trump Campaign chose the Mayflower hotel as the venue after Trump rejected
the National Press Club because he deemed it too small and unable to accommodate "35-45
cameras." 3704 The Campaign focused on the optics of the event, and CNI issued invitations towhat they viewed as a typical list of Washington experts, media, government figures, andambassadors, many of whom had previously attended CNI events.3705(U) At the end of the Monday prior to the speech, April 25, Simes emailed Kushner withthe most recent "acceptance list," which listed 64 individuals, including four ambassadors: theambassadors from the Philippines, Italy, and Singapore, and Russian Ambassador Sergei
Kislyak. 3706 Later that evening, Simes sent another email to Kushner proposing attendees whoshould be invited to the event's "VIP reception." There were 13 individuals Simes suggested,
including the ambassadors of the Philippines and Italy, but not the ambassadors of Singapore or

3701
3702

(U) SSCI Transcript o(U) Ibid., pp. 31-32.
3704 (U) Ibid., pp. 46--48. The candidate had also proposed his Virginia golf club as a venue, which CNI rejected.
3705 (U) Ibid., p. 53. A Committee staff member attended the event. That staff member was not part of the Russia
investigation team.
3706 (U) Email, Simes to Kushner, April 25, 2016 (NSSCIO000000l-5). Not all confirmed attendees attended.
3703

561

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYRussia. 3707 The list also included Celeste Wallander, at the time Senior Director for Russian
Affairs at the National Security Council, who ultimately did not attend the event. 3708
(U) According to Simes, the Campaign made "no request about bringing any foreigners
to the meeting and most certainly no particular requests about bringing any Russians to themeeting. " 3709
ii.

(U) Drafting the Speech(U) Stephen Miller, at the time the senior policy adviser to the Campaign, was the"predominant writer" of the speech. 3710 While Simes offered to assist in drafting the speech, 3711
Miller told the Committee that "the speech itself was written from a zero-based draft on a blank
sheet,"3712 and that "everything in the speech is informed by the candidate's own publicly-statedviews on all these issues." 3713
(U) The Committee reviewed drafts of the speech as it was shared for comments andedits among senior Campaign staff, to include Manafort, Gates, Lewandowski, Miller, andothers, and as it evolved into the final version delivered by Trump. These drafts included
comments and suggested edits by several members of the national .security advisorycommittee. 3714
(U) The. Committee assesses that the drafts of the speech it reviewed showed consistentlanguage regarding Russia through the five days of drafting. For example, an April 22 draft

3707(U) Email, Simes to Kushner, April 25, 2016 (NSSCI00000007-8).
Ibid
3709
(U) Simes Tr., p. 52.
3710(U) Miller interview, p. 131.
3711
(U) Simes Tr., pp. 36-37.
3712(U) Ibid., p. 123.
3713
(U) Ibid., p. 132.
.
3714
(U) Email, Manafort to Gates, April 24, 2016 (DJTFPOOl 1000-11012) (attaching draft speech); Email, Gates toManafort, April 22, 2016 (DJTFP00010810-10823) (attaching draft speech); Email, Christie to Lewandowski andManafort (DJTFP00010834-10845) (attaching draft speech); Email,Manafort to [mfreedman@globalimpact.com],
April 22, 2016 (DJTFP00010861-10871) (attaching draft speech); Email, Kubic to Lewandowski, April 23, 2016
(DJTFP00010873-10897) (attaching draft speech); Email, Lewandowski to Manafort, Christie, Kushner, and S.
Miller, April 23, 2016 (DJTFP00010898-10928) (attaching multiple draft speech-documents); Email, Chang to
Lewandowski, S. Miller, and Manafort, April 24, 2016 (DJTFP00010957-10969) (attaching draft speech); Email, S.
Miller to Lewandowski, April 23, 2016 (DJTFP00010935-10945) (attaching multiple draft speech documents);
Email, S. Miller to Chang, Lutes, and Gates, April 24, 2016 (DJTFP00010946-10956) (attaching draft speech);
Email, Kubic to Lewandowski, April 24, 2016 (DJTFP00010970-10978) (attaching draft speech); Email, Kubic to
Lewandowski, April 24, 2016 (DJTFP00010979-10999) (attaching draft speech); Email, Gates to Manafort, April
27, 2016 (DTFP00011265-11290) (attaching draft speech).
310s (U)562/

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

includes the language: "My negotiating skills tell me an easing of tensions and improved
relations with Russia is possible. Some say the Russians won't be reasonable. I intend to findout." 3715 When Trump delivered the speech, he said: "Some say the Russians won't bereasonable. I intend to find out."3716·(U) As drafts were circulated, stronger language on Russia was proposed by New Jersey
Governor Chris Christie and national security advisory committee member Admiral Chuck
Kubic. Christie's suggested additions to the draft speech included a bullet that stated:

We need to stand up to Russian aggression together, and make clear that our .
commitment to our NATO allies in Eastern Europe is absolute. And if Putin's
Russia wants to rejoin the community of civilized nations, then they 're going to .
have to behave like one. 3717
(U) Kubic's suggested add on Russia stated:

How we deal with Russia in the years ahead will be a test for how we will standwith all ow allies everywhere . . We should remain focused on achieving peace
through economic and military strength, recognize areas where we have"common cause" with the Russian people, and make it clearly known that once
again American is playing to win and won't back down. 3718
(U) Neither of these suggested additions was accepted. The final language delivered by
Trump on April 27 was consistent with the drafts the Committee reviewed. The only references
to Russia in the speech are one sentence that states, "The Russians and Chinese have rapidly
expanded their military capability, but look what's happened to us," and the following passage:

We desire to live peacefully and in friendship with Russia and China. We haveserious differences with these two nations, and must regard them with open eyes,
but we are not bound to be adversaries. · We should seek common ground basedon shared interests.
Russia, for instance, has .also seen the horror of Islamic terrorism. I believe aneasing of tensions, and improved relations with Russia from a position ofstrength

3715(U) Email, Gates to Manafort, April 22, 2016 (DJTFP00010810-10823) (attaching draft speech).
(U) "Transcript: Donald Trump's Foreign Policy Speech," The New York Times, April 27, 2016 (transcribed by
the Federal_News Service).
3717(U) Email, Christie to Lewandowl1ki and Manafort, April 22, 2016 (DJTFP00010834, 10842).
3718(U) Email, Kubic to Lewandowski, April 23, 2016 (DJTFP00010873, 10882).
3716

563

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

only is possible, absolutely possible. Common sense says this cycle, this horrible
cycle of hostility must end and ideally will end soon. Good for both countries.
Some say the Russians won't be reasonable. I intend to find out. If we can't
make a deal under my administration, a deal that's great'- not good, great-for
America, but also good for Russia, then we will quickly walk.from the table. It's
as simple as that. We 're going to find out. 3719
(U) While the speech touched on many other topics, the only other topic of tangential
relation to Russia was Trump's criticism regarding unfair burden-sharing among NATO allies, atheme Trump was already voicing in public. 3720

iii.

(U) The VIP Reception(U) CNI organized a reception before the speech for "VIP" attendees in a spacecordoned off by a curtain in the same room used for the speech. The reception included
approximately 20-25 attendees, mostly members of Congress and ambassadors. Trump arrived
approximately 15 minutes before the speech and a reception line in the designated VIP area wasassembled to meet him. This was where Trump met Kislyak. 3721 Simes introduced them andobserved only an exchange of pleasantries between the two. Simes told the Committee that hebelieved this was the first time the two met, and that "they were not familiar with each other."3722
Jared Kushner, who accompanied Trump for this event, told the Committee that he also shook
Kislyak's hand and that the ambassador told him: "I really like what he's saying; America andRussia should have a good relationship; we don't have one now with the current administration;and I hope if President Trump wins that will change." 3723
(U) In addition to Simes, Kushner, and Miller, the Committee interviewed the following
Trump Campaign staffers who attended the speech: Cory Lewandowski, Hope Hicks, John
Mashburn, J.D. Gordon, and Rick Dearborn. The Committee also interviewed Sandy Luff, who
during 2016 had served as Legislative Director for Session's Senate office. None of them knew
at the time who the Russian ambassador was, nor what he looked like, but most of them wereattending to, various duties and were not in the reception area. The Committee notes that, byelection night, 2016, neither Kushner nor Hicks could recall the name of the Russian ambassador

3719(U) "Transcript: Donald Trump's Foreign Policy Speech," The New York Times, April 27, 2016 (transcribed by
the Federal News Service).
3720(U) For example, Trump raised this issue in on-the-record interviews with The Washington Post on March 25,2016 (published March 26) and The New York Times on March 21, 2016.
3721(U) Simes Tr., pp. 53-58.
3722(U) Ibid, p. 67. Simes told the Committee he had lunch with Kislyak the week prior and that Kislyak"indicated to me he did not know Mr. Trump."
3723(U) Kushner Tr., p. 26

564

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

when they were contacted by the Embassy to pass on congratulations to Trump for winning theelection. 3724··
(U) Sessi~ns attended the Mayflower event as chairman of Trump's national security
advisory committee. During his January 10, 2017, confirmation hearing on his nomination to be_
Attorney General, Sessions failed to reveal sever!J.l meetings with Kislyak to the Judiciary
Committee. 3725 According to an amended submission from Sessions, these included a meeting ·with Ambassador Kislyak in Sessions's Senate office in September 2016 and an encounter with
the Ambassador at the July 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. However,Sessions consistently said he could not recall meeting Kislyak ar the Mayflower event. 3726
(U) The Committee held an open hearing with Sessions to address this issue on June 13,
2017. In prepared remarks issued as a Department of Justice press·release on the same day,Sessions stated:Though I do recall several conversations I had during that pre-speech reception, I
do not have any recollection of meeting or talking to the Russian Ambassador or•any other Russian officials. If any brief interaction occurred in passing with theRussian Ambassador during that reception, I do not remember it . . . . But
whether I ever attended a reception where the Russian Ambassador was alsopresent is entirely beside the point of this investigation into Russian interferencewith the 2016 campaigns. Let me state clearly: I have never met with or had any
conversations with Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type ofinterference with any campaign or election. Further, I have no knowledge of any
such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign. 3727
(U) .When Vice Chairman Warner pressed Sessions on his failure to .recall his meetingwith Kislyak at the Mayflower, Sessions responded: "I don't recaH it, Senator Warner. It
would've been·certainly, I can assure you, nothing improper; ifl'd haq a conversation with him.
And it's conceivable that it occurred. I just don't remember it."3728·

3724(U) Simes Tr., p. 113; Kushner Tr., p. 55.
(U) Senate Judiciary Committee, "Confirmation Hearing on the Nomination of Hon. Jeff Sessions to be
Attorney General oftheUnited States," January 10-11, 2017.
3726(U) Letter, Sessions to Grassley and Feinstein, March 6, 2017.
3727(U) "Attorney General Jeff Sessions Prepared Remarks To The United States Senate Select Committee onIntelligence," June 13, 2017.
·
3728(U) SSCI Transcript of the Open Hearing with Jeff Sessions, June 13, 2.017, p. 37.
3725

565

:

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee asked multiple individuals in attendance at the event that day if theysaw Sessions and Kislyak together. 3729 All knew Senator Sessions, but none knew who theRussian ambassador was. Thus, they could not speak to seeing them together. In the spring of2017 following Sessions' confirmation hearing, CNI issued a statement that said: "We are notaware of any conversation between Ambassador Kislyak and Senator Jeff Sessions at thereception. However, in a small group setting like this one, we consider it unlikely that anyone
could have engaged in a meaningful private conversation without drawing attention from others
present." 3730 The Committee asked Simes about his recollection of any encounter between
Sessions and Kislyak. Simes told the Committee: "I did not focus on who was talking to who.
But since you asked and since it became an issue, I have looked into this after the event, and I
could not find a single person who saw Mr. Kislyak and Mr. Sessions talking to each other."3731

3729(U) These included Cory Lewandowski, Hope Hicks, J.D. Gordon, Rick Dearborn, Sandy Luff, Jared Kushner,
John Mashburn, and Stephen Miller.
3730(U) "Statement Regarding President Trump's April 27, 2016 Foreign Policy Speech at the Center for the
National Interest," The National Interest, March 8, 2017. The National Interest is the flagship journal ofCNI.
3731
U Simes Tr. . 64.
3732

566

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

--

567

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOl\'.{MITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
H. (U) Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin
1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) The Committee sought to understand the activities of Russian national Maria Butina
and Russian government official Al,exander Torshin related to the 2016 U.S. election. Starting in
2013, and continuing over a several year period, Butina and Torshin established a broad network
ofrelationships with the leaders of the Nation~l Rifle Association (NRA), conservative politicaloperatives, Republican government officials, and individuals connected to the Trump Campaign,and took steps to establish informal communications channels to influence American
government policy towards Russia. Butina and Torshin's activities were known to and almost
certainly approved by the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In December
2018, Butina pleaded guilty to failing to regist.er as a foreign agent·ofRussia for her U.S.
activities. The Committee sought to understand whether Butina's and Torshin's activities, andthat of their associates, amounted to a counterintelligence threat.
(U) During its investigation, the Committee interviewed a number of individuals withdirect insight into the nature ofButina and Torshin's activities. The Committee interviewed
Butina on April 16, 2018. 3736 However, the Committee faced significant limitations _in its efforts
to fully understand Butina and Torshin's activities. In particular, the Committee's ability to gain
insights into elements of their efforts that occurred in Russj~ was limited, and the Committee
never spoke with Torshin. The Committee's inability to compel testimony from Butina's close
associate and financial backer Paul Erickson also hindered its ability to fully address some
aspects of Butina and Torshin's activities. 3737
(U) The Committee found that Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin engaged in a multiyear influence campaign and intelligence-gathering effort targeting the NRA, the Republican
Party, and conservative U.S. political organizations for the benefit of the Russian government.
Their goal was to develop and use backchannel communications to influence U.S. policy outsideof the formal diplomatic process to Russia's advantage and to the detriment of the United States ..
(U) Torshin's and Butina's efforts began in at least 2013 and continued until at least
2018. Torshin and Butina initially leveraged Torshin's existing relationships with the NRA's

3736(U) Butina's testimony was frequently incomplete and misleading.
(U) Erickson did produce documents pursuant to a Committee subpoena, but he asserted his Fifth Amendment
rights in response to a subpoena for his testimony. Erickson was indicted in February 2019 for money laundering
and wire fraud. See U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Dakota, "Sioux Falls Man Charged with Wire
Fraud and Money Laundering," February 7, 2019. Documents were also produced to the Committee by the NRA,
sporadically and on a rolling basis, beginning in October 2018 and lasting through February 2020, which
substantially constrained the Committee's ability to make use of the later-produced materials .. It is npt.clear to theCommittee why the NRA's production was delayed so significantly.
3737

568

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
senior leadership. In 2015, Butina and Torshin hosted several NRA leaders in Moscow, where
they convened meetings between the NRA delegation, Russian oligarchs, and other Kremlinconnected figures, including individuals subject to U.S. sanctions. The NRA delegation
welcomed these interactions, and some later facilitated Torshin and Butina's continuing efforts
by inviting them to events in the United States and making introductions. Over time, Butina andTorshin gained further access to U.S. conservative political circles and met prominent
Republican figures such as a Republican candidate for president, a Republican congressman, andDonald Trump Jr.
(U) Torshin was Butina's primary backer and link to elements of the Russian
government. Torshin advised Butina on where to focus her efforts and assisted her in making
inroads with the NRA and elsewhere. Butina reported back to Torshin on her U.S. activities,
including in written papers that she understood Torshin would share with Russian government
entities, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Butina's reports included assessmentsof the Republican Party's presidential nominees; the NRA's relationship with the Republican
Party; and individuals who were of potential interest to Russian influence efforts.

(U) Butina provided Torshin with written assessments ofRepub~ican presidential
candidates, including their likelihood of winning the Republican Party nomination and thegeneral election. After Trump became the presumptive nominee, and throughout the generalelection, Butina and Torshin focused their influence efforts on the Trump Campaign to shape theincoming Trump administration's position on Russia. On several occasions, Butina and Torshin
attempted to negotiate meetings for themselves with Trump and between Trump and Russian
President Vladimir Putin.

IIIIIIIIRogozin significan

569

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Butina had support from, and contact with, numerous Kremlin-linked oligarchs,
whom she and Torshin introduced to NRA visitors in Mo·scow. These individuals included
Konstantin Nikolaev, a major financial backer ofButina's gun-rights organization with reported
ties to the Russian Presidential Administration and Russian security services, and U.S.sanctioned Dmitry Rogozin, then the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian defense and spaceindustries.
(U) Butina's access to the NRA and conservative political organizations was greatly
enabled by Americans, including Paul Erickson and David Keene. Erickson was almost
certainly aware that she was acting in furtherance of Russian government interests andcoordinating her activities with Torshin. Erickson and Keene helped Butina identify
opportunities to advance her goals, including by inviting and accompanying her to conferences
and meetings and introducing her to politically-active individuals.

2. (U) Background on Maria Butina and Alexander Torshini.

(U) Maria Butina.

.

(U) Butina was born in Barnaul, Russia, a city in Siberia, and graduated from Altai State
University in 2010. 3738 In 2010, Butina, whose father had taught her how to shoot, founded asmall gun rights organization in Barnaul. 3739 Then, after starting a regional furniture chain,
Butina said that she moved to Moscow in 2011 with the intention of growing her business. 3740
Because the furniture business did not seem viable in Moscow, she sold the business and turned
to work in social media advertising. 3741 She also shifted her attention back to the gun rights
organization, expanding the group's membership and ultimately registering it as a nation-wideorganization under the name "Right to Bear Arms" in 2014. 3742

(U) Although private gun ownership is generally outlawed in Russia, Butina explainedthat she had little difficulty in growing her organization and·obtaining national registration. 3743
Butina acknowledged general opposition by the Russian government to gun rights, but said her

3738(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Maria Butina, April ~6, 2018, p. 5. In 2008, Butina briefly
participated in a program run by the International Republican Institute (IRI) in association with Vladimir Ryzhkov, aformer Russian government official who she described as an "oppositional figure" who had funding from Mikhail
Khodorkovsky. Ibid., pp. 12, 100-101.
·
3739 (U) Ibid., p. 7.
3740(U) -Jbid., pp. 10-11.
3741(U) Ibid., p. 11.
3742(U) Ibid., pp. 9-10.
3743(U) Ibid., pp. 8-9 ("We didn't have any formal resistance. We had problems with [the] change in registration,
because it's a bit controversial by default, as you may guess.").

570

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

group was able to work with the Duma. 3744 According to Butina, the organization eventually
grew to over 10,000 members. 3745

(U) Butina in part chalked her success up to "good lawyers."3746 But, she also benefited
from broad connections to Russian government officials 'and oligarchs, including Alexander
Torsh~n, Konstantin Nikolaev, and Dmitry Rogozin, among others.
(U) Butina told the Committee that she met Alexander Torshin in•20l 1 or 2012, during
her first year in Moscow, following a public demonstration by her group. Torshin, who at thetime was the first vice chairman of the Federation Council-ostensibly Russia's version of the
Senate-attended the demonstration, and Butina said she knew him from his Twitter account. 3747
Butina subsequently met with Torshin in his office anp they "became friends." 3748 When
Torshin later became the Deputy Governor of Russia's Central Bank, Butina took the title of his''special assistant," accompanied him on trips to the. United States, was present for interactions ·with the NRA and U.S. political figures, and also provided English interpretation andtranslation. 3749·
(U) In addition to Torshin's support, Butina also secured financial backing for her gun
rights organization from two significant Russian funders: Konstantin Nikolaev and Igor
Zaytsev. 3750
(U) Nikolaev, a Russian oligarch with reported·ties to the Russian Presidential
Administration and Russian security services, 3751 is a part owner of Russian private rail transportcompany N-trans, 3752 and serves on the board of American Ethane, a Houston-based ethane
company chaired by Mikhail Yuriev, a former Deputy Chairman of the Russian Parliament.3753

3744(U) Ibid, p. 34.
(U) Ibid., p. 19.
3746 (U) Ibid., p. 9.
3747(U) Ibid., pp. 16-17.
3748(U) Ibid., p. 17.
3749(U) Ibid., pp. 18-21.
mo (U) Ibid., pp. 22-23.
3751 (U) Mike McIntire, "Billionaire Backer of Maria Butina Had Russian Security Ties," The New York Times,
September 21, 2018; Jon Swaine, "Maria Butina: ties emerge between NRA, alleged spy and Russian billionaire,"
The Guardian, July 26, 2018.
··
3752(U) Butina Tr., p. 181.
3753
(U) See Letter, Yuriev to U.S. Department of State, April 26, 2015 (TSG00070~1). Nikolaev's son, Andrey,
was also in communication with Darren Blanton around and following inauguration. Written Responses, Blanton,
August 16, 2019. Blanton is a businessman who secured a contract (through his relationships with Michael Flynn
and Steve Bannon) to provide social media influencing for the Trump Campaign in 2016. See infra Vol. 5, Sec.
III.J.4.
3745

571

Butina told the Committee that Nikolaev supported gun rights because he was a libertarian, 3754
but also acknowledged that Nikolaev is an investor in a major Russian gun manufacturer run by
his wife. 3755 According to Butina, Nikolaev approached her through an individual named Igor
Pisarsky to offer financial backing with no strings attached: "we don't want anything; you do
whatever you want; we just support this issue."3756(U) Butina described Zaytsev, her other donor, only as the owner of a chain of jewelry
stores outside ofMoscow. 3757
(U) Butina also found an ally in Dmitry Rogozin, who served as a Deputy Prime
Minister of Russia over the defense and space industries from 2011 to 2018. 3758 Rogozin was
Russia's ambassador to NATO from 2008 to 2011. 3759 In March 2014, he was sanctioned by theUnited States for his role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 3760 As of May 2018, Rogozin was
appointed to serve as. the General Director of the Russian State Corporation for Space(Roscosmos). 3761 Rogozin had no formal role with Butina's group, but he was on the boardalong with Torshin--ofthe "Federal Practical Shooting Association," a Russian organization that
promotes shooting competitions. 3762 Butina told the) Committee that Rogozin also led a group to
advocate for changes to Russian gun rights laws that brought together manufacturers andadvocacy organizations, on which Butina had a seat. 3763

3754(U) Butina Tr., pp. 22, 125.
(U) Ibid., p. 178.
3756
(U) Ibid., p. 182. Butina described Pisarsky as a "PR person" who she said "has done several presidential
campaigns for pro-government candidates and anti-government candidates in Russia." Ibid., p. 176.
3757.!li,1,d-, pp. 22-23.
3758
Butina recalled that Rogozin "control[led] the military complex of Russia." Butina Tr., p. 156.
Rogozm met with Putin re ularl . See Event Feed President of Russia, kremlin.ru readouts of meetin s between
Putin and Rogozin).
3759(U) "Putin Picks Dmitry Rogozm, a lea ing nationa ist, to be NATO envoy," The New York Times, January 10,2008; Lada Korotun, "Russian Senators approve Grushko to be Russia's new ambassador to NATO," Atlantic
Council, July 17, 2012.
3760(U) The White House, "FACT Sheet: Ukraine-Related Sanctions," March 17, 2014.
3761(U) Events, "Dmitry Rogozin appointed General Director ofRoscosmos State Corporation for Space
Activities," kremlin.ru, May 24, 2018.
3762(U) Butina Tr., pp. 183-184.
3763
U Ibid.
. 186-187.
3755

!!JJ•

3764

572

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•I(U) Butina told the Committee that she eventually determined that she "need[ed] to takean absence" from Russia and "get an education in the West."3767 She matriculated to theAmerican University School oflntemational Service and started living full-time in the UnitedStates in May 2016. 3768 Emails between Erickson and Butina suggest that Erickson funded atleast part ofButina's education and living expenses, either directly or through Bridges LLC. 3769

I

3765 (U)
3766

Ibid.
(U) Ibid.
3767(U) Butina Tr., p. 6.
3768(U) Ibid.; Email, Butina to Erickson, May 31, 2016 (MB 0002918). The Committee requested documents

pertaining to Butina from American University. The documents were ultimately not produced, despite negotiations
over the request.
3769(U) See, e.g., Butina Tr., pp. 117, 121-22, 154; Email, Singh to Erickson, May 16, 2016 (MB 0001553)(approving apartment lease application for Maria Butina); Check, Bridges LLC to Butina in the amount of $10,000,Febru
1 2016 si ned b Paul Erickson for "Febru
distribution" submitted as roof of income verification.

573

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

•

I
I

I

I
I
I
I

574

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I
I

I
. - T h e Committee assesses that the nature and extent ofButina's contacts andcertain communications are indicative of work for the Russian intelligence services andinconsistent with her claims to the Committee about her activities and intentions in the UnitedStates.

I

I

I

575

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) On December 13, 2018, Butina pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregisteredagent of Russia during her time in the United States. 3780 'Butina admitted that, beginning irt at
least March 2015, she sought to establish and use "unofficial lines of communication with
Americans having influence over U.S. politics," at the direction of Torshin and for the benefit of
the Russian government. 3781 On April 26, 2019, Butina was sentenced to 18 months in prison,
including time served, and released back to Russia on October 25, 2019. The Committee's
investigation encompassed conduct that relates to her guilty plea, as qiscussed further below.
ii.

(U) Alexander Torshin(U) Alexander Porfiryevich Torshin is a Putin-aligned Russian politician who has servedin legislative and executiv~ capacities in the Russian government an.d has supported Kremlin
influence operations targeting the United States and its democratic processes._(U) In 2015, Torshin was appointed as the State Secretary-Deputy Governor of theCentral Bank of the Russian Fedi;ration. He retired from his post on November 30, 2018. 3782
The Central Bank of Russia is part of the Russian government and operates as the country's
central bank and monetary authority. Prior to his Central Bank appointment, Torshin was theFirst Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russiari
Federation. 3783 He was a member of the Federation Council from 2001 to 2015. 3784

3779(U) Ibid(U) See Statement of Offense, United States v. Mariia Butina, Case 1:18-cr-00218-TSC (D .D .C. December 13,2018). Butina had been arrested on July 15, 2018.
3781(U) Ibid., p. 2.
3782.(U) Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Press Service, "Personnel Changes," November 30, 2018,
3783(U) See, e.g., Alexander Torshin, "Terror from the Caucasus," The National Interest, March 24, 2011. Oil April
6, 2018, Torshin was listed among 17 Russian government officials sanctioned by the Department of the Treasury's
Office ofForeign Assets Control for Russia's global "malign activity." Treasury, "Treasury Designates Russian
Oli archs, Officials, and Entities in Res onse to Worldwide Mali n Activity," April 6, 2018.

3780

3784

576

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE. - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE..,. RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I

I

I

(U) Public reporting indicates that Torshin's targeting of U.S. political figures began as
early as 2009, with then-Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. According to documents released by
the Alaska Governor's Office in response to a public records request, an aide wrote to Palin in
May 2009 that she had "received a request to call the Russian Ambassador regarding a proposed
visit by Mr. Alexander Torshin, First Deputy Chairman of the Federal Council of the RussianFederal Assembly." The office referred the meeting to the Lt. Governor, who later said that hedid not recall meeting with Torshin. 3787

, "Documents Reveal How Russian Official Courted Conservatives In U.S. Since 2009," NPR,

577

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In 2011, Torshin met David Keene, the incoming-NRA president, at the annual NRA
convention in Pittsburgh through the NRA Secretary, Jim Land. 3788 Keene understood thatTorshin was "the speaker of the upper house" of the Russian legislature and assumed Torshin
had a "good relationship" with the government. 3789 According to Butina and press reporting,Tennessee attorney G. Kline Preston may also have been involved in the introduction. 3790 .

(U) Keene said that Torshin was "looking for assistance to try and validate his efforts toreform gun laws in Russia" and "wanted the association" with the NRA for that purpose. 3791
Keene also told the Committee that when he and Torshin spoke, Keene "spent a lot of timetalking about the NRA's role and how we promote our policies," which likely gave Torshin
insight into the connections between the NRA and U.S. politics. 3792

(U) Torshin registered as a life member of the NRA on February 10, 2012. The
membership lists the email address of Igor Matveev, a Russian diplomatic official with whom hetraveled to the United States in 2012, and G. Kline Preston's phone number. 3795

3788(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with David Keene, p. 22. In a written statement to the Committee, which
he described as a draft but still provided, Keene said that Torshin had asked for the introduction. Ibid, pp. 20-21,
25; see Written Statement, Keene to SSCI (Keene Production 000297). In his interview, however, Keene hedged: "I
don't know that, actually. That's what I put, but he may well have. Or Jim may have suggested or he may have said:
You're getting a new president [of the NRA]; could I meet him?" Keene Tr., p. 25.
3789(U) Ibid, p. 26.
3790(U) Butina Tr., p. 44; Anita Wadhwani, Joel Ebert, "Nashville lawyer who introduced Russian operative to the
NRA has ties to Blackbum," The Tennessean, March 20, 2018.
3791(U) Ibid, pp. 28-29.
3792
U Ibid . 103.
3793

I i ., p. 6.
(U) Email, Robinson to Grable, November 22, 2017 (NRA Production, 0000328, 0000333) (attaching
screenshot ofNRA membership records for Torshin and Butina); Email, Grable to Hallow, November 22, 2017
(NRA Production, 0000335).

3794 (U)3795

578

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

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(U) In 2012, Preston invited Torshin to Tennessee to observe the U.S. presidential
election. 3796 Matveev joined Torshin. 3797 Preston also reportedly accompanied Torshin toobserve Russian elections in 2011, 2012 and 2016.3798 The Committee did not examine theorigins of the relationship between Preston and Torshin, although Preston and Torshin were incontact during the 2016 U.S. election cycle.3799

3796(U) The Tennessee Secretary of State acknowledged this in a statement to NPR. Tim Mak, "Depth of Russian
Politician's Cultivation ofNRA Ties Revealed," NPR, March I, 2018. Documents released to NPR in response to
public records requests include an October 11 , 2012, memorandum for the Tennessee Secretary of State, regarding"Kline Preston," which states that "Russian Senator Alexander Torshin would like to observe our Presidential
election." Tim Mak, "Documents Reveal How Russian Official Courted Conservatives In U.S. Since 2009," NPR,
May 11, 2018. Torshin later posted a photo of himself in line at a polling place on Twitter on election day. See
Tweet,@torshin_ru, November 8, 2012.
3797(U) Documents released to NPR in response to public records requests also include an email from the ·Tennessee Coordinator of Elections dated October 11, 2012, stating "The gentlemen from Russia who are coming toobserve the election are: Senator Alexander P. Torshin and Mr. Igor A. Matveev .... Kline Preston will be the local
host." Tim Mak, "Documents Reveal How Russian Official Courted Conservatives In U.S. Since 2009," NPR, May
11 , 2018.
3798(U) Preston describes these trips on his law firm website. See klineprestonlaw.com/services/ intemational-law("Mr. Preston has served as an election observer in three Russian elections: the 20 11 Parliamentary Elections, the201 2 Presidential Elections and the 20 16 Parliamentary Elections."). Preston has also spoken about these trips in thepress. See, e.g., Tim Mak, "Documents Reveal How Russian Official Courted Conservatives In U.S. Since 2009,"
NPR, May 11 , 20 18.
3799(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Preston (Preston Production).

579

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
3. (U) Torshin and Butina Establish Relations with the NRA .

(U) In 2013, several NRA members-most notably its former President, David Keenevisited Moscow at Torshin's invitation to attend a conference hosted by Butina, where Keene
had been asked to give remarks. 3800 This trip marked the beginning ofButina's access to the
NRA and conservative U.S. political organizations.
i.

(U) 2013 NRA Trip to Moscow(U) Torshin invited Keene to Moscow to speak to Butina's organization, the Right to
Bear Arms, at its second annual conference in October 2013. 3801 At the time, Keene had not met
Btitina and her organization was relatively small, but he still accepted the invitation. 3802 He wentin his official NRA capacity, and the NRA paid for his trip. 3803
(U) The NRA hired Paul Erickson3804 to do advance work on the trip and accompany
Keene, even though he did not speak Russian and Keene did not know if he had been to Moscow
before. 3805 Erickson and Keene had known each other for about a decade. 3806 Keene said that
Erickson picked the Marriott hotel, arranged a museum visit, and selected restaurants forlunch, 3807 although Erickson's emails indicate that Butina made those arrangements herself. 3808
(U) On October 17, 2013, in their first contact known to the Committee, Erickson
emailed Butina with details about his and Keene's travel itinerary. 3809 Erickson advised that
Keene "may have one (1) formal diplomatic meeting on Wednesday, October 30 in the3800(U) Keene was NRA president from May 2011 to May 2013 and has been on the board since 2000. Keene Tr.,
pp.6-7,46.
.
3801(U) Ibid, p. 42. Butina recalled things differently, saying that Torshin provided her with a business card for an
NRA staff member and that she sent the NRA an email invitation. Butina Tr., p. 24.
3802(U) Keene Tr., pp. 42, 46-47.
3803(U) Ibid, pp. 46-47.
3804(U) On November 18, 2019, Erickson pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money
laundering, arising out of fraudulent schemes that resulted in over $2.3 million in loss, affecting over 78 people. See
Plea Agreement and Statement of Factual Basis, United States v. Paul Erickson, 4:19-cr-40015 (D.S.D. November
18, 2019). Documents reviewed by the Committee suggest that Butina may have been involved in one of Erickson's
schemes relating to the sale ofland in North Dakota, and count eight of the indictment, a charge to which Erickson
pleaded guilty, references a check made out to "M.B." As noted elsewhere, Erickson may have used some of these., funds to help Butina finance her education.
3805(U) Keene Tr., pp. 44-45.
3806(U) Ibid, pp. 43-44.
3807(U) Ibid, p. 54.
3808(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, October 18, 2013 (PAE0002659-2660).
3809(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, October 17, 2013 (PAE0000078).

580

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
afternoon," after his and Keene's arrival. 3810 Butina responded with an invitation on Torshin's
behalf for a 4:00 p.m. lunch on October 30. 3811 Erickson and Keene accepted the lunch
invitation. 3812
(U) After Keene arrived in Moscow on October 30, he had dinner with Torshin and
Torshin's wife. 3813 He did not recall any other meetings with government officials, althoughemails between Erickson and Butina suggest that Keene was scheduled to meet with DmitriPeskov, the Press Secretary for the Russian Presidential Administration, on the evening ofNovember 1.3814 The convention itself took place on October 31 and November 1, and Keene
was scheduled to give remarks on the second day. 3815 Keene told the Committee that he spoke
about "the history of firearms restrictions and freedoms in the United States."3816 The event was
attended by several hundred participants, from Russia and fifteen other countries. 3817
(U) Following the convention, Butina and Erickson remained in contact. On November
3 .and 7, 2013, Butina emailed Erickson and asked that he "refrain from publishing photos" ofKeene and Torshin "during [their] personal meeting at the restaurant," recommending insteadthat he only share photos from the conference. 3818 She explained, "I need time to think about
how to position the issue." 3819 Butina also advised Erickson: "Our officials are very closely
following the publication of journalists abroad." 3820 Butina told the Committee that she wasconcerned "Torshin would be very much criticized for his pro-American position."3821 However,
Torshin had been regularly attending NRA events for several years and was, according to Butina,
already an open supporter of her organization, and gun rights, generally, and the conference
attracted "a lot of media coverage."3822 Erickson accommodated the request. 3823

3810 (U)Email, Erickson to Butina, October 17, 2013 (PAE0000078). The Committee did not determine which
meeting Erickson was referring to.
3811(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, October 18, 2013 (PAE0002659-2660).
3812 (U) See Emails, Erickson and Butina, October 18, 2013 (PAE0002658).
3813(U) Keene Tr., p. 48.
3814 (U) Ibid., p. 54; Email, Erickson to Butina, October 31, 2013 (PAE0001376-1377) ("I will be free Friday night
after 9 PM (at the conclusion of Mr. Keene's meeting with Dmitri Peskov).").
3815 (U) Schedule of speeches, Program of the Second Annual Meeting (Keene Production 000017).
3816 (U) Written Statement, Keene to SSCI (Keene Production 000298).
3817(U) Keene Tr., p. 54; Butina Tr., p. 26.
3818 (U) Email, Butina to Erickson, November 3, 2013 (PAE0000047); Email, Butina to Erickson, November 7,2013 (PAE0002843, 2827).
3819(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, November 3, 2013 (PAE0000047). ,3820 (U) Email, Butina to Erickson, November 7, 2013 (PAE0002843).
3821(U) Butina Tr., p. 31.
·
3822(U) Ibid., pp. 33-34.
3823 (U) Email, Erickson to Butina, November 7, 2013 (PAE0002843).

581

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On November 6, 2013, Erickson also began assisting Butina in applying for a visa to
the United States to visit the NRA "for advice and guidance." 3824 This is the first instance that
the Committee is aware of in which Butina used the NRA as a basis for travel to the UnitedStates. The Committee found no evidence that this trip occurred, but Butina and Erickson met inIsrael in early 2014, when they first became romantically involved. 3825 Over time, Erickson
became integral to Butina's activities and assisted her in developing relationships withindividuals and organizations involved in U.S. politics.

ii.

(U) Butina and Torshin Pursue Follow-up Contacts with the NRA; .John
Bolton Records a Video for Butina's Organization(U) Butina and Torshin pursued several additional contacts with the NRA following theconference.

(U) First, Butina and Torshin requested additional American support for Russian guh
rights legislation following the conference, which culminated in remarks by John Bolton. to bepresented to the Duma. 3826 Keene, responding to a request from either Torshin or Butina,
contacted Bolton for the event. 3827 Keene did not recall mentioning Torshm's name to Bolton,
but did tell Bolton that the request had come from the speaker of the Duma. 3828
(U) In a letter to the Committee, Keene wrote that Torshin told him "Bolton's speech
went over very well and that he [Bolton] received a standing ovation from the Russian Senate on
its completion."3829 It is not clear that Bolton's remarks were part ofa formal Duma proceeding,however. According to Butina, Bolton simply taped the remarks and they were subsequently
transmitted to Butina by Erickson on December 9, 2013. 3830 Butina then showed the video thefollowing day at a session that included Duma members and also her organization. 3831

3824
· (U)

Email, Butina to Erickson, November 6, 2013 (PAE0002849-2852); Email, Erickson to Butina, November
7, 2013 (PAE0000906, 899); Email, Butina to Erickson, November 12, 2013 (PAE0000769) (attaching copy of draft
visa application).
3825(U) Butina Tr., p. 104.
3826
(U) Written Statement, Keene to SSCI (Keene Production, 000298).
3827(U) R~collections varied about exactly how this transpired. According to Butina, it was her idea to find a"respect[ ed] American politician or NRA member who would address [her] group and endorse [it]." She asked
Erickson, who in tum asked Keene, and they came back with the idea to use Bolton. Butina Tr.,.p. 251-52. Keene
recalled that Torshin asked him to find an American speaker to talk about gun rights at an upcoming meeting of theDuma. Keene said that Torshin specifically asked for an American, but did not want someone from the NRA. Keene
proposed John Bolton, who was a friend of his, and Torshin agreed. Keene Tr., pp. 81-82.
3828(U) Keene Tr., pp. 82-83 .
3829.
(U) Written Statement, Keene to SSCI (Keene Production, 000298).
3830(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, December 9, 2013 (PAE0000072).
3831(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, December 11, 2013 (PAE0003013); Photograph of Bolton's remarks to Butina'sorganization (PAE0001217). The Committee did not seek to engage with Bolton.

582

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY .

(U) On December 13, Keene emailed Butina directly to follow up on the Bolton video.
He also asked for advice from Butina and Torshin on whether to invite Dmitry Rogozin to an
event in Las Vegas in 2014:

I'm glad the Bolton tape worked out and I hope we helped a little.
A friend of the NRA here called me to ask a favor the other day. He is apparently afriend of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin who would like to al/end theS. H. 0. T Show in Las Vegas in January. Rogozin is, according to my friend, afirearms lover and has heard that the show is something worth attending.
. . . . My friend asked if I would be willing to have NSSF invite Rogozin and I told
him I would get back to him.
In all that has to do with Russia, we take our lead from you and Senator Torshin.
If the two ofyou think we should do this favor, I will. If not, we won 't. Ifyou wantme to arrange the invitation, we can make clear that the favor is being done becauseof our friendship with Torshin. 3832

3832 (U)Email, Keene to Butina, December 13, 2013 (PAE0000302, PAE0000296).

583

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
(U) Later that day, Butina responded with her and Torshin's recommendation to extend
the invitation to Rogozin:

We talked with Mr. Torshin on your invitation [to] Mr. Rogozin. We are confident
that this will greatly strengthen our position in Russia.
Dmitry 0. really is a great lover of weapons. Moreover, I am a member of one ofhis expert groups for changes in our legislation on weapons.
.lfyou mention in conversation about Senator Torshin and me it would be great/3 833(U) In addition, in early November 2013, Butina and Erickson discussed the concept ofan NRA-hosted event in Moscow in 2014 to honor Butina's group, Torshin, arid General Mikhail
Kalashnikov, an idea that Torshin and Keene had raised during the Right to Bear Arms
conference. Erickson characterized the idea as having "HIGH importance to the NRA," andsuggested that "the NRA would bring its top officers and key supporters to Moscow in a show of
support for your work." He added: "Our hope would be that Sen. Torshin would be featured at
this banquet AND, if appropriate, that Sen. Torshin would invite President Putin to attend as
well."3834 Keene explained the idea to the Committee as a way to raise funds from the NRA's
most significant donors, who comprise the NRA's "Ring of Freedom" group. 3835
(U) Keene said that the idea did not come· to fruition because of souring diplomatic
relations and because Kalashnikov passed away in December 2013. 3836 In January 2014,
Keene-the opinion editor at The Washington Times-published an op-ed by Torshin about
Kalashnikov, which Butina and Erickson helped translate to English. 3837
iii.

(U) Butina Attends the 2014 NRA Annual Meetings in Indianapolis(U) In April 2014, Butina attended the NRA's annual meetings in Indianapolis. Torshin
did not accompany her. 3838 This was her first trip to the United States, although she had
previously been rejected for a visa. 3839 She obtained her visa for this trip with Keene andErickson's assistance, 3840 and in one email to Keene, Butina asked for advice to prepare for herinterview:
·

\
3833

(U) Email, Butina to Keene, December 13, 2013 (PAE0000620).
(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, November 7, 2013 (PAE0000087-88).
3835(U) Keene Tr., p. 23.
3836(U) Ibid, p. 24.
3837(U) Ibid, pp. 57-58; Butina Tr., pp. 42-43; Alexandr Torshin, "Kalashnikov, the man and the weapon," The
Washington Times, January 2, 2014.
3838(U) Butina Tr., pp. 24-25.
3839(U) Ibid, p. 13.
3840(U) Email, Erickson to Keene and Hallow, April 7, 2014 (PAE0000626, PAE0000633-635) (forwarding
Butina's update on her visa interview and advising that "we need to make our visa assistance calls in the next 48
3834

584

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Is there anything that lshould say - or not say - in this interview in light ofyour
calls made on my behalf? I don 't want to say the wrong thing, or not say the rightthing, that would undo the steps you've taken on my behalf. 3841
Keene responded, "Don't mention calls. Just proceed as normal co~se ofbusiness." 3842 K~ene
told the Committee that he had spoken with a staff member for then-Congressman Edward
Royce to help ~utina's visa efforts, which he described as a "standard call."3843{U) Butina arrived in Indianapolis on April 22. 3844 While at the annual meetings, Butina
planned to meet with Keene, 3845 and Keene invited her to the NRA's "Ring of Freedom"
reception as his guest and scheduled her to deliver five minutes of remarks at the dinner. 3846
Keene also said Butina would "be introduced at other functions," 3847 and Butina recalledmeeting the NRA Chief Executive, Wayne LaPierre, and its then-president, Jim Porter, andgiving the latter a framed pic~re. 3848·

(U) Following the Indianapolis meetings, Butina invited Keene on a return visit to
Moscow for her organization's third annual conference, to be held i_n September 2014. Keenedeclined due to the mid-term elections and because he planned to be on the road, but added a
promise to "come next fall if you still want me" and extended an invitation to Torshin and Butina
to attend the 2015 NRA Annual Meeting in Nashville. 3849·
'j(U) At the end of 2014, Butina pursued further opportunities to engage with Keene andthe NRA .. On Pecember 1, Butina emailed Erickson to request his assistance with a plan for two
Russian firearms companies to visit the United States for the April 2015 NRA convention in
Nashville and to meet NRA leadership and key donors. 3850 According to Butina's email, both

hours" and reiterating the need for "[t]he favor we need from a U.S. Congressman."); Email, Keene to Butma, April
7, 2014 (PAE0000973) ("I will personally follow up at this end on the visa request, etc, so don't hesitate to contact
me at any time.")3841(U) Email, Butina to Keene, April 8, 2014 (PAE0005026).
3842
U) Email, Keene to Butina, April 8, 2014 (PAE0005026).
3843(U) Keene Tr., pp. 69-70. It is unclear.what Keene meant by "standard call." At the time, Royce was
Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
3844(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, April 9, 2014 (PAE0001704).
3845(U) Email, Keene to Butina, April 10, 2014 (PAE0002651).
3846(U) Email, Keene to Butina, April 10, 2014 (PAE0002669).
3847 (U) Ibid.
3848(U) Butina Tr., pp. 130-31.
3849(U) Email, Butina to Keene, August 26, 2014 (MB 0006933).
3850(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, December 1, 2014 (PAE0000528-529). One of the companies was the"Scientific Research Institute of Applied Chemistry." The other was the "Vyatsko-Polyansky Engineering Plant,"
which, according to open-source information, was a subsidiary ofRostec, the Russian st.ate-owned holding

585

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

were interested in developing business opportunities to sell firearms in the United States andwere "very well prepared to pay" her for the trip. 3851 On January 22, 2015, Butina sent her·request to Keene to help the two Russian companies secure invitations to the Nashvilleconvention. 3852 It is unknown if representatives from the companies ultimately traveled to theUnited States to meet with the NRA.
(U) In January 2015, Torshin was appointed as the vice chairman of the Russian Central
Bank, which required him· to leave his position in the Federation Council. On January 20, Butina
alerted Keene by email-which she then forwarded to Ericksori-ofTorshin's appointment, andexpressed concern over the implications for Torshin's continuing relationship with the NRA:
"We have not known yet are these news good or bad.... We also will discuss the Upcoming
NRA Annual Meeting and the possibility to him to participate [in] it but I think there are very
few chances that it is possible now."3853

4. (U) Torshin and Butina Leverage NRA Relationships(U) Beginning in 2015, Torshin and Butina developed and operationalized a plan, which
she called the "Diplomacy Project," to create channels· for informal communication between the
Russian and U.S. governments. The plan involved using their existing connections in the NRA
to develop further contacts with the Republican Party and conservative U.S. political circles.
Their effort was known to, and likely approved by, the Kremlin and Russian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.

i.

(U) _Butina and Torshin Develop a Plan for an "Informal Channel ofCommunication" Between the United States and Russia(U) In mid-February 2015, Butina wrote to David Keene and his wife, Donna, with an
update about Torshin's appointment and his "recommendation" that she expand her relationshipwith the Republican Party and, with the Keenes' help, lay the foundation for a "trusted dialogue"
between Russia and the United States:

Yesterday I met with Mr. Torshin. After his appoinhnent fo a new high position.
within the Russian Central Bank, his position is greatly strengthened because his

conglomerate. In 2017, the Vyatsko-Polyansky Engineering Plant declared bankruptcy. See "'Hammer' will gounder the hammer," Kommersant, February 7, 2017.
·
3851(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, December 1, 2014 (PAE0000521, 528-529).
3852(U) Butina also provided Keene with descriptions of the weapons these companies produced, passports for theirrepresentatives, and letters from business partners. Email, Butina to Keene, January 20, 2015 (PAE0002440).
3853(U) Email, Butina to Keene, January 20, 2015 (PAE0002440).

586

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE. - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

appointment was the result ofprivate conversations with our president. Of course,
th.is provides additional opportunities to promote our thoughts and ideas. ...
However, I can write that in connection with the now changed situation, he
recom17Jended that I expand my participation in conferences and meetings in thepolitical circles of the US Republican Party as much as possible. There will be a
day soon when new leadership will need a trusted dialogue between our countries.
For help and advice on this issue, he recommended (which I totally agree!) to lookorzly to you. 3854
(U) Two weeks later, Butina was invited to two events scheduled for February 26, hosted
by The Washington Times during the CPAC conference. 3855 Erickson sent Butina an email thenext day attaching a photo of her and Walker from one of the events. 3856

(U) Following Torshin's recommendation, Butina formalized her plan in a document thatshe subsequ~ntly translated using Google-Translate and emailed to Erickson on March 24,
2015. 3857 The subject line of the email was "The Second Pozner," a reference to a Soviet Union
spokesperson who Butina described as "the unofficial transmitter of Gorbachev' s and Yeltsin' s
policies in the US." 3858 In it, Butina described a plan, entitled in the email as "Project·
Description: Diplomacy," to use her connections with the NRA to create an "informal channel ofcommunication" with the next U.S. presidential administration, which she predicted would be a
Republican one, for the benefit of the Russian government; she also requested funding for the
project. 3859
(U) In the document, Butina described the perceived centrality of the NRA to
Republican Party politics, her own connections with NRA leadership (specifically Keene), andtouted her interactions with leading Republican Party presidential candidates:

3854(U) Email, Butina to Keene and Keene, February 10, 2015 (PAE0002077, 2084).
(U) Email, D. Keene to Butina, February 24, 2016 (PAE0000248); Email, D. Keene to Butina, February 24,
2016 (PAE0000271). At the time, Keene served as an opinion editor of The Washington Times. Keene Tr., p. 7.
3856·(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, February 26, 2015 (PAE0001353); Email, Butina to Erickson, April 14, 2015
(PAE0001952).
3857(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, March 24, 2015 (PAE0002573, 2560-2565). A Russian version was separatelytranslated and provided as an exhibit to the government's sentencing memorandum in Butina's criminal case. The
wording is similar, but not identical. See United States' Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, United States v. Mariia
Butina, 1:18-cr-00218-TSC (D.D.C. April 19, 2019), and Exhibit 3 thereto. In one line in the government's exhibit,
Butina writes: ''The [Republican Party] leadership sees a connection: 'Spokesperson - [redacted] - access to
VVP,'" but the translation is not as clear in the Committee's Google-translated version. Ibid (bold in original).
3858(U) United States' Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, United States v. Mariia Butina, l:18-cr-00218-TSC(D.D.C. April 19, 2019), Exhibit 3.
3859(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, March 24, 2015 (PAE0002573, 2560-2565).
3855

587

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONIIY

During [her] recent visits to events in the United States RP [Republican Party]
speaker [Butina] was presented to all the main, leaders of the top of the RP as. a"representative of informal diplomacy" of the Russian Federation. Also took her
personal acquaintance with Scott Walker and all candidates presidential primaryRP. 3860'(U) Butina summarized her activities in the United States and then wrote, in bold: "Thusthe groundwork for reliable contact in negotiating with the future US administration canbe said to have been laid." 3861 Under the header "Next Steps," Butina continued by identifying
her plan to develop contacts with the Republican Party leadership:

Speaker [Butina] should take part in all upcoming major c.onferences RP (about 1
time per month in different cities across the US - the list is attached below in
Appendix 2), to act in the American press as an expert on Russia and have regularcontact with the leadership of the [Republican Party]. 3862
(U) Butina concluded the description with a request for funding in the amount of$125,000 to attend a series of Republican-focused conferences and interface with Russian
government and business figures to understand their interests. 3863·
(U) Several days later, Erickson responded that he "underst[oo]d your need to discuss ·with your Russian patrons/sponsors your potential contacts in America with political, media andbusiness leaders." 3864 He added:Your challenge in your· "special project" will be to balance two opposing
imperatives: Your desire to communicate that you speak for Russian interests thatwill be ascendant (still around) in a post-Putin world while simultaneously doing
nothing to criticize the President or speed the arrival of his successor. ...
[A]s with the media contacts, there is NO limit as to how many American companies
that you can meet-at the highest levels-ifyou are able to represent that you are.
a potential line ofcommunication into future Russian Federation governments. 3865

3860

·

(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, March 24, 2015 (PAE0002561).
(U) United States' Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, United States v. Mariia Butina, 1:18-cr-00218-TSC(D.D.C. April 19, 2019), Exhibit 3 (bold in original).
3862(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, March 24, 2015 (PAE0002562).
3863(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, March 24, 2015 (PAE0002561).
3864(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, March 29, 2015 (PAE0000678).
3865 (U) Ibid
3861

\

588

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In addition to recommending certain networking opportunities to further Butina's"diplomacy" project, Erickson also organized her travel through the United States that summer.
The tripdncluded stops in South Dakota to visit Erickson's home and a youth camp engagement;
Nevada for FreedomFest, Wisconsin for Scott Walker's campaign announcement, and Tennessee
for, among other things, dinner with G. Kline Preston, before returning to Moscow. 3866
(U) Erickson was not alone in providing travel recommendations to Butina. In March
2015, Donna Keene sent Butina a list of "Key Gonservative Meeting Dates" from theConservative Action Project. That email included apparent recommendations and notes from the
Keenes, and Erickson was copied on the email. 3867
(U) Butina later made her pitch for Republican Party cooperation with Russia in a June
12, 2015, article she published with The National Interest, entitled "The Bear and the
Elephant. " 3868

ii.

(U) Butina and Torshin Attend the 2015 NRA Convention and Meet
Scott . Walker(U) In April 2015, Butina and Torshin traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to attend the
NRA's annual meetings. Erickson helped to arrange tl_ie trip and communicated with the NRA
about Butina and Torshin's travel plans. 3869 Nick Perrine, assistant to the NRA's President, 3870
handled the itinerary. 3871 Formal invitations for Butina and Torshin were provided by the NRA
presumably to assist with obtaining visas.3872(U) Prior to the NRA event, the Center for National Interest (CNI), a conservative public
policy think tank, arranged meetings and a lunch for Torshin and Butina with several U.S.
Government officials and other individuals. 3873 Meetings were scheduled with Stanley Fischer,
vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve; Nathan.Sheets, the Under Secretary ofTreasµry for

3866(U) "Maria's Trip to the U.S.A.," (PAE0000714). The Committee assesses, based on the use ofButina's initials
and the timing, that Erickson caused $8,000 to be wired to one ofButina's bank accounts shortly before the trip. See
Indictment, United States v. Paul Erickson, 4:19-cr-40015 (D.S.D. November 18, 2019).
3867(U) Email, Keene to Butina and Erickson, March 16, 2015 (PAE0000195).
3868(U) Maria Butina, "The Bear and the Elephant,>i The National Interest, June 12, 2015. Butina shared the article
with Keene after it.was published. Email, Butina to Keene, June 17, 2015 (PAE0002535-2536). The National
Interest is published by The Center for National Interest (CNI).
3869(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, April 1, 2016 (PAE0000269).
3870(U) Keene Tr., p. 189.
3871
(U) Emails, Perrine and Butina, March 16-March 26, 2016 (PAE0000386-394).
3872 (U) See Letter, Land to Butina, February 5, 2015 (NRA Production, 000001); Letter, Land to Torshin, February
5, 2015 (NRA Production 000002).
·
3873(U) Email, Saunders to Torshin, April 5, 2015 (PAE0000414-415).

589

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTI,GATION ONLYInternational Affairs; and Randy Weber, a Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee. 3874 The CNI lunch, which took place on April 7, was led by Hank Greenberg, andattended by David Keene, Grover Norquist, and several other individuals from CNI, including
Dmitri Simes, Richard Burt and Paul Saunders. 3875 Simes, the President and CEO of CNI, hadpreviously met Torshin on a trip to Moscow. 3876 In an email to K.T. McFarland, who later joined
the Trump Transition Team and eventually became the Deputy National Security Advisor,
Erickson described the lunch as a "'Russian star Chamber' of guests" to provide "[d]eep
briefings ahead of the Russian 'invasion' of the NRA Annual Meeting in Nashville atthe end of
the week." 3877 Afterwards, Torshin met with Greenberg and two associates to discuss "Russia's
economic situation" and the 1TB (lnvesttgorbank), a Russian bank where Greenberg had made asignificant financial investment that was proving problematic. 3878
(U) Butina and Torshin flew from Washington, D.C., to Nashville on the evening ofApril 7, 2015. On April 8, at Keene's invitation, Torshin gave remarks at the NRA's Charlton
Heston Recognition Dinner that Keene summarized as, "Thank you. I'm so honored to be

3874(U) Ibid; Email, Saunders to Butina, April 4, 2015 (PAE0000392); "Events for Mr. Alexander Torshin & Ms.
Maria Butina'' (PAE0002077).
3875 (U) Email, Saunders to Torshin, April 5, 2015 (PAE0000414-415); Email, Negrouk to Butina (PAE0000401,
409-410).
.
3876(U) Simes Tr., 120-121.
3877(U) Email, Erickson to McFarland, April 4, 2015 (PAE0001227).
3878(U) Email, Saunders to Torshin, April 5, 2015 (PAE0000414-415). A fund run by Greenberg, Starr
Foundation, had invested in ITB in 2008, according to open sources. See "Westerners shell out Rub 5 bin for 40%
oflnvesttorgbank," Banki.ru, June 27, 2008. In August 2015, several months after Torshin's meeting with
Greenberg, Erickson emailed Greenberg with research by Butina on questions Greenberg "had raised on the call"that morning about the Russian Central Bank. Email, Erickson to Greenberg, cc: Butina, August 3, 2015 (MB0003861). Butina indicated that Simes later engaged Torshin (and to a lesser extent, Butina)"in an unsuccessful
eff~rt to help Greenberg's financial position with ITB. Butina Tr., pp. 109-110 (stating that Butina instructed Simes
and Greenberg to use her as a conduit to Torshin). In Butina's November 2016 messages with Torshin, they
discussed ways to stem Simes's calls to Torshin on the ITB matter. See Twitter direct messages, Butina andTorshin, November 17, 2015. For his part, Simes became wary ofButina after she appeared to him in various
roles-at first.as a translator for Torshin, then later as substantively involved with Torshin and the Central Bank.
Simes Tr., pp. 125-127. In November 2016, Butiha told Torshin that Simes "gave a direct order to his staff to nottalk to me under the threat of being fired. He says I work for the SVR." Twitter direct messages, Butina andTorshin, November 13, 2015 (Direct messages between Butina and Torshin were originally produced by Butina to
the Committee in Russian and then translated). Simes similarly testified to the Committee that he had expressedsignificant reservations about Butina: "I could not understand-I did not know and I don't want to say more than I
know, because I cannot say with any degree of confidence that any of them, particularly Ms. Butina, were Russian
intelligence agents. What I knew, that she was not what she was trying to pretend to be, particularly because she
clearly had multiple personalities in her discussions with Americans." Simes Tr., p. 128. Simes described his lastinteraction with Butina, in which Butina invited him to dinner to talk about the Central Bank. He declined, but she
insisted, saying she had "something important to share," and so he agreed to meet her at his office. But Butina thenarrived at CNI with Paul Erickson and again they in".ited him to dinner; Simes refused, cut the meeting short, anddirected his staff not to let her into CNI again. Ibid., pp. 126-127.

590

here." 3879 Butina translated for Torshin. 3880 Torshin was the only foreign official at the dinner,
although Keene claimed that others had attended in the past. 3881 Butina and Torshin were alsoslated to attend the Ring of Freedom reception on April 9 before being hosted by Keene fordinner that night.3882(U) During the Nashville convention, Keene gave a replica of a Civil War revolver toTorshin; Keene further suggested that they use the diplomatic pouch to help Torshin get it backto Russia. 3883 Torshin rejected the idea. 3884 In chats with Butina, Torshin later asked about therevolver's make and year issued for shipment to Russia.3885 A photograph captures Keene(second from left) presenting a revolver to Torshin (far right)3886 :(U) Their itinerary also included attendance at the ILA (Institute for Legislative Action)
Leadership Forum, which Keene described as a forum for political speakers that is hosted by the3879(U) Keene Tr., pp. 95-96; Email, Perrine to Butina, March 20, 2015 (PAE0000387); Email, Perinne to Butina,
April 4, 2015 (PAE0000690).
3880(U) ibid., p. 96.
3881 (U) ibid.
3882(U) Email, Perrine to Butina, April 4, 2015 (PAE0000690, 699) (attaching events schedule).
3883(U) Keene Tr., pp. 162- 163.
3884 (U) ibid.
3885(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, July 10-23, 2015.
3886(U) Twitter direct message, Butina to Torshin, August 9, 2015 (MB 0000106).

591

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(

NRA's political lobbying arm. 3887 Torshin later posted on Twitter that he had met Trump. 3888
Keene did not have any personal knowledge as to whether Torshin and Butina attended theforum or whether Torshin in fact met Trump. 3889 The Committee has no further information onwhether Torshin met Trump.
(U) Butina and Torshin were specifically interested in meeting U.S. Government
officials at the NRA meetings. Butina asked the NRA for "a list of U.S. Governors or Membersof Congress that might be present at some time during the Annual Meeting."3890 Perrine
responded with a link to a list of Republican politicians who planned to attend the NRA-ILA
leadership forum. 3891 Butina later shared with Erickson a file of "all the important people [theywould] meet," which she called "The VIP Presentation."3892 Neither Butina nor Erickson
produced this file to the Committee.
(U) At one reception during the convention, Keene introduced Torshin and Butina to
Scott Walker. Keene, who is from Wisconsin, was supporting Walker's candidacy at thetime. 3893 Keene said he did not recall which reception it was or whether ·he had invited them tothe reception in the first place. 3894 Butina and Torshin presented Walker with a gift from Russia
and spoke to Walker briefly. 3895 Butina described their conversation with Walker as "small
talk," but acknowledged that she expressed her desire for "good relations" between Russia andthe United States. 3896 An email she later sent to Erickson, translated from Russian, was moredetailed: "We talked about Russia, any aggression against our country, the president or mycountrymen I have not heard'. Who knows, maybe such a meeting is the beginning of a new
dialogue between Russia and the United States and back from the Cold War to a peacefulexistence of the two great powers?!" 3897
(U) Butina and Torshin remained interest~d in Walker's political prospects. Later thatsummer, on July 13, Butina and Erickson flew to Wisconsin to attend Scott Walker's official

3887(U) Keene Tr., pp. 97-98.
(U) Tweet, @torshin_ru, August 23, 2015. According to public reporting, Torshin also claimed that Trump said
to him: "You're from Russia. When are you going to invade Latvia?" Tim Dickinson, "Inside the Decade-Long
Russian Campaign to Infiltrate the NRA and Help Elect Trump," Rolling Stone, April 2, 2018.
3889(U) Ibid Emails indicated Torshin and Butina offered to provide an item for the ILA auction, which the ILA
declined. Emails, Butina and Perrine, March 23, 2015 (PAE0002914-2915).
3890(U) Email, Butina to Perrine, March 20, 2015 (PAE0002917).
3891(U) Email, Perrine to Butina, March 20, 2015 (NRA Production, 0000775).
3892(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, April 5, 2015 (PAE0001324).
3893(U) Keene Tr., pp. 99-100.
3894(U) Ibid, pp. 101-02.
3895(U) Butina Tr., p. 136.
3896
(U) Ibid, pp. 142--43.
3897(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, April 24, 2015 (PAE0000380-381). The email suggests that this text was to be
used in a blog post about the meeting, based on a decision by Torshin.
3888

592

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

announcement of his candidacy for president. Judging from a photo Erickson later sent to
Butina, Butina met former Senator Jim Talent, Walker's national security advisor, at theevent.3898 Butina kept Torshin apprised of developments with Walker, telling him of her plans toattend the announcement and asking for the Russian Federation's view of his candidacy. Torshin
replied, "no one is even looking in that direction. You will be the creator of somethingsensational, God Willing!" In a chat the next day with Torshin, Butina wrote: "Impressed. His
chances are very high." 3899·
(U) At Torshin's request, Butina provided an analytical assessment of Walker's
announcement and prospects for the Republican nomination. 3900 In a paper titled "US
Republican Party candidate Scott Walker's announcement on joining the presidential race,
analysis of the election campaigns, and a preliminary forecast," Butina provided historicalbackground on Walker's political career and assessed his chances at winning the nomination.
She also described an interaction with him and touted her prior.contacts:·
After the event, Mariya Butina had an opportunity for a short personal contact
with Walker . ... As a reminder, Mariya Butina has had personal contact with .
Walker more than once, taking part in his'private reception under the Frameworkof The Conservative. Union annual conference in Washington as well as inprivate me.eting at the at the annual gathering of members of the USA National
Rifle Association (the NRA) in 2015. 3901 .
·a(U) Butina was not the only Russian government representative !llaking inroads with the
NRA. In 2015, Ambassador Kislyak interacted repeatedly with NRA leadership. In mid-June,
Kislyakhosted Keene for lunch at the Russian Embassy. Keene recalled that the two spoke
about the NRA museum and the possibility of Keene helping Kislyak with his duck hunting on
the Eastern Shore ofMaryland. 3902 Ambassador Kislyak later vis.ited the NRA on August 20,
2015, where he met with Allan Cors and David Keene. 3903

3898(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, July 13, 2015 (MB 0007286-88).
(U) Twitter direct messages, Butina and Torshin, July 13-14, 2015.
3900(U) Twitter direct messages, Butina and Torshin, July 14, 2015.
3901(U) Twitter direct messages, Butina and Torshin, July 14,.2015. Butina's descriptions of her activities, as,conveyed in these analytical papers, were often written in tµe third person.
3902(U) Keene Tr., p. 176.
_
3903
(U) Email, Holden to Staples, August 20, 2015 (NRA Production, 000026) (providing "daily report" noting thatat 10:34 a.m. "The Russian Ambassador Sergey Kiflyak [sic] is on site. I escorted him to the South tower andstayed with him until Mr. Cors, Mr. Keene and Nick Perrine arrived."); Emails, Keene and Melnik (Chief of Staff toKislyak), August 17, 2017 (NRA Production, 0003680) (agreeing to August 20 visit).
3899

593

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE-SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In mid-June, Butina inquired about Keene's lunch with Kislyak, and Keene gave hera read-out. 3904 It was not clear when or how Butina had learned of the lunch, or if she wasinvolved in arranging it. When asked, Butina speculated that Keene and Kislyak may have met
through a pre-existing project to promote Russian culture by the The Washington Times, where
Keene worked, in connection with the Russian Embassy. 3905 But she also recalled meeting
Kislyak in person and talking with him "about the NRA, and I told [him] that, look, these.are
great guys and why wouldn't you have communication and talk to them?" 3906
(U) Butina' s contemporaneous notes of a May 2015 meeting with Kislyak, obtained by
the FBI via a search of her computer, suggest that Butina and Kislyak had a detailed.
conversation related to U.S. politics. For example, Butina told Kislyak she would "send thename of the advisor [to Scott Walker] who can come to Moscow."3907 The notes also suggested
that Kislyak expressed his belief that the NRA could "become one of the points of cooperation"
and wanted to meet with Keene; Butina agreed to send him Keene's contact information. 3908
Based on this, the Committee found it likely that Butina was involved in arranging the meetingand provided Kislyak and the Russi~n government with details about Keene and the NRA.

iii.

(U) Butina Attends the FreedomFest Convention(U) In July 2015, Butina attended the libertarian FreedomFest convention in Las Vegas
with Erickson. Erickson helped to secure an invitation for Butina and registered them for private
events with Norquist, Dinesh D'Souza, and Peter Thiel. 3909 The formal invitation arrived onJune 25. 3910

(U) Although it did not initially appear on her schedule, Butina attended a speech by
Trump and asked him whether, if elected president, he would continue the sanctions imposed
against Russia in 2014. Trump responded:

3904(U) Email, Keene to Butina, June 17, 2015 (PAE0002535-2536).
(U) Butina Tr., pp. 58-59.
3906(U) Ibid, p. 59.
3907(U) United States' Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, United States v. Maria Butina, Case 1: 18-cr-00218TSC, pp. 5-6, April 19, 2019, and Exhibit 5 thereto. Butina did not produce these notes to the Committee, and they
were partially redacted in public filings. Butina may have been referring to Jim Talent, an advisor to the Walker
campaign whom Butina had previously met.
3908
(U) For example, the notes indicate that Kislyak informed Butina that he had attended a museum with aredacted name "when its office was in Washington." United States' Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, UnitedStates v. Maria Butina, Case 1:18-cr-00218-TSC, pp. 5-6, April 19, 2019, and Exhibit 5 thereto. Keene told theCommittee a similar story about his encounter with Kislyak, and relayed that Kislyak said that he would visit the old
NRA museum during a prior tour in Washington, D.C., but that it had since moved, and he wanted to see the new
one in Fairfax. Keene Tr., pp. 175-177
3909(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, June 25, 2015 (PAE0000468).
3910(U) Email, Dillon to Butina, June 25, 2015 (PAE0000l 12).
3905

594

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I know Putin, and I'll tell you what, we get along with Putin. . . . I believe I would
get along very nicely with Putin, okay? And I mean where we have the strength.
Tdon 't think you'd need the sanctions.
(U) In her interview with the Committee, Butina suggested that her question to Trumpcame about as pure happenstance, without anyone's assistance or tasking. 3911 Butina did tell the
Committee, however, that she was excited by her ability to ask a question of Trump and called
Torshin from the restroom, noting that it "was my best report." 3912 Erickson attenaed the eventwith Butina, and may have taken the picture Butina posted to her T'Yitter account the evening ofJuly 11, with the Google-translated text: "Asked Donald Trump about his position on Russia.
Trump is saying abouf mitigation of sanctions."3913(U) During her time at FreedomFest, Butina also met Patrick Byrne, former CEO of
Overstock.com, for the first time. Butina did not convey her interest in Byrne at FreedomFest to
the Committee, noting that "someone was talking about Bitcoin, and there were some fresh ideasthat I wanted to discover," but not mentioning Byrne by name. 3914 However, the Committee
assesses that both Erickson and Butina viewed Byrne, at least initially, as a vector to yet another
Republican presidential candidate, Senator Rand Paul.
(U) On July 9, 2015, Erickson sent Butina an email with a proposed draft message that
she was to send to Byrne. The draft message thanked Byrne for greeting her at. FreedomFest,·
and stated that "[Byrne's] remarks about the coming 'electronic' changes in our 2ist Century
economy were exciting." The email expressed Butina's desire to talk to Byrne about the kinds ofreforms Russia should be embracing, stating that "[we] need ideas like yours that are foreign to a
generation ofleaders that tend to go back to old Soviet ways." The draft concluded by saying "I
am at Freedom Fest until Sunday-maybe if you had 10 minutes in your schedule we could havecoffee or a drink. I am thirsty for great ideas! !"3915(U) That evening, Erickson sent an email with the subject line "Byrne Me!" to Ralph
Benko, suggesting that Erickson and Butina had attended the July 9 panel discussion about

3911(U) Butina Tr., p. 243.
(U) Ibid., 244.
3913(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, March 11, 2017 (MB 0004323--4324).
3914(U) Butina Tr., p. 241..
.
.
.
3915
(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, July 9, 2015 (PAE0000082). The Committee only obtained Erickson's draft
message. Neither Butina nor Erickson produced an actual email that was sent to Byrne, although other documents
produced to the Committee suggest it, or something similar, was sent to Byrne. The time stamp for the email,.and
its equivalent in production from Butina, indicates Erickson sent the draft text to Butina on July 9, 201_5. Email,
Erickson to Butina, July 9, 2015 (MB0003883).
3912

595

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Bitcoin at which Byrne was scheduled to speak. 3916 The email purported to provide the recipienta "quick report from the front[.]" In it, Erickson described how he greeted Byrne and discussed
Overstock.corn's work with women in Afghanistan, and Byrne's interest in Butina. 3917
(U) Benko replied 20 minutes later, and suggested a more-than-passing knowledge of
Butina, saying "Maria would capture the attention of any red blooded American."3918 He went
on to describe Byrne's potential importance to Paul's campaign:

Keep in the back ofyour (and maybe her) mind that Patrick has let himself betapped by Rand to be Rand's tech swami, good move by Rand, and. .. after
eliminating the burst of notoriety by That Asshole The Donald, today's polls have
Rand tied with Jeb! and Rand is hanging in there in-the top tier in the early
primary states.
You don't have to believe that Rand is viable. .. Just believe that Patrick Believes. 3919
(U) Later that evening, Erickson forwarded the entire email chairi to Butina, with a one
sentence suggestion: "For your preparation!" 3920

iv.

(U) Butina and Torshin Meet with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in Moscow(U) In August 2015, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher traveled to Russia as part of a
Congressional Delegation (CODEL). David Keene recommended that, during his trip, he meetwith Torshin. 3921 To facilitate the introduction, Keene sent a letter to Torshin-throughButina---on July 17. 3922 Keene's letter requested meetings for Rohrabacher with Torshin andother Russian government officials "who can brief them on the ways in which Washington andMoscow work together''. in combating terrorism, and suggested a meeting with the Russian
Foreign Minister. 3923 Butina translated the document and sent it to Torshin the next day over
Twitter. Torshin agreed to th~ meeting. 3924

3916(U) FreedomFest 2015 schedule, freedomfest2015.sched.com.
(U) For example, Erickson wrote: "But when he met our Russian gun rights woman, Maria, his eyes lit up andhis schedule cleared ... they are discussing economic reforms in Russia in a private meeting tomorrow. I think we
now know how to capture his attention ... and it ain't with women in burkas." Email, Erickson to Benko, July 9,2015 (MB0003888) (ellipses in original).
3918(U) Email, Benko to Erickson, July 9, 2015 (MB0003887).
3919 (U) Ibid
3920
(U) Ibid In addition to the language identified here, the Committee found further discussion of Byrne's
potential intimate involvement with or interest in Butina, as noted infra.
3921(U) Rohrabacher Tr., pp. 52-53.
3922(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, July 18, 2015.
3923(U) Letter; Keene to Torshin, July 17, 2015 (Keene Production, 000001-000002).
3924(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, July 18, 2015.
3917

596

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On August 3, ahead of the meeting, Torshin and Butina discussed Rohrabacher over
Twitter direct message, and Torshin expressed his belief that Rohrabacher was "under the watch"of the Russian Foreign Ministry:

Torshin: Mariya! Remind me once again the last name of the Congressional
committee chair who is coming to see us?
Butina: Dana Rohrabacher.
Butina: Head of the subcommittee for international relations for Europe,
Eurasia, and emerging threats
Torshin: Thanks! What do they write about him? How is he with respect toRussia?
Butina: A member of the NRA.
Butina: You won't believe it: he supports the annexation of Crimea to Russia.
Butina: He voted against financial support from the US to the new Ukrainian
government
Butina: Against the US sanctions with respect to Russia, called.them
ridiculous. 3925

(U) Torshin later added:
Torshin: Precisely for this reason I think that he is under the watch of the RF

MFA. 3926 ·,\(U) Rohrabacher recalled that he met with Torshin and Butina for breakfast. 3927 In an
email to Keene after the breakfast, Butina wrote: "We had a very good and importantconversation. We are sure that it will be very helpful in building the future relations between thetwo countries." 3928 Butina added that they "discussed with Dana that we could meet in the U.S.

3925

(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, July 28-August 3, 2015.
(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, August 3, 2015.
3927(U) Rohrabacher Tr., pp. 52-53.
3928(U) Email, Butina to Keene, August 6, 2015 (PAE0001998).
3926

597

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYin October when I come next time and think about the actions we could do together." 3929 She
attached a photo from the meeting to her emai13930 :v.

(U) Butina and Torshin Host a 2015 NRA Trip to Moscow(U) Butina and Torshin hosted Keene and several other NRA members, along with somefamily and additional guests, in Moscow from December 8 to December 13, 2015. The group ofvisitors included David Keene and Donna Keene; David Clarke, then Sheriff of Milwaukee
County; Arnold Goldschlager; James Liberatore; Joseph Gregory; and Pete Brownell, the future
NRA president. 3931
(U) According to Keene, Butina and Torshin had proposed the trip. 3932 Butina explainedthat she and Torshin believed it was "very important to return the hospitality" from their NRA

3929 (U)

Ibid.

3930

(U) Email, Butina to Keene, Aug ust 6, 201 5 (PAE000 199 I) (attaching a photograph) (redactions not in
original).
3931(U) List of trip participants (MB 0004811). Clarke's wife, Goldschlager's daughter, and Liberatore' s wife also
attended.
3932(U) Keene Tr., pp. 120--12 1.

598

visits and.to invite the NRA to Russia. 3933 Butina recalled sending an email to Keene to proposethat members of the NRA's Golden Ring of Freedom spend time in Moscow as part of ascheduled NRA trip to Israel. 3934 In early August, Keene shared with Butina an "initial list" ofindividuals he was considering inviting. 3935
(U) On August 12, Torshin and Butina discussed the NRA's plans over private Twitter
messages, including the possibility of hosting "high level meetings" in Moscow if the NRA
delegation was sufficiently "respectable."3936(U) By September, Butina was preparing for the NRA visit, buying the tickets, andcreating a list of participants to send to Torshin. 3937 Butina emphasized the need for politicallyconnected people to participate in the NRA's trip. In October, Butina contacted Erickson forsupport on identifying political elites. She wrote: "I strongly need the information about how arepeople below ,important POLITICALLY to make the NRA trip .and their meetings in ... you
know where . . . . " 3938 She asked specifically about Cors, Keene, Goldschlager, andLiberatore. 3939 She stressed: "I do not need bio. I need how influential they are in the USA
politics."3940 Butina also extended an invitation to Pete Brownell in late-October, suggesting that. he could join the NRA delegation and, while in Moscow, meet with Russian gun manufacturers
and retailers for business. 3 ~41 Brownell agreed to join the trip on November 24. 3942
(U) Butina was concerned that ~ors might be unable to ·attend. On November 13, Butina
emailed David and Donna Keene about the pending trip and highlighted several "high levelspecial events" that TorshiIJ, had arranged, in part to persuade Cors to reconsider attending:"Many of these very high level special events were granted to us because these Russian figures
were going to meet the 'head of the most powerful political organization in Amei-ica."' 3943

3933(U) Butina Tr., p. 147.
(U) Butina Tr., pp. 147--48.
3935(U) Email, Keene to Butina, August 6, 2015 (MB 0003863). The list included Joe Gregory, Chairman of the
NRA Golden Ring ofFreedom; Allan Cors, NRA President; George Kollitides, former President and CEO of the"Freedom Group" and an NRA Foundation Board member; Jim Liberatore, President and CEO of the Outdoor
Channel who was interested in doing a "non-political short series of shows that he would tentatively call 'Putin's
Russia' featuring the Russian outdoors, hunting, fishing and conservation efforts"; John Bolton; and Ed Goeas, apollster.
'
3936(U) Twitter direct message, Torshin and Butina, August 12, 2015.
3937 (U) Twitter direct message, Torshin and Butina, September 19, 2015. See also Email, Butina to Donna Keene,
September 2, 2015 (MB 0004817).
·
3938(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, October 19, 2015 (PAE0000959).
3939'(U) Ibid
3940(U) Ibid
3941(U) Email, Butina to Brownell, October 25, 2016 (MB 0004007).
3942(U) Email, Perrine to Butina, November 24, 2015 (NRA Production, Bates No. 0003293)
3943(U) Email, Butina to Keene, November 13, 2015 (PAE0002603-2605)
3934

599

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In 'her email to the Keenes, Butina emphasized several additional events, including
private meetings with3944 :··•(U) Nikolai Patrushev-"First Secretary of the Russian Security Counsel [sic] (the manthat advises President Putin on a daily basis on all national security and military affairsthe equal to your «National Security Advisor»)";•(U) Dmitri Rogozin- "First Deputy Prime Minister responsible for the production o(
ALL Russian arms-the unofficial leader of the Russian military industrial complex";•(U) Pavel Gusev-- "leading media oligarch in all of Russia'-' who is "the unofficial
media advisor to President Putin," who would be in a position to "secure [Keene's]interview with President Putin"3945 ;•(U) Igor Pisarsky- "[t]he founder of the most important PR firm in Russia- who runs
President Putin's presidential campaigns"; and,•(U) Konstantin Nikolaev- "the oligarch that has personally funded «The Right To·
Bear Arms» for several years."

I(U) Butina shared with the Keenes the purported belief of the Russian press, which she
claimed was very interested in interviewing Cors, "that the NRA could influence Americanpresidential politics and future relations with Russia." 3946 Butina also implied to the Keenes that
the Russian Presidential Administration was aware of, and monitoring, the NRA's upcoming
visit: "Many powerful figures in the Kremlin are counting on Torshin to prove his American.
connections - a last minute important member cancellation could affect his political future." 3947

(U) Butina's contemporaneous messaging with Torshin reflected their interest in
securing the participation of Russian government officials in the trip. On October 6, Butina sent
Torshin an updated list of seven potential NRA delegation members, and discussed the agenda,
3947 (U),mber 13,.2015 (PAE0002603-2605).

Ibid.

600

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
for the visit, including meetings with Rogozin, Lavrov, and Nikolaev, and a "politicalprogram."3948

I
I
I
I
I
I

3948 (U)Co

Twitter direct message, Torshin and Butina, October 6, 2015. The participant list from Butina included·d Keene and his wife.

3949

601

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYI(U) Keene told the Committee that he was particularly interested in seeing Putin andpossibly interviewing him for The Washington Times. 395 Keene made the request throughButina and Torshin. 3951 Keene, Torshin, and Butina may have discussed Keene's interest in theinterview during dinner on October 28, at the University Club in Washington, D.C. 3952°

(U) On November 2, Butina and Torshin discussed Keene's request over Twitter direct
message, as well as the other meetings being arranged for the NRA delegation to speak with
Russian government officials:

Butina: Do I ask Keene for an official letter to VVP [Vladimir Putin] from thenewspaper? With a request for an interview. I am deciding about [Evgeny]
Lukyanov.
Torshin: Lukyanov gave his consent (they are supposed to contact you), therelevant deputy minister offoreign affairs is very interested. He will coordinate
the delegation's meeting in the MFA and will recommend a meeting to D. 0.
Rogozin. The publication issue is more complicated. There is a tradition that VV
gives an interview to a particular foreign media outlet only on the eve of his visit
to that media outlet's home country. I will look for Peskov. Request an interview
with the President, Peskov, or Rogozin. 3953
(U) In mid-November, Torshin and Butina discussed the complications ofsetting up a
meeting for the NRA delegation with Dmitry Rogozin, who was under U.S. sanctions. The NRA
group expressed an interested in meeting with Rogozin despite the sanctions, so Butina andTorshin contemplated a less formal interaction to reduce the potential for violating sanctions:

3950(U) Keene Tr., pp. 124-125.
(U) Ibid Keene also told the Committee that Butina and Torshin also attempted to arrange a meeting with
Putin's chief of staff so that Keene could to "make the personal appeal that way," but they were unsuccessful. Ibid,
p. 125-126.
3952(U) Calendar, David Keene, October 28, 2015 (Bates No. 000018); Emails, Erickson and Butina, October 27,
2015 (PAE0002029).
3953(U) Twitter direct message, Torshin and Butina, November 2, 2015.
3951

602

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Torshin: Hi! I spoke with Dmitriy Olegovich [Rogozin]. He is ready, but we canseriously "set up" the Americans. Since D. 0. is under the American sanctions,
the State Department does not recommend their people meet with him. There is afine for this (S. [Steven] Segal was already fined for D. 0.). D. 0. said about FPR[Federation ofPractice Shooting] that he would give the order to gather highprofile people to the meeting. The conversation was polite and kind. A. T.
Butina: We discussed the topic about D. 0. Our colleagues said that they stillwant a meeting. I suggest not making it such a formal function and inviting him
to lunch or dinner?
\

Butina: This will smooth over the issue a little but it won't resolve it.' I warned
them.3954(U) Butina, as well as Erickson, advised the NRA group of the identities and status of theRussian government counterparts it might meet with during the visit. For example, in one email
to the Keenes seeking to secure Cors's participation, Butina floated a "possible meeting with'Russia's highest leader"'-Vladimir Putin-if the "leader of the NRA" joined thedelegation. 3955 In another email, Butina recommended against bringing gifts for four specificRussian government officials, including Rogozin and Lavrov. 3956 Erickson also sent an email
about a meeting with "Russia's highest leader" to Brownell; 3957 Brownell responded to Erickson:"This would be a very interesting meeting" 3958 and forwarded it to Brownell's Director ofCompliance to convey "the nature·ofthe nra to Russia meeting." 3959
(U) The issue of sanctions also arose prior to the trip. In an email to Brownell on

November 23, 2016,' Erickson wrote:
You (individually) would NOT be allowed to meet with Deputy Prime Minister
Dmitry Rogozin - he appears at the top of the current Obama "sanctions list. " ..
. For obvious reasons, the "Russian leader" whom ]Just wrote about is missing
from this list . .. and you would NOT be barred from leading the delegation to the
Kremlin for this meeting. 3960

3954(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, November 12~ November 16, 2015.
(U) Email, Butina to David and Donrta Keene, November 23, 2016 (Brownell Production 00086).
3956(U) Email, Butina to Donna Keene and Perrine, November 19, 2015 (PAE0001472-1473); see also Email,
Perrine to Dewitt, December 8, 2016 (NRA Production 0001310-1312).
3957(U) Email, Erickson to Brownell, November 23, 2015 (Brownell Production 00052).
3958(U) Email, Brownell to Erickson, November 23, 2015 (Brownell Production 00053).
3959(U) Email, Brownell to McAllister, November 23, 2015 (Brownell Production 00781). ,3960(U) Email from Erickson to Brownell, November 23, 2015 (Brownell Production 00053).
3955

603

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Overall, Keene was "comfortable with what [Butina] laid out" in th~ final
itinerary. 3961 The NRA delegation arrived in Moscow on December 8. 3962 on· December 9,
members of the delegation met with Lavrov in his office. That day, Tovshin informed Keene that
the Putin interview would not happen, but asked if Keene would "like to stop by and see theforeign minister" for a courtesy meeting. 3963 According to Butina, Torshin pitched Lavrov basedon the political benefits: "Torshin knows him. They suggested-how we showed this NRA trip
was: Well, we have a chance to become friends with this country. Obama's term is coming to theend. That would be a very good natural connection on that topic." 3964 She also claimed it was
beneficial for her organization to obtain high-profile meetings to show the NRA that she andTorshin had "influence." 3965
(U) Keene agreed to the Lavrov meeting, and took along a small ·group: Clarke, Gregory,Torshin, and Butina also attended. 3966 According to a tweet by Clarke, the discussion with
Lavrov involved the Middle East, 3967 although Butina and Keene told the Committee that fishingand hunting were the focus. 3968 The conversation lasted approximately 20 minutes. 3969

3961(U) Keene Tr., p. 130. Keene made this comment when presented with a version of the itinerary that did notreference Rogozin or Putin. However, as noted, Keene had been trying to meet with Putin, and other itineraries hereceived prior to the trip, including a trip package prepared for him by NRA staff, included Rogozin and Lavrov.
See, e.g., Email, Perrine to Keenes,November 25, 2016 (NRA Production 0003366-3388) (attaching itinerary).
3962(U) Ibid Brownell arrived earlier than the rest of the group and met with various Russian gun manufacturers
for business reasons. See Emails, Brownell and Perrine et al., November 27-28, 2015 (Brownell Production 00185186); Emails, Butina and Brownell, November 27-December 4, 2015 (Brownell Production 00219-224, 290-294);
Emails, Brownell and Nikolaeva, December 11, 2015 (Brownell Production 00320-321).
3963(U) Keene Tr., p. 127. In his interview, Keene made it sound like the Lavrov meeting was a surprise, but it
appeared to have been on the schedule for some time. See; e.g., Email, Perrine to Keenes, November 25, 2016
(NRA Production 0003366-3388) (attaching itinerary).
3964(U) Butina Tr., pp. 157-158.
3965(U) Ibid, p. 159.
3966
(U) Keene Tr., p. 127; Butina Tr., pp. 155-156.
3967(U) Tweet, @SheriffClarke, December 10, 2015 ("Met earlier with Russian Foreign Minister who spoke on Mid
East.").
3968(U) Butina Tr., pp. 155-156; Keene Tr., pp. 132-134. ·3969(U) According to Butina, this was because their arrival was del~yed by Moscow traffic. Butina Tr., p. 158.
Keene said it lasted only 20 minutes because Lavrov had a phone call with then-Secretary of State Kerry. Keene Tr.,
p. 135.

604

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On December 9th, Pavel Gusev hosted dinner. 3970 Lunch was hosted by Pisarsky thenext day, December 10. 3971 Nikolaev was scheduled to attend the lunch, but Keene did notrecall meeting him. 39n·(U) Other encounters with Russian government figures occurred on the last day of thetrip, when the NRA group visited a Russian shooting club. One was a meeting with Rogozin,which, despite the months of planning and behind-the-scenes discussions, both Keene and Butina
portrayed to the Committee as ultimately a coincidence. Keene recalled seeing Rogozin andRogozin's wife during a tour of the facility, and then seeing them afterwards in the board
room. 3973 According to Keene, the president of the board, Vitaly Kryuchin, 3974 "did the talking,"
and Rogozin spoke for less than a minute: "He said: Thank you for coming to our facility, we're.
happy to host you, and then turned it over to him [the p,resident]." 3975 Igor Shchyogolev, amember of the board and aide to Putin, was scheduled to attend the reception. 3976 Like Rogozin,
Shchyogolev was subject to U.S. sanctions resulting from Russian aggression in Ukraine. 3977
(U) Keene was fully aware that Rogozin was subject to U.S. sanctions based on
information in the press, but did not see' that as a reason to avoid him. 3978 While Butina
requested that rio photos be taken, Rogozin permitted some pictures (including one of Brownell
and Gregory), which he later published. 3979 Butina and Torshin were surprised by Rogozin's
publication of the photographs, and expressed some concerns in private messaging that thiswould "create problems" for the American visitors. 3980
(U) Butina said she expected the group would meet with Rogozin and had made such arequest, but was not sure it would happen "until the last moment." 3981 However, she downplayed

3970(U) Keene Tr., p. 137; Butina, "TIIE PROGRAM of the visit of the delegation from The National Rifle
Association of America (The NRA) to Moscow, 8 -13 December 2015" (MB 0000066-83).
3971(U) Keene Tr., p. 139; Butina, "TIIE PROGRAM of the visit of the delegation from The National Rifle
Association of America (The NRA) to Moscow, 8 -13 December 2015" (MB 0000066-83).
3972(U) Keene Tr., p. 139.
3973
(U) Ibid, pp. 140-141.
3974(U) Email, Brownell to Perrine, December 12, 2015 (Brownell Production 00326-328) (sharing Kryuchin's
business card).
3975(U) Ibid, pp. 144-145.
3976(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, December 13, 2015. Shchyogolev is also known as Igor
Shchegolev. Keene did not recall if Shchyogolev was present. Keene Tr., p. 146.
3977
(U) Treasury, Ukraine-related Sanctions, July 16, 2014 (adding Shchyogolev to Specially Designated Nationalslist).
3978(U) Keene said: "You don't do business with him, you don't give him things ... it doesn't mean you ... shunhim." Keene Tr., p. 143.
3979
(U) Butina Tr., pp. 169.
3980(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, December 13, 2015.
3981(U) Butina Tr., pp. 170-71.

605

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

· r-

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
the conversation as "a little bit how is gun rights in America, ... how it's in Russia, ... [and] thePractical Shooting Association." 3982 Butina claimed another encounter at the shooting
association with an individual in the Russian Presidential Administration was also a"coincidence." 3983
(U) Overall, Torshin and Butina expressed satisfaction with the NRA trip and hoped to"reap dividends from the outcome." 3984 They discussed the implications of the "valuable
contact" they had developed with the NRA and ~he importance of that contact for Torshin's ·"mission of reviving relationships between the-two countries."3985 In messages to Butina,
Torshin also described Rogozin's reaction to the NRA visit: "[C]ontacts with the NRA are very
important and interesting for him right now. We gave this issue a 'push.' So far there have been
only 'pluses."' 3986

vi.

(U) Financing the Trip and Butina's Formation of Bridges LLC(U) Financing the trip presented some complications. Butina told the Committee that herorganization intended to fundthe NRA delegation's stay in Moscow, 3987 and Keene likewise
understood that "The Right to Bear Arms was paying for the in-Russia costs and we [the NRA]
were paying for the transportation." 3988 Keene told the Committee he was not aware of any
Russian government money used to support the trip. 3989 But, as Butina explained, one of her
wealthy donors, Konstantin Nikolaev, was paying the expenses in Russia. 3990 Nonetheless,
Butina's organization did not have funds available for two last-minute members of the trip fromthe Outdoor Channel, Jim Liberatore and his wife, so she paid out of her own pocket andrequested reimbursement. 3991 The cost for them was approximately $6,000, which Pete Brownell
paid in June 2016 through personal check to Bridges LLC, a business entity Butina created in the3982(U) Ibid, pp. 163.
(U) Ibid, pp. 163-64. It is unclear whether Butina was saying that a meeting with Sergei Shutalev, who Butina
described·as a "PR person" in the Russian presidential administration was a coincidence, or whether she wasreferring to a meeting with another individual that she did not name. Some of the planned Russian government
meetings did not occur. For example, Keene had no recollection of a meeting with Lukyanov, which Butina said
was canceled. Keene Tr., p. 131; Butina Tr., p. 155. Similarly, Butina said there was no meeting that took placewith the Russian Security Council. Butina Tr., p. 155.
3984
(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, December 13, 2015.
3985 (U) Ibid.
3986
(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, December 29, 2015.
3987(U) Butina Tr., p. 82.
3988(U) Keene Tr., pp. 128-129.
3989(U) Ibid, p. 130.
3990
(U) Butina Tr., p. 180.
3991
(U) Ibid, pp. 81-82.
3983

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYUnit~d States. 3992 The NRA invoiced Brownell for this expense and the Clarkes' expenses,
which it processed as a "special project."3993(U) Butina said she did not want payment to come directly to her organization because of
how it might be perceived: "a western company paying money, donating money to the Russian
not..profit organization supporting gun rights, would be seen very badly. It's like the West issponsoring gun rights fight." 3994 She also said that the payment to Bridges LLC was the NRA's
preference. 3995·

(U) Butina, with Erickson's help, had formed Bridges LLC in mid..february 2016 toreceive payments on a consulting project with the Outdoor Channel to help develop a program
called "Unknown Russia." 3996 Butina's efforts appeared largely directed at ascertaining whether
Putin would "participate" in the show, and in communications with the producers, she impliedthat she had initiated ''solid" contacts "directly with the office of President Putin."3997 She told
the Committee that these were exaggerations, 3998 although Butina's communications withTorshin suggest that she minimized these contacts in her testimony ·and was not fully
forthcoming. For example, on March 17, Torshin told Butina that he had spoken with Alexey
Gromov (Putin's Deputy Chief of Staff) .about the show and would need to send a letter toPeskov. Later, on March 30 and 31, Torshin told Butina that he would be meeting with
Anastasia Chemobrovina, a member of the Russian Geographic Society's "Media Council," whoappeared interested and would be speaking with Peskov. On May 13, Torshin explained that
Peskov would be making the decision on Putin's participation in the show. 3999

3992 (U)Ibid, pp. 81-82, 86; Email, Brownell to Butina, June 14, 2016 (MB 0002945--47). Butina separately
described exploring a potential business deal with Brownell in relation to the sal.e of weapons parts in Russia,
discussed infra. Butina Tr., pp. 87-89.
·
3993 (U) Emails, Brownell, Perrine, and Hallow, April 24-25, 2016 (Brownell Production 593-596);.Emails, Perrine
and Wilmes, June 15, 2016 (NRA Production 0005347-5348); Invoice, Brownell to NRA, May 26, 2016 (NRA
Production 0005351).
3994(U) Butina Tr., pp. 82-83.
399s (U) Ibid
3996
(U) Email, Butina to Cremin, February 12, 2016 (PAE0001226); Email, Butina to Kerkvliet, February 22, 2016
(PAE0001817) (discussing incorporation ofBridges LLC); Email, Keene to Butina, August 6, 2015 (PAE0000254).
3997 (U). Email, Butina to Cremin, May 13, 2016 (PAE0000074-75). With Erickson's help, Butina negotiated andsigned an Independent Contractor Agreement on February 21, 2016, to be a "Consultant and Pre-Production
Coordinator," for which she received a $5,000 monthly fee, plus expenses. Email, Erickson to Butina, January 26,
2016 (PAE0001483, 1489) (drafting contract language for Butina to send to Winnercomm). The contr11ct wasformally executed with Winnercomm, Inc., a production company. See Independent Contractor Agreement(PAE0000340--347).
3998(U) Butina Tr., p. 97-98.
3999(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, March 17, 30--31, May 13, 2016.

607

(U) Ultimately, the producers lost confidence in Butina's ability to secure approval for,,the show. 4000 Erickson drafted emails that he suggested Butina send to the producers to persuade
them to extend her contract. In one July email, Erickson suggested she write:

I continue to receive updates from my contacts within President Putin's officeconcerning "Unknown Russia"-even during these summer vacation weeks. My
sources remain hopeful for such a production this fall and they await my arrivalin Moscow the first week ofAugust for further discussions. 4001
(U) In late August 2016, Erickson further suggested connecting the project to Trump's
victory in the 2016 presidential election:

Unofficially, my sense is that President Putin feels that there is a much betterchance at future cooperation with America-on several fronts-if Trump defeats
Hillary in the November general election. 4002
(U) Erickson also wrote:

Ofparticular note was ihat the Russian delegation to the NRA Annual Meeting inMay (which I led) had a chance to meet Donald Trump's son over dinner and was
excited to learn of Donald, Junior's love of hunting . . ·. AND interest in exploring
Russia. These points were communicated independently to President Putin's
office. This could provide a VERY interesting twist to one (or 111ore) potential"Unknown Russia" episodes if the son(s) of the American President were seen
hunting with the Russian leader. 4oo3
{U), The Committee was unable to determine ifButina ultimately sent the emails draftedby Erickson or if, as the emails indicated, she had additional communications with Putin's
office: 4004 Having made no notable progress in securing Putin's participation in the show or
obtaining formal approval for filming, the producers terminated the contract. Ultimately, Butina
was paid $20,000 by the producer, Winnercom, for four months ofwork:. 4005·
5. (U) Torshin and Butina Pursue Political Contacts with Russian Approval

4000(U) Email, Cremin to Butina, May 13, 2016 (PAE0000074-75).
(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, July 13 (PAE0000622).
4002(U) See, e.g., Email, Erickson to Butina, August 29, 2016 (PAE0000147).
4003(U) Ibid
4004(U) Butina Tr., p. 99 ("I had the connection. But that was just this emails [sic] to the public office.").
4005(U) Ibid, p. 97.
4001

608

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVE TIGATION ONLYI(U) The NRA's 2015 trip to Moscow served as a launching pad for Torshin and Butina's
continued efforts to build an informal channel of communication from the Russian Federation to
U.S. policy makers, which manifested in various ways, including attendance at the National
Prayer Breakfast; a series of "Friendship Dinners" sponsored by George O'Neill; the NRA
annual meetings; and contact with a Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor.
i.

(U) Butina and Torshin Attend the National Prayer Breakfast and theRussian National Prayer Breakfast(U) In mid-December 2016, Torshin and Butina discussed attending the 2016 National
Prayer Breakfast as the "next step" in leveraging their NRA relationship, and Torshin raised thesubject at the Russian MFA in late December. 4006 After meeting with the MFA, Torshin
messaged Butina: "Today's discussion about the Prayer Breakfast went well. I did not get the'green light' yet but everyone was in favor." 4007 By early January, approval was apparently
obtained, because on January 10, 2016, Butina emailed a contact at the NRA for tickets. 4008
Erickson later secured tickets through then-Congressman Mark Sanford's office, 4009 to whom
Butina drafted a note of thanks, expressing the "importance of unofficial contacts" between
Russia and the United States.4010(U) Joe Gregory, one of the attendees of the December 2015 NRA trip to Moscow,recalled through a letter from counsel that he "put Ms. Butina in touch with certain individuals inconnection with her attendance at the National Prayer Breakfast." 4011 One of those individuals
was Doug Burleigh, son-in-law of Doug Coe, the National Prayer Breakfast organizer and thehead of the Fellowship Foundation.4012!

4006(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, December 29, 2015.
(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, December 29, 2015.
4008(U) See, e.g., Email, Butina to Hallow, January 10, 2016 (PAE0001608). Hallow responded that the NRA did
not have a table or tickets to provide. Email, Hallow to Butina, January 10, 2016 (PAE0001607).
4009(U) See Email, Roberts to Erickson, January 27, 2016 (PAE0001647-51) (responding to Erickson and attaching
invitation from Sanford to Butina and Torshin); Email, Erickson to Butina, February 3, 2016 (PAE000l 709)
(providing instructions to retrieve a ticket from Sanford's office);
4010(U) See Email, Butina to Erickson, February 12, 2016 (MB 0003163-MB 0003164) (sharing draft letter to
Sanford). Butina did not produce a final transmitted version of the email to the Committee, so it is unclear whether
she ultimately sent it. ,.
·4011(U) Letter, McKinney to Wyden, November 15, 2018; Email, Gregory to Butina, January 19, 2016
(PAE0001615-16). Gregory had stayed in contact with Butina following the December 2015 NRA trip.
4012(U) "Nashville/ Prayer Breakfast/ Safari Club Grand Tour" (PAE0001915); Email, Butilia to Burchfield andBurleigh, January 28, 2016 (PAE0000683); Butina Tr., p. 317.
4007

609

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In addition, Butina spent several days in Nashville at Gregory's invitation, prior totraveling to Washington, D.C. on Gregory's private jet. 4013 Following the event, Butina andTorshin flew with Gregory to Las Vegas to attend a Safari Club International convention. 4014
According to a letter from Gregory's counsel, Gregory'paid for Torshin's and Butina's hotel
rooms in Las Vegas. 4015
(U) On February 10, 2016, Butina sent a summary document to Torshin entitled, "Noteon A.P. Torshin's visit to the National Prayer Breakfast attended by U.S. President Barack
Obama, and also a meeting with a member of the Rockefeller family, George O'Neill." 4016
(U) Butina and Torshin built on these connections during the March 2016 Russian Prayer
Breakfast. On March 15, 2016, Butina and Torshin attended the Russian Prayer Breakfast in
Moscow at the President Hotel, and Torshin gave remarks. The event was attended by several
Americans, including Doug Coe4017 and Johnny Yenason. 4018 A week later, Coe's daughter,
Debbie Burleigh, and her husband, Doug Burleigh, met Butina and Torshin in Moscow for a prearranged dinner to talk about the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast.4019(U) According to an email to Butina from Debbie Burleigh, during the event, Coe andTorshin discussed the possibility of Putin attending the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast.
According to Burleigh's correspondence with Butina, Torshin had "suggested to President Putin
that he consider coming to the Prayer Breakfast next year, Feb. 2017 and Pres. Putin did not say'no' !"4020 Burleigh and Butina discussed certain conditions that would need to be met for Putin
to attend. 4021 More immediately, however, Torshin and Butina began preparations for a series ofmeetings involving their U.S. contacts and attendance at the 2016 NRA annual convention.

4013(U) Letter, McKinney to Wyden, November 15, 2018. While in Nashville, Butina took in a hockey game andattended a women's luncheon and bible study.
4014(U) Ibid
401s (U) Ibid
4016
(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, February 10, 2016. The Committee did not obtain a copy ofthis "summary" document.
4017(U) On February 10, shortly after the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., Butina told Torshin that
she had sent him a "detailed biography of Coe," who she emphasized was a "VERY interesting person," as well as anote about the Fellowship, which she called a "very big-time organization." Twitter direct messages, Torshin and
Butina, February 10, 12, 2016.
4018(U) Email, Clay to Dearborn, May 16, 2016 (CRC-000016-CRC-000020) ("Mr. Torshin and Ms. Butina were.
invited by my colleague, Johnny Yenason, who was introduced to them by Peter Sautov (Russian Ambassador: for
the Russian National Prayer Breakfast)."); Clay Tr., p. 13.
4019(U) Email, Butina to Burleigh and Burleigh, March 22. 2016 (PAE000407); Twitter direct messages, Torshin
and Butina, March 21, 2016.
4020(U) Email, Burleigh to Butina, March 29, 2016 (PAE000405-407).
4021(U) According to the emails, several conditions would need to be met: "President Putin w[ould] need to receivea personal invitation"; second, "there must be an understanding that it is a 'yes' from the new American president

610

ii.

(U) George O'Neill's Russian-American "Friendship Dinners"(U) In early 2016, around the same time of the National Prayer Breakfast, Butina andTorshin developed"a relationship with George O'Neill, Jr., one of Erickson's "oldest friends inpolitics,"4022 to whom Butina and Torshin referred as the "Rockefeller heir." In a January 29,
2016, email describing O'Neill to Butina before their introduction, Erickson noted: "He met
Torshin on a trip to Moscow five years ago and is VERY interested in forming a U.S./Russia'friendship pact' (sound familiar??)" 4023 Erickson also shared Butina's "bio" with O'Neill andintroduced them by email on February 2, noting Butina's "Russian political mentor, Alexander
Torshin," and suggesting that Butina, Torshin and O'Neill meet in person on the periphery of the
National Prayer Breakfast.4024 Butina recalled that she first met O'Neill in Las Vegas during the
Safari International convention, which took place after the Prayer Breakfast.4025 O'Neill laterjoined Erickson in funding Butina's education at American University. 4026

(U) Working with O'Neill and Erickson, Butina and Torshin developed a concept formeetings involving U.S. and Russian figures as an informal channel of communication between
the two countries. Butina and Torshin's strategy on how to utilize O'Neill began at least as earlyas February 26, when Butina delivered to Torshirt a "Note on Organizing a Channel oflnformal
Communication between Russia and the USA," referring to it in her messages to Torshin as the"paper about our Rockefeller."4027 In it, Butina emphasized the potential to influence American
foreign policy:
The indicated initiative may become the main channel of Russian-American
informal communication ... , which will generate the necessary background for
promoting pro-Russian sentiment in the USA. The special advantage of this
proposal resides in the fact that the presence of bilateral interest will, on the one
hand, cancel out the questions ofAmerican ill-wishers about "the Kremlin's

and President Putin to avoid any misunderstanding and embarrassment"; and there must be an "understanding that
other heads of state would be attending the same prayer breakfast." In addition, Butina conveyed that Putin would
need to receive the invitation from the U.S. President and the total number of heads of state would need to be at least
15. Email, Butina to Burleigh, March 30. 2016 (PAE000403--404); Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina,
March 30--31, 2016. As discussed below, Butina and Torshin returned to the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast, with amuch larger Russian delegation. The conversation between Burleigh and Butina about Putin may have contributed
to a later invitation to Torshin and Butina to meet Trump at the 2017 breakfast.
4022(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, January 29, 2016 (PAE0001674).
4023 (U) Ibid.
4024(U) Email, Erickson to Butina and O'Neill, February 2,.2016 (PAE000l 705).
4025 (U) Butina Tr., p. 224-25. Butina appeared to have the dates of the convention confused, arid believed it had
occurred in January. The evidence shows that it actually occurred in February.
4°26 (U) Butina Tr., p. 121-23 ..
4027(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, February 26, 2016.

611

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

hand" in the organization and in attempts at propaganda and, on the other, will
make it possible to exert the speediest and most effective influence on the processof making decisions in the American establishment. 4028
(U) On March 10, Erickson sent Butina and O'Neill a proposed list of suggested
participants for an event following the NRA convention.4029 Butina shared the list withTorshin, 4030 and responded on his behalf: "George, Mr. Torshin is very much impressed by you
and expresses his great appreciation for what you are doing to restore the relations between thetwo countries. He also wants you to know that Russians will support the efforts from ourside."4031 On March 14, Butina reported additional developments from Torshin's conversations
with the Kremlin to O'Neill:

Mr. Torshin confirmed his desire in. pur Russian-American project and will
participate [in] the meetings. He talked to some people in· Presidential
Administration-they also gave a «green light» as Russians say for building thiscommunication channel. They are working on the third person for the meetingschoosing between very strong Russian businessman or governmental official. 4032
(U) Butina wanted to invite Patrick Byrne to the O'Neill dinners, and she also pursued
an invitation for Byrne at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, or SPIEf. On
February 22, Butina sent to Torshin a "proposal regarding the Participation of speaker Patrick
Byrne at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum" and identified Byrne as "one of the future
participants of our events with Rockefeller. It would be good to invite him to the,forum if you
have a possibility to assist." 4033 In addition to sending the proposal directly to Torshin via
Twitter direct message, the communication chain suggests Butina also sent the proposal toTorshin's office at the Central Bank.4034(U) On April 5, 2016, Torshin followed up with Butina about Byrne's participation at theForum, noting that he had spoken with Dmitriy Sergeyevich Stolkov, who Torshin described as"the contact person in the Administration of the President of the RF." Torshin also advised

,

4028

(U) Maria Butina, "Note on Organizing a Channel of Informal Communication between Russia and the USA,"
February 26, 2016; United States' Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, United States v. Butina, Case 1:18-cr-00218TSC (D.D.C. May 1, 2019), Exhibit 7.
4029(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, March 11, 2016 (PAE0001916-17).
4030(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, March 13, 2016 ("They sent me a list of participants of that
Russian-American meeting from their side. I'll hand it over on Tuesday.").
4031(U) Email, Butina to O'Neill and Erickson, March 11, 2016 (PAE0000970).
4032(U) Email, Butina to O'Neill, March 14, 2016 (PAE0001925).
4033(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, February 22, 2016.
4034 (U) Ibid.

612

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Butina to contact Atmen Khacatryan to arrange Byrne's appearance on a panel.4035 Khacatryan
is, or was, the Deputy Director of the Roscongress Foundation, the forum organizer for _SPIEF.4036

iii.

(U) Butina and Torshin Arrange Meetings in Mbscow for Rep.
Rohrabacher·(U) In mid-March 2016, O'Neill worked with Butina to arrange a meeting in Moscow.
for Rohrabacher with Russian political figures. In a March 16, 2016, email to Butina andErickson, O'Neill wrote:

Dana is a BIG proponent offriendship and cooperation 'with Russia and is very.
supportive of our efforts. He is leading a Congressional trip for his sub committee
to Moscow on March 30 and would like to meet you and Torshin and any otherRussian politician, who is interested in closer relations with the US. 4037
O'Neill specifically identified Rohrabacher's interest in nuclear cooperation and recommended ameeting with Evgeny Pavlovich Velikhov, a Russian nuclear·scientist and former president of theKurchov Institute.40 ~8 O'Neill also underscored thatRohrabacher would "gladly participate and assist us" with the contemplated "friendship dinners," and was planning in parallel a dinner in
April about "the pros and cons of being friendly and cooperating with the Rrissians." 4039 ·(U) Torshin attended Rohrabacher'J; meeting· with Velikhov on April 2, and Butina
encouraged him to discuss their work with O'Neill.4040 The substance of the meetjng also
included U.S. politics. After the meeting, Torshin told Butina that the U.S: guests "talked a lot
about the Prayer Breakfast, the NRA, and the elections in the U.S.A." Communications between
Erickson and Butina.suggest that some ofRohrabacher's guests-apparently associated with
Radio Free Europe-said something to offend Torshin. 4041;
4035(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, April 5, 2016.
(U) See Roscongress.org/en/speakers/khachatryan-armen-/biography.
4037(U) Email, O'Neill to Butina and Erickson, March 16, 2016 (PAE0001934-35).
4038(U) Email, O'Neill to Butina and Erickson, March 17, 2016 (PAE0001936).
4039.(U) Email, O'Neill to Butina and Erickson, March 16, 2016 (PAE0001934-35).
4040(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, March 31, 2016-April 1, 2016. Butina herself helped toarrange the meeting. Email from Maria Butina to George O'Neill and Paul Erickson, March 23, 2016 (MB0002977) (describing plan to arrange the meeting with Velikhov).
_
4041(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and ~utina, April 3, 2016. Email, Erickson to Butina, April 8, 2016
(PAE0002418). Later,. as to O'Neill, Torshin remarked: "His activity aroused no interest in our country and lwon't
be able to take part in his plans." Accordingly, he advised Butina to "step away from him" and made clear that hewould not participate in any O'Neill gatherings in Russia. Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, April 3,
2016. Torshin later directed Butina to "decline contact: like, no time, got other responsibilities or something of that. kind." Torshin also hinted to Butina that he (Torshin) was ''in a system that was being guarded," although Butina
4036

613

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION O~LYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U). On April 21, O'Neill drafted a letter to Torshin apologizing for Rohrabacher'sreportedly "intemperate remarks" and explaining, in part, his interest in sponsoring a dinnerseries in order to "further good relations between the Russian Federation and a NE'W Americanpresidential administration next January.-"4042 ·6. (U) 2016 NRA Convention and Efforts to Pursue Contact with Trump(U) At around the·same,time, Butina and Torshin discussed a return trip to the NRA

annual meetings in 2016. On February 17, Torshin reiterated the need to "develop ties with the
NRA."4043 By February 21, Butina conveyed to Torshin that Trump had "won the· last really
important primaries," and they should consider him the "presumptive Republican nominee."4044
In mid-March, Butina informed Torshin that Trump had referred to Putin as a "strong leader"and had effectively clinched the nomination. 4045 Butina also cryptically proposed that Torshin"[t]hink about ifwe should invite someone from the Trump Administration in order tounofficial[ly] meet with someone from our ... ," although she left the sentence unfinished. 4046
(U) On April 20, Torshin pressed Butina to secure invitations to the NRA annual
meetings and to begin preparations.4047 Butina, who had made that request to Pete Brownell·months earlier, on January 26, had already secured them. 4048 Despite an initialtravel conflict,Torshin appeared to seek ways to justify his attendance internally within the Russian MFA. He
requested that Butina write to him "specifically about a possible meeting with Trump and theother candidates" because "maybe MID [Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs] will ask to haveme sent."4049 Torshin emphasized that MID's interest appeared to be in securing an invitation toobserve the U.S. presidential election.4050(U) Likely in response, Butina prepared a written note for Torshin on the NRA
convention on April 22, entitled ''Note on the Annual Ge~eral Convention of the National Rifle

might be "freer in [her] preferences, but in a personal capacity." Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, April
20, 2016.
'
4042.
(U) Letter, O'Neill to Torshin, April 21, 2016 (PAE0002055-2058). His not clear from document productions
if the letter was sent. O'Neill conveyed a similar sentiment td Butina in a separate letter. Letter, O'Neill to Butina,
April 11, 2016 (MB 0002966-2967).
4043(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin .and Butina, February 17, 2016.
4044(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, February 21, 2016.
4045(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, March 15-16, 2016.
4046(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, February 26, 2016 (ellipses in original).
4047(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butin11, April 20, 2016.
4048(U) Email, Butina to Brownell, January 25, 2016 (MB 0000026-28). In this email, Butina requestecl invitations
for herself, Torshin, Pavel Gusev, Igor Pisarsky, and Vadim Zadorozhny.
4049(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, April 22, 2016.
4050(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, April 22, 2016.

614

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Association of the USA and the Possibilities of Setting Up Informal Communications between
Russia and the USA." Butina's document included the following. statements tying the NRA trip
to the Russian MF A's interest in influencing Republican candidates' views, specifically
Trump's, on Russia (emphasis in original)4051 :•(U) "The assumption is that the influence of the NRA on election results is criticallyimportant for the Republican Party."•(U) "[T]he leadership of the NRA is inviting Mr. Torshin not just to attend thegeneral assembly of the organization and to speak at it, but is even granting him accessto closed meetings with the VIP speakers at the conference. In May 2016 he. has the
chance to speak personally with the leaders of tbe Republican primary race-Mssrs.
Trump, Cruz and Kasik [sic]."•(U) "Torshin is invited to the National Republican Convention .... In accord with
Mr. Torshin's wish, he can be an observer at the presidential election in November
2016 in a US state that interests him."•(U) "On April 22, Donald Trump announced a change ... in his election strategy,
where the candidate plans to pay ·closer attention to foreign policy. Important inthese circumstances are those contacts with the candidate and his entourage that will
help form Trump's correct view of Russian-American relations. Attending thegeneral assembly of the NRA in May 2016 fully provides this unique opportunity."(U) After Butina provided her written note, Torshin obtained approval from his "boss" totravel to the NRA convention.4052 Butina quickly arranged flights and developed a list of gifts toprovide to their NRA contacts and the Republican candidates, including Trump and his entire
family. 4053 She also told Torshin that they had obtained a meeting with Trump at the NRA. 4054
Torshin, however, was dubious that arranging a meeting with Trump, who they had begun
referring to as "the future president," would be helpful during the campaign; and told her to focus
instead on their NRA connections, which would "certainly prove useful." 4055

4051(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, April 22, 2016 (bold as in original).
(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, April 28-29, 2016.
4053(U) ·Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, April 29, 2016.
4054(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, May 4, 2016.
4055(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, May 11, 2016.
4052

615

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On May 5, 2016, Kislyak was also scheduled for lunch with Allan Cors and David
Keene at the Ambassador's residence. 4056 Cors and Keene later declined Kislyak's invitation toattend the Day ofRussia celebration on June 9, 2016.4057 ·(U) The possibility of meeting Trump during the convention initially arose with Johnny
Yenason, who had met Butina at the Russian Prayer Breakfast and invited Butina and Torshin toa dinner he was involved in organizing on Thursday, May 19.4058 Yenason owned aPennsylvania plumbing company, was an NRA member, and was active in political and religious. circles.4059 On May 2, Yenason emailed Butina and Torshin and offered an introduction to
Trump in connection with the dinner:

I would like to know if you would be interested in joining a couple ofus after thedinner to meet with Donald Trump, our presidential front runner. ... I believe thiswould be very interesti7?gfor both you and Alex especially if [M]r. Trump is elected
our next president. You may if you wish be involved in helping introduce [M]r.
Trump to President Putin. 4060
Butina responded: "Thank you very much for the priceless opportunity to meet Mr. Trump! It'san honor and might be a good. deal for the relationships between the two countries in the
future. ,,4061(U) Several days later, Erickson emailed Rick Dearbo.m about the idea, with the subject
line "Kremlin Connection":·

Happenstance and the (sometimes) international reach of the NRA placed me inposition a couple ofyears ago to slowly begin cultivating a back-channel to
President Putin's Kremlin. Russia is quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with
the US. that isn't forthcoming under the current administration. And for reasonsthat we can discuss in person or on the phone, the Kremlin believes that the only
possibility of a true re-set in this relationship would be with a new Republican
White House . ...

4056

\

(U) Email, Perrine to Cors, May 3, 2016 (NRA Production 0003719).
(U) Email, Perrine to Russian Embassy Staff, June 8, 2016 (NRA Production 0003724).
4058(U) Email, Yenason to Butina, March 21, 2016 (MB 0002233) ("It was so good meeting you at the prayer
breakfast. I.have spoken to my colleagues about inviting you and our friend too [sic] our dinner at the NRA
convention. I'm also interested in talking to you about being a guest speaker at our dinner.").
4059(U) Clay Tr., p. 36.
4060(U) Email, Yenason to Butina, Clay, Ryan, and Torshin, May 2, 2016 (MB 0000004).
4061(U) Email, Butina to Yenason, Clay, and Ryan, May 2, 2016 (MB 0002231).
4057

616

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

President Putin's emissary on this front has arranged to attend next week's NRA
Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY. He is attending a small private reception that
Mr. Trump has (allegedly) committed to on Thursday night, May 19 in order tomake "first contact" (nothing more than the presentation of a gift for Mrs. Trumptied to the Russian Orthodox Church- a fascinating artifact). The reception is- being hosted by a nondescript organization, called "Heroes for Freedom andLiberty" (a veterans support group).
Putin is deadly serious about building a good rel~tionship with Mr. Trump. He
wants to extend an invitation to Mr. Trump to visit him in the Kremlin before theelection. Let's talk through what has transpired and Sen. Sessions' advice on
how to proceed. 4062
Dearborn told the Committee that he did not recall receiving Erickson's email and did not.believe he responded to this request. 4063'
(U) Rick Clay, a politically-connected
NRA member from West Virginia and friend of
Y enason, also pursued the issue with his own Trump Campaign contacts, including Dearborn
and Jordan Karem. Clay first raised the subject with Dearborn by phone on May 15, telling
Dearborn that there was an invitation for Trump fo attend an event in Russia and that a meeting
between Trump and Putin could be arranged while Trump was there. 4064 In Clay's view at thetime, "the optics [ofthis meeting] would [have] be[en] tremendous" from a politicalperspective.4065(U) At Dearborn's request,4066 Clay provided additional information in a follow-up May
16 email, with the subject line "Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite":
When Johnny informed me that he had made Mr. Torshin and Ms. Butina 's
acquaintance, I invited them to atten,d our dinner ... and speak at our event
which they enthusiastically accepted. At the same time I learned that Mr. Trump
would be speaking at the NRA Convention in Louisville KY the day after ourdinner. I contacted Jordan Karem ... whq works for the Trump Campaign
organizing events. Jordan indicated he might be able to obtain entrance of a

4062(U) Email, Erickson to Dearborn, May 10, 2016 (PAE0002913).
SSCI Transcript of the Interview with'Rick Dearborn, October 23, 2017, pp. 65-66.
4064 (U) Ibid, p. 81: Clay Tr., pp. 48-51. Dearborn was connected to Clay through Joel Brubacker, Chiefof Staff toSenator Shelley Moore Capito. Dearborn Tr., pp. 80-81; see also Clay Tr., pp. 4~7 (describing initial contact
with Dearborn through Capito's office).
4065(U) Clay Tr., pp. 51-52.
4066(U) Dearborn Tr., p. 81.
4063 (U)617

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RU_SSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

small group from our event to include the Russian delegation to meet Mr. Trump.
I then informed Johnny Yenason of this development and asked him to speak to
Mr. Torshin and Ms. Butina if they would like to have an opportunity to meet Mr.
Trump if it could be arranged. They both agreed it would be an honor to meet him
ifpossible. I informed Jordan Karem:·of this request and he said he would
advance this up the latter [sic] with the Trump Campaign, (As of today I have notheard any word in regards to the request). A few days passed and I received acall from Johnny Yenason about a conversation he had with Ms. Butina and Mr.
Torshin about meeting Mr. Trump. They indicated to him that they had beenasked by Mr. Putin to see if Mr. Trump would be willing to meet with him in thenear future and to explore this possibility with him at this meeting if it could bearranged.
During a subsequent conversation with Ms. Butina and Mr. Torshin, Mr. Torshin
requested that he meet privately with someone of high rank in the Trump
Campaign prior to the May 20th NRA address by Mr. Trump, so that he canconvey to them this is·a real overture and such a meeting would elevate any doubtthat this is not some type ofploy or mischaracterization to meet Mr. Trump underfalse pretenses.
(U) Clay continued:

Mr. Torshin believes, as does [sic] several people associated with this Christian
event in Russia, that he will personally approach Franklin Graham (They aregood Friends and associates in Christ) to extend and [sicJ invite to Mr. Trump tothis event in Russia and while Mr. Trump is there he will arrange the meetingwith President Putin and Mr. Trump.
Please excuse the play on words but this is HUGE! The optics ofMr. Trump in
Russian [sicJ with Franklin Graham attending an event of over 1000 World
Christian Leaders addressing the Defense of Persecuted Christians accompanied
by a very visible meeting b{:!tween President Putin and Mr. Trump, would
devastate the Clinton campaigns [sicJ effort to marginalize Mr. Trump on
Foreign Policy and embolden him further with Evangelicals. 4067
(U) Clay also made two asks of Dearborn and the Trump Campaign:

4067(U) Email, Clay to Dearborn, May 16, 2016 (CRC-000016-CRC-000020).

618

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) A "[p]rivet [sic] meeting with a high ranking representative of the Trump Campaign
with Mr. Torshin before the NRA event." 4068·•

(U) A "[m]eet and greet with a small delegation from the Freedom Dinner with Mr.
Trump that will include both Mr. Torshin, Ms. Maria Butina, [and] Three Medal of
Honor Recipients." 4069

(U) Dearborn initially responded that he would be "[w]orking on this first thing in the_am."
He told the Committee that he did not "connect the dots" to the earlier Ericksonrequest. 4071 He forwarded Clay's email to Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Rick Gates thenext day, noting that Clay:
4070[W]ants Alexander Torshin, The Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia to meet.with a high level official in our campaign. at the Louisville, KY NRA event todiscuss an offer he claims to be carrying from President Putin to meet with DJT:
They would also like DJT to visit Russia for a world summit on the persecution of
Christians at which Putin and Trump would meet. 4072\

(U) Kushner, dubious of the Campaign's ability to verify any messages that people
claimed to be bringing from foreign leaders, directed Dearborn to decline.4073 On May 18,
Dearborn responded to Clay: "I've asked about a [meeting] but we are not able to accommodate
it at that event in KY." 4074 Dearborn did not discuss the request with Karem, but told the~ommittee that he may have mentioned it to J.D. Gordon or John Mashbum. 4075
(U) After Clay relayed the Campaign's response to Yenason, Yemison em,)ouraged him
to persist: "I would suggest a follow up to Rick and see if the Trump camp is interested. They
may think they missed the opportunity because the events are over. This·is not the case[,] we can(U) Ibid.
(U) Ibid. Clay told the Committee that he harbored some skepticism about the request because it had come to ·him through multiple other people, but still believed there was a "slim chance that this could be real." Clay Tr. p.
49.
4070(U) Email, Clay to Dearborn, May 16, 2016 (CRC-000016).
4071(U) Dearborn Tr., pp. 82-83. .
4072(U) Email, Dearborn to Kushner, Manafort and Gates, May 17, 2016 (RD 000009). Dearborn said that he was
dubious of the request, and that using the phrase "an interesting request" really meant "[t]his is nutty," but he wastrying to be respectful. Dearborn Tr., p. 87.
4073(U) Email, Kushner to Dearborn, May 17, 2016 (RD 00000,l ).
4074(U) Email, Dearborn to Clay, May 18, 2016 (CRC-000021).
_
4075(U) Dearborn Tr., pp. 93, 96. Dearborn was doubtful that Karem would have been able to arrange a meetingwith Trump. Ibid., p. 96.
4o6s
4069

619

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYstill move this forward." 4076 Clay continued to contact Dearborn about the possibility of ameeting, sometimes through other contacts.4077 Clay's requests continued periodically throughSeptember 2016; Dearborn told the Committee that he declined Clay's attempts to broker ameeting each time, believing that it was a settled issue from the Campaign's perspective.4078. (U) By early May, Torshin's participation at the NRA annual meetings appeared limitedby his ongoing health issues and he almost canceled his travel entirely.4079 Torshin ultimately
decided to fly from Russia to Louisville for a single day, arriving early Saturday morning, May
21, and departing early Sunday morning, May 22.4080 Torshin asked Butina whether Trump
would be at the convention that day, and also planned to join Keene for a private birthday
dinner-·which Keene had specifically rescheduled to allow Torshin to attend. 4081
(U) Dmitri Osipkin; identified as the "Chairman of the Board of Foundation on
Development of Perspective Defense Strategies and Technologies," joined Butina. Butina
shared Osipkin's bio with Erickson, 4082 and in a later email to O'Neill, Erickson touted Osipkin's
political connections:

In anticipation ofthe coming Sunday night I Monday night international friendshipdinners, please find attached the bio on the Russian banker I friend of the Kremlinthat Maria is hosting in Louisvill~ at the NRA Annual Meeting and that she will bebringing to Washington, DC on Sunday. Dmitry Osipkin is interesting and wellconnected - the conduit to a range of other powerful figures within Moscow. 4083

4076(U) Email, Yenason to Clay, May 18, 2016 (CRC-000063).
(U) For example, on May 20, Dearborn received an email from another staffer for Senator Sessions. that "DavidBlack ... reached out to me about a possible meeting with Trump and some Russian diplomats at the NRA
convention- facilitated by Rick Clay. He said that Rick has been in touch with you." Email, Montgomery to
Dearborn, May 20, 2016 (RD 000018).
4078(U) Dearborn Tr., pp. 97-102. Dearborn did not know if the request had ever been raised with Trump. Ibid, p.
102.
4079
(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, May 11, 2016.
4080(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, May 11 & 16, 2016.
4081(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, May 19, 20.16.
4082(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, May 19, 2016 (MB 0001550) (attaching bio).
4083
U Email Erickson to O'Neill, Ma 19, 2016 AE0002155).
4077

4084

620

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Butina and Osipkin arrived in Louisville together on May 18 and departed for
Washington, D.C., on May 22. Perrine of the NRA again helped with creating their itinerary andmanaging logistics.4085 On May 19, Butina and Osipkin attended two dinners. First, they joinedDavid Keene for dinner at Brendon's Catch.4086 Then, they were escorted across town by police
to attend a fundraiser organized by Johnny Yenason, Rick Clay, and Mark Ryan. 4087 According
to Clay, Yenason had requested that Butina speak at the dinner because of her work on gun
rights, and that Torshin speak at the dinner because of his involvement with the Russian
Orthodox Church.4088 Torshin was not yet in Louisville, so Osipkin attended as a "stand-in." 4089
(U) While at the dinner, Butina likely met Bobby Hart, a gunsmith from Pennsylvania
who is friends with Trump Jr. That evening, Hart texted Trump Jr. about Butina's interest inmeeting him, and referenced a past connection to Osipkin, who had secured hunting permits for
Trump Jr. and Hart in Ukraine4090 :2018-05-19 21 :59:46

From ~Hey Donny I'm having dinner with the president of the Russian NRA and she would
absolutely love to meet with you while you're down here and invite you to their Summitthat they have In Russia as her guest she is with the guy that got our license to hunt
when we're there very well accomplished shooter as well
2018-05-20 10:41:22

From+
lam in freedom hall are you here buddy

4085 (U)Email, Butina to Erickson, May 17, 2016 (PAE0001969-74) (forwarding email exchange with Perrine andattaching itinerary).
40 86 (U) Calendar invitation, Perrine to Keene, "Dinner with Russian Guests," May 19, 2016 (NRA Production
0000143) (identifying by name Butina and Osipkin).
4087 (U) Clay Tr., p. 20-23. The fundraiser was called "Heroes for Freedom and Liberty Dinner'' and benefited theHershel "Woody" Williams Medal of Honor Foundation.
4088 (U) Ibid, p. 21.
4089 (U) Ibid., p. 33. Over 400 people attended the dinner, including Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin and several of
his cabinet members. Clay Tr., p. 27. Other attendees included Jordan Karem, who began working for Trump in
July 2015 when the campaign began, later became press director for Mike Pence, and ultimately joined the WhiteHouse advance team after inauguration. Ibid.; Steve Holland, "Trump' s ' body guy' plans to leave White Housesoon: officials," Reuters, November 26, 2018.
4090 (U) Text messages, Hart to Trump Jr., May 19-20, 2016 (DJTJRO 1282).

621

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

According to Trump Jr., the hunting trip to Ukraine took place just before Trump Jr. traveled to
Russia for the first time in 2003 or 2004. 4091 He did not recall Osipkin and did not appear to
respond to Hart's message about Butina. 4092
(U) Butina and Osipkin attended NRA meetings and receptions on May 18, May 19, andMay 20.4093 On May 20, Trump gave a speech, as did Trump Jr. 4094 Butina attended Trump's
speech, but said she did not meet him during the convention.4095 Keene did not recall attending
the events with Butina or Osipkin, whom he described as Torshin's assistant. 4096

(U) Butina and Osipkin,joined by Torshin, dined with Keene and Keene's wife on
Saturday, May 20, for Keene's birthday.4097 During dinner that night, Torshin, Butina and
Osipkin met Trump Jr.
(U) K1:ene and Butina told the Committee that Keene made reservations at a different
restaurant, but Keene had mistakenly brought them to Brendon's Catch, where they had eaten
two nights earlier.4098 The restaurant initially provided Keene's group-himself, his wife,
Butina, Torshin and Osipkin-with a private room that had been reserved for an NRA function,and then relocated them when the other NRA group arrived. 4099 As they were being relocated,
Pete Brownell, whose group of NRA members was taking the room, arrived with Trump Jr. andintroduced him to Keene, Torshin, Butina, and Osipkin. 4100 Butina, Torshin, and Osipkin all had
their photos taken with Trump Jr., some of which Butina produced to the Committee4101 :4091(U) Trump Jr. Tr., pp. 225, 340-342.
(U) Ibid, p. 342.
4093
(U) Events for Delegation from Russia, NRA Annual_ Meetings - Louisville, KY, May 18-22, 2016
(PAE0001391-93).
4094(U) Keene Tr., p. 151-153.
4095(U) Butina Tr., p. 224.
4096
(U) Keene Tr., p. 154.
4097
(U) Email, Perrine to Butina, May 18, 2016 (PAE0001970).
4098(U) Keene Tr. pp. 154-155; Butina Tr. pp. 213-214.
4099(U) Keene Tr. pp. 154-155; Butina Tr. pp. 213-214.
4100(U) Keene Tr. pp. 154-155; Butina Tr. pp. 213-214.
4101(U) Twitter direct message, Butina to Torshin, November 9, 2016 (MB 0000338) (sharing photo from Dmitry
Osipkin ofButina, Osipkin and Torshin with Trump Jr.); Butina Tr., p. 211; Twitter direct message, Butina toTorshin, May 22, 2016 (MB 0000256); Twitter direct message, Butina to Torshin, May 22, 2016 (MB 0000256-57).
4092

622

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Butina described the encounter in her interview:

It was small talk. Mr. Torshin presented to Donald Trump Junior a coin or likesomething that he always had in his pockets, and he wished the best to his father,the best to Melania Trump, and the best to his family and his wife. We didn 't
have a lot of time to talk because they were about to have dinner, and then theywalked us out to the bigger room where the NRA delegation was there having
dinner with Donald Trump Junior, and asked us to introduce ourselves. I

623

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
remember that because I was translating what Torshin told. He told: We are NRA
life members; we are traveling from Russia. 4102
(U) Butina told the Committee that she did not report this meeting with Trump Jr. to theRussian government, but either Torshin or Osipkin might have. 4103 According to Butina, it was"absolutely a possibility that [the] Russian government was aware that this meeting
happened."4104(U) Torshin himself told Butina in a Twitter message that he would "not report [about
the trip] in written format," and would instead brief the MFA verbally. 4105 Torshin also spokewith his "boss," who encouraged him to continue to "develop 'non-state relations."'4106 In
addition, Torshin requested that Butina provide him with a written analysis of Trump's remarks
and those of "other high-ranking guests." 4107
(U) After the convention, Butina and Osipkin returned to Washington, D.C. for a May 23
dinner at the Army Navy Club arranged by O'Neill.4108 Butina attended this dinner, called it"interesting" in messages to Torshin (who did not attend), and promised to write an assessment
about it. 4109 Butina said that the dinner was focused on "civil society groups" and not attended
by politicians,4110 although Erickson referenced attendance by "Russian banking oligarchs," andclaimed that "[n]o one else is dealing with the Kremlin at this high a level today."4111

4102(U) Butina Tr., pp. 211-212. Keene, who was distracted at the time and'may have been outside, said he did notrecall a conversation taking place during the Trump Jr. encounter. Keene Tr., pp. 166-167.
4103(U) Butina Tr., pp. 211-212.
4104(U) Ibid., p. 219. The Committee assesses the Russian government did have insight into this meeting, due to thefact that similar meetings were relayed to the Russian MFA. For example, in October 2016; Trump Jr. traveled toParis where he gave remarks at a d~nner hosted by the Center for Political and Foreign Affairs, a pro~Russia thinktank, for a fee of approximately $90,000. Trump Jr. Tr. II, pp. 370-372. Beforehand, Trump Jr. had lunch withRanda Kassis and Fabian Baussert, who operate the think tank. Ibid. Trump Jr. recalled speaking with them about
the election and Syria. Ibid., pp. 375-377. Kassis later wrote in aFacebook post that has since been removed: "Isucceeded to pass Trump, through the talks with his son,_the idea of how we can cooperate together to reach theagreement between Russia and the United States on Syria," and press reporting suggests she passed information
about their conversation to the Russian MFA. See David S. Cloud, "Donald Trump Jr.'s 2016 trip to Paris for lunchwith Moscow-linked couple remains a puzzle," Los Angeles Times, November 17, 2017.
4105(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, May 24, 2016.
4106 (U) Ibid.
4107(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, May 22, 2016.
4108(U) Email, O'Neill to Butina and Erickson, May 20, 2016 (MB 0002907).
4109(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, May 24, 2016.
4110(U) Butina insisted that the dinners were focused on "civil society groups' communications, when you havefriendship beyond just the presidents and beyond the top level, which was normal," akin to a "Track II" dialogue.
She claimed that the phrase "back channel communication" was being used in that context. Butina Tr., pp. 228-231.
K. T. McFarland was invited, but did not' attend, according to Butina. Ibid.
4111(U) Email, Erickson to O'Neill and Butina, April 20, 2016 (PAE0000712).

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7. (U) Efforts to Establish a U.S.-Russia: Communications Channel(U) On July 12, Dana Rohrabacher organized a dinner at The Monocle, a restaurant near
the Capitol in Washington, D.C., to discuss his position on U.S. foreign policy towards
Russia. 4112 As previously described, Torshin and Butina had met repeatedly with Rohrabacher todiscuss Russia-U.S. relations, and Rohrabacher's visits to Russia had been monitored by the
Russian MF A. The guests included then-Senator Jeff Sessions and Campaign policy advisor
Sam Clovis. 4113
(U) According to Clovis, "[t]he whole thing was about Russia." He told the Committee:"Rohrabacher was advocating a position that was absolutely untenable from a campaign
perspective and certainly from my perspective. . . . [W]hat he proposed that night, was that weought to be allied with Russia in dealing with the Middle East and a much stronger association,much stronger relationship with Russia." 4114.
(U) Rohrabacher agreed that the event was "a lot of talk about Russia ... I guess you
might call it policy. But we were discussing what America's role should be with Russia." 4115 He
described the event:

There were probably about 25 people. We had a big table. Faith Whittlesey, myold.friend.from the Reagan years who was US. Ambassador to Switzerland, wasthere. . . . There was one guy from the-there was one guy from the Trump
campaign. He was-I don't remember his name. I do remember he was 'overweight and I was not impressed with him. But he was there.
(U) Rohrabacher said there were some differences of opinion in the room, with some,including himself and Whittlesey, "advocating a cooperative effort," while others, including
Clovis, took a more "hard line" approach. 4116
(U) Erickson was at the dinner as well. Clovis recalled interacting with Erickson andgiving him a card.4117 This interaction apparently prompted Erickson, on July 16, to email
Clovis that he had been "developing a back-channel to the Kremlin for the past couple of years":

4112(U) Clovis Tr., pp. 87-88, 91.
.
(U) Ibid, p. 9t. Clovis was invited by Brandon Wheeler, a friend ofRohrabacher. Email, Clovis to Wheeler,
Rohrabacher, Manafort, and Ahn, July 12, 2016 (DJTFP00012854).
4114(U) Clovis Tr., pp. 90-94. ·4115(U) Rohrabacher Tr., p. 61.
4116(U) Ibid, pp. 60-621.
4117(U) Clovis Tr., pp. 93-94.
4113

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I briefly m.entioned at the Rohrabacher dinner that I've been developing a backchannel to the Kremlin for the past couple ofyears - really, just the recipient of
their outreach. Comes now an important inquiry on that front.
Was Trump supporter Carter Page's recent visit to Moscow (major speechdelivered a couple ofweeks ago) his idea based upon his previous years in
Russia, or were you (or the campaign) aware of or sanctioned his remarks?
Carter EXACTLY echoes the "new relationship with Russia" strains echoed at
the dinner, by nominee Trump and by smart international security experts. His
speech is sweeping the Russian internet AND has deeply interested the most inner
circles of the Kremlin. For a host ofreasons, it has further reinforced Putin's I
Russia's desire for a Trump victory over a pointless "Hillary re-set"administration.
Clovis said he did not respond to the email and did not tell anyone about receiving it, despite
claiming he was "always hinky about anybody who wanted to talk about Russia." 4118
(U) If Clovis had voiced his opposition to Russia so forcefully at the dinner, it is unclear
why Erickson would have chosen Clovis as the target of his outreach.4119 Butina told the· Committee that Erickson did not tell her about this email or the nature of his outreach to the
Trump Campaign. 4120 She was also not aware of how Erickson had developed his information
about the "inner circles of the Kremlin," but posited that Erickson made these representations
based on assumptions and public reporting, and not some other form of inside access. 4121
(U) The following week, Erickson also reached out to George O'Neill about the"U.S.(Russia friendship dinners." In the Juty 23 email, Erickson suggested to O'Neill that
Butina wanted to add Byrne as a new member of the dinners:

Patrick Byrne, the founding CEO of Overstock.com, met Maria last July at
Freedom Fest in Las Vegas and has been stalking her ever since ... [he]supports 'our' vision of a new dawn ofrelations between the two countries. He ..
. would find it effortless to attend a monthly dinner in Washington with whomever

411s (U)
4119

Ibid.
(U) Clovis's interactions with George Papadopoulos regarding Campaign engagement with Russia are described
infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.E.
4120(U) Butina Tr., p. 270.
4121
(U) Ibid, p. 265-270.

626

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE.:.. RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
of our original cast might wish to dine at a given time . . . Maria VERY muchwants you two to meet to compare your genius level IQ 's.
Finally, I'd like to add Byrne to the very small circle ofMaria Butina college
scholarship providers (you and I and an NRA poohbah are the founding trio).
Byrne is a bachelor by choice and consequences of his intellectual gifts andlimitations, but is now concerned with his mortality and family legacy. Since
meeting Maria, he has found ever more creative ways to pitch a standing $1
million offer to her 'to have a baby with him.' He is utterly enamored ofher
imagined gene stock and believes that a baby would cement not only his familial
line but also relations between our two nations . . . . I think that he could be
persuaded by men like you and me to support Maria in more concrete - if lesscarnal - terms. 4122·
Erickson forwarded the entire July 23 email to Butina, lurid details included, with thenote: "For your files -the start of a conversation!! !"4123·(U) During the same time frame, Butina and Torshin exchanged messages about the .
Trump Campaign and their potential inroads. In early July, Butina sent Torshin a paper
forecasting the results of the election, which Toi-shin expected to send to the MFA. 4124 A July 18
discussion focused on how to leverage Butina's American "contacts," particularly with respect toa Rohrabacher-associated ''pro-Russian club" and Carter Page:

Torshin: . . . How are things with Trump?
Butina: Trump chose the governor of Indiana, Pence; as vice-president. Pence isabsolutely an NRA guy. ...
Torshin: ... What are you thinking of doing with your contacts? Otherwise, if there's a[Trump] victory, they'll forget about us!
Butina: I think you are right. Most of all, it's necessary, as you had thought, to
go to the elections as an observer from the NRA!
Butina: There's this pro-Russian club here - well-known senators, Trumpadvisors, who are for relations with the RF. It would be good to get contact withthem up and running ...

4122(U) Email, Erickson to O'Neill, July 23, 2016 (PAE0002955, 2938).
(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, July 23, 2016 (PAE0002955).
4124(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, July 3, 2016.
4123

627

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYTorshin: Of course! Perhaps you should meet with the younger one, or is thatdifficult?
Torshin: And what kind of club is that? Rohrabacher and others? Give me thecontact information - I'll try to find out. ...
Butina: Right now I would rather meet with Carter Page. He's Trump's advisor
for the RF and heads the pro-Russian group. He was in Moscow at a meetingwith Putin last year. Can you find out how we feel abo~t him?
Torshin: I'll try, but tomorrow. Not long ago one of his advisors was in
Moscow. I don't remember the last name.
Butina: . . . Thank you very much for the information. Carter Page is his name.
This is very important. I have not yet agreed to a meeting with him. It depends
on your opinion.
Butina: Regarding the younger Trump - a meeting is possible, but, more likely,
with you than with me. They are crazy busy now. 4125

Despite her representations to Torshin about Page, Butina told the Committee that she had no
direct contact with Page and did not have any information about his activities other than what
was publicly reported. 4126 ·(U) Although she did not meet with Page, Butina did meet several times with J.D.
Gordon, a former Trump Campaign national security advisor who she first encountered at a
Swiss Embassy reception on September 28.4127 That evening, following the reception, Erickson
connected the two by email, asserting that Gordon was "playing a crucial role in the Trumptransition effort and would be an excellent addition to any of the U.S. I Russia friendship dinners
you occasionally hold. His perspective on international security is informed and listened to by all
the 'right' people in the immediate future of American politics."4128 Seizing on other comments
Gordon had made to the Russian government-sponsored channel RT and his role in developing
the RNC's Ukraine platform, Butina invited him to an upcoming O'Neill dinner on October 4, at
the Army Navy Club, "to discuss a future strategic alliance between Russia and America on

4125(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, July ·1s, 2016.
(U) Butina Tr., pp. 264-269.
.
4 127
.
(U) Ibid., p. 275. Gordon told the Committee that he held his position on the Campaign from March until
August 2016. Gordon Tr., p. 5.
4128(U) Email, Erickson to Gordon and Butina, September 28, 2016 (MB 0000010).
4126

628

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE-:- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
issues like international terror." 4129 Butina then recommended to O'Neill that Gordon, who she
referred to as "Trump's foreign policy advisor," as well as Byrne, be invited. 4.130(U) Butina told the Committee that she knew Gordon was a Trump advisor and "[h]eseemed to have a pro-Russian position, so I thought it would be beneficial ifhe would be in the
George group because it supports U.S.-Russia relations." 4131 On October 2, she advised Torshinthat she was meeting with "Trump's Russia advisors" and sought his guidance on presenting theRussian position on Trump:·
Butina: ... On Tuesday I am meeting with Trump's Russia advisors.
Torshin: Interesting!
Butina: What position should we hold on our side?
Torshin: Very.carefully. Tell them according to different "surveys, "Russians
have good feelings for him. About the readiness to work positively ...
Butina: What's from the government side? Are we ready to meet?
Torshin: This is a question of a completely different level! Better not ask it. You
can talk about the initiative of the ''prayer brealfast" of Doug Coe. And about
possibility of collaboration on the NRA line.
\
Butina: Understood!
Torshin: We need to do it in a way so that it is clear you are the person who canprovide a channel of cooperation on a sound level. ... 4132

(U) Gordon was unable to attend the dinner, but the two continued their correspondence
in an effort to meet again. 4133 Gordon took Butina to a Styx concert at the Warner Theater on
October 18, following a happy hour. 4134 Butina likewise recalled meeting with Gordon at a bar

4129(U) Email, Butina to Gordon, September 29, 2016 (MB 0000011-12).
(U) Email, Butina to O'Neill, September 29, 2016 (MB 0007157).
4131(U) Butina Tr., p. 276.
4132 (U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, October 2, 2016.
4133 (U) Emails, Gordon to Butina, September 29 & October 5, 2016 (MB 0000013-15).
4134 (U) Email, Gordon to Butina, October 13, 2016 (PAE0000724); Email, Butina to Gordon, October 13, 2016
(PAE0000730).
4130

629

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

in downtown Washington, D.C., possibly before the concert, where they spoke about both
Gordon's and Trump's positive views on Russia:

I told him that I support good U.S.-Russian relations and the restoration of thecommunication between the two countries. He was the same way. He told: Yes, I· agree with, and Trump agrees with that. And that's pretty much it. But you don't
hear it very often, so I was very pleased that he supports this idea. 4135
(U) Butina invited Gordon to her birthday party on November 12 and the two later
exchanged emails about a happy hour in December, but Butina did not recall any further
communications of substance.4136 The Comm1ttee did not ask Gordon any questions about theseinteractions.

(U) In contemporaneous conversations with Torshin, Butina touted her meetings with
Gordon, and the O'Neill dinners, as pathways to the Trump Campaign. On October 5, she wrotethat she "will be connecting people from the prayer breakfast to this group" and that she was"setting up the groundwork." On October 13, she said that she had "met with the Trump[]
academia wing on international policy." On October.20, when Torshin asked her what was "newwith the elections campaign," she responded:

I talk to all of Trump's Russia advisors. There are three ofthem. They do not haveany other contacts at the RF. Just you and 1 At the same time, I am working in agroup that is writing proposals to him on foreign policy strategy. I have a couple
ofpeople on his staff· And you know everything about the Prayer Breaifast. 4137
8. (U) After the Election and the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast(U) Butina monitored the election results closely on November 8 and reported back toTorshin on Trump's victory. They both celebrated the result as "a wonderful chance to improve
American-Russian relations." 4138 They also believed it "important that [their] efforts are
noticed," and Torshin encouraged Butina to "ask our friends about the possibility to go to theinauguration" and committed to "developing our connections." 4139 Butina followed up with two
papers for Torshin and the MFA: ''Notes about the resource base of contacts with the team of the

4135(U) Butina Tr., pp. 277-279.
(U) Butina Tr., pp. 282-284.
4137(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, October 20, 2016.
4138(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, November 9, 2016.
4139(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, November 9, 2016.
4136

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

newly elected president of the USA Donald Trump" and "Establishment of the dialogue with theteam of the newly elected president of the USA." 4140·..

'

(U) In the first paper, sent on November 10, 2016, Butina proposed that she and Torshin"use the existing personal groundwork" they had laid "in establishing informal relationships in
U.S. political circles ... for the purposes of assessing, monitoring, forecasting, and developing
the policies of the [Russian Federation] vis-a-vis" the United States. Butina also explained: ·During the last 5 years, [Torshin] and Butina have constantly worked on
establishing unofficial contact, based on common views and a system ofconservative values, with a number of key [Republican Party] organizations in
the US, including the executive level of[the Republican Party,] its intellectual
establishment and [Republican Party] organizations. 4141
(U) In the second paper, sent on November 11, 2016, Butina proposed organizing a
conference on_building Russian-American relations under Trump. Butina recommended
presenting the conference as a "private initiative" rather than a "government undertaking,"
because the event would "create ... a foundation for further talks on the level of government
officials" without any government officials needing to attend the event.4142(U) Torshin read the proposals and initiated contact with the MFA to s~ek further
guidance on their American efforts. However, he was "afraid" that the MFA would "not go forit," and in a private Twitter message, instructed Butina to proceed cautiously:·

Take notice - Trump has already received a good letter from VVP [Putinl We
cannot be in discord here. A discussion can be held but a participation ofRussians
cannot be arranged. The MFA cannot tell me anything about ihe Prayer Breaifast.
In general, the MFA 's attitude toward the breaifast was formed a long time ago it is negative! As for the inauguration, they say yes, go! About the breaifast - so
far no response. I understand them - the principle is "do not harm! "4143(U) Despite the MFA's reportedly "negative" attitude, Butina and Torshin worked
toward securing tickets to the Prayer Breakfast. Butina was in contact with Doug Burleigh of the

4140(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, Novemb!)r 9-11, 2016.
(U) United States' Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, United States v. Maria Butina, Case 1:18-cr-00218TSC, p. 9, April 19, 2019 (quoting Maria Butina, "Notes about the resource base of C!)ntacts with the team of the
newly elected president of the USA Donald Trump," November 10, 2016).
4142(U) Ibid (quoting Butina, "Establishment of the dialogue with the team of the newly elected president of theUSA," November 11, 2016).
·
4143(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, November 12, 2016.

4141

631

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

National Prayer Breakfast committee4144 as well as its Chairman, Doug Coe. On November 15,
2016, she reported to Torshin that they had received invitations.~ 145 Torshin's response
suggested that the MF A was cautiously considering the event: "Everyone is afraid and is waiting
for the order. I can't get through to the relevant deputy ofLavrov."4146 Nonetheless, by
November 30, the two had developed a list of nine Russians to include as part of a delegation to
the Prayer Breakfast.4147 By late December, the list had grown to 12, and Torshin had obtained
approval from the MF A for the trip. 4148
(U) Butina was transparent with Erickson as to the intent of the Russian delegation. On
November 30, 2016, she told him that "[p]eople in the list are hand-picked by Mr. Torshin andme and are VERY influential in Russia. They are coming to establish a back channel ofcommunication."4149 She also advised O'Neill, on November 29, that she was "putting together
a very influential delegation of Russians to the US." Erickson helped Butina draft an email
intended for Burleigh, which included a suggestion that Putin might attend: "Should the next
U.S. President move to thaw relations with Russia, it is extremely likely that President Putin
would attend the prayer breakfast in a gesture of unity between Russian Orthodox believers andAmerican Christians."4150r(U) Butina relayed each update of the Russian delegation to Erickson, who was assisting
her in organizing their attendance at the breakfast. The delegation notably included, among
others4151 :·•(U) Vadim Lobov, Executive Director of the Moscow University oflndustry and
Finance "Synergy"; .

•(U) Aysen Nikolaev, Mayor ofYakutsk;4152•(U) Sergey Shakhov, former Kremlin staffer;

4144{U) Email, Burleigh to Butina, November 6, 2016 (PAE000 1053) (forwarding Prayer Breakfast invitation).
(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, November 13-15, 2016.
4146(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, November 15, 2016.
4147(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, November 30, 2016.
4148(U) Twitter direct messages, Torshin and Butina, December 26, 2016 ("I was told at the MFA today that there
are no objections to my trips . . . . The response from MFA is perfect. ... I am serious.").
4149(U) Email, Butina to Erickson, November 30, 2016 (MB 0002872).
4150(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, October 21, 2016 (PAE0002042).
4151(U) Email, Erickson to Yushioka, Butina, and Burleigh, January 27, 2017 (PAE0001003, 1010); Butina Tr., pp.
299-306; see also Evgenia Pismennaya and Ilya Arkhipov, "The Butina 11: Meet the Russians 'Handpicked' for
Trump Event," Bloomberg, December 14, 2018.
4152(U) Nikolaev is now the Head of the Sakha Republic.
4145

632

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) Alexander Erkhov, part owner of "Uralprivatbank";•(U) Alexander Karpov, owner and board member of Russian developer "GK Regiony";•(U) Igor Pisarsky, businessman involved in politi~s and public relations;•(U) Andrey Kolyadin, former Kremlin staffer; and,•(U) Stanislav Puginsky, part-owner of Russian law firm Egorov, Puginksy, Afanasiev &Partners.

Two last-minute additions-Kolyadin and Puginsky--obtained invitations from Rohrabacher,through Erickson and Jack Abramoff. 4153
(U) On January 31, before the National Prayer Breakfast began, the Russian delegation
attended one of the O'Neill "friendship dinners" at the Hotel George. 4154 The idea for a dinnerwith the Russian visitors to the National Prayer Breakfast appeared to originate with O'Neill, but
was eagerly embraced by Erickson and Butina.4155 In a January 22, 2016, email, Ericksonsuggested that O'Neill "pitch the dinner/delegation to Members of Congress or people ofimportance" by emphasizing the attendees' status and Putin's involvement:

The Russian Federation is sending a full contingent to this year's National Prayer
Breakfast as its first semi-official delegation to the US. under the leadership ofPresident Trump. (Past years might have elicited two or three attendees-thisyear a powerful 15.) It is consequential that the FIRST delegation is targeting theprayer brealifast - this is of a piece with President Putin's continued emphasis on
the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russian life. Putin would specificallylike to use a common faith as a bridge between these two cultures.
The delegation is being led by Russian Central Bank Deputy Governor Alexander
Torshin (previously President of the Russian Senate). It is populated by key
mayors, university presidents and personal advisors to President Putin. Reaction
to the delegation's presence in America will be relayed DIRECTLY to President
Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (who' both had to personally approve. the deleg(ltion 's travel to this event). 4156

4153(U) Email, Abramoff to Erickson, January 5, 2017 (PAE0001334).
(U) Butina Tr., p. 227.
4155 (U) Email, Erickson to O'Neill and Butina, January 5, 2016 (MB 0002155); Email, Butina to O'Neill, January
5, 2016 (MB 0002160).
4156(U) Email, Erickson to O'Neill and Butina, January 22, 2016 (MB 0004103).

4154

633

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY .

(U) Among the American attendees were: Rohrabacher, Congressman Thomas Massie,
and Ron Maxwell, a film producer who claimed to have contact with Steve Bannon. 4157 Afterthe dinner, Butina wrote to O'Neill and referenced Putin: "Our delegation cannot stop chatting
about your wonderful dinner. My dearest President has received the message." Butina told theCommittee that she had "exaggerated a little bit" in the email, but nonetheless suggested thatTorshin's political connections could be used to transmit messages: "Regardless that Torshin is
not the closest person, he's still in the United Russia, which means he definitely could write amemo and try to give it in certain channels."4158(U) A document containing Butina's notes from the Breakfast were recovered from her
computer by the FBI.4159 Butina did not produce these notes to the Committee. Althoughpartially redacted in public filings, the notes covered a number of Butina's activities during the
Breakfast and surrounding events from January 30-to February 3. They included the O'Neill
Friendship Dinner, where two individuals "really want[ed] to go to Moscow" and where theRussian representatives invited one person to the Moscow Economic Forum and another to theRussian Prayer Breakfast. The notes also indicate that Pisarsky was introduced on multiple
occasions as Putin's campaign manager. 4160

(U) Butina and Torshin were briefly on a list to meet Trump during the National Prayer
Breakfast. Burleigh had contacted Butina to offer her and Torshin a chance to meet President
Trump in private during the Breakfast: "We have this wonderful possibility and Trump mightmeet you guys before the National Prayer Breakfast So that means you have to come a couple ofhours before and then there might be a green room and you might have a picture with the
President."4161 Public reporting indicates that the meeting was canceled the night before, after aWhite House national security aide flagged Torshin as an individual with "baggage," includingties to organized crime. 4162 Butina told the Committee she thought the cancellation was due tothe event having been overbooked.4163

4157(U) Email, Erickson to Butina, January 31, 2017 (MB 0004170--4171) (list of American guests); Butina Tr., pp.
229-230.
4158(U) Butina Tr., p. 234.
4159
(U) United States' Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, United States v. Butina, Case 1:18-cr-00218-TSC(D.D.C. May 1, 2019), Exhibit 8. At the end of the notes, Butina wrote "Please contact Maria Butina with anyquestions," suggesting that the notes might have been prepared for an audience.
4160 (U) Ibid
4161
(U) Butina Tr., p. 314.
(
4162(U) Michael Isikoff, "White House pulled out of meet and greet with 'conservatives' favorite Russian' oversuspected mob ties," Yahoo News, April.2, 2017.
4163(U) Butina Tr., p. 66.

634

(U) After the event, Burleigh emailed Butina about strategically selecting invitees andappealed to their shared vision of the Russian visit: "I think this will be even more important as
our President takes a deeper involvement in meeting with senior Russian leaders who are invitedin the future." 4164
(U) On December 13, 2018, Butina entered a plea of guilty to conspiring to act as an
unregistered agent of Russia during her time in the United States. 4165 Butina admitted thatbeginning in at least March 2015, she sought to establish and use "unofficial lines ofcommunication with Americans having power and influence over U.S. politics," at the directionof Alexander Torshin and for the benefit of the Russian government. 4166 On April 26, 2019,
Butina was sentenced to 18 months in prison, including time served; she was deported to Russia
on October 25, 2019.

4164(U) Email, Burleigh to Butina, February 23, 2017 (PAE0001370.
See Statement of Offense, United States v. Butina, Case 1:18-cr-00218-TSC (D.D.C. December 13, 2018).
4166
Ibid.
4167
F o - the IRA's influence operations
4165 (U)635/

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I. (U) Allegations, and Potential Misinformation, About Compromising Information
1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) Russia has a longstanding practice of collecting compromising information toattempt to influence or coerce prominent individuals, posing a potential counterintelligencethreat. Allegations that the Russian government had compromising information on thencandidate Trump emerged in 2016, and were more fully made public in early 2017, throughmemos produced by Christopher Steele. Separate but related allegations, which were not public,
in some cases predated both Steele's memos and the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
Collectively, the allegations raised a potential counterintelligence concern, that Russia might use
compromising information to influence the then-presidential candidate's positions on relations
with Russia. The Committee sought, in a limited way, to understand the Russian government's
alleged collection of such information, not only because of the threat of a potential foreign
influence operation, but also to explore the possibility of a misinformation operation targeting
the integrity of the U.S. political process.
(U) Of particular concern to the Committee were the following:

4168(U) DOJ OIG FJSA Report. While the DOJ OJG FISA Report included some of this information, the reportomitted other information, and contained a potential factual error, which resulted unintentionally in a misleading
portrayal of the intelligence report. Some of that portrayal from the DOJ OJG FISA Report has been declassified.
The contents of the intelligence report, including the information which was omitted by the Inspector General, is
described herein. For more information on Steele, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. IV.B.

636

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

-

637

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In the course of the Committee's inquiry, witnesses provided information about twoof Trump's three known trips to Russia. Some individuals the Committee engaged with haverelationships with Trump and have traveled with him to Russia, others have never met him, andnone of them were part of the Campaign. A number of witnesses told the Committee theirmemories were unclear, and some of the information they provided could not be corroborated.
The Committee collected this testimony and other information, but it did not establish that theRussian government collected kompromat on Trump, nor did it establish that the Russian
government attempted to blackmail Trump or anyone associated with his campaign with suchinformation.
(U) Separate from Steele's memos, which the Committee did not use for support, theCommittee became aware of three general sets of allegations. First, testimony and otherinformation provided by several witnesses indicated that an individual named David Geovanis
alleged that he had information about Trump's relationships with women in Moscow.

(U) Geovanis is a Moscow-based U.S. businessman who holds a Russian passport andmay be a dual U.S.-Russian citizen. The Committee is not aware of Geovanis having any directconnection with the Trump Campaign. Geovanis has claimed that, during Trump's travel to
Russia, both in 1996 and 2013, Geovanis was aware of Trump engaging in personal relationships
with Russian women. Geovanis has suggested that the Russian government was also likely
aware of this information.
·(U) Geovanis has ties to Kremlin-linked oligarchs, several of whom are sanctioned by
the United States. Some of Geovanis's contacts are also associated with Russia's intelligenceand security services, and some are involved in Kremlin foreign influence operations. Geovanis,
who may have been under personal financial strain since at least 2013, has said that his
relationships with former members of the Russian security services are useful for doing business

4171

638

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

in Russia. Geovanis also has a reputation in ·Moscow for a pattern of conduct regarding womenthat could make him, and potentially those around him, vulnerable to kompromat operations.
(U) While the Committee is not specifically aware of Geovanis sharing his alleged
information regarding Trump with the Russian government, he has not been discreet with it. He
is believed to have told a number of people in Moscow and elsewhere about some of thisinformation, at least some of whom are in the U.S. expatriate business community, and he may
have also spoken to the press about it. Geovanis refused to cooperate with the Committee's
investigation, and some of his communications indicate that he has recently avoided returning to
the United States.

{U) The second set of allegations relate to a Moscow-based businessman, Sergey
Khokhlov, who overheard two people in Moscow, in October 2015, discussing sensitive tapes ofa Trump visit to Russia. He relayed what he heard to Giorgi Rtskhiladze, a friend and businessassociate of Michael Cohen. In October 2016, Rtskhiladze informed Cohen of the alleged tapes
in Moscow, and Cohen informed Trump and several others. Cohen has said that there was no
additional action taken, and that he had been aware of other similar allegations that began shortly
after Trump's travel to Moscow in 2013, none of which Cohen was able to corroborate.
(U) The third set of allegations relate to an individual, then an executive at MarriottInternational, which is the parent company of Ritz Carlton, wh9 overheard two other Marriott
executives discussing how to handle a tape of Trump with women in an elevator at the Ritz
Carlton Moscow. Neither the allegedly overheard conversation, nor the content described, could
be corroborated.
(U) Apart from allegations related to Trump, the Committee found that the Ritz Carlton
in Moscow is a high counterintelligence risk environment. The Committee assesses that thehotel likely has at least one permanent Russian intelligence officer on staff, government
surveillance of guests' rooms, and the regular presence of a large number of prostitutes, likely
with at least the tacit approval of Russian authorities.

2. (U) Threat Posed by Russian Intelligence Services' Collection of Kompromat

4172

639

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

4174
4175

(U)
ere was press coverage m 2011 regarding Donald Trump's desire to run for president in 2012, which may
have heightened foreign intelligence interest in him. Neil King Jr, "Trump Candidacy for White House Gaining
Ground," The Wall Street Journal, A ril 20, 2011.

4176

640

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

3. (U) David Geovanis and Potential Counterintelligence Concerns(U) In some circles of the U.S. expatriate business community in Moscow it has beencommon for visiting businessmen to be taken to nightclubs or parties where prostitutes arepresent.4178 It is likely that Russian security or intelligence services capitalize on thoseopportunities to collect information.4179 During the 1990s and into the 2000s, David Geovanis
developed a reputation in Moscow, in part as a host for visiting businessmen. 4180 Several
witnesses told the Committee that Geovanis also engaged in a pattern of behavior regarding
women that made him, and potentially others around him, vulnerable to exploitation by the
Russian intelligence and security services.4181(U) The Committee found multiple instances, in testimony, emails and text messages, from multiple individuals
including Geovanis himself, that were corroborative of this general reputation and conduct. Some of thecommunications were historical, others were more contemporary. Only a limited subset of that information is

641

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

i. Geovanis's Professional Background and Connections to Oligarchs(U) As previously noted, Geovanis is a Moscow-based businessman who holds a Russian
passport and may be a dual U.S.-Russian citizen.4182 Geovanis worked in the United States
before moving to Moscow in 1991.4183 In Moscow, Geovanis worked as a representative for the·American investor Bennett LeBow, 4184 developing and investing in real estate for a RussianAmeric~njoint venture called Liggett-Ducat and for Brookemil Ltd. 4185 Likely starting in 1997,
Geovanis worked for Soros Private Equity Partners in Moscow and London until approximately
2001 or 2002. 4186

(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Ro ert Curran, January 14, 2019, p. 18; Email, Geovanis to LeBow,
August 22, 2017 (LeBow 000413-414); Email, Email, LeBow to iikruglov@mail.ru, August 22, 2017 (LEBOW
000413-414); Somerset Coal, sales script (LEBOW 0001862); Geovanis and Anatoli Samochomov had the samelegal representation. The Committee does not have any information indicating that Samochomov and Geovanis
know each other.
.
4183(U) In Beverly Hills, Geovanis worked for Drexel Burnham Lambert, an investment firm that filed forbankruptcy in 1990. Leon Black also worked at the firm. Bennett LeBow was a significant investor with the firm
and a client of Black. Geovanis, Black and LeBow all participated in Donald Trump's 1996 trip to Moscow. SSCITranscript of the Interview with Leon Black, August 8, 2018, pp. 6-7, 15-21; Steven Pearlstein, "Icon ofan Era" The
Washington Post, February 14, 1990.
·
4184(U) LeBow, who has known Geovanis for many years and visited him repeatedly in Russia, refused to beinterviewed by the Committee. This limited the Committee's potential understanding ofGeovanis, his relationships
with individuals of concern in Russia, and his allegations. LeBow made documents available for the Committee toreview, but, despite the Committee's requests, refused to provide the·documents, which constrained the Committee's
ability to make use of them.
4185(U) Black Tr., pp. 20-23; Geovanis's professional biography from London & Regional Properties, archived
version; Somersetcoal.ru, "About Us"; Bloomberg.com, "David Geovanis: Executive Profile & Biography,"archived version.
4186(U) As of 2003, Geovanis served on the board ofSvyazinvest, a Russian state-owned telecommunications· holding company. Bloomberg.com, "David Geovanis: Executive Profile & Biography," archived version.
Geovanis may have been on the board of Svyazinvest as a representative of the Cyprus-registered Mustcom, which
was affiliated with Soros. Valeria Korchagina, "Did Soros Finally Exit Svyazinvest?" The Moscow Times, March
18, 2004. A close Geovanis friend, Robert Curran, believed that Geovanis had been let go from.his work with Sorosand did not believe that Geovanis and Soros had an ongoing relationship. Curran Tr., pp. 34-36.

642

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In 2001 or 2002, Geovanis went to work as a Managing Director for Oleg
Deripaska's Basic Element investing in real estate. 4187 Oleg Deripaska is one of the Kremlin's
most significant malign influence operatives, has close ties to the Russian intelligence services,and has been involved in the targeting of foreign elections.4188(U) According to Robert Curran, a longtime close friend of Geovanis: 4189

The way I understand it is that Oleg amassed this huge conglomerate ofaluminum companies, and related resource companies, and he did so in a mannerthat would be considered less elegant in the west. . . . And he basically needed a
guy that looked goodon paper, that had some basic banking contacts in the west,'
and could go to a meeting and talk reasonably intelligently to western bankers tofinance whatever operations he had there. So basically, David-although he hadvery few responsibilities at the actual company-he was just kind of the white guy
that they brought in to help along with these meetings with westerners. From
what I understand, it was apretty cushy job. He was getting paid a lot of money,
and his biggest complaint was he had nothing to do. So, they'd just basically say,David, we need you to go to this meeting or that meeting. He had a big name inthe company, he didn 't do much, and I think eventually he losi interest, and helost favor. I think he had very little actual contact with O(eg aside from thesemeetings, and eventually they went their separate ways. 4190.

(U) By 2007 or 2008, after leaving Basic Element, Geovanis went to work for theinvestment firm London and Regional properties, again involved in real estate.4191 By 2012
Geovanis was working at TPS Group, which also invests in real estate and is associated with

4187

(U) Geovanis also appears to have served as Managing Director at Kanchen Energy Capital, registered in
Jersey, which is linked to Deripaska and Basic Element. Curran Tr., p. 35; Bloomberg.com, "David Geovanis:
Executive Profile & Biography," archived version.
4188 (U) Geovanis worked on the Rodina hotel in Sochi, which is owned by Deripaska. Somerset Coal, sales script(LEBOW 0001862). For more on Deripaska and his connection to Russian intelligence services and the Russian
government, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.8.i.
·
4189(U) Curran, who has known Geovanis since college, lived with Geovanis in Moscow for five or six years in theearly-mid 1990s. As of early 2019, Curran was still in regular contact with Gi::ovanis. As part of his professional
photography work, Curran's photograph titled "The Capitalist" includes Geovanis and women who were models in
Moscow at the time. Curran told the Committee that a number of his photographs hang in the Trump SoHo hotel
and that one of them was given to Ivanka Trump as a gift by Alex Sapir, who is a friend of Curran, Curran· recalledemailing with Ivanka Trump regarding the photographs that would be used in the hotel. Curran Tr., pp. 8, 38-39,
13-15.
''
4190(U) Curran Tr., pp. 31-33. Felix _Stater, who knows Geovanis and has been to his apartment in Moscow,
claimed to have not spoken to him in more than 10 years but was aware of Geovanis' s work for Deripaska. ·Sater
Tr., pp. 310-311.
_
4191(U) Bloomberg.com, "David Geovanis: Executive Profile & Biography," archived version.

643

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUS~IA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Arkady Rotenberg, a Russian oligarch closely connected to Putin. Rotenberg is now sanctionedby the United States along with his brother and son. 4192
(U) Curran suggested to the Committee that, by 2013, Geovanis was having financial
trouble. 4193
(U) Following the 2016 U.S. election, Geovanis traveled to the United States. In Januaryof 2017, while in the United States, Geovanis met with Bennet LeBow, who subsequently
offered Geovanis a job working for LeBow's company, Somerset International, which sells
machines for processing coal.4194 The company, Somerset, did not have a presence in Russia at
the time, and LeBow hired Geovanis to start a Russia-based office. Curran told the Committeethat Geovanis' efforts to sell Somerset machines in Russia were not going well. 4195 According toCurran, Geovanis "mentioned that he went to Oleg [Deripaska] at one point to see ifhe could
introduce him to some of these coal barons ... he went to Oleg and said, help me out, I got thisnew job and I want to hold on to it." 4196
(U) Somerset's sales script advertises Geovanis's connection to Deripaska, as well as to
Roman Abramovich, Viktor Vekselberg, Arkady Rotenberg, 4197 Alexander Ponomarenko4198 and

4192- - Arkady Rotenberg and his brother Boris Rotenberg were sanctioned by the United States in 2014,
a n d ~ r Rotenberg, was sanctioned by the United States in 2018. See Treasury, "Treasury Sanctions
Russian Officials, Members Of The Russian Leadership's Inner Circle, And An Entity For Involvement In The
Situation In Ukraine," March 20, 2014; Treasury, "Treasu Desi nates Russian Oli archs, Official, and Entities in
Response to Worldwide Malign Activity," April 6, 2018;■ While at TPS Group in 2012, Geovanis was in contact wit LeBow regar mg an "investment opportunity" that
Geovanis hoped to propose to Leon Black. Using vague descriptors rather than names, Geovanis suggested that theinvestment would be a good way for Apollo to "ingratiate" itself likely with Putin, and that Putin would vouch forinvesting with TPS given his close relationship likely with Rotenberg. See Email, Geovanis to LeBow, March 28,
2012 (LEBOW 0000093).
4193(U) Curran Tr., p. 11-12.
4194(U) Email, Geovanis to LeBow, January 20, 2017 (LEBOW 0000110); Email, LeBow to Geovanis, January 27,
2017 (LEBOW 0000113). On that trip Geovanis also met, separately, with Liebman in New York, and stayed with
Curran in Florida. Curran Tr., p. 65-66; Liebman Tr., p. 20; see also Black Tr., p. 22.
4195(U) Curran Tr., pp. 30-31.
4196(U) Ibid., pp. 33-34. The timing of Curran's recollection is unclear, but it may not be consistent with private
representations Geovanis has made to Somerset. See Email, Geovanis to LeBow, March 1, 2019 (LEBOW
0002938 .

644

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Nikolay Tsvetkov, several of whom are sanctioned by the United States and have close ties to the
Kremlin or Russian intelligence. 4199 Geovanis's deputy at Somerset's Russia office formerly
worked for the Russian security services.4200
Additionally, as of 2017, Geovanis served on the
Supervisory oar omance, a company based in Latvia that is controlled by Russian oligarch
4201
Oleg Bo
Boyko has cming ties·· ··.,.c~i Moldovan press has reported that Boyko was involvedin a Kremlin-backed foreign election influence operation there. 4203

(U) Geovanis has been associated with the Russian state-funded Skolkovo Foundationand technology park, which has been controlled by U.S~-sanctioned Putin-associate Viktor

4199(U) Somerset Coal, sales script (LEBOW 0001862). In some communications reviewed by the Committee,
Geovanis used va ue lan ua e to avoid the direct use of these individuals' names, and Putin's name, in emails.

4200

In a 2007 mterv1ew, Geovan1s sa1 t at e sometimes pays oc ey w1 veteransoft e FSB and Russian Fe era Protective Service (FSO), which he said could be useful for doing business. Nikolai
Fedyanin, "David Geovanis: Home and life ofa foreigner in Russia," Salon, 2007. Curran told the Committee that
Geovanis, "is a developer and promoter, so he tends to embellish, particularly in interviews." Curran Tr., p. 28. On
August 25, 2017, Geovanis emailed LeBow a link to a May 9, 2016, photo of Putin and Sergei Khlebnikov, who is
Lieutenant General in the FSO leadership. The email's subject line was, "Kremlin Commandant," but contained nofurther information. Email, Geovanis to LeBow, August 25, 2017 (LEBOW _0000417); Khlebnikov has been thepresident of the Kremlin Horse Riding School, and Geovanis has been on the board. Somersetcoal.ru, "David
Geovanis," archived version. "The first equestrian art festival in Russia was held in Grozny," Tass.ru, September 28,
2011; The FSO is Russia's equivalent of the U.S. Secret Service and is closely associated with Vladimir Putin.
"The improbable careers of Vladimir Putin's bodyguards; Proximity is power," The Economist, June 22, 2019.
4201
U 4finance.com "4finance Announces Mana ement and Board," June 30, 2017.

645

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Vekselberg. 4204 Geovanis encouraged his current company, Somerset, to establish its Russia
office at Skolkovo, which it did.4205 The FBI has warned that the Skolkovo Foundation "may bea means for the Russian government to access our nation's sensitive or classified research,development facilities and dual-use technologies with military and commercial applications."4206An outside paper published by the U.S. Department of Defense indicates that the Skolkovo
Foundation is involved in the development of sensitive military technologies for Russia, and that"sophisticated physical security, consisting of cameras, thermal imaging, and alarms, alsosuggest that not all of the center's efforts are civilian in nature." 4207

(U) As of June, 2018, Geovanis was aware of media and Committee interest in him andseemed to be avoiding returning to the United States.4211

i.

(U) Geovanis's Perceived Access to Trump in 2016

(U) The Committee is not aware of Geovanis having any direct connection with the
Trump Campaign.4212 Nevertheless, Geovanis referred to his connections to Trump in emails

420
4205

(U) Emai, Geovanis to LeBow, Fe ruary 10, 2017 (LEBOW 0000116).
(U) Lucia Ziobro, "FBI's Boston office warns businesses of venture capital scams," Boston Business Journal,
April 4, 2014.
4207
U Seth Elan "Russia's Skolkovo Innovation Center," EUCOM Strate ic Foresi ht, Jul 29, 2013, p. 5.
4206

~

[l
(U) Emai s, S. Geovanis to A. Geovanis, June 12, 2018 (S. Geovanis Production); Email, Geovanis to Potter,
June 11, 2018, (S. Geovanis Production).
4212(U) The Committee asked several witnesses from the Trump Campaign and Trump Organization whether they
had met or heard ofGeovanis, and none had. See Cohen Tr. II, p. 335; Graff Tr., p. 115; Kushner Tr. II, p. 160;
Bannon Tr., p. 383.

4211

646

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
around the time of the campaign, and'others around Geovanis also seemed to be aware of theseconnections.

(U) On May 17, 2016, Geovanis forwarded LeBow an outreach email from a journalist
regarding Donald Trump and Russia. Geovanis wrote, "will not comment, unless the Donald
wants me to." 4213 On August 8, 2016, Geovanis emailed Curran to notify him that Trump had
listed Howard Lorber,as one of Trump's economic advisors. 4214 Other individuals in theexpatriate business community in Moscow believed that Geovanis had a connection to
Lorber. 4215
(U) On August 15, 2016, Curran emailed Geovanis a press article regarding Paul
Manafort and Ukraine, writing, "Your friend Oleg [Deripaska] and Donald are mentioned."4216(U) On October 23, 2016, Geovanis responded to an invitation to a upcoming holiday
dinner in Moscow. He wrote to a group of U.S. expatriate businessmen, "I'm in, unless Donald
wins and appoints me as Ambassador." 4217 During the campaign, Geovanis also sent at least onb
Trump-related email that he signed "Mr. Ambassador." 4218 Curran told the Committee:

I think [Geovanis] had a brieffantasy for a second that Trump would make him
an ambassador. It was sheer fantasy. I remember he actually looked in to some ofthe qualifications and different levels of scrutiny-that he felt that once he looked
into it that-I said, you 're crazy. No one is going to make you ambassador. 4219
(U) On November 10, 2016, Geovanis wrote to LeBow that "everyone in Moscow" wasexcited about Trump's victory and the prospect of "normalizing relations."4220 Geovanis and
LeBow then made plans to meet in January 2017, when Geovanis would be traveling to theUnited States.
4. (U) Trump's Travel to Moscow in 1996

4213

(U) Email, Geovanis to LeBow, May 17, 2016 (LEBOW 0000096).
(U) Email, Geovanis to Curran, August 8, 2016 Curran Production).
4215(U) See, e.g., Text messages, Mcfarren and(MCFARREN-SSC! 655). LeBow sent an image
regarding Russia to Lorber in October of2017 and note mt e subject line that it was "[f]rom David Geovanis."
Email, LeBow to Lorber, October 9, 2017 (LEBOW 0000494).
4216(U) Email, Curran to Geovanis, August 15, 2016 (Curran Production).
4217 (U) Email, Geovanis to O'Brien, et al., October 23, 2016 (O'Brien Production). On December 6, 2016, O'Brien
emailed the group regarding the upcoming holiday party, stating "maybe David can entice Donald over with someold friends." Email, O'Brien to Geovanis, et al., December 5, 2016 (MCFARREN-SSC! 256).
4218 (U) Email, Geovanis to Curran, August 8, 2016 (Curran Production).
4219(U) Curran Tr., p. 53.
4220(U) Emails, Geovanis and LeBow, November 10, 2016 (LEBOW 0000105).
4214

647

(U) Donald Trump and David Geovanis likely first met during Donald Trump's travel to
Moscow in November 1996, with other U.S. investors, to explore real estate development
opportunities. 4221

4221(U) Based on information provided by the Trump Organization, witnesses, and open source reporting, theCommittee is aware of Donald Trump making three trips to Russia, 1987, 1996, and 2013, all of which have been
publicly reported. Documents produced by the Ritz Carlton Moscow indicate that a guest named Donald Trump
stayed at the hotel in late January 200_8, and late June 2011. Based on open source reports these records likely refer
to Donald Trump Jr. Email, Kuhlen to Walia, et al., January 11, 2017 (RC-Moscow 010). Michael Crowley,"Trump Jr.'s love affair with Moscow," Politico, July 12, 2017. Oren Dorell, "Donald Trump's ties to Russia goback 30 years," USA Today, February 15, 2017; The Committee found no evidence to support the reported claim,
made by Sergei Millian, that Trump traveled to Russia in 2007 to attend the Millionaire's Fair. Catherine Belton,"Th h dR . . .! . t f ! T· IT:
November 1, 2016.
I "K
422
422

This information may be partially corroborated
by commumcat1ons provided by LeBow. See Email, Geovams to LeBow, January 27, 2017 (LEBOW 0000113).

648

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Several U.S. businessmen, architects, and other individuals took part in the 1996
trip. 4225
(U) Curran understood that "David was kind of like assigned to show [Trump] aroundtown, take him to dinner." 4226 Leon Black, who partidpated· in the trip, told the Committee that
Geovanis had "very good social skills" but was "probably not as serious analytically" and was"more junior."4227 Black explained:[Geovanis] was I guess a combination of kind of knowing the geography, since helived there, and knowing various people and had developed various relationships.
Back then you had the mayor, who was Luzhkov, and you had an artist named
Tsereteli. He was always putting different people together with different, people. 4228

4224

The Committee is only aware oftrave y Trump to Russia in 1987, 1996, and 2013.
4225(U) Those individuals likely included Bennett LeBow, Leon Black, Howard Lorber, Ron Bernstein, Theodore
Liebman, and Matthew Calamari. Liebman Tr., p. 35-36; see also Igor Tabakov, photographs published by the
Associated Press, 1996; Black Tr., pp. 23-26 ("Mr. LeBow was the senior partner and Howard was a partner, but I
think it was more LeBow in charge.").
4226(U) Curran Tr., pp. 41--42.
4227(U) Apart from Geovanis, Leon Black is, or has been, connected to several entities and individuals that appear
elsewhere in this Report. Black served on the board of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) until 2014, andhas previously met with Kirill Dmitriev. Black Tr., pp. 7-12. In 2011, Black reportedly met one-on-one with
Vladimir Putin. "Putin gets SWF, PE backing for Russia fund," Reuters, September 16, 2011. Black also knows
Oleg Deripaska, and has interacted with him in Russia and the United States prior to Deripaska being sanctioned by
the United States in 2018. Ibid., pp. 30-33. Black knows Allen Vine, whom Black described as "consigliere" to theRussian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, who was sanctioned by the United States in 2018. Ibid., pp. 42--44. Black told
the Committee, "Steve Bannon and I have a common friend, and I went over to see my friend a'nd Bannon wasmeeting him for breakfast. And so on two occasions I spent time talking to Steve Bannon." Ibid., pp. 40--41. Black
noted a personal, but not close, relationship with Jared Kushner and lvanka Trump, as well as a business transaction
between Apollo and Kushner Companies that Black was not involved in, or aware of, until after the fact. Ibid., pp.
18-19.
4228 (U) Ibid., p. 21. Black told the Committee: "I remember various Georgian feasts at Tsereteli's place, and there
were loads of government officials that would come in and out of those dinners," but Black did not recall which
Moscow trips those dinners occurred on. Ibid., p. 24. Black told the Committee he had not spoken to Geovanis in 15
years. Ibid., p. 21.

649

(U) Early in Trump's Moscow trip a party was hosted by the Brooke Group, for Trump,at a room called "The Library" at the Baltschug Kempinski Hotel, where the group of American
investors likely stayed. 4229

~ ' Trump may have begun a brief relationship with a Russian womann a m e d - . Theodore Liebman, an architect who lived in Moscow and New York in
the 1990s, and who traveled to Russia with Trump and the other investors from the Brooke
Group, attended the event.4231 According to Liebman, shortly before the party Geovanis had achance encounter w i t h - who Geovanis knew, and Geovanis invited her to the Brooke
Group party.4232(U) Liebman told the Committee:
I went down to the party with David. He drove me .... When we arrived, she was walking out of the Kempinski and knew David. ... [David} said: "Why don't you cometo a party? We 're having a party upstairs for Donald Trump" . .. he said: "It's a
cocktail party. You should come. Donald Trump is going to be there. " And she said:"Okay. When does it start?" "In a few minutes. We 're going to go up and check theroom. ,,4233......1£l..Surran told the Committee that, based on what Geovanis told him, "I think [Trumpa n d - might have had a brief romantic relationship," and that "[Geovanis] said then that

4230
4231

(U) Lie man Tr., pp. 14-15.

· ·(U) Liebman Tr., pp. 16-17. was the winner of the ■ beauty pageantMiss
Moscow. which later became Miss Russia. Curran told the Committee that, after the fall of the Soviet Union,
Curran was a Judge for the contest, and m e t - who he dated for a brief period in the 1990s. During that
relationship, which Curran said was not serious, Curran introduced
to Geovanis, with whom Curran wasliving at the time. Curran Tr., pp. 8-9, 52, 55-57;
4233(U) Liebman Tr., p. 17.
4232

650

, he saw them before he left and then he saw them again together ... I'm not sure if it was the next
day or a subsequent day or whatever. I do remember he said that he saw them together."4234(U) Several historical press r ~ o m e of which are Russian, indicate possible contact
subsequent to the Moscow trip. O n e - article from 1998 reported:... Donald Trump warmly welcomed the guests, among whom was the charming, "Miss Moscow. Trump recalled that two years ago, during
his stay in Moscow, was for him the most beautiful hostess of the capital,
whose charms were not overshadowed even by Claudia Schiffer and Tina Turner,
who lived in the same hotel. He recalled with pleasure the excellent company
with which he spent time in Moscow. 4235
(U) In a 2007 interview
interactions with famous people, including Trump.

was asked about her
was quoted as stating:With some I was briefly met by chance, while others there was a much longer
relationship due to mutual affection. For example, Trump is a person who I likevery much. I cannot call him a friend, because we do not call up and do not meet
daily, but perhaps we would live in the same city (I am in New York or he would
be in Los Angeles), we would communicate more closely. Let's just say we are ona friendly footing. 4236
(U) Following Trump's travel to Moscow in 1996, Geovanis may have had some contact
with Trump in the United States. Curran told the Committee, "I know he [Geovanis] went and
met with him [Trump] in New York at some point ... David told me he went up to see Donald in
Trump Tower," possibly in the late 1990s.4237(U) During and after the 2016 election, Curran and Geovanis continued to communicate
about Geovanis's relationship with Trump, and in some cases, _ _ 4238

4234(U) Curran Tr., pp. 59, 80-81; Curran, who did not attend the Brooke Group party, recalled that Geovanis told
him at the time, "I ran into your girlfriend, and I was with Donald, and I introduced her to Donald, and they are kindof hanging out." Curran said that he did not have clear or direct knowledge of this relationship firsthand, and that
his understanding ofit came from what Geovanis had relayed to him in 1996 and again in 2017. Curran Tr., pp. 8081; Written Res onses Curran November 8 2018.

423

4237

(U) Curran Tr., pp. 43-44.
On May 4, 2016, Curran forwarded a news article to Geovanis regarding Donald Trump's high likelihoodof securing the nomination. Curran wrote, "To think we're one degree apart this to miss Russia and you [sic]."

4238 (U)651

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In January 2017, Geovanis, who was in the United States, visited Liebman at hisapartment in New York and asked if Liebman had any photographs from the 1996 Brooke Groupparty at the Kempinski. Liebman told the Committee that he had not seen Geovanis in a numberof years prior to this.4239(U) On January 29,~ebman emailed Geovanis the photograph below, likely from1996, depicting Trump and. _ at Geovanis's request.4240

Email, Curran to Geovanis, May 4, 2016 (Curran Production).
(U) Liebman Tr., p. 23.
4240(U) Email, Liebman to Geovanis, January 29, 2017 (Curran~ u r r a n Tr., pp. 55-56. From left toright the photo shows: Theodore Liebman, Donald Trump, and- -. Written Responses, Curran,November 8, 20 18.
4239

652

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The next day, Geovanis forwarded the photograph to Curran by email, with nomessage text. Curran told the Committee that, following Geovanis's meeting with Liebman in
New York, Geovanis traveled to Miami and stayed with Curran for several days. During that
visit they discussed the Brooke Group party in Moscow.4241(U) On January 31 , 2017, Geovanis emailed Curran the photo below, showing Geovanis
with Trump and others. The email had no text:4242

Email, Geovanis to Curran, January 30, 2017 (Curran Production); During Geovanis 's early 2017 visit,
Curran asked Geovanis, " What exactly happened .. . did they hook up, or whatever?" According to Curran,Geovanis responded, "yeah, well, I saw them again the next day and they were together, so." Curran Tr., pp. 16, 61.
4242
Th
otograph, likely taken at Brooke Group party, shows from left to right: David Geovanis' s then-wife, Donald Trump, Leon Black and David Geovanis. Written Responses, Curran, November 8, 2018.
o dentify Black. The full image appears to show that this is a framed photograph, of which aphotograph was taken with a cellphone. Email, Geovanis to Curran, January 31 , 2017 (Curran Production).
4241 (U)653

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Black told the Committee that he did not recall any compromising behavior during
the trip. 4243 Black also did not recall the event in the photograph. 4244 Black did recall going to aconcert with Trump, followed by a "discotheque" where they may have met others, potentia.lly
including Geovanis, but Black's memory was unclear. 4245 Black later added that he and Trump"might have been in a strip club together." 4246
(U) Geovanis is believed to have told others in Moscow, and elsewhere, of his 1996
interactio~s with ~ona~d ~ t is not clear i~ these alleg~tions are related to, or separate
from, the mteract1on w i t h - that was prev10usly described.
.

(U) Peter O'Brien, the former CFO of the Russian government-controlled firm Rosneft,has hosted an annual holiday dinner for expatriate U.S: businessmen in Moscow. 4247 · Likely at
the holiday dinner in December of 2015, which more than 20 businessmen attended, a number ofindividuals were telling stories or jokes and Geovanis was encouraged to tell a story about aTrump visit to Moscow, the timing of which is unclear, that a number of people in the room had
already heard from Geovanis. 4248
(U) O'Brien recalled Geovanis talking abouf"spending time with [Trump] du~ing thattrip, and the mention of Trump being with younger women, including in official meetings, whichsome people in Russia thought was weird." 4249 O'Brien, who said his recollection was vague,
told the Committee:[Geovanis} told a liule bit about how [Trump] had spent time going around tosome different meetings in Moscow to talk about potential real estate deals. And
the culmination of the story was that [TrumpJ had a meeting in the Moscow
mayor's office and he showed up with two beautiful young women on his arm, andpeople thought that was kind of strange. A, that he was with them, and B, that hehadn't just left them wherever he met them. 4250

4243

(U) Black Tr., pp. 27, 37, 39.
(U) Written Responses, Black, November 21, 2018.
4245(U) Black Tr., p. 27.
4246(U) Ibid, p. 37.
4247(U) Email, O'Brien to SSCI, October 4, 2018. O'Brien Tr., p. 11; O'Brien told the Committee that he has
known Igor Sechin for many years. Ibid, p. 98. Sechin is a close associate of Putin.
4248(U) Email, Courtney to O'Brien, et al., December 16, 2015 (O'Brien Production) (attaching images of theevent); Peter O'Brien provided a written response to the Committee, stating that, "David spoke about a visit Mr.
Trump had made to Russia at least several years prior" to 2015. Written Responses, O'Brien, October 4, 2018. In
an interview with the Committee on November 5, 2018; O'Brien.stated that he believed Geovanis to be describing a
trip to Moscow by Trump in the "early 2000s." O'Brien Tr., p. 21. As previously noted;the Committee is unawareof travel by Trump to Russia other than in 1987, 1996, and 2013.
4249(U) O'Brien Tr., p. 21.
4250(U) Ibid, pp. 23-24.
4244

654

(U) According to O'Brien, "The implication of his story was that [Trump] had spent thenight with these two women and showed up at this first meeting the next day." 4251 O' Brien
explained:

For years in Russia there were a number of Russian government officials orothers who were exposed in these strip clubs doing not very nice things that theirwives, if they have wives, probably didn 't know about. 1 think most of us
appreciated that there was that risk in these types of clubs. So, 1 think once David
told that story, we were all concerned about that.4252(U) There are indications that Geovanis may have also told this story to the press. A
February 2018 story in The New Yorker includes an anecdote that closely resembles the one
allegedly told by Geovanis.4253(U) Almost a year later, on October 22, 2016, O'Brien sent an invitation email to thegroup of expatriate businessmen, including Geovanis, regarding the 2016 holiday dinner in
Moscow. In that email, O' Brien wrote, "I keep thinking that VVP [Putin] must have some greatmaterial on Donald."4254 O'Brien told the Committee that this comment was based only on
Geovanis's comments at the holiday dinner the prior year.

5. (U) Trump's Travel to Moscow in 2013

4251

(U) Ibid , p. 51.
(U) O' Brien Tr., p. 50.
4253 (U) Jeffrey Toobin, "Trump 's Miss Universe Gambit," The New Yorker, February 19, 2018.
4254
Ibid.
4252

4255

655

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Two individuals told the Committee that they recalled Geovanis describing spendingtime with Trump during Trump's 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant. 4257
(U) Bob foresman's recollection was vague, but he told the Committee:

I remember some involvement that he [Geovanis] had had with Trump when hecame for the beauty pageant. I think was what it was. So David Geovanis was
the only person that I had ever met, to the best of my recollection, that had had
anything to do with Donald Trump coming to Russia for this beauty pageant orwhatever it was. 4258·
(U) William Mcfarren, whose memory was also vague, told the Committee that
Geovanis gave a toast at a holiday gathering, likely the same expatriate holiday dinner describedabove. According to Mcfarren, "To the best of my recollection, Mr. Geovanis said that heshowed Mr. Trump around Moscow during the Miss Universe pageant in 2013. He did not get
into specifics, but intimated that there was partying and that Mr. Trump should be nice to him in

4256
4257

(U) Foresman Tr., p. 22 ; Written Responses, Mcfarren, January 8, 2019; Geovams
previous y een
involved in other corporate sponsored pageants in Russia. Curran Tr., pp. 44--45. See also Emails, Geovanis and S.
Geovanis, April 8-9, 2018 (S. Geovanis Production).
4258(U) Foresman Tr., p. 221. Foresman could not recall where or when he heard Geovanis talk about this, but thatit may have been at one of the expatriate holiday dinners in Moscow.

656

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

light of the information he had."4259 The latter part of this statement may have been made injest.4260(U) The Committee notes that Shugart, who was responsible for the 2013 Miss Universe
pageant, told the Committee that she had never heard of Geovanis and did not recognize his
picture. 4: 61 Schiller, who assisted Trump at the pageant, also said he did not recognize Geovanis'
picture.4262 Emin Agalarov told the Committee that he did not know Geovanis. 4263
(U) Other allegations regarding the 2013 Miss Universe pageant have originated fromsources other than Geovanis, or at least cannot be clearly linked to him. For example, as
discussed elsewhere in this Report, Schiller told the Committee that, on the 2013 trip, an
unknown individual approached him with an offer of women for Trump, and that Schiller
declined. 4264

(U) Separately, a former executive at Marriott International, of which Ritz Carlton is apart, said that shortly after the 2013 Miss Universe contest he overheard two other Marriott
executives at a small corporate gathering discussing a recording from one of the elevator security
cameras at the Ritz Carlton Moscow. 4265 One of the Marriot executives who was involved in theconversation-previously a manager of the Ritz Carlton Moscow-had clearly seen the video,

4259(U) Written Responses, Mcfarren, January 18, 2019. Mcfarren described the holiday gathering as "a louddinner at a crowded steak restaurant, at which multiple toasts were given, and where there was a lot banter [sic],jokes, and cross-talking." This is generally consistent with the yearly holiday dinner hosted by O'Brien, which
Mcfarren was invited to, and likely attended, in 2015. Email, O'Brien to Courtney et al, December 13, 2015; Email,Mcfarren to O'Brien et al, December 16, 2015 (O'Brien production). Mcfarren did not recall the date of this toast.
Written Responses, Mcfarren, January 18, 2019.
4260(U) Attorney Proffer, William Mcfarren, January 30, 2018.
4261(U) Shugart Tr., pp. 176-177.
4262(U) Schiller Tr., p. 96.
4263(U) E. Agalarov Tr., p. 63.
4264
For more on this to ic see in ra Vol. 5

January 13, 2017, t e then-manager ot e Ritz Carlton Moscow emai e executives at Vemy Capital ( e otel's owner) and at Ritz Carlton Europe,. . . . . regarding Trump's stay at the hotel in 2013. The manager reported that three hotel staff who~ t Trump stayed there did not recall any "unusual happenings," that there was no damage to theroom, and that "we strongly doubt" that there were cameras in the room. Email, Kuhlen to Ospanov, et al., January
13, 2017 (RC-Moscow 002).

657

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
which allegedly showed Trump in an elevator involved with several women who the discussant
implied to be "hostesses." The executive who had seen the video had asked the other, moresenior, executive what to do with the recording. The former executive said the two discussantsthen left to continue the conversation in a more private location, and he did not hear anything
further. 4266
(U) Neither executive who allegedly had the conversation recalled it, nor did they recall
seeing the recording. 4267 The Committee was not able to resolve these discrepancies. 4268
(U) Finally, Michael Cohen has testified that he became aware of allegations about atape of compromising information in late 2013 or early 2014, shortly after the Miss Universe
2013 pageant and significantly prior to the 2016
election cycle. 4269 The alleged tape related. to Trump and prostitutes.427 Cohen has testified that he discussed the allegations with Trump,
who asked Cohen to find out where the allegations were coming from. Trump told Cohen thatthe allegations were not true. Cohen has said that in 2014 or 2015 he asked a friend, Giorgi
Rtskhiladze, 4271 to see if Rtskhiladze could find out if the tape was real. 4272°

ns.

(U) Cohen estimated that, over the course of several years, six different people contacted
him regarding the alleged tape. Cohen stated that one individual threatened to release the alleged
information if the individual was not paid a large sum of money. Cohen indicated that he would
have been willing to pay the individual to suppress the information if it could be verified, but

oth of these individuals continued States. The executive who
w employee to have been corrupt(U) Co en Tr. II, p. 126; HPSCI Transcript of the Interview with Michael Cohen, Part 2, March 6, 2019, p. 227228.
4270(U) FBI, FD-302, Cohen 9/12/2018.
4271(U) Giorgi Rtskhiladze, a U.S. businessman originally from the country of Georgia is a former business partnerand friend of Michael Cohen. Rtskhiladze has privately claimed to have some access to Roman Abramovich.
Emails, Rtskhiladze to Cohen, December 31, 2016 (RTSKIDLADZE-0000098-99, 108). Rtskhiladze has stated that
Zurab Tsereteli is his godfather, and that Tsereteli is close friends with Putin. Emails, Rtskhiladze to Cohen,
December 31, 2016 and January 18, 2017 (RTSKIDLADZE-0000114). In January 2017, Cohen acquired a ticket
for Rtskhiladze to attend the inaugural ball, which Rtskhiladze then attended. Emails, Rtskhiladze and Cohen,
January 20-21, 2017 (RTSKIDLADZE-0000163, 177). Rtskhiladze was involved in business with the Agalarovs in
the mid-2000s. E. Agalarov Tr., p. 66.
4272- F B I , FD-302, Cohen 9/12/2018

658

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Cohen was never shown any evidence. Cohen has also said that individuals in the media
contacted him regarding a tape of Trump. 4273
(U) According to Rtskhiladze:During an October 2015 phone call that Mr. Rtskhiladze had with his friend andformer business associate, Sergei Khokhlov,[4274) Mr. Khokhlov stated that while
having dinner at a restaurant, Mr. Khokhlov overheard a stranger at a table next
to him discuss tapes from Donald Trump 's visit to Russia. The overheard dinnerconversation was not important to Mr. Rtskhiladze and Mr. Khokhlov so they did
not discuss this matter again. Mr. Khokhlov was aware that Mr. Rtskhiladze andhis Georgian partners were in business with the Trump Organization. Due to thenews about the Access Holly wood tapes and its potential impact on Mr. Trump 's
reputation, Mr. Rtskhiladze sent a text message to Mr. Cohen to inform him thatan individual was overheard discussing sensitive tapes ofMr. Trump 's trip to
Russia. 4275
(U) A detail of Rtskhiladze' s characterization of this event shifted over time.
Rtskhiladze's original written response to the Committee, through counsel, stated that Khokhlov"overheard someone at a party bragging about alleged tapes of Mr. Trump." An earlier letterfrom Rtskhiladze's counsel to the Attorney General also characterized the event as a "party." Ina second written submission to the Committee, Rtskhiladze through counsel included aclarification: "The comment about the tapes was not overheard by Mr. Khokhlov at ' a party' perse, but specifically was overheard at a restaurant from an individual at a nearby table."4276

4273 (U)

According to Cohen, those individuals included David Pecker, Dylan Howard and Harvey Levin. FBI, FD302, Cohen 9/12/2018.
4274 (U) According to Rtskhiladze, through counsel, Khokhlov is a Moscow-based businessman. Khokhlov andRtskhiladze met in 2004 in Moscow through a mutual friend and business associate. Khokhlov and Rtskhiladze
have since remained friends, "speaking on the phone or text messaging every six (6) to eight (8) months."
Rtskhiladze last saw Khokhlov in 2009. Letter, Rtskhiladze to SSCI, May 11 , 2020. Rtskhiladze said theirinteractions since then have been related to "catching up about family, friends etc." Khokhlov was aware of
Rtskhiladze's relationship with Michael Cohen, and of Trump development efforts in Russia and the country ofGeorgia. Written Responses, Rtskhiladze, September 16, 2016. Rtskhiladze indicated that Khokhlov is connected
to "Roman." From context this appears to be Roman Abramovich. Emails, Rtskhiladze to Cohen, January 2, 20 17(RTSKHil..ADZE-0000126). Rtskhiladze has also said that Khokhlov attends many interesting and entertaining
parties. FBI, FD-302, Rtskhiladze 5/ I 0/2018.
4275 (U) Written Responses, Rtskhiladze, September 16, 2016.
4276 (U) Written Responses, Rtskhiladze, August 23, 2019; Letter, Bolden to Barr, April 23 , 2019 (Rtskhiladze
Production); Written Responses, Rtskhiladze, September 16, 20 I 9.

659

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Rtskhiladze's subsequent exchange with Cohen via text message, believed to takeplace on October ~O, 2016, re.ads: 4277
From
Giorgi Rlskhiladze

To
Michael Cohen.

Michael Cohen
Giorgi RtskhHadze

Gforgi ·Rtskhiladze
Michael Collen

Giorgi Rlskhiladze

Michael Cohen

Giorgi Rlskhlladzo

Michael Cohen

Michael Collen
Giorgi Rtskhiladze
Giorgi R!Skhiladze

Giorgi RlskhiladZeMichael Cohen
Michael Cohen

Body
Timostamp: Dato
Stopped flovrofsome tapes from Russia 10/30/2016
but not sure iflhere's anything else. Just ·sou know...
Tapes of what?
10/30/2016
Not sure or the content but person I~.10/30/2016
Moscow was bragging had tapos from
Russia trip.
Will try to dial you tomorrow bul wanted to 10/30{2016be awareI'm sure It's not a big deal but there .are . 10/30{2016·
lots of stuold oeople
You have no Idea
10/30/2016
I do-trust me.
10/3012016
He ne~s·-to make. it to the WH Mike!
10/3Q/2016

Tlmostamp: Time
7:30:22 PM(UTC+0)
7:48:51 PM(UTC+O)
7:52:12.PM(UTC+O)

7:52:41 PM(UTC+0)
7:53:25 PM(UTC+o)
7:53:46 PM(UTC+0)
7:54:27 PM(UT.C+o)
7:57:40 PM(UTC+O)(U) This exchange was followed by a telephone conversation, possibly the following
day, regarding the alleged tape.4278 Cohen said that he spoke to Trump regarding the text
messages in October 2016, as well as to Donald Trump Jr. and to Schiller.4279 Rtskhiladze has. said that Khokhlov subsequently called and stated that the tapes were fake, but Rtskhiladze said
this information was not conveyed to Cohen. 4280

did not identify evidence of a later call from Khokhlov to
Rtskhiladze.
did locate an email dated January 11, I2017, [theday after unverified allegations were published] from Rtskhiladze to publicist
MA. Bonvicino reading, "told MC there was something there b 4 election. "When the publicist responded, "I recall, " Rtskhiladze replied, "well that's what
happens when you visit crocus I guess. "4281(U) Though Rtskhiladze did not have personal insight into the matter, he assessed that if
compromising material existed, Crocus Group would likely be responsible. 4282

4279
4280
4281
4282

!!ll.J id.

-Jbid.; FBI, FD-302, Rtskhiladze 5/10/2018: Aras Agalarov's associate, Yuri Chaika, the longtime former
Prosecutor General of Russia, has a history of utilizing compromising information. Andrew Kramer, "The Master of'Kompromat' Believed to Be Behind Trump Jr.'s Meeting," The New York Times, July 17, 2017. Most notably, in

660

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

- T h e Committee is aware of a realistic and well-resourced, but fake, video ofsomeon~oks like Trump portraying him in a situation consistent with the uncorroborated
allegations that were made public in Janua of 2017. The video ma have first a eared on the
ublic internet in Janua of 2019.

i.

(U) The Counterintelligence Threat at the Ritz Carlton Moscow

Mose(U) According to two former employees of the Ritz Carlton in Moscow, in 2013 there
was at least one
officer ermanently stationed at the hotel. This non-uniformed- officer
was believed to be aand had access to the hotel's property management
system, guest portfolios and notations, as well as the network of "hundreds" of security cameras
at the hotel. 4288 T h e - was believed to be able to monitor the camera feeds from his

the late 1990s, Chaika was reportedly involved in the use of a video recording to oust a Russian government official
who was investigating corruption in the Russian leadership. The recording, which was made public, showed theofficial in a compromising situation with two women. Chaika himself replaced the ousted official, who claimed thatthe tape was falsified. Putin, who was the head of the FSB at the time, "authenticated" the ta e involvin thewomen. Chaika also has ties to t h e - crime syndicat
Chaika, whose son is sanctioned by the United States, is an associate ofNata 1a Vese itskaya. Treasury, "Issuanceof Global Ma its Executive Order; Global Ma its Desi ations," December 21, 2017.

661

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
office. It was believed that the officer reported both to hisJlll leadership, and directly to theowner of the hotel, Bulat Utemuratov ofVemy Captial.428'(U) The former employees did not know whether there were cameras permanently incertain rooms, but both believed it was possible, and there was awareness of recording devices
being prearranged in rooms in anticipation of the arrival of particular guests. 4290 One of theformer employees also believed that one of the drivers affiliated with the Ritz Carlton in
Moscow was from t h e - and had easy access to a secure government area. 4291
(U) Both former employees also recalled a significant presence of paid sex workers at
the hotel. 4292 One reported that a third-party security firm that was employed by the hotel was
responsible for managing the women, in addition to its other duties. 4293

4289

- - Utemuratov is a close associate ofPresidentNazarbayev of Kazakhstan, and through thatr e l a ~ s perceived to also be close to the Kremlin. One former em lo ee of the hotel said that Utemuratov
was dan erous and that theat the hotel was scared of him.

4290
4291
4292

A former employee recalled there often being more than fifty such women per night at the hotel,
and t at t ere would be "castin' sessions" in the evenin s where some women would be selected by individuals onbehalf of other individuals.

4293

662

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE.,... RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY,

J. (U) Influence for Hire
1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) Over the course of this investigation, the Committee ide°'tified an international
marketplace for digital services to shape popular sentiment and electoral outcomes. These
services-many of which are based overseas-use an array of personal information to build
targeted messaging profiles. During elections, campaigns can use these profiles to direct selectpolitical advertisements and narrative content toward specific audiences calculated to be mostsusceptible to the messaging. This practice of "micro-targeting" is in tum designed to influence
the thoughts and judgments of voters. The use of messaging to sway voter sentiment is not a
new development. However, it is now enabled by advanced data analytics and algorithmic
targeting, the globally expansive reach of social media, and user-generated data and personal
information that is often unwittingly provided or illicitly obtained.
(U) The Committee sought to learn more about the extent to which foreign-based
influence companies played a role in shaping the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election,either directly or through work with American counterparts. Several .companies engaged in thisactivity,'including Cambridge Analytica, Psy Group, and Colt Ventures, exhibited some type of
foreign ties. The Committee examined these specific companies and their activities related to the2016 U.S. election to better understand how foreign influence, including the use of techniquesand methodologies honed by foreign governments and intelligence services, may have beenexerted in 2016. The Committee did not examine the effectiveness of the work these companies
may have conducted.
(U) All three companies either aspired to apply micro-targeted social media messaging
techniques comparable to those employed by Russian information operatives with the Internet
Research Agency, or actively engaged in the application of these techniques. One of these
entities, Cambridge Analytica, had a degree of intersection with• and proximity to Russia, andspecifically Russia's intelligence services. Others had different types of foreign contacts. All ofthese entities were engaged with the Trump Campaign to some extent, but the Committee foundno convincing evidence that Russia's government or intelligence services worked with or
through any of these companies in furtherance of Moscow's 2016 U.S. election interference.
(U) There are, however, limitations to the Committee's understanding of this subject. In
particular, the Committee did not have access to numerous essential witnesses, including
Alexander Nix, a non-U.S. citizen who generally disregarded the Committee's requests for an
appearance, and Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who exercised his Fifth Amendment rightagainst self-incrimination. Additional individuals with potentially critical understanding of how
these companies marketed or applied tools to influence electoral outcomes, either declined toappear before the Committee or were not sought as witnesses. Further, testimony specific to
663

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
certain events and relationships is either inconsistent across witnesses, or appears to purposely
minimize the witnesses' knowledge or recollection. Finally, the Committee was unable to obtainthe corporate communications of Cambridge Analytica or SCL Group, which had already been
seized by U.K. authorities.
1

2. (U) SCL and Cambridge Analytica(U) Now defunct, Cambridge Analytica was a U.K.-based data analytics firm andpolitical consultancy founded in 2013 as an offshoot of an existing U.K. data analytics firm andconsultancy, Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL). During the 2016 U.S. presidential
campaign, Cambridge Analytica attempted to solicit business from a number of Republican Party
candidates for president in 2016. Following the end of Ted Cruz's candidacy and Cambridge
Analytica's work for his campaign, Cambridge Analytica shifted its focus to the Trump
Campaign.

i.

(U) Cambridge Analytica's Founding(U) According to Christopher Wylie, who worked at SCL from June 2013 throughNovember 20144294, SCL evolved from a single company with multiple divisions-Defense,
Commercial, Elections, and Social-to a holding company with the divisions ultimately being
spun off into subsidiary companies. Nigel Oakes served as the chief executive officer for theholding company, SCL Group, which also entailed overseeing the operations of SCL-Defense,
the corporate component responsible for 80 percent of SCL Group's revenue. 4295
(U) Alexander Nix, a former financial analyst who joined SCL in 2003, served as
Cambridge Analytica's CEO. 4296 Nix's responsibilities with SCL Group were described by
Wylie as the "odds and ends" that comprised SCL Group's non-defense work:: SCL-Commercial,
SCL-Elections, and SCL-Social.4297 Nix began exploring the possibility of opening a data
analytics division at SCL in 2010 after becoming intrigued by the applications for data analysis
that Google Analytics was creating. Nix identified the Republican Party's lack of a data
analytics program comparable to that of the Democrat Party as a business opportunity, and began
meeting with conservative donors in the United States.4298

4294(U) In 2017, Wylie made a series of public allegations against Cambridge Analytica. See, e.g., Christopher
Wylie, Written Statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, May 16, 2018; Carole Cadwalladr, "'I made Steve ,Bannon'·s psychological warfare tool': meet the data war whistleblower," The Guardian, March 18, 2018.
4295(U) Proffer, Wylie, May 17, 2018.
·
4296(U) Bannon Tr., p. 225.
4297
(U) Ibid; SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Brittany Kaiser, August 17, 2018, pp. 24--25.
4298(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Brittany Kaiser, August 17, 2018, pp. 21-22.

664

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Cambridge Analytica's primary investor, the Mercer family, later introduced'Cambridge Analytica to the Trump Campaign. According to Wylie, a client of SCL-Defense had
met with several associates of Steve Bannon, and Bannon's associates then helped connect
Bannon to SCL Group. Bannon subsequently introduced Nix to Robert and Rebekah Mercer as
potential investors in SCL Group. 4299
(U) Bannon recalled that he met Nix between mid-2013 and 2014, in the context of
doing investment due diligence for Robert Mercer. According to Bannon, Mercer believed thatSCL Group's data analysis capabilities and relationship with Cambridge-University presented aninvestment opportunity and set about creating a U.S. entity that would be capitalized and in part
operated by SCL Group data scientists, including Nix, on a contractual basis. Bannon recalledthat Nix was the chief executive officer for the U.S. entity.4300(U) According to Wylie, a series ofme_etings betw~en the Mercers, Bannon,,and Nix
preceded the eventual financial backing by the Mercers. Although Robert Mercer wanted toinvest directly in SCL Group; his legal counsel advised that his investment should entail a U.S. ·entity.4301 This advice precipitated the creation of Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica
was established with an initial $15 million investment by Mercer, who owned a corresponding
90 percent ownership share of the company. The remaining 10 percent ownership share belonged to SCL-Elections, in exchange for "assignment and deposit general" of SCL-Elections
intellectual property. 4302
(U) According to Wylie, Robert Mercer served as president of Cambridge Analytica,
while Bannon was the vice-president, Jennifer Mercer was the treasurer, and Nix was named tothe company's board. 4303 Wylie indicated that Cambridge Analytica's foundational arrangement
was designed to enable Cambridge Analytica's use of SCL Group intellectual property without
making Cambridge Analytica part of SCL Group. Moreover, this arrangement included an
exclusive provision contract whereby all of Cambridge Analytica' s clientele would be serviced ·by SCL-Elections. Cambridge Analytica did not have any employees of its own, pursuant to thisarrangement. Cambridge Analytica's work was performed by employees of SCL-Elections,

4299(U) Proffer, Wylie, May 17, 2018.
(U) Bannon Tr., p. 239.
4301
(U) Proffer, Wylie, May 17, 2018.
4302 (U) Ibid
4303
(U) Ibid As of May 17, 2018, Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer signed a written consent as the board members ofCambridge Analytica, LLC. See Voluntary Petition for Non-Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy, In re: Cambridge
Analytica LLC, Case No. 18-11500sshl (Bankr. S.D.N.Y May 17, 2018); A related May 31, 2018 Statement of
Financial Affairs for Cambridge Analytica LLC lists Alexander Nix as part of the Board of Managers and CEO,Rebekah Mercer as part of the Board of Managers and Vice·President, and Jennifer Mercer as part of the Board ofManagers, with all three holding their respective positions from March 6, 2014 through January 23, 2018. See
Statement ofFinancial Affairs for Cambridge Analytica, Case No. 18-11500-shl (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. May 31, 2018).
4300

665

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

contractors, ·or through a company retained by Cambridge Analytica that hired
subcontractors. 4304
(U) The precise character of Cambridge Analytica's workforce vis-a-vis SCL Group was
the subject of conflicting statements by witnesses to the Committee, and a matter not ultimately
resolved in the course of the Committee's investigation. 4305 According to Steve Bannon,
Cambridge Analytica was "totally independent" of SCL Group. Bannon told the Committee that
Cambridge Analytica had its own workforce separate and apart from SCL Group's employees,
and characterized the assertion that Cambridge Analytica employees essentially worked for SCL
Group as "inaccurate." Bannon added that the appearance of Cambridge Analytica and SCLGroup having the same workforce was a byproduct of Nix and some of the Cambridge Analytica
data scientists episodically doing work for both companies.4306 However, according to Brittany
Kaiser, who opened the first U.S.-based Cambridge Analytica office in Alexandria, Virginia, in
October 2015, at least initially, Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group "were one and the same
company."4307 Kaiser explained that as Cambridge Analytica grew, "some people were only
, Cambridge Analytica or only what we called 'the rest of the world' ... staff. But when I joined
there were maybe twelve or fifteen full-time staff members and everybody worked on
everything."4308 At its largest, the company comprised 130 employees. At the height of its
operations in the United States, there were approximately forty people working for Cambridge
Analytica in New York City, and about another twenty in Washington, D.C.4309

4304(U) Proffer, Wylie, May 17, 2018.
(U) The Committee is aware of at least two U.S. entities established under SCL Group----Cambridge Analytica
LLC and SCL USA, lnc.-based on a review of court documents filed in 2018. See Voluntary Petition for NonIndividuals Filing for Bankruptcy, In re: Cambridge Analytica LLC, Case No. 18-11500-shl (Bankr. S.D.N.Y May
17, 2018). These two entities were part of a complex arrangement between Cambridge Analytica, SCL Group andits related entities, and other entities operating in the United States, the UnitedKingdom, and elsewhere. The
Committee does not purport to have fully uncovered the extent of the corporate structure. Furthermore, theCommittee's witnesses attributed activities to a single entity (e.g., "Cambridge Analytica") that may have in fact
been undertaken by several entities within the complex arrangement or may have been ambiguous, such as
Cambridge Analytica, LLC in the United States or Cambridge Analytica, Ltd. in the United Kingdom. The
Committee has attempted to substantiate and/or appropriately attribute the facts within the limitations of evidence itgathered.
4306(U) Bannon Tr., pp. 221-231.
4307(U) Kaiser Tr., pp. 11-12.
4308(U) Ibid. Kaiser indicated that she was introduced to Nix in approximately 2013, and began working for Nix
and Cambridge Analytica in late 2014. Kaiser assumed a permanent position with Cambridge Analytica in February
2015, which she held until January 31, 2018. Kaiser further stated that she worked on both political and commercial
projects during her time with Cambridge Analytica. See ibid, pp. 5-12·4309(U) Ibid, pp. 82-86. Kaiser did not differentiate between Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group, and she
further estimated that approximately sixty people worked in the London office, which she referred to as"Headquarters." She also clarified that the New York office was primarily concentrated on commercial issues,
whereas the Washington, D.C. office primarily conce~trated on political issues.
4305

666

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Bannon described his own r9le with Cambridge Analytica as that of a "typicalinvestment banker," conducting due diligence on behalf of principal investor Robert Mercer andtaking a board position from which capitalization decisions could be overseen.4310 Bannon later
introduced the Trump Campaign to Cambridge Analytica as a potential client.4311

ii. (U) International Operations of Cambridge Analytica and SCL(U) Both SCL and Cambridge Analytica personnel were engaged in election-related
work around the globe. Kaiser indicated that at the time of her employment by Cambridge
Analytica, SCL Group was running "between eight to ten national elections every year for prime
minister and president, all around the world." According to Kaiser, she offered Cambridge
Analytica's services to prospective clients in approximately 30 different countries, and workedon "seven to eight national projects" during her tenure across "Africa, Asia, and Latin
America."4312. (U) Cambridge Analytica and SCL engaged in a variety of efforts to influence theoutcomes of elections abroad. 4313 According to Wylie, he was hired by SCL Group to be directorof research, based in part on his previous experience working on political campaigns and indeveloping micro-targeting strategies.4314 Wylie alleged that Cambridge Analytica engaged inthe "procuring [of] hacked material for the benefit of its clients," the use of "specialized
technologies and intel gathering services from former members of Israeli and Russian state
security services," and the management of information operations on behalf of pro-Russianparties in Eastern Europe and the Baltics.4315 Kaiser stated that Cambridge Analytica had an
office based in Skopje, Macedonia, from which political projects targeted at Macedonia as wellas other regional projects were run. 4316 Kaiser described some of Cambridge Analytica's workin Eastern Europe prior to her joitJ.ing the company, including a program that sought to test theeffectiveness of Russian propaganda, ostensibly iri order to develop counter-propaganda
strategies.4317

4310(U) Bannon Tr., pp. 223-231.
(U) Ibid, pp. 268-270.
4312 (U) Kaiser Tr., pp. 9-10. After November 2016, commercial clientele became the chief focus of Cambridge
Analytica's business. According to Kaiser "[c]ommercial clients from all around the world were calling to figureout how they could use us for their advertising, and that became the core income of the company." Ibid, pp. 24-25.
4313 (U) An investigations committee of the U.K. House of Commons revealed the considerable scope and opaquenature of this work .. See U.K. House of Commons, Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, "Disinformationand 'fake news': Final Report," February 14, 2019.
4314(U) Proffer, Wylie, May 17, 2018.
4315(U) Ibid
4316(U) Kaiser Tr., p. 127.
4317
(U) Ibid, pp. 124-125.
4311

667

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) According to Wylie, in spring 2014, Steve Bannon approved proceeding with
Cambridge Analytica-sponsored focus groups concerning Vladimir Putin and Russian
expansionism, preparatory to the development of a predictive response model. Wylie also
indicated that Mr. Bannon and Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukrainian political operative withestablished ties to a Russian intelligence service and a protracted working relationship with Paul
Manafort, were two of three individuals likely responsible for this idea.4318 Wylie added that of
the two hundred predictive response models Cambridge Analytica was developing in the UnitedStates, Vladimir Putin was the only world leader addressed, and Russian expansionism was the
only foreign topic contemplated.4319(U) Sam Patten, a U.S.-based foreign political consultant, worked for Cambridge
Analytica and SCL in at least Nigeria, 4320 Mexico, 4321 Kosovo, 4322 and the Czech Republic. 4323
Patten had met Nix through Anna Miller, a mutual friend, in 2014, and was subsequently hiredby Nix to do work on projects in the United States, before working abroad as a contract
employee for the company.4324 Bannon indicated he had no personalknowledge of Patten's
work as an employee or contractor of Cambridge Analytica or SCL and that he further had neverworked on any projects with Patten.4325
iii. (U) Aleksander Kogan

4318(U) Kenneth P. Vogel and Andrew E. Kramer, "Russian Spy or Hustling Political Operative? The Enigmatic
Figure at the Heart of Mueller's Inquiry," The New York Times, February 23, 2019.
4319(U) Proffer, Wylie, May 17, 2018.
4320(U) Kaiser Tr., pp. 67-68, Patten Tr., p. 30. Kaiser told the Committee that while Patten ran the Nigeria-based
campaign,. Cambridge Analytica may have assisted the client retain former Israeli Mossad agents, working in a
private capacity, to conduct opposition research against the client's political opponent. Kaiser Tr., pp. 67--68.
4321(U) FBI, FD-302, Patten 5/22/2018; Kaiser Tr., p. 203. Patten told the FBI that after an initial visit to his homeby what Patten believed to be FBI agents, he deleted emails, some of which pertained to work he had performed for
Cambridge Analytica in Mexico because he had been told that his work there was "off the books." FBI, FD-302,
Patten 5/22/2018.
4322(U) Patten Tr., pp. 30, 34. Patten told the Committee the nature of the work in Kosovo was to support the
Liberal P
in the arliamentelections that occurred in the spring of 2017.
4323
Ibid, pp. 29-38. Some of Patten's other foreign work had significant
ties wit o er m 1v1 ua s connecte to e Committee's investigation, primarily through Konstantin Kilmmik.
Patten told the Committee that to his knowled e "there's no connection" between Kilimnik and Cambrid eAnal ica. Ibid . 38.

4325(U) Patten Tr., pp. 29-32.
(U) Bannon Tr., pp. 253-256.

668

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVE TIGATION ONLY(U) Aleksander Kogan is a social psychologist who began working at Cambridge
University in 2012 as a research associate and university lecturer. 4326 In early 2013, Kogan
began collaborating with Facebook on studies designed to elicit information on humanconnection and the expression of emotion. __ According to Kogan, to further these studies,
Facebook provided him with several macro-level datasets concerning friendship connections andemoticon us~ge. In the context of this collaboration with Facebook, Kogan created a Facebook
app named the "CPW Lab App," which was designed to collect individual Facebook users' datain order to analyze it in conjunction with the datasets previously provided by Facebook. 4327
(U) According to Kogan, he was introduced to Christopher Wylie through a mutual
connection in 2014. Wylie, acting on behalf of SCL Group, asked Kogan to provide "surveyconsulting services," to include collection of Facebook data and the generation of personality
profiles. Kogan agreed to undertake the work and to do so, registered a company, Global
Science Research, and repurposed- the CPW Lab App under a new billing-the "GSR App." The
GSR App was intended to collect self-provided user data from survey responses, and additional
information from the Facebook "friends" of survey participants, whose privacy settings allowed
the App to access their information. The GSR App was eventually revised and released as aninteractive personality quiz named "This is Your Digital Life." According to Kogan, the GSR
App ultimately collected approximately 30 million individual personality profiles, which weretransferred to SCL Group. Kogan has indicated that he is unaware of any evidence that would
support the contention that the Trump Campaign used this data to micro-target voters. 4328
(U) Wylie described Kogan's work as consisting of research projects undertaken in
Russia. According to Wylie, the Russian government sponsored some ofKogan's research, andKogan traveled to Russia in this context to deliver presentations on the work he was doing at
Cambridge Analytica, unbeknownst to his colleagues.4329 A March 15, 2014, email from SCL
Group employee Marcus Beltran to Nix, Wylie, and Kieran Ward referenced "the interesting
work Alex Kogan has been doing for the Russians," in relation to its compatibility with"predictive crime-based CRM [customer relationship management]" and "criminal
psychographic profiling" analytics being applied elsewhere. 4330

(U) According to Bannon, he first met Kogan in 2013 or 2014 in the context of apresentation on SCL Group's technical capabilities. Bannon indicated that he had no awareness

4326(U) Testimony of Dr. Aleksandr Kogan before the United States Senate, Committee on Commerce, Science,
and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security, June 19,
2018.
4321 (U) Ibid4328 (U) Ibid. Kogan's written testimony states that data collected from the "This Is Your Digital Life" application
was not transferred to SCL.
4329
(U) Proffer, Wylie, May 17, 2018.
4330(U) Email, Beltran to Nix, Ward, and Wylie, March 15, 2014 (WYL001009).

669

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
of work Kogan had ever performed for the Russian government. According to Bannon, while
Kogan was an employee of SCL Group, Kogan performed services under contract on Cambridge
Analytica's behalf.4331 Communications provided to the Committee indicate that at least
between June and November 2014, Kogan was performing services under contract directly for
SCL Group, and on at least some occasions for SCL-Elections, specifically. 4332
(U) In addition to Kogan's acquisition of Facebook user data through the GSR App,
Kaiser stated that Cambridge Analytica obtained data from at least two other applications on the
Facebook platform: specifically, the "Music Walrus" and "The Sex Compass" applications. 4333

iv. (U) Cambridge Analytica and Lukoil(U) According to Wylie, from spring 2014 through 2015 Cambridge Analytica
representatives were meeting with representatives ofLukoil, a Russian multinational corporation
headquartered in Moscow and the second largest company in Russia. 4334 The publicly statedreason for the meetings was the potential design of a Lukoil customer loyalty card to be used in
Turkey. Wylie indicated to the Committee that Nix's presentations, however, entailed discussionof rumor and disinformation campaigns and undermining confidence in institutions.4335 Kaiser,
however, told the Committee that Cambridge Analytica engaged Lukoil for a prospective
contract that would en~il using the oil company's data to create "custom.er experience ,programs" for an application that would be used in conjunction with Lukoil's gas stations in
Turkey. In the context of these discussions, Kaiser was told the data could also be useful forpolitical activities in Turkey, since Cambridge Analytica sought both political and commercial
work simultaneously in most countries.4336 Limited email records suggest that the project would
initially entail modeling Lukoil's "loyalty data" to identify new cu·stomers and "create bespoke
psychographic messaging for existing custoniers."4337 Kaiser furnished a February 2015
presentation focusing on customer retention that SCL-Commercial prepared for Lukoil. 4338 Both
Wylie and Kaiser did not belfove a contract ever resulted from these discussions. 4339

4331 (U) -Bannon Tr., pp. 245-248.
4332(U) Email, Nix to Rust and Cheffins, June 25, 2014 (WYL000282-WYL000285).
(U) Kaiser Tr., p.·99.
4334(U) Proffer, Wylie, May 17, 2018. In 2014, the Obama Administration implemented economic sanctions
against Russia in response to the occupation of Crimea. Lukoil was added as a named entity to the Sectoral
Sanctions Identifications List maintained by the Department of the Treasury's Office ofForeign Asset Control on
September 12, 2014.
,
.
,
4335
(U) Proffer, Wylie, May 17, 2018.
4336(U) Kaiser Tr., pp. 66-67, 121-123.
4337(U) Email, Nix to Wylie, July 17, 2014 (WYL 001065-WYL 001066).
4338(U) SCL Commercial Presentation for Lukoil, February 18, 2015 (KAISER_LK0l-KAISER_LK26).
4339(U) Kaiser Tr., pp. 66--67; Proffer, Wylie, May 17, 2018. ·
4333

670

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In May 2018 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christopher Wylie statedthat "Lukoil has formal information sharing agreements with the Russian Federal Security
Service ('FSB') and is known to conduct intelligence gathering on behalf of the FSB."4340
Although the scope and nature of the work Cambridge Analytica attempted to pursue with Lukoil
is unclear, the Committee did not independently corroborate allegations that Lukoil intended to
use Cambridge Analytica to impact elections. However, the Committee is concerned about therole Lukoil may pl~y in effecting Russia's efforts to interfere in foreign elections generally. 4341

The Moldovan election was ultimately won by
pro-Russian candidate Igor Dodon, whose campaign platform centered largely on pursuing closer
ties with Russia in preference over relations with the European Union. 4345

v. (U) Cambridge Analytica's U.S. Operations(U) According to Wylie, Cambridge Analytica aspired to use data-driven models forsocial change by identifying the subsets of a given population susceptible to particularmessaging. Rather than focusing on the core population segment at the center of an issue,
Cambridge Analytica's work was predicated on changing the minds of the 5 percent of the
population on the fringes of that issue, on the rationale that 5 percent can be determinative of

4340(U) Wylie, Written Statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, May 16, 2018.
(U) Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham-Harrison, "Cambridge Analytica: links to Moscow oil firm and St
Petersbur universi ," The Guardian March 17, 2018.

-4341

4345

ian candidate triumphs in Moldova presidential race,"

Reuters, November 13, 2016.

671

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

most voting outcomes. 4346 Wylie outlined for the Committee the active, hands-on role Bannon
and Robert Mercer played in co-founding the company in order to compete for political clients in
the United States. Wylie suggested that Bannon engaged SCL Group and became Vice Presidentof Cambridge Analytica in order to "build an arsenal of informational weapons [that] he could
deploy on the American population."4347(U) According to Kaiser, almost every client meeting she had during her time at
Cambridge Analytica that involved a political figure was preceded by an introduction by
Bannon, Rebekah Mercer, or Kellyanne Conway-an advisor to the Mercers at the time.
According to Kaiser, Conway was very involved in negotiating Cambridge Analytica's transition
from working for the Cruz Campaign to supporting the Trump Campaign, prior to Ted Cruz
dropping out of the race. 4348
(U) Kaiser described the data sets purchased and licensed by Cambridge Analytica as"comprehensive" and comprising anybody in the United States over the age of 18 with afinancial history: "[T]he database was built as a base off of the Experian credit file, and then on
top of that was layered national data sets from Info group, Magellan, Acxiom, Label & Lists. So
it would ,cover basically anybody that was of age and had any sort of commercial activity."4349
According to Kaiser, Cambridge Analytica attempted to purchase the Facebook group "ForAmerica," which was predicated on dissemination and sharing of politically conservative
content, that Kaiser characterized as "the largest political group on Facebook." Explaining thecommercial appeal of this Facebook group, Kaiser said it reached as many as 30 million people
per day at the height of its activity. 4350·\
(U) Kaiser told the Committee that Nix cited lax personal data protections as a reason to
pursue business opportunities in the United States. As Kaiser described the vulnerability of
personal data in the United States to unwitting collection, "[i]n the United States, we're by
default opted in just by being in this country. So data can be collected and held and monetized
and modeled without the opt-in of individuals, which allows you to do almost anything that you
want, legally .. '. he was wanting to build a data science company that was able to undertake
large-scale data collection and modeling before the laws changed."4351

vi. (U) Cambridge Analytica and the Trump Campaign

4346(U) Proffer, Wylie, May 17, 2018.
(U) Ibid
4348(U) Kaiser Tr., pp. 40-43.
4349(U) Ibid, pp. 101-102.
4350(U) Ibid, p. 118.
4351(U) Ibid, pp. 51-52.
4347

672

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY,COMMITTEE SENSITIVE. - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Throughout the Committee's investigation, testifying witnesses associated with the
Trump Campaign consistently minimized the role that Cambridge Analytica played in theexecution of the campaign. Nevertheless, the testimony of witnesses not attached to the Trump
Campaign and materials produced to the Committee suggest that Cambridge Analytica's data
scientists and messaging specialists were intimately tied to the Trump Campaign effort.
\I(U) According to Kaiser, discussion about engaging the Trump Campaign with acommercial offer began at Cambridge Analytica in May 2015, with the suggestion that Nix meetwith Corey Lewandowski. Kaiser indicated that Bannon had been advocating for a meeting
between Cambridge Analytica and members of what would become the Trump Campaign, prior
to the announcement of Trump's candidacy. An actual meeting related to Cambridge
Analytica's possible work for the Trump Campaign did not occur until September 2015, when
Nix and Kaiser met with Bannon in Washington, D.C. According to Kaiser, then-candidate
Trump called Bannon during the meeting, and instructed Bannon to have Nix and Kaiser come to
New York City to meet with Lewandowski.4352 A meeting took place the following day, andwhile "eight or ten weeks" of contract negotiations followed, CamJ,ridge Analytica's offer to run
a fundraising campaign for the Trump Campaign never materialized.4353 Bannon indicated that
he had no recollection of the September 2015 phone call with Donald Trump that Kaiser
described. 4354
(U) Cambridge Analytica proposed offers of work to almost every one of the 2016
Republican presidential primary campaigns, including the campaigns of Rick Perry, Carly
Fiorina, Chris Christie, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, and Scott Walker. 4355 During their respective
2016 presidential campaigns, Carson spent over $430,000 for Cambridge Analytica's services,while Cruz spent approximately $5.8 million. 4356 Within a week of Ted CruZ dropping out of therace for the Republican nomination, all Cambridge Analytica employees working on the CruzCampaign began transitioning over to work on the Trump Campaign.4357(U) Kaiser. stated to the Committee that Cambridge Analytica was ultimately successful
in contracting work wi~ the Trump Campaign in part because some competitor data firms were

4352

(U) Ibid, pp. 144-145. Kaiser told the Committee that the meeting with Lewandowski needed to occur early inthe morning, as Lewandowski would be accompanying Trump to his appearance at a rally in Washington, D.C.
against the nuclear deal with Iran. See ibid, p. 145. Trump participated in a rally against the Iran nuclear deal on
September 9, 2015. See Katie Zezima, "Donald Trump, Ted Cruz headline Capitol rally against Iran nuclear deal,"
The Washington Post, September 9, 2015.
4353(U) Kaiser Tr., pp. 145-146.
4354(U) Bannon Tr., p. 268.
355
4(U) Kaiser Tr., pp. i52-153.
4356 (U) Maegan Vazquez and Paul Murphy, "Trump isn't the only Republican who gave Cambridge Analytica big
bucks," CNN, March 21, 2018.
4357(U) Kaiser Tr., pp. 154-156.

673

unwilling to work with the Trump Campaign.4358 According to Rick Gates, a close businessassociate of Paul Manafort and eventual deputy chairman for the Trump Campaign, theCampaign made a determination shortly after the Republican National Convention to use
Cambridge Analytica's services, although views on using Cambridge Analytica varied. 4359 The
Republican National Committee (RNC) did not want to use the company and Brad Parscale, adigital media strategist who had been working with the Trump Organization since 2011 andserved as digital director for the Trump Campaign was reluctant to bring a new company into theCampaign's operations. 4360 However, according to Gates, Kushner wanted to use Cambridge
Analytica and ultimately negotiated a package of services, with payment slated to be delivered at
the end of the campaign.4361 Kushner told the Committee that the Mercers aggressively
advocated for the Trump Campaign's use of Cambridge Analytica, and in order to secure the
Mercers' support for then-candidate Trump, the Campaign engaged with Cambridge
Analytica. 4362
(U) Cambridge Analytica began work under contract with the Trump Campaign shortly
after Trump became the Republican Party's nominee. 4363 Kaiser's initial work for the Trump
Campaign entailed helping to build Project Alamo, as the Trump Campaign's digital operation in
San Antonio, Texas, came to be known, including the database and the qualitative andquantitative research programs that underwrote the project. This involved working with Conway
to continuously develop, administer, and refine nationwide polling models. 4364
(U) Parscale indicated that he made the decision to hire Cambridge Analytica to work for
the Trump Campaign in June 2016, after receiving approval from Paul Manafort and Jared
Kushner. Parscale characterized Cambridge Analytica's work for the Trump Campaign as"[m]ainly helping us raise donations, fundraising." Parscale also described Cambridge
Analytica's work supporting the Trump Campaign's media and advertising purchases. 4365
According to Parscale, Cambridge Analytica's team in San Antonio began with a presence of
three employees, and eventually expanded to at least 12 by the end of the campaign. 4366

4358(U) Ibid, pp. 156--159.
(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018.
4360(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018; "Brad Parscale: Trump names 2020 election campaign chief," BBC,
4359

February 27, 2018.
4361(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018.
4362(U) Kushner Tr. II, pp. 84-85.
4363(U) Ibid; Kaiser Tr., p. 159. Filings indicate payments were made later. See Federal Election Commission,
Disbursements, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. to Cambridge Analytica, LLC, 2015-2016 (indicating first
disbursement of July 29, 2016). According to FEC filings, payments continued through December 12, 2016,
totaling $5,912,500 for "Data Management" and "Data Management Services."
4364(U) Kaiser Tr., pp. 161-164.
4365(U) Parscale Tr., pp. 55--62.
4366(U) Ibid, p. 60.

674

(U) Concerning Nix, Parscale indicated that he hired Cambridge Analytica to support the
Trump Campaign "because I met Matt Oczkowski, who was the head of products for them,"
despite the fact that Parscale "didn't like Alexander Nix. I didn't like anything about him. I told
him to his face." 4367 Kushner told the Committee that although he had met Nix "atimes," hehad very little interaction with the Cambridge Analytica employees working in support of the
Trump Campaign.4368

few(U) Parscale told the Committee that <;::ambridge Analytica performed work in support of
the Trump Campaign's data efforts.4369 Parscale also told the Committee that he declined
Cambridge Analytica's offer to use the company's "psychographic profiling'~ services. 4370
However, the Committee obtained documents in the course of its investigation that suggest
Cambridge Analytica's data may have been used in support of the Trump Campaign, anq theCampaign may have leveraged Cambridge Analytica's "psychographic analysis" capabilities. A
presentation slide titled "Data Flow and Supported Programs" (see first image below) depicts
bidirectional data flow from the Trump Campaign to Cambridge Analytica, with an intermediatestep involving data held by the Republican National Committee. 4371 Additionally, theCambridge Analytica node of the data flow· depiction is titled "Digital Media Psychographic
Analysis," and is connected directly to the Trump Campaign node by a directional arrow titJed"Reporting," at least suggesting that the Trump Campaign was receiving the results ofCambridge Analytica's analysis. 4372 A separate slide titled "Data Process Flow," (see second
image below) shows a bidirectional arrow from Cambridge Analytica's "Psychographic
Analysis" to both the Republican National Committee's "GOP Data Center" and the Trump
Campaign's "ALAM0."4373

4367(U) Ibid, p. 53.

4368(U) Kushner Tr., pp. 12-13.

4369(U) Parscale Tr., pp. 57-58.
(U) Ibid, pp. 60--61.
4371(U) Trump Data Team Presentation, August 22," 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00011770).
4372 (U) Ibid.
4373
(U) Ibid (FLYNN_SSCI_000l 1773).

4370

675

I TRU.MP
PENCE

Data Flow and Supported Programs

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FLYNN_SSCl_00011773(U) Gates also told the FBI that Cambridge Analytica employees had maderepresentations to him that that the company was based in the U.S., with operations that entailed
multiple U.S. components. Gates later learned and was concerned that Trump Campaign data
was transmitted to and analyzed in the United Kingdom, component to Cambridge Analytica's
services.4374(U) In testimony to the Committee, however, Parscale stated he ~hose not to use
Cambridge Analytica's data during the campaign, opting rather to use Republican National
Committee data in the alternative because it was "more accurate" and performed better in field

FBI, FD-302, Gates 10/29/2018. Gates recalled this becoming an issue "because of the time difference
between the UK [United Kingdom] and the East Coast." See ibid.

4374 (U)677

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYtesting. 4375 Parscale described Cambridge Analytica's media and advertisement support to the
Trump Campaign as consisting of a separate team based in San Antonio, Texas. This teamworked in connection with the Data Trust database, according to Parscale.4376 The work of thisteam consisted chiefly of creating visualization tools that communicated data trends relative tothe electorate, which enabled more effective deployment of then-candidate Trump to election
events. 4377 According to Parscale, Cambridge Analytica's work for the Trump Campaign
entailed access to the Campaign's data stores and those of the Republican National Committee,
but never involved Cambridge Analytica bringing in new data. 4378
(U) According to Kaiser, the representations of Cambridge Analytica employees·
working on Project Alamo to her indicated that data owned by Cambridge Analytica played nopart in the work done for the Trump Campaign; to her knowledge, "Project Alamo was built
completely from scratch." Kaiser acknowledged this was atypical, in that "every other project"
Cambridge Analytica worked on was built off a copy of the company's main database. Kaiser
indicated that the data for Project Alamo came from the Republican National Committee's Data
Trust database and other data sets that were purchased and licensed to be added to the Data Trust
data.4379·vii. (U) Cambridge Analytica and WikiLeaks(U) According to open source information, during the 2016 campaign, Nix emailed
Julian Assange, the ostensible head of WikiLeaks, about the possible release of Hillary Clinton's
33,000 deleted emails. 4380 In particular, the reports indicated that Nix sought a searchable
database of emails related to Clinton.4381 In October 2017, Assange publicly confirmed "anapproach by Cambridge Analytica" and claimed to have rejected it. 4382 ·(U) The Committee obtained no additional information related to this alleged outreach.
Numerous individuals affiliated with the Trump Campaign, including those likely to have been

4375(U) Parscale Tr., pp. 59-60.
(U) Ibid., p. 57.
4377(U) Ibid., pp. 57-58.
4378(U) Ibid., p. 58.
4379(U) Kaiser Tr., pp. 163-164.
4380(U) Betsy Swan, "Trump Data Guru Alexander Nix: I Tried To Team Up With Julian Assange," The Daily
Beast, October 25, 2017.
'4381 (U) Kara Scannell, Dana Bash, and Marshall Cohen, "Trump campaign analytics company contacted WikiLeaks
about Clinton emails," CNN, October 25, 20.17.
4382(U) Betsy Swan, "Trump Data Guru Alexander Nix: I Tried To Team Up With Julian Assange," The Daily
Beast, October 25, 2017. Following initial publication, the article added: "[A]fter publication, Assange provided
this statement to The Daily Beast: 'We can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica and can confirm that it
was rejected by WikiLeaks."'
4376

678

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

closest to the outreach such as Bannon, indicated that they had no prior awareness ofNix's
communication with WikiLeaks. 4383
viii.

(U) Declaration of Bankruptcy(U) On May 17, 2018, "Cambridge Analytica LLC a/k/a Cambridge Analytica
Commercial LLC a/k/a Cambridge Analytica Political LLC a/k/a Anaxi Solutions Inc .... and
SCL USA, Inc." filed voluntary petitions for bankruptcy relief in the United States Bankruptcy
Court for the Southern District of New York. 4384
(U) Emerdata was created as a new holding company for the purposes of owning theassets of Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group. 4385 Media reporting indicates that upon
Emerdata's August 2017 incorporation, SCL Group's chairman, Julian Wheatland, and SCL's
chief data officer, Alexander Tayler, were listed as the company's original owners.4386 On
March 7, 2018, Firecrest Technologies Limited, a subsidiary ofEmetdata, was incorporated.
Alexander Nix was briefly identified as the director ofFirecrest Technologies Limited, before
being replaced by Alexander Tayler.4387 On March 16_, 2018, Jennifer and Rebekah Mercer
joined Emerdata as directors. Nix also served as a director for Emerdata from January 23, 2018
to March 28, 2018. ·Emerdata characterizes its business as "[d]ata processing, hosting, andrelated activities," but little is known about the actual activities of the company.4388

3. (U) Psy Group(U) Psy Group, which was in bankruptcy proceedings in Israel as of December 2018,
was an intelligence company specializing ih social media manipulation and on-line reputationand perception management. 4389 Psy Group representatives engaged with Trump Campaign
senior officials in 2016 for a contract to perform work on behalf of the Campaign. 4390 These

4383(U) Bannon Tr., pp. 284-285; Parscale Tr., p. 66. The Committee is aware of other efforts to obtain Clinton
emails, see infra Vol. 5, Sec.III.Band Vol. 5, Sec. lII.L.l.
4384(U) Letter, Lamonica to Burr and Warner, February 15, 2019.
4385(U) Kaiser Tr., pp. 44-45.
4386(U) Wendy Siegelman, "Cambridge Analytica is dead- but its obscure network is alive and well," The
Guardian, May 5, 2018.
4387(U) U.K. Government Companies House Listing, "Firecrest Technologies Limited," Company Number
11238956
4388(U) U.K. Government Companies House Listing, "Emerdata Limited," Company Number 10911848; Wendy
Siegelman, "Cambridge A.nalytica is dead- but its obscure network is alive and well," The Guardian, May 5, 2018.
4389(U). Psy Group presentation, "Reality is a Matter of Perception" (PSY000352-PSY000369).
4390(U) Toi Staff, "Multiple Trump campaign staffers 'reached out' to Israel firm under FBI scrutiny," The Times ofIsrael, December 1, 2018.

679

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYengagements, which included multiple proposals and presentations, purportedly nevermaterialized into any Campaign work.
i.

(U) Psy Group's Founding and Structure(U) Psy Group was founded in Israel on December 22, 2014, as a private intelligencefirm specializing in collection and a,nalysis of information, as well as online reputation
management and targeted influence.4391 Joel Zamel, an Australian living in Israel, told theCommittee that he founded Psy Group with Daniel Green and Elad Schaffer.4392 Zamel
indicated that Psy Group comprised two entities: a parent company named IOCO Ltd. in Cypress
and a subsidiary company based in Israel named Invop Ltd. 4393 According to Zamel, he was amajority shareholder fo Psy Group, while Green and Schaffer were minority shareholders.4394
Zamel said IOCO was responsible for business development, contracting, and marketing, while
the Israel-based Invop, where the majority of Psy Group employees were located, performed in
an operational capacity. 4395·

(U) Royi Burstien, an Israeli citizen, was the chief executive officer at Psy Group.
Burstien had left the Israeli military in 2014 and established I2A ("Intelligence Influence.
Analysis"), a private online influence and intelligence company that operated· fromapproximately March to October 2014. Burstien was introduced to Zamel in 2014 by a mutual
acquaintance, Itai Yonat. Zamel established Invop later that year, and hired Burstien as chief
executive officer. 4396
(U) Zamel described Burstien's background as including work in the intelligence field
conducting influence operations. The precise nature ofBurstien's work in the intelligence field

4391(U) Simona Weinglass, et al., "Israeli firm under FBI scrutiny in Trump probe allegedly targeted BDS
activists," The Times ofIsrael, June 6, 2018; Psy Group presentation, "Shaping Reality through Intelligence andInfluence" (PSY000125-PSY000129).
4392(U) Zamel Tr., pp. 7-8. Zamel is also associated with Wikistrat, a crowd-sourced consulting platform that
Zamel co-founded in 2009, see Crunchbase.com, profile ofWikistrat.
4393(U) Zamel Tr., pp. 8-10. The Committee does not purport to have fully uncovered the extent of the corporate
structure. Furthermore, the Committee's witnesses attributed activities to a single entity (e.g., "Psy Group") that
may have in fact been undertaken by several entities within the corporate arrangement or may have been ambiguous.
The Committee has attempted to substantiate and/or appropriately attribute the facts within the limitations ofevidence gathered.
4394(U) Ibid., pp. 11-12.
4395(U) Ibid. pp. 15-16. Although communication and records were produced to the Committee by Psy Group,
Zamel "wiped" 'his personal devices after they were returned to him by the SCO following a search, and therefore
did not himself produce records to the Committee. Ibid., pp. 98-101. Burstien estimated Zamel's ownership stakein IOCO Ltd. at 90 percent. Attorney Proffer, Burstien, April 12, 2019.
4396(U) Attorney Proffer, Burstien, April 12, 2019.

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is not known to the Committee. 4397 Burstien primarily communicated with Zamel using theencrypted application Wiclcr, commup.ications on which automatically disappear after a period of· time, and therefore were not produced to the Committee.4398(U) Zamel described Invop's suite of client services as including intelligence gatheringand influence campaigns that use avatars, websites, blogs, and other internet vehicles to target
specific online audiences. 4399
ii. (U) Psy Group Operations(U) The Committee reviewed several documents that described the suite of services
offered by Psy Group. One corporate overview, entitled "Shaping Reality through Intelligenceand Influence, sent from Psy Group to American international political consultant George
Birnbaum in May 2016, highlighted Psy Group's capabilities in "influence" and"intelligence."4400·•(U) Psy Group's "Influence+" suite of services involved advertising, media, and public
relations "to reach any target audience, including decision makers, influencers and thegeneral public, to help deliver key messages, sway opinion and help highlight or t~nedown issues of relevance." 4401•

(U) Under a section titled "Influence Campaigns," Psy Group's capability to conduct
influence activities was described as "unique, actionable intelligence that is leveraged
through influence activities. By utilizing our covert capabilities in the campaign, we areable to reach each target audience credibly and effectively, including through theutilization of objective, trusted parties or proxies."4402•(U) Psy Group's "[i]ntelligence [o]ffering" included a "multi-level approach tointelligence collection" that combined open source research, cyber operations including
social engineering and "honeypots ... to extract required information from the rightsources," and "covert techniques and capabilities in the physical world." 4403

4397

(U) Zamel Tr., pp. 13-14.
(U) Attorney Proffer, Burstien, April 12, 2019.
4399(U) Zamel Tr., p. 33.
4400 (U) ,Email, Epstein to Birnbaum, May 24, 2016 (PSY000 124--:PSY000 129) { attaching Psy Group presentation,"Shaping Reality through Intelligence and Influence").
4401 (U) Ibid.
4402 (U) Ibid
4403
(U) Ibid
4398

681

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) When asked about Psy Group's services, Zamel testified that "[t]he company hadvery clear boundaries ... we don't do hacking, we don't break the law." 4404
(U) Another set of Psy Group promotional materials advertised the company's"Influence Campaign" capability and a suite of attendant services that included "[o]nline
reputation management, [o]ffline campaigns, [o]nline campaigns, '[h]oney traps,' and[d]edicated activities."4405•(U) In relation to employing "individualized avatars, fake accounts, influence
operations," and "amplification" of messaging through automated social media accounts,
Zamel asserted to the Committee that Psy Group had the ability to conduct these
activities, but "didn't do anything like that in the U.S. or in the [2016] elections."4406•(U) In relation to "honey traps," Zamel explained that this entailed "building a platform,a website, or online forum to encourage discussion about certain topics. To obtain
information about a target saying certain things, or having a certain agenda. To capturesome information. Maybe conducting an avatar operation on that platform that's
controlled by the company."4407(U) Describing Psy Group's capabilities and personnel, Birnbaum explained:

These guys came out of the military intelligence army unit, and it's like coming
out with a triple Ph.D. from MLT. The amount of knowledge these guys have interms of cybersecurity, cyber-intelligence . . . they come out of a unit in which
their minds in terms of understanding cybersecurity-the algorithms that they cancreate-it's just so beyond what you could get [with] a normal education that it's
just unique ... there are hundreds and hundreds ofIsraeli start-up companies
that the founders are guys who came out of this unit. 4408
(U) Birnbaum distinguished Psy Group from Black Cube, a separate private intelligencefirm founded in 2010 by former Israeli intelligence officers: Psy Group "was a technology
service that you just apply an algorithm to and it works. It wasn't setting up fake companies and· fake employees and sending someone with a wire into a room and videotaping them. Tllat' s

4404(U) Zamel Tr., pp. 92-93.
(U) Email, Mortman to Long, Kohler, Burstien, and Elwood, March 31, 2017 (PSY00035 l-PSY000369).
4406(U) Zamel Tr., p. 83.
4407(U) Ibid, p. 94. Traditionally, a "honey trap" refers to the use of sexual entrapment to compromise a potential
source of information in intelligence operations.
4408(U) SSC! Transcript of the Interview of George Birnbaum, February 20, 2019, p. 63.
4405

682

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

more what Black Cube does ....." 4409 Zamel indicated that Psy Group never did any direct work
on behalf of Black Cube, nor did Psy Group ever work as a sub-contractor to Black Cube. 4410
Zamel indicated that Burstien and members of his team were4411
1 ~t •• rt "fft thr · ! h PR fi!
• · Apart from Psy Group's
pitches to the Trump Campaign, described below, the Committee identified three projects ofnote, including two involving Russian oligarchs:s.

• ' (U) Erik Prince:. One prpject, alternately named "Black Jack" and "Jack Black," wasintended to improve the online reputation of American businessman and co-founder ofthe Blackwater private security services firm, Erik Prince, presumably in response to arequest from Prince. Zamel indicated that a contract for work never materialized. Zamel
said that he was introduced to Erik Prince in 2016 :by former CIA official Cofer Black.
According to Zamel, several follow-on meetings with Prince occurred, at which Zamel
and Prince discussed human rights work related to the Middle East.4413•

Oleg Deripaska: According to Burstien, Psy Group undertook an"intelligence project" (codenamed "Project Starbucks") in probably 2015 for Oleg·
Deripaska involving a business dispute with a large Austrian compai:iy, possiblyconnected to real estate. It was unclear what specifically prompted the project, but
Deripaska was "mad about it" and wanted to find derogatory information on the Austriancompany to e,xpose their unscrupulous (and purportedly "fraudulent") business practices.
Deripaska hired Israeli national Walter Soriano, who subsequently put Deripaska or hisunidentified representatives in touch with Psy Group. Psy Group did not find any
derogatory information on the Austrian company. Burstien may have met with Deripaska
once in Switzerland relating to this project. Although he was the CEO,.Burstien did not

4409(U) Ibid, p. 126.
(U) Zamel Tr., pp. 24-26.
4411 (U) Ibid, p. 102. Another U.S.-based employee, Phil Elwood, performed business development work for Psy
Group in Washington, D.C. Zamel claimed that he was not involved in the day-to-day business side ofPsy Groupand only heard about major projects that would be briefed to and the strategic advisory board by Burstien. Ibid, pp.
18-19, 37--41. As a result, he also claimed not to be aware of the Deripaska and Rybolovlev projects at the timethey occurred. Ibid, . 31, 37.
4410

4412
4413

(UJ Zame Tr., pp. 50-59.
e Committee's e orts to interview Prince were unsuccessful, as he exercised his
Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in electing to not appear before the Committee. Prince did submit
to the Committee a personal statement as well as documents on November 22, 2017. See Letter, Prince to SSCI,
November 22, 2017. Prince's statement contains conspicuous omissions and partially contradicted claims. For
more information on Prince and further details inconsistencies and omissions in Prince's statements, see infra Vol.
5, Sec. III.K.iii.

683

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•

Dmitri Rybolovlev: Psy Group undertook a separate "intelligenceproject" in 2016 for Dmitry Rybolovlev relating to a dispute with the art dealer Yves
Bouvier. Walter Soriano linked Rybolovlev with Psy Group to find derogatory
information on Bouvier, possibly by suggesting that Bouvier ,was using his art dealing toskim money from customers. The contract value was approximately $150,000, andentailed Invop's conducting open source research on Bouvier. Burstien did not recall
meeting Rybolovlev, though another Psy Group emplo ee robabl did and stated that
Soriano would have been resent for that meetin .4416

iii. (U) Psy Group's Engagement with the Trump Campaign: Project
Rome/D-Day(U) In the spring of 2016, Psy Group pitched an influence and intelligence project to the
Trump Campaign through Rick Gates and Birnbaum. Referred to as both "Project Rome and"Project D-Day," the proposal was developed over several months, but ultimately never came tofruition, as described below.
(U) On March 23, 2016, Kory Bardash, the head of Republicans in Israel, emailed
George Birnbaum and Eitan Charnoff, a project manager at Psy Group, to virtually introduce
them to each other. Bardash wrote: "I have spoken to both of you about the other. Hopefully
you can have a mutually beneficial chat."4418(U) Separately, on March 29, 2016, Birnbaum met with Rick Gates at the Mandarin
Oriental hotel in Washington, D.C., having been introduced to Gates by mutual friend Eckart

Charnoff, March 23, 2016 (PSY000005-PSY000006).

684

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Sager. During this meeting, Gates referenced "the challenge of the delegates" and "opposition
research on Hillary Cliµton" and asked Birnbaum whether there w~s "any Israel[i] technologythat could help us with some of these goals?"4419 Speqifically, Gates asked about using
technology to identify Republican delegates as either "pro-Trump, anti-Trump, or 'on thefence,'" and further, whether the last category of delegates might be influenced through social
media. Gates also asked about using publicly available information to conduct opposition
research against Hilary Clinton and "up to ten of her closest circle. " 4420 Birnbaum indicated that
this was his first and_ only in-person meeting with Gates. 4421

(U) The next day, March 30, 2016, Birnbaum contacted Charnoffto discuss Psy Group
conducting work for the Trump Campaign. 4422 · Charnoff then sent an email to Psy Group
employees Amon Epstein, Royi Burstien, and others, outlining a business opportunity for Psy
Group with the Trump Campaign. Charnoff explained that he (Charnoff) and Epstein had beenin contact with "a major American campaign consultant who [had] been tasked by the [T]rump
campaign." Charnoff indicated "[t]hey want us to [use] social platform analytical tools as wellas our Rublik department capabilities to identify who is truly with [T]rump and who isn't andthen run an influence campaign to impact their decision using avatars and creating third party
assets and outreach." Charnoff closed his email noting that "[b]y the end of today they want arough estimate of what it will cost," and that within the ensuing three days, a timeline and moreexact cost estimate were required. 4423
(U) In a follow-on email to the same recipients, Charnoff indicated that following
Bimbaum's consultation with "the campaign," the prospective work for the Trump Campaign
would be divided into two projects. The first project consisted of opposition research on "thefemale opposing candidate," and comprised "dig[ing] up dirt as well as active [information]gathering on associates." The second project was focused on U.S. state delegates voting in the
Republican primary and entailed using social media _analysis to index delegates as "pro [T]rump,against and unknown." Charnoff further stated that the latter two categories of delegates would
be targeted in an influence campaign "to support [T]rump and not change the convention
rules. " 4424
(U) In an email under the subject line "Project D-Day" sent April 1, 2016, Amon Epstein
indicated Psy Group had been authorized to "move to the planning phase of the activity,"

4419 (U)The reasoning behind Gates's stated preference for "Israeli technology" is not known to the Committee.
This meeting occurred at the very start of Paul Manafort's and },lick Gates's work on the Trump Campaign.
4420(U) Birnbaum Tr., pp. 25-27.
4421(U) Ibid., p. 27.
4422(l!) Ibid., pp. 42-44.
4423 (U) Email, Chamoffto Epstein, Burstien, Vesely, Fogel, and "Yossef," March 31, 2016 (PSY000008PSY000009).
4424(U) Email, Chamoffto Epstein, Burstien, Vesely, Fogel, and "Yossef," March 31, 2016 (PSY000012).

685

subsequent to "several conversations last night with George [Birnbaum] (the contact to D'steam)." Epstein included a screenshot of his purported conversation with Birnbaum (see image
below).4425 With respect to opposition research, Epstein noted that:
As for the intel on the lady and her team, he's talking about up to 10 people inher inner-inner circle. We told him an estimate of 10 people and her would bearound $250Kfor passive work + very light active. We explained we suggest not
to go heavy active at the moment because of the issues we discussed. We spun it a
bit and said we are not concerned for us, but wish to prevent any blow back orflags raising pointing to him at this point.4426

Eitan....the campaign did not hesitate on thenumbers I have them. However, they did ask to
get che propsal sooner than later as they wane coapprove budget as quickly as possible. I need you
to try and get me both proposals by Monday. I
know it's a lot to ask...but they are very keen togetgo,ng
And let me rephrase ... they weren't 1ntim1dated by
the budget numbers but of course hoped it would
be lower than quoted 1n the end.
And please let arnon know...it will be about 4800
delegates we w,11 need to target. Thanks(U) A Psy Group project breakdown for "Project D-Day" indicated that Psy Group's
efforts comprised four teams ("Team Black," "Team Rubik," "Team Blue," and "Team Red"),and contemplated the involvement of as many as 53 employees.4427(U) In an email sent April l , 2016, George B imbaum offered guidelines to Epstein andChamoff for drafting the proposal. Among Bimbaum's suggestions were "run intensive

4425(U) Email, Epstein to Charnoff, Burstien, Vesely, Fogel, "Yossef," and Tzach, April I, 2016 (PSY000013PSY0000 14).
4426(U) Ibid
4427(U) Psy Group "Project Budget Calculator for Project Name D-Day" (PSY000294).

686

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
influence campaigns on the unknown delegates themselves and on the influencers of thedelegates," and "[f]or the Clinton Proposal ... run an intensive, deep open source opposition
research campaign on Hiilary and her 10 closest associates (names to be supplied by [the]campaign). Depending on information found, apply a second layer of info gathering to makesure no stone was left unturned. Anything else you might want to add as well."4428(U) On April 5, Epstein emailed the proposal, now called Project Rome, to Birnbaurn. 4429
The proposal included a project to conduct "influence services" targeting the Republican
convention delegates, a second project proposal to conduct "opposition intelligence research" on
Clinton, and a "sample report."4430 The cost estimate for the "influence services" proposal was$3.21 million,with an additional $100,000 for media expenses,4431 with a cost estimate for"negative opposition" of $400,000.4432'(U) The sample _report provided a background profile of a California delegate for theRepublican Party. 4433 The profile included biographical data including places of residence andemployment, marital status, political and religious leanings, and personal interests. While it wasnoted that the delegate was already."a strong supporter of Donald Trump, and therefore no active
influence is required at this point," the profile re(?ommended "infrequent monitoring (monthly) tocheck whether any changes in opinions or sentiments towards Trump." The portfolio began withan overview description of the sourcing for the analysis, described the report as being based on"available OSINT (Open Source Intelligence)," and noted that "[i]n the event that additional
information is required, Psy Group can carry O!lt various active intelligence activities to extract
additional information based on the needs and directions."4434(U) According to Birnbaum, he informed Rick Gates that he had received the projectmaterials from Psy Group. In response, Gates instructed him to send Psy Group proposals to an

4428(U) Email, Birnbaum to Epstein to Charnoff, April 1, 2016 (PSY000015).
(U) Email, Epstein to Birnbaum, April 5, 2016 (PSY000067-PSY000080) (attaching proposals for both e:fforts
as well as a sample intelligence report on a particular delegate).
'
4430 (U) Ibid
4431
(U) Psy Group, "Project 'Rome' Campaign Intelligence & Influence Services Proposal," April 2016
(PSY000073); Attorney Proffer, Burstien, April 12, 2019. .
4432(U) Psy Group, "Project Rome Opposition Intelligence Research," April 2016 (PSY000076); Attorney Proffer,
Burstien, April 12, 2019.
4433 (U) Psy Group, "Base Intelligence Report on Felicia Michelle Tweedy," April 3, 2016 (PSY000077-80). The
individual in the profile was a district-level delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from the State ofCalifornia.
4434 (U) Ibid
4429

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COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
individual named Scott Wilkinson. 4435 Birnbaum did not know who Wilkinson was, but sent him
the proposals nonetheless. 4436
(U) In a later exchange of emails sent on May 8, 2016, under the subject line "campaign
proposal," Psy Group employees discussed capabilities to make available to the Trump
Campaign, including "psyop campaigns" concerning "the opposition." The Psy Group
employees also discussed the use of"[h]undreds of avatars driving negative messaging," and"physical world ops like counter protests, hecklers, etc." as means of advancing the referenced"psyop campaigns."4437(U) On the basis of the Committee's investigation, however, it appears that Project Rome
was never implemented by Psy Group. Birnbaum recalled that "this just kind of disappeared anddied, and nothing came of it." 4438 Burstien similarly did not believe that Invop or Psy Groupever actually performed work relating to Project Ro.me. Burstien and Psy Group ultimately
abandoned hope of working with Birnbaum after he canceled several meetings in Israel todiscuss the project with them. 4439

iv. (U) Zamel Pitches the Trump Campaign(U) After the Project Rome proposal pitched by Psy Group through Birnbaum had fallen
through, Zamel also approached the Trump Campaign for a similar project in the second half of2016. Zamel engaged the Trump Campaign with George Nader, an advisor to the United Arab
· Emirates, who had raised the possibility of his (Nader's) financing a social media effort by
Zamel targeting the 2016 U.S. presidential election.4440(U) Zamel indicated that he first communicated with Nader in early 2016. Zamel andNader were introduced by John Hannah, an advisor of Zamel's, and began communicating
multiple times a week and sometimes daily. 4441 In June 2016, the two met in St. Petersburg,
Russia, as Nader was attending the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, in order to

4435(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview of George Birnbaum, February 20, 2019, pp. 86-87.
(U) Birnbaum Tr., pp. 86--88. Gates sent Birnbaum and Wilkinson an email introduction, which explains how
Birnbaum would have been able to transmit the proposals without already knowing Wilkinson. See Email, Gates to .
Birnbaum and Scott Wilkinson, April 5, 2016 (Birnbaum Production).
4437(U) Emails, Vesely, Burstien, Epstein, Fogel, "Yossef," and Mortman, May 8, 2016 (PSY000295-PSY000296).
4438(U) Birnbaum Tr., pp. 86--111.
4439(U) Attorney Proffer, Burstien, April 12, 2019.
4440(U) Zamel Tr., pp. 70-72. George Nader, who was interviewed as part of the SCO's investigation, later pleaded
guilty to transportation of a minor boy for purposes of illegal conduct and possession of child pornography. See
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia, "Man Pleads Guilt to Child Exploitation Crimes," January 13,
2020.
4441
(U) Ibid, pp. 112-115.
4436

688

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - lJUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
discuss business opportunities. According to Zamel, U.S. politics was never discussed during
this meeting with Nader. 4442
(U) According to Zamel, he and Nader continued to meet a few more times in New
York, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.4443 Sometime in July 2016, Nader expressed an interestin meeting with someone affiliated with either the Trump Campaign or Donald Trump's family.
To broker such a meeting, Zamel contacted Erik Prince, who he understood to be involved in thepresidential campaign. 4444 Erik Prince was in the process of cultivating his own access to the
Trump Campaign and indicated that if successful, he might be able to assist in Zamel' s efforts toconnect Nader with the Campaign.4445·(U) In the midst of that discussion, on August 1, 2016, Royi Burstein sent Zamel adocument describing Psy Group's capabilities relating to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. 4446
The two-page summary document was titled "Project Rome" a,nd dated May 2016, but differedfrom the similarly-named proposal created for Birnbaum. The document outlined a suite ofservices Psy Group would make available to a client, including "generat[ing] influence throughvarious online and offline platforms, assets and techniques," and the creation and promotion of"tailored third-party messaging directed toward optimizing impact and acceptance within thetarget audience(s)." The proposal overview noted that Psy Group's services "focus on selectvoter groups/segments that may not be susceptible to campaign messaging originating from thecandidate or organizations known to be affiliated with the candidate." The proposal also
identified minority communities, suburban female voters, and undecided voters as being among
the prospective targeted voter segments. 4447 Burstien did not believe he ever heard back from· Zamel about the summary document. 4448

(U) Shortly thereafter, in early August 2016, Zamel, Erik Prince; and George Nader met
with Donald Trump Jr. at the Trump Tower building in New York. According to Zamel, Prince
led the meeting. Prince and Trump Jr. discussed issues pertaining to the Campaign. Later in the

4442(U) Ibid, pp. 115-120. Zamel recalled that, several days later, Nader sent him a picture ofNader with Vladimir
Putin, which Zamel understood was meant to demonstrate Nader's access. See ibid., pp. 117-118, 128-129.
4443(U) Ibid, p. 124.
4444
(U) Ibid., pp.129-133.
4445(U) Ibid., pp. 132-135.
4446(U) Attorney Proffer, Burstien, April 12, 2019; Email, Burstien to Zamel, August 1, 2016 (PSY000289PSY000292). Burstien stated Zamel originally requested the document in May 2016, though he did not recall
sending the document to Zamel until August 1, 2016. See Attorney Proffer, Burstien, April 12, 2019. Zamel said
Burstien would not have been aware of Zamel's specific use of the proposal in approaching the Trump Campaign
with Nader. See Zamel Tr., pp. 71-72.
4447(U) Psy Group, "Project 'Rome' Campaign Intelligence & Influence Services Proposal," May 2016
(PSY000290-PSY000292).
4448(U) Attorney Proffer, Burstien, April 12, 2019.

689

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYmeeting, Nader raised issues pertinent to the Middle East, specifically ISIS and Iran. Zamel
indicated that Stephen Miller joined the roughly 25-minute meeting at about the half-way point.
Zamel did not recall Russia being mentioned at any time during the meeting. 4449
(U) Near the conclusion of the meeting, Zamel explained "very briefly" the work of his
private intelligence firms, Wikistrat and Psy Group. In relation to Psy Group, Zamel asked
Trump Jr. whether Psy Group's conducting a social media campaign paid for by Nader would
present a conflict for the Trump Campaign. According to Zamel, Trump Jr. indicated that thiswould not present a conflict. Trump Jr. also indicated that a Psy Group social media campaign
would not conflict with the Trump Campaign's own efforts.4450(U) In testimony to the Committee, Donald Trump Jr. indicated that he remembered
George Nader from the August 2016 meeting, but was familiar with Joel Zamel's name orily ·from preparing for Committee testimony. According to Trump Jr's. recollection of the August
2016 meeting, Erik Prince visited Trump Jr.' s office on relatively short notice, and wasaccompanied by Nader and Zamel. Trump Jr. did.not recall any conversation concerning Middle
East extremist groups or Iran sanctions, or organized efforts to assist the Trump Campaign, but
he did remember talking to the individual later established to be Zamel about "combatting fakenews."4451(U) Zamel indicated that in the weeks after the August meeting with Donald Trump k,
Nader "circumvented" Zamel and began to communicate directly with Trump Jr., leaving Zamel"cut out." Asked whether Erik Prince ever encouraged Nader to pay Psy Group to undertake theproject Zamel and Nader were considering, Zamel responded affirmatively and indicated that
Prince made a statement along the lines of "[y]ou should pay him." Zamel quoted a price of"five to ten [million dollars]" to Nader for the work and in response Nader indicated he would be
willing to pay five million dollars to begin the work. 4452 The Committee did not find or receive
information probative of the source of the five million dollars referenced by Nader.
(U) Zamel told the Committee that Psy Group performed no work relative to the 2016
U.S. presidential election; "[n]ot a tweet, not a character, nothing." 4453 Nonetheless, as described
below, Zamel engaged in work on behalf of Nader, for which he was paid in excess of $1
million. 4454

4449(U) Zamel Tr., pp. 136--150.

4450 (U)

Ibid

4451

(U) Trump Jr. Tr. II, pp. 94-98.
4452(U) Zamel Tr., pp. 159-171.
4453(U) Ibid, p. 173.
.
4454
(U) Ibid, pp. 190-191. Zamel declined to state the exact amount paid by Nader, stating that the amount was"over a million dollars" and "under five million." See ibid

690

·,

COMMITT-IION ONLY

v. (U) After the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election(U) Zamel indicated that in mid-November 2016, Nader contacted him seeking to obtain"a lot of documents on extremist groups," and "something that shows social media's impact on
the election." Zamel described the desired analysis as "a reflection on what social media's effecton the election was as seen by different sources." Zamel indicated that Nader never explained
why he wanted the social media analysis.
(U) Zamel never communicated the request for the social media analysis to Psy Group,
opting instead to bring the request to Daniel Green, despite Green's lack ofrelevant experienceor proficiency in data analytics, polling, or political analysis. According to Zamel, Green"Googled a bunch of articles" and summarized the content in a presentation that was prefacedwith the disclaimer: "This is an academic study based on open source materials."4455(U) Zamel presented the social media analysis to Nader in New York in January 2017.
Zamel·stated he never provided a copy of the presentation to Nader, either in hard copy orelectronically. The presentation was brought from Israel to New York on a thumb drive,
presented on a single laptop computer, and transported back to Israel by Zamel. According toZamel, Nader indicated that he intended to show the social media presentation to '.'the youngman." Based on his familiarity with Nader's use of such descriptors, Zamel understood ''theyoung man" to be Donald Trump Jr. After viewing the presentation with Zamel in January,
Nader never again asked about the requested analysis. Zamel asserted that the presentation wasdeleted from the laptop computer and the thumb drive upon his return to Israel, adding that "atsome point, [Nader] said: 'I don't need it."'4456(U) Zamel indicated that he was paid "over a million dollars" for the presentation and anaccompanying analysis of the "Muslim Brotherhood and extremism."4457 According to news
media reporting, an as~ociate characterized the amount of money paid to Zamel as "up to $2
million." 4458 Zamel indicated that payment for these materials from Nader came directly "fromhis personal account to a business entity related to me," and was made prior to the presentationof the requested analysis. 4459

I

4455

(U) Ibid, pp. 182-189.
4456(U) Ibid, pp. 182-217.
4457(U) Ibid, p. 187.
4458(U) Mark Mazzetti, et al., "Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win
Election," The New York Times, May 19, 2018.
4459(U) Zamel Tr., pp. 196--198.

691

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In a November 28, 2016 email, Psy Group employees discussed "creating avatar
armies to offer a service which could offer a similar effect the way Trump used masses of fakeaccounts on social media to create trending hashtags and create buzz around certain hot
topics."4460 It was noted in this exchange that "due to FB's [Facebook's] anti-fraud we could
only do this small scale on FB [Facebook] but on [T]witter there was still opportunity to develop
an automated system."4461 The exact meaning of the reference to Trump in this email is unclear.
The Committee's investigation into Russia's use of social media to conduct foreign influence
operations documents Russia's employment of fake online personas, often in support of the
Trump Campaign, but the Committee did not find .sufficient evidence to support the assertion
that the Trump Campaign itself engaged in these practices.4462(U) A breakdown of anticipated Psy Group reven4e for work performed in Washington,
D.C. was forwarded as an attachment to a February 11, 2017, email sent from Scott Mortman toRoyi Burstien. Among the prospective revenue sources was a project for General Electric that
Psy Group was expected to support through a subcontract with Cambridge Analytica. 4463
(U) An email from February 5, 2018, detailed a series of Psy Group businessdevelopment meetings. One such meeting was with David Eichenbaum, identified as a
campaigner and "media expert for political campaigns, working for the Democratic party."
Among the opportunities discussed was Psy Group's potentially working with Eichenbaum insupport of his effort to "raise funds from West coast high tech HNWis [high-net-worth
individuals] to open a SuperPac that will focus on these new capabilities for the coming
Congress I Senate / Governor races in 2018 -.as a proof of concept for the 2020 national
elections."4464 ·(U) According to Burstien's proffer, to capitalize on what was anticipated to be an
expanded market for Psy Group's services following the Trump Campaign's victory, a "lookback" presentation touting the company's capabilities vis-a-vis social media was prepared by
Invop. Burstien indicated that this presentation was not prepared at Zamel's request. 4465
(U) Zamel stated that Rudy Giuliani introduced him to Jared Kushner "months after theinauguration" when he met with Kushner at the White House to discuss human rights issues in
the Middle East, Iran, and "counter-extremism."4466

4460(U) Email, Vesely to Shraga, Yossef, Biton, Burstein, Eliyahou, and Mortman, November 28, 2016
(PSY000338).
4461 (U) Ibid
4462
(U) See infra Vol. 2.
4463(U) Email, Mortman to Burstien, February 11, 2017 (PSY000310-3 l 1).
4464(U) Email, Chamoffto Burstien, Danilov, Cohen, and "Oren," February S, 2018 (PSY000370-PSY000372).
4465(U) Attorney Proffer, Burstien, April 12, 2019.
4466(U) Zamel Tr., pp. 231-235.

692

vi. (U) Additional International Activity

vii. (U) WikiStrat(U) Zamel co-founded Wikistrat, a global crowd-sourced consulting firm, inapproximately 2009.4469 Zamel indicated that he spoke over the telephone with Lieutenant
General Michael Flynn about Wikistrat's work in either 2014 or 2015, but the conversation nevermaterialized into a personal or business relationship. Zamel indicated to the Committee that hehad never actually met Flynn in person.4470(U) According to Zamel, retired U.S. intelligence officer David Shedd served as anadvisor to Wikistrat. During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Shedd indicated that he wasin contact with Jeff Sessions and asked Zamel to prepare a policy paper on hosting a conferenceof Muslim leaders from around the world for the purpose of collectively condemning the practiceof suicide bombings as an illegitimate form of violence. In September 2016, Zamel
accompanied Shedd to a meeting with then-Senator Jeff Sessions in his Senate office. The(U) Ibid., p. 21.
(U) Crunchbase.com, profile of Wikistrat. Zamel described Wikistrat as a "crowd-sourced consulting"company with "a network of over 5,000 subject matter experts across 70 different countries around the world that
we bring together online on our platform. We run war gaming simulations and studies for different agencies or
corporations to think about complex issues or the future of different issues." See Zamel Tr., pp. 5--6.
4470(U) Ibid., p. 175. Zamel stated that the conversation occurred just after Flynn retired from military service. See
ibid. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, Flynn retired on August 7, 2014. See DIA Public Affairs, "Lt.
Gen Flynn retires from DIA, 33-year Army career," August 7, 2014.
4469

693

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

meeting concerned using social media to delegitimize ISIS. 4471 The Committee did not further
explore this meeting.
4. (U) Colt Ventures and VizSensei.

(U) Initial Efforts to Work with the Trump Campaign(U) Venture capital firm Colt Ventures was formed in 2003 by Darren Blanton, a Dallasbased investor who served as an adviser to the Trump Transition team. 4472 Colt Ventures is aninvestor in VizSense, a Dallas-based social-media and "micro-influencer" company co-founded
by Jon Iadonisi and Timothy Newberry in 2015.4473 Colt Ventures was paid $200,000 by the
Trump Campaign for "data management services," a portion of which was remitted to VizSense
for work it performed as part of the agreement between Colt Ventures and the Trump
Campaign. 4474\

(U) In July 2016, Iadonisi discussed with Flynn the role "influencers" would play indetermining the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Flynn connected Iadonisi with
the Trump Campaign, in the. ambition of connecting him to "whomever is running these
operations for the Trump campaign."4475(U) Emails from August 18, 2016, indicate that Iadonisi spoke with Brad Parscale andanother Trump Campaign staffer about VizSense. Iadonisi sent examples ofVizSense's work
the following day, including a "persuasion campaign using organically created content to drive aconversation ... using influencers to spread the message." Iadonisi noted that this "sametechnique can be used in politics, where the content and influenqers are surgically designed todeliver a political message to a specific audience, creating a digital bonfire of conversation."4476

4471(U) Ibid., pp. 243-249.
(U) See www.coltventures.com for an overview of Colt Ventures and www.coltventures/com/team.php for a
profile of Darren Blanton; see also Matea Gold, "The mystery behind a Flynn associate's quiet work for the Trump
campaign," The Washington Post, May 4, 2017.
.
4473(U) Crunchbase.com, profile ofVizSense; Email, Flynn to Lawless, August 11, 2016
(FLYNN_SSCI_00010449-FLYNN_SSCI_000450).
4474(U) Federal Election Commission, Disbursements, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., 2015-2016, reference
December 5, 2016; Written Responses, Blanton, August 16, 2019; Email, Iadonisi to Blanton, Moore, and Flynn,
November 14, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00015144-FLYNN_SSCI_00015146) (discussing compensation arrangement).
4475(U) Emails, Flynn, J. Miller, Manafort, M.G. Flynn, Roys, and Scavino,.July 15-19, 2016
(FLYNN_SSCI_00003066-FLYNN_SSCI_00003072).
4476(U) Emails, Iadonisi, Coby, Parscale, Flynn, M. G. Flynn, and Kushner, August 18- September 7, 2016
(FLYNN_SSCI_00010812-FLYNN_SSCI_00010814).
4472

694

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In mid-September 2016, Iadonisi sent a proposal to Bannon, titled"Trump_Campaign_Proposal_9_9_16.pdf." 4477 Bannon requested that Blanton, Bannon's
longtime friend who had recently sought to become involved in the Trump Campaign, meet with
Iadonisi and review the proposal.4478 Iadonisi, in tum, connected Blanton to Flynn, in connection
with Bannon's request that Blanton review the proposal. 4479
(U) On September 14, 2016, Iadonisi sent a draft statement of work to Darren Blantonthat broke the notional work to be performed by VizSense into three deliverables: installationand set-up, analysis and tasking from Trump Campaign, and conducting of operations-with daily
updates provided. The statement of work contemplated a fee of $769,000, and included services
such as "[d]etermine critical voting districts ... to focus the voter support team ... efforts,""[a]ssess online sentiment/narratives according to each [critical voting district]," and "[p]rovide· an executive summary about prominent narratives and proposed offensive operatio)J.s needed tomobilize Trump voters in each [critical voting district]." 4480 That same day, in a separate email,Iadonisi described an operational concept that could "be used by the wider campaign effort(polling) to direct Trump advertising dollars with precision."4481 On September.18, 2016,
Iadonisi sent a contract services agreement to Bannon, Flynn, and others. 4482
(U) VizSense's efforts to contract directly with the Trump Campaign were unsuccessful.
On September 22, 2016, Iadonisi informed Flynn that he had heard through Blanton that "Steve
Bannon is basing the· campaign strategy on Brad Parscale and his team. They have declined ouroffer." ladonisi further stated that in the alternative, "they asked ifwe could do it for free and \focus on Trump fundraising. We would be able to keep 25% of what we raised." Iadonisi
indicated that he declined the offer.4483(U) Blanton, however, continued to pursue a contract. In an email exchange from
September 27, 2016, Blanton indicated that Oczkowski "[h]as a team of data scientists and they
sit right outside of [Dan Scavino's] door. I spoke to them and think that they have a good grasp
to work with us if Steve [Bannon] is ok with that?" In response, Bannon told Blanton to "just4477 (U)Email, Iadonisi to Bannon, September 13, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00010889-FLYNN_SSCI_00010892).
Email, Bannon to Blanton, September 13, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00010890-FLYNN_SSCI_00010892).
4479(U) Emails, Flynn, Blanton, and ladonisi, September 13, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00010885FLYNN_SSCI_00010888); Email, Flynn to Bannon, September 13, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_0010889FLYNN_SSCI_0010892).
4480(U) Email, Iadonisi to Blanton, Flynn, and M. G. Flynn, September 14, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00010908FLYNN_SSCI_00010910).
4481(U) Email, Iadonisi to Blanton, Flynn, and M. G. Flynn, September 14, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00010906FLYNN_SSCI_00010907).
4482 (U) Email, Iadonisi to Bannon, Blanton, Flynn, and M. G. Flynn, September 18, 2016
(FLYNN_SSCI_ 00010928- FLYNN_SSCI_ 00010931 ).
4483 (U) Email, Iadonisi to Flynn, September 22, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_000l 1492).
4478 (U)695

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

listen to" Oczkowski, but not commit to him. 4484 Blanton's overtures to Bannon continue with asubsequent email that same day, with the subject line "Did call on foreign voters this is the week
they request ballots. Got to act quick." Blanton indicated that he "spoke to Jesse at [GOP] about
foreign voters and have a strategy. He's getting me as many digital addresses as he can find.
We need to send out a video request from [then-candidate Trump] via social [media] to ask for·their votes." 4485
(U) The following day, in a September 28, 2016 email, Blanton made a protracted appeal
to Bannon about "the content strategy and GOTV [Get Out The Vote] plan."4486 This exchange
preceded a series of communications involving work Blanton performed on behalf of the Trump
Campaign, leveraging targeted social media messaging to advance campaign-friendly messaging
for overseas voters.
·•(U) On September 30; 2016, Blanton emailed deputy manager to the Trump Campaign
David Bossie that "[a]ccording to our expert in the UK these are some sample tweets thatwill move the needle to get votes with the millions of American citizens living overseas,"
adding that "[w]e can also monitor how they are resonating with influencers once we getapproval to use our tools." 4487•

(U) In an October 2, 2016 email to Bannon, Parscale, and Flynn, with the subject line
"Re: Give us the go ahead and we will start feeding you intel on what the Chatter is onsocial and infographics to feed through our campaign funnels," Darren Blanton asked
about messaging via "other mediums like Facebook," and whether "any of those tweets
on [o]verseas voters got launched?"4488•(U) In an excha~ge of emails from October 3, 201'6, Blanton and Bannon communicatedabout a proposal that Blanton and Flynn were promoting. Bannon instructed Blanton to"[g]et with [David Bossie]." In responding, Blanton asked Bossie about his availability
to discuss the proposal, and noted that "Flynn can tell you about [the proposal] when y'all
are with Trump today." 4489

ii. (U)and Overseas Voters

4484(U) Emails, Blanton, Flynn, and Bannon, September 27, 2016 (DB-SSCI-000895-DB-SSCI-000897).
(U) Email, Blanton to Bannon,. September 27, 2016 (DB-SSCI-000895).
4486(U) Email, Blanton to Bannon, September 28, 2016 (DB-SSCI-000890).
4487(U) Email, Blanton to Bossie and Bannon, September 30, 2016 (DB-SSCI-000888-DB-SSCI-000889).
4488(U) Email, Blanton to Bannon, Parscale, and Flynn, October 2, 2016 (DB-SSCI-000886).
4489(U) Email, Blanton to Bannon, Bossie, and Moore, October 3, 2016 (DB-SSCI-000885).
4485

696

697

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYiii. (U) Colt Ventures Work on Behalf of the Trump Campaign(U) On October 8, 2016, Flynn forwarded to Parscale a contract relative to work to be
performed by Colt Ventures LP, as well as bank account and wire transfer routing information.
Flynn indicated that "we have already begun work on the priorities" previously identified by
Parscale. Flynn added that the "first priority is to immediately ... support the influence
component of the upcoming debate, learn from it and continue to provide value by helping toincrease voter awareness and sentiment in support of [then-candidate Donald Trump]." 4501

(U) In an October 8, 2016 email, Blanton asked Flynn whether he had obtained "anymore feedback or updates from [the Trump] campaign?" In response, Flynn indicated that there
had been "no feedback from Brad [Parscale] yet. " 4502

45

(FLYNN_SSCI_ 00012941-FLYNN_ SSCI_ 00012952).
(U) Emails, Blanton and Flynn, October 8, 2016 (DB-SSCI-000801-DB-SSCI-000801).

4502

698

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Blanton identified the Big League Truth Team, which appears to be a "fact checker
site" associated with the Trump Campaign, as "one of the things we are going to help [the]campaign on." 4503 On October 9, 2016, Blanton forwarded an emai_l to Flynn and Iadonisi withthe subject line "Instructions," containing information on the "Big League Truth Team." Theforwarded message instructed recipients that "[b]efore, during and after each debate we will send
you messages we need you to spread online. Use Twitter, Facebook, Email and any other tool
you have to spread what we send you." The message concluded by highlighting upcoming andpast presidential debate dates, and an invitation to recruit additional members to the Big League
Truth Team.4504 Earlier in the day, Blanton sent a note in this regard to Peter Thiel, asking thathe "get [his] people and all their friends to go get on [the Big League Truth Team] website. 4505
The Big League Truth Team was identified by Flynn as one of two named priorities provided by
Brad Parscale, along with "the Clinton/Keane [Kaine] website," in an October 6 email to
Blanton. 4506
(U) In an email dated October 10, 2016, Blanton reported to Donald Trump Jr., andFlynn that "[w]e stirred up a shit load of positive traffic and [social media narratives] with Gen.
Flynn and my team." Trump Jr. thanked Blanton, and Blanton replied that he was invigorating
efforts targeting specific voter segments and that "Flynn and I will send you the report from what
we stirred up last night and we can collaborate with you:" Trump Jr. responded to Blanton,"Great ... get it out there. Other than the media spin there is no actual reason we shouldn't
outperform prior GOP candipates with this group."4507(U) The same day, Flynn provided Bannon a summary of results from what appears to bea social media messaging operation conducted on October 8-10, 2016, by the company
VizSense.4508 Denigrating Hillary and former President Bill Clinton, and depicting the latter as"a rapist" were central narratives to the messaging campaign. As evidence of the campaign's
effectiveness, the presentation noted that Twitter activity around posts relevant to the theme "Bill
Clinton is a [r]apist" amounted to 123.8 million impressions "in the 7 days before [VizSense]
engaged."4509 During the two days of the social media messaging campaign conducted byVizSense, which preceded the October 9, 2016, presidential debate at which the Trump

4503(U) Email,.Blanton to Besemer, Iadonisi, and Flynn, October.6, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI-00012848); Email,Blanton to Flynn, Thiel, Iadonisi, October 9, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00013180).
.
4504(U) Email, Blanton to Flynn and Iadonisi, October 9, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00013178FLYNN_SSCI_00013179).
4505(U) Email, Blanton to Flynn, Thiel, and Iadonisi, October 9, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI-00013180).
4506(U). Email, Flynn to Blanton, October 6, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI-00012818).
.
4507(U) Emails, Blanton, Flynn, and Trump Jr., October 10, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI-00013484).
4508(U) Email, Flynn to Bannon, M. G. Flynn, Blanton and Iadonisi, October 10, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00013493FLYNN_SSCI_00013506) (with attachments).
4509 (U) Ibid

699

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCampaign attempted to seat a trio of women who have accused former President Clinton of
making unwanted sexual advances,4510 a total of"l 77.5 million impressions" were generated
around this theme. An analysis of the social media messaging operation noted that "[t]hemission peaked on Twitter at exactly the calculated time-during the debate." Flynn appealed to
Bannon to "help to get the contract moving," noting that he had been in contact with Parscale inthis regard, but had heard nothing in response. Acknowledging that Parscale is "probably
extremely busy," Flynn remarked that "we are ready to keep pushing the envelope to help us· ,,4511.,
wm.

· (U) In an exchange of emails from October 2016, Flynn suggested directly to Iadonisi aline of campaign messaging focused on Hillary Clinton's neglect of cybersecurity protocols thatwould characterize Clinton as ·"soft on cybersecurity" and likely to "put our nation's secrets
again at risk if she ever gets into the [White House]." 4512 In response, Darren Blanton remarked"[t]hat is so true and we ne~d .to virally distribute all these wiki leaks and take advantage of thecultural shift in the way people communicate. . . . We need to be the source and chef to prepare
the wiki info to eat! It just needs to be researched and then broke down into bites so that the
public influencers can distribute!! [sic]."4513(U) In a November 2, 2016 email with the subject line "CUBA Project,"·Iadonisi sent a
presentation to Flynn detailing what appears to be an influence campaign dubbed "OP Havana
Spring." The materials were presented under the heading "COLT TEAM." An October 21,
2016, rally in support of Trump that occurred in Havana, Cuba, was central to the influence
campaign, which was intended to "[c]onvert Cuban-American and Latinos from Miami into
Trump Supporters." A presentation slide bearing the VizSense logo depicted social media
engagement metrics subsequent to the rally, noting that "1.8 million impressions" and "6,182
mentions [were] generated in just 2 and a half days." The hashtags "#Castro4Clinton" and"#OperationMojito" were created to facilitate sharing of news about the rally on social media.
"Vets4Trump" and "@DanpGabriel" were identified as instrumental in the initial circulation ofthis story on social media, but "[t]weets from campaign insiders or mega influencers would help
give this story more legs to run into next week and reach more Hispanics in Florida and Nevada(third largest population of Cubans)." Among the final points captured in the presentation wasthat news of the rally was "very viral and should be spread further on Twitter and [Facebook] by

4510(U) Jeremy W. Peters, "Trump Campaign Tried to Seat Bill Clinton's Accusers in V.I.P Box, The New YorkTimes, October 10, 2016.
4m (U) Email, Flynn to Bannon, M. G. Flynn, Blanton, and Iadonisi, October 10, 2016 (FLYNN SSCI 00013493FLYNN_SSCI_00013506) (with attachments).
4512
Email, Flynn to Iadonisi and Blanton, October 14, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00013770).
4513(U) Email, Blanton to Flynn, Thiel, and Iadonisi, October 14, 2016 (DB-SSCI-000786).

700

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
the Trump Campaign."4514 The Committee was unable to definitively ascertain the effect of theHavana rally.

iv. (U) Colt Ventures and VizSense Get Paid
(U) A series of emails from late-October 2016 details the submission and final
disposition of an invoice for services performed by Colt Ventures for the Trump Campaign. An
initial itemized invoice for $650,000 was s1,1bmitted on Oc~ober 22, 2016 by Megan Moore, an
executive assistant for Colt Ventures, to Jeff DeWit, the chief operating officer for the Trump
Campaign. De Wit sent the invoice to Kushner, Parscale, Sean Dallman, and Steven Mnuchin,
noting his objection to the invoice, claiming the services were never contracted for. Upon
receipt of the note from De Wit, Parscale sent an email to Kushner stating that "[w]e actually
never agreed to this and have no contract. Money became so tight and [Lfeutenant General
Flynn] never really said it would be a personal favor. This is WAY more than I agreed to."4515
Kushner pursued the matter with Flynn, and ultimately assented to funding an initial tranche ofwork for $200,000 upon Flynn's vouching for the "exceptional results" of the work performedby Colt Ventures. 4516 According to Blanton, the funds were primarily for work performed byVizSense for its get-out-the-vote efforts, with a small portion used to reimburse Blanton for
travel costs associated with work for the Trump Campaign. 4517

4514(U) Email, Iadonisi to Flynn, November 2, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00014679-FLYNN_SSCI_00014684).
(U) Email, Parscale to Kushner, October 23, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI-'-00014465-FLYNN_SSC(00014467).
4516(U) Emails, Moore, Parscale, DeWit, Kushner, Flynn, Dollman, Mnuchin, and Blanton, October 22-25, 2016
(FLYNN_SSCI_00014474-FLYNN_SSCI_00014495).
4517(U) Written Responses, Blanton, August 16, 2019.
4515

701

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

K. (U) Transition
1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) Immediately following the 2016 U.S. election, Russian government officials andoligarchs began approaching the Trump Transition team, directing their efforts through multiple
individuals and channels of communication~ The Transition's response to certain of thesecontacts was notable in light .of the U.S. Government's determination that Russia had interferedin the 2016 U.S. election and its late-December decision to impose sanctions. Because theRussian government had engaged in a months-long active measures campaign targeting theelection, which Trump had just won, the Committee examined these activities and theTransition's response in order to more fully understand what Moscow sought to gain and thecounterintelligence vulnerabilities associated with the Transition.
(U) The Committee focused on several aspects of this outreach, including directcommunications between Transition officials and Russian government officials. In addition tophone calls between Trump and Putin, the Committee e.xamined a·series of meetings andcommunications involving Jared Kushner and incoming National Security Advisor Michael
Flynn with the Russian Ambassador, Sergei Kislyak, and the Chairman of a Russian bank, Sergei
Gorkov, who was said to have a direct line to Putin.
(U) The Committee also scrutinized communications involving individuals informallyassociated with the Trump Transition and Russian oligarchs who had been tasked by Putin to
conduct outreach. Most notably, Kirill Dmitriev pursued contacts and a business deal with
American hedge fund manager Rick Gerson, which he used to deliver a Putin-authorized"reconciliation plan" to the Transition Team. Dmitriev also met with Erik Prince in the
Seychelles with the intention of establishing contact with the Transition Team, a meeting that
Prince said was known to Steve Bannon, to whom Prince said he reported. George Nader, asenior advisor to UAE Crown Prince Muhammad bin Zayed and contact of Dmitriev, facilitatedthese interactions.

(U) The Committee further explored activities within the Transition relating to theimposition of sanctions on Russia by the United States in response to Russia's election
interference. The Committee reviewed a series of communications between Flynn and Kislyak
on sanctions and the Transition's treatment of the issue, as well as other actions that had thepotential to undermine the current administration's conduct of foreign policy.
(U) Although the Committee's investigation focused primarily on the Transition's
interaction with Russia, evidence indicates that the Transition Team engaged in similar
communications with other foreign countries. However, because the Committee limited its
investigation to matters related to Russia, those exchanges are not described here.

702

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Russia and other countries took advantage of the Transition Team's inexperience,transparent opposition to Obama Administration policies, and Trump's desire to deepen ties with
Russia, to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia could conduct diplomacy. The lackof vetting of foreign interactions by Transition officials left the Transition open to influence andmanipulation by foreign intelligence services, government leaders, and co-opted businessexecutives.
(U) Across the Transition Team's engagements with foreign actors, particularly withregard to Russia or individuals with ties to Russia, the Transition Team appeared disorganized
and unprepared, which created notable counterintelligence vulnerabilities.
•(U) Transition officials had little awareness of their counterparts within foreign
governments and did not appear to take sufficient security precautions in light of known
foreign intelligen~e efforts against the election.

•(U) Russian officials, intelligence services, and others acting on the Kremlin's behalf
were capable of exploiting the Transition's shortcomings for Russia's advantage. Basedon the available information, it is possible-and even likely-that they did so.

(U) The Transition Team repeatedly took actions that had the potential, and sometimes
the effect, of interfering in U.S. diplomatic efforts. These actions were not part of a visible
overriding foreign policy; instead, efforts were narrow and transactional, seeking outcomes on
only a select set of issues. This created unnecessary confusion among U.S. allies and otherworld leaders, creating the potential to harm America's ability to conduct diplomacy bothbilaterally and in multilateral institutions, and undermine U.S. credibility and influence.

2. (U) Trump Transition Holds Meetings and Calls with Russian Officialsi.

(U) Putin's Congratulatory Phone Call with Trump(U) In the early morning hours of November 9, 2016, following Donald Trump's victoryin the presidential election, Trump Campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks received a phone callfrom a man claiming to be calling from the Russian Embassy who provided the first name"Sergey."4518 Hicks did not clarify for the Committee whether he failed to provide a last name,or whether she simply had difficulty understanding the last name. Although Hicks understood"that he wanted help to connect the Kremlin by teiephone with Trump to allow President Putin to

4518(U) Written Responses, Hicks, June 29, 2017.

703

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYcongratulate President-elect Trump," because of her difficulty understanding the caller, shesuggested he send her an email about his request. 4519

(U) According to Hicks, the call lasted approximately one to three minutes. 4520 She did
not find the call to be unusual because she had received several calls from unknown numbers
throughout the campaign, and had received several calls of congratulations for Trump since theelection results had begun coming in the previous night. 4521 At 5:27 a.m., she received an email
from Sergey Kuznetsov, 4522 a Political Officer at the Russian Embassy, with the subject line,"Message from President Putin."4523 She assumed it was the same Sergey who had previously
called her. 4524 The email contained two attachments with messages of congratulations fromPresident Putin to the President-elect: one in Russian, and one in English. 4525 The message
read:4526(U) Email, Kuznetsov to Hicks, November 9, 2016 (NSSCI00000029).
(U) Written Responses, Hicks, June 29, 2017.
4525(U) Email, Kuznetsov to Hicks, November 9, 2016 (NSSCI00000029-3 l).
4526(U) Letter, Putin to Trump, November 9, 2016 (NSSCI00000031).
4524

704

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Unoffic1al 1ransla11on
Moscow, November 9, 20 I6Dear Mr. Trump,
Please accept my sincere congrarulatioos on the occasion of your victory in the
US pres idential election

I look forward to wo rking with you on leading Russian-American relations outof crisis, as well as resolvmg pressing tssucs of international agenda and searching forcITcctivc solutions 10 global security challenge.~.

I am confident that building consrrucuve dialogue between Moscow andWashington based o n the principles of equality, m utual respect and genuine
consideration of each o thers interests 1s equitable to the mten:sts of the people of ourcountries and the world communuy
I wlSh you sound health, prosperity and success in such a responsible position

as the head ofstate
Respectfully,
Vladinur Putin

ms EXCELLENCYMR DO ALDJ. T R UMP
PRESIDENT EL ECT OF THE UNITED ST/\l ES Of AMERICA
Washingto n, DC.

(U) In his email, Kuznetsov asked that Hicks convey the message to Trump.4527 After
receiving Kuznetsov' s email, Hicks forwarded the request to Jared Kushner asking if the email
seemed legitimate, and whether Kuznetsov was "who he claimed to be."4528 In her message,
Hicks said, " Can you look into this? Don' t want to get duped but don' t want to blow off Putin!"4529
According to Hicks, "I understood Jared to have been serving as the conduit for foreign

4527(U) Email, Kuznetsov to Hicks, November 9, 2016 (NSSCI00000035).
(U) Written Responses, Hicks, June 29, 2017.
4529(U) Email, Hicks to Kushner, November 9, 2016 (NSSC100000029).
4528

705

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYrepresentatives throughout the campaign, and therefore he was the person I assumed would know
if this was a prank or a call from a legitimate official."4530(U) After receiving Hicks's email, Kushner sent a message to Dimitri Simes, who had
worked with Kushner on organizing the Mayflower Hotel foreign policy speech.4531 Simes was
the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for the National Interest, a think tankwith expertise in Russia matters. 4532 Kushner did not ask about Kuznetsov's identity, but rather
about the identity of the Russian Ambassador to the United States.4533 In a written statement,
Kushner said that he "thought the best way [to verify Kuznetsov's email] would be to ask the
only contact I recalled meeting from the Russian government, which was the Ambassador,"
whose name he did not remember at the time. 4534 Simes responded approximately 15 minutes
later with the name of the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, saying, "Congratulations with ahistoric victory! This may become a real 21 century American revolution." 4535 Kushner
forwarded Simes's response to Hicks. 4536
(U) According to Hicks, Kushner was not able to confirm Kuznetsov's affiliation with
the Russian Embassy. 4537 As a result, Hicks was unable to confirm Kuznetsov's identity before
giving Trump the congratulatory letter from Putin.
(U) Hicks recalled Trump stating, in reaction to the letter, "Hmm; that's nice." 4538 She
likened it to his reaction to congratulatory communications from other world leaders, saying,"[t]here wasn't anything that stands out about his reaction to this letter versus the others he wasgetting." 4539 Trump then asked Hicks to coordinate a telephone call with Putin. 4540

(U) Hicks recalled em.ailing with the Russian Embassy to schedule the requested phone
call between Trump and Putin, and sharing those "administrative emails" with Transition Team

4530

(U) Written Responses, Hicks, June 29, 2017.
(U) Email, Kushner to Simes, November 9, 2016 (NSSCI00000032). Events related to Trump's April 2015
speech at the Mayflower Hotel are discussed infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.G.
4532(U) Simes Tr., pp. 6-11.
4533(U) Email, Kushner to Simes, November 9, 2016 (NSSCI00000032).
4534(U) Statement of Jared Kushner to Congressional Committees, July 24, 2017.
4535(U) Email, Simes to Kushner, November 9, 2016 (NSSCI00000037). In his interview with the Committee,
Simes claimed that the discussion about Russia's Ambassador was only conducted between his assistant andKushner's assistant. Simes Tr., pp. 6-11. However, the emails were sent directly between Simes and Kushner.
4536(U) Email, Simes to Kushner, November 9, 2016 (NSSCI00000033).
4537(U) Written Responses, Hicks, June 29, 2017.
4538(U) Hicks Tr., p. 73.
4539(U) Ibid, p. 74.
4540(U) Ibid.
4531

706

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

officials "who were logging foreign correspondence."4541 According to her recollection, thisincluded Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and Megan Badasch.4542(U) Trump and Putin spoke five days later, on November 14, 2016. 4543 Hicks reported
that she was present when the call took place, but could hear only what Trump was saying; she
did not know what Putin was saying.4544 Hicks said she "assumed" that Trump was making calls
like this using a secure line that had been installed following the election, but did not know if hein fact used a secure line in this instance.4545 She was not present for the pre-brief and did notrecall the topics that were discussed during the call, although she took notes of the call for aread-out and subsequent press release.4 546 She recalled that Flynn, Badasch, and Sean Lawlor
were also in the room for the caJt.4547

encouraged future cooperation on Syria and

4541(U) Written Responses, Hicks, June 29, 2017.
(U) Ibid. Megan Badasch would eventually become the Deputy Executive Secretary for the National Security
Council, working for both Flynn and General H. R. McMaster. See Patrick Radden Keefe, "McMaster andCommander," The New Yorker, April 28, 2018.
4543 (U) According to a statement issued by the Trump Transition Team, the two discussed "a range of issues
including the threats and challenges facing the United States and Russia, strategic economic issues and the historical
U.S.-Russia relationship that dates back over 200 years." Elise Viebeck et al., "Trump, Putin agree in phone call to
improve ' unsatisfactory' relations between their countries, Kremlin says," The Washing/on Post, November 14,
2016. The Kremlin issued a lengthier statement describing the call, which it said included " issues related to solving
the crisis in Syria." See President of Russia, "Telephone conversation with US President-elect Donald Trump,"
kremlin.ru, November 14, 2016.
4544(U) Hicks Tr., p. 74.
4545(U) Ibid., pp. 76--77.
4546(U) Ibid., pp. 78-79.
4547
Ibid.
. 74-76.

4542

4548

707

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYii.

(U) Kushner's November 30, 2016, Meeting w:ith Ambassador Kislyak.

(U) On November 16, 2016, Ambassador Kislyak contacted Kushner's office seeking to
set up a meeting with Kushner on December 1.4553 Kushner directed his assistant, Catherine
Vargas, to check with Dimitri Simes to "confirm ... that this is the right guy."4554 Vargas thenspoke with CNI's Executive Director, Paul Saunders, who confirmed that Kislyak is the "bestgo-to guy for routine matters in the US. However, for more direct/substanial [sic] matters, Yuri
Ushakov is Putin's top Foreign Policy advisor."4555(U) On November 22, 2016, Kuznetsov emailed Hicks to request a separate meeting for
Kislyak with Flynn in early December.4556 Kuznetsov reiterated his request by email to Hicks on

4550 (U)4551 (U)
4552

·

· -,

4555
4556

Ibid.
Ibid.

-.,

tt

,

,

I ,

~

--111111 :(U) Email, Vargas to Kushner, November 16, 2016 (NSSCI00000038).
(U) Email, Kuznetsov to Hicks, November 22, 2016 (Hicks Production).

708

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
November 28, which Hicks then forwarded to Flynn. 4557 On November 29, 2016, Flynn reached
out to Kuznetsov saying, "I understand you're looking to get in touch. I'm in NYC for a few
days this week, maybe we meet next week. " 4558 Kuznetsov responded that Kislyak would also
be in New York, and could meet with him there either after his December 1 meeting withKushner, or the evening before. 4559 Shortly thereafter, Flynn sent a note to Kushner informing
him that he had told Kuznetsov that he (Flynn) might attend the meeting between Kushner andKislyak instead of holding a separate meeting. 4560 Later that day, Kushner informed his
assistant, Avi Berkowitz, that Flynn would join him in his December 1 meeting with Kislyak. 4561(

(U) In his interview with the Committee, Kushner described his approach to the meetingwith Kislyak:
When I would meet with a lot of these foreign countries, again my goal at thatpoint was really just to listen. But what I would do is say that the President[elect] really had two objectives. One was to create as much peace in the world
and the other one was to create as much global GDP in the world. So we wanted
good trade, but obviously we wanted as much of that GDP to be in America. 4564

4557 (U) Email, Kuznetsov to Hicks, November 28, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00000350); Email, Hicks to Flynn,
November 28, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00000350).
4558 (U) Email, Flynn to Kuznetsov, November 29, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00000353).
4559 (U) Email, Kuznetsov to Flynn, November 29, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00000353).
4560 (U) Email, Flynn to Kushner, November 29, 2017 (NSSCI00000085-86).
4561 U Email Kushner to Berkowitz Bannon, Var as, and Flynn, November 29, 2016 (NSSCI00000074).
4562
4563
4564

(U) 1 id., pp. 31-32.
(U) Kushner Tr., pp. 62--63.

709

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Kushner and Flynn met Kislyak at Trump Tower at 3:30 p.m. on November 30. 4565
According to Kushner, the meeting lasted 20-to-30 minutes. 4566 During the conversation,
Kushner proposed using secure communications from inside the Russian Embassy for a callbetween the Transition and Russian military officials about Syria:

The Russian military ... had a perspective on Syria that they wanted to sharewith us, and so he [Kislyak] wanted to know how to transmit that information. He
basically said: Look, I could have them come in, but it seems like that wouldn 't beconvenient for them; may we set up a call? Do you have a secure line? We said
we didn't have a secure line in the transition that we knew oj So I said: Well,
why don. 't we use your secure line at your embassy? They said: Let's,not do that.
. . . [T]hey wanted to convey information to General Flynn. It was their.
information. How they conveyed that information was up to them. So I assumed
that there was a secure way that people communicated and he wanted to have that
information communicated in that way. 4567
(U) The Committee asked Kushner whether he had ever taken electronic surveillanceprecautions during meetings with Russian officials, such as asking participants to leave theirphones outside the room. 4568 He did not recall having done so in his meeting with Kislyak, but
said that at some point he became aware of technological vulnerabilities, and that "once I did, I
obviously started taking different precautions in meetings. But I don't recall at what point thatexisted. " 4569

4565(U) Based on communications between the attendees, the Committee determined that that the meeting took
place on November 30, although Kushner indicated to the Committee that it occurred on December 1, the date forwhich the meeting was originally planned. Text Message, Kushner to Bannon, November 30, 2016
(NSSCI00000145) ("Just left to meet ambassador"); see Written Statement, Kushner, July 24, 2017. However, lastminute travel by Kushner ~orced them to hold the meeting two days early. Emails, Berkowitz, Vargas, andKuznetsov, November 29-30, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0000016-18). According to Kushner, Steve Bannon was also invited
to the meeting, but did not end up attending. Kushner Tr., pp. 67, 71; see also Calendar invitation, Kushner,
Bannon, Flynn, and Nasim, November 30, 2016 (NSSCI00000088). Avi Berkowitz indicated to the Committee that
he was responsible for escorting Kislyak into Trump Tower for the meeting on November 30. Written Responses,
Berkowitz, July 5, 2017.
4566(U) Written Statement, Kushner, July 24, 2017.
4567(U) Kushner Tr., pp. 63-65.
4568(U) Kushner Tr. II, pp. 136-137.
4569 (U) Ibid710

(U) During their meeting, Kushner asked Kislyak to provide him with a point of contact
who had a direct line to Putin. Kushner told the Committee:

What I realized very quickly from that was that in order to be successful in a lot ofthese things is that you don't want to let a lot of these disagreements or problems
or opportunities get caught up in the morass of diplomatic protocol with diplomat
who knows nothing talking to diplomat who knows nothing, basically having
lunch.
So what I found actually to be very successful so far is that by having the ability
to have somebody who can get you quick answers on things and who can give you
insight into what the leader of a different country is thinking, and obviously being
able to do that on a confidential basis without fear of that getting out into thepress, it's been very-Jfound it to be very productive. 4511
(U) According to Hope Hicks:

Jared came away from the meeting with the feeling that Ambassador Kislyak
wasn't an influential player and somebody that was going to be directly involvedin any future relationship with official representatives. He kind offelt like it was
a waste of time. So when he followed up asking for a second meeting, it was like:
1 'm not doing that. But he sent Avi, because Kislyak said he had a message for
Jared. So Avi went. The message was that he would like him to meet with thisRussian banker. 4572

iii.

(U) Kislyak Seeks a Follow-Up Meeting and Recommends Kushner Meetwith Gorkov for a "Direct Line" to Putin

4570
4571
4572
4573

711

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On December 6, 2016, Ambassador Kisly~k' s office reached out to Kushner throughKushner's assistant, Vargas, asking for a second meeting in New York the following day,December 7.4574 Kushner told Vargas that Avi Berkowitz, another ofKushner's assistants,
would follow up with Kuznetsov on the meeting. 4575
(U) On December 10, Berkowitz had a brief call with an individual from the Russian
Embassy to discuss the meeting request. 4576 Berkowitz described the Embassy as being"persistent" in requesting that Kushner meet with Kislyak "to receive a message," but Berkowitz
repeatedly demurred. 4577 According to Berkowitz, the Embassy was "hesitant at first, butultimately willing" to meet with him instead of Kushner. 4578 On December 11, 2016, Berkowitz
received a WhatsApp message letting him know that Kislyak' s Chief of Staff, identified only by
the first name Dmitry, would be contacting him to set up a time for a meeting with Kislyak in
New York. 4579 After Dmitry messaged him, Berkowitz responded that Kushner would not be
available to meet, but that he (Berkowitz) would be. 4580 The two eventually agreed to meet thenext day at Trump Tower. 4581
(U) At around 11 :30 a.m., Berkowitz met Kislyak and Kislyak's aide on 56th Street andescorted them into Trump Tower, where he had secured a conference room on the 15th or 16th
floor. 4582 According to Berkowitz, the meeting lasted only a minute or two. 4583 Kislyak only
wanted to provide the name of another Russian official with direct access to Putin, as Kushner
had requested during their first meeting:[T]he message was something to the effect of that he would like or someone would
like for Jared to meet with a Sergei Gorkov, who has a direct line to Presiden(
Putin or Putin, something of that variety.

4574(U) Email, Vargas to Kushner, December 6, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0.000053).
(U) Email, Kushner to Vargas and Berkowitz, December 6, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0000054).
4576(U) Written Responses, Berkowitz, July 5, 2017.
4577(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Avrahm Berkowitz, February 21,2018, pp. 109-113.
4578, (U) Ibid, p. 114.
4579
(U) Text Messages, "Dmitry" and Berkowitz, December 11, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0000001).
4580(U) Text Messages, "Dmitry" and Berkowitz, December 11, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0000002).
4581(U) Text Messages, "Dmitry" and Berkowitz, December 11, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0000002-3).
4582(U) Berkowitz Tr., pp. 120-125. At 7:19a.m. that morning, "Dmitry" texted Berkowitz thatKislyak had an"urgent unexpected circumstance" and needed to move the meeting to 11 :30 a.m. Text Messages, "Dmitry" andBerkowitz, December 12, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0000004).
4583(U) Berkowitz Tr., pp. 124.
4575

712

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Then I actually asked the ambassador: Is that it? Because I was confused that ameeting would be necessary for that message. He sort ofsheepishly responded:
Yes, it was. I walked him and his aide out, and that was that meeting. 4584
(U) Berkowitz said he had not previously heard of Gorkov, and his notes from this time
period identify Gorkov's position as "#1 in bank for external economic."4585

Since 2016, Sergey Gorkov has been the Chairman of Vnesheconombank(VEB), a Russian state-owned bank that was sanctioned on July 16, 2014, in response to Russia's
destabilization of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.4586 Gorkov was appointed to his position
at VEB by Putin.4587 According to press reports, Gorkov is a graduate of the FSB Academy in
Moscow, which is chartered to train Russian intelligence officers to serve in Russia' s Federal

Ibid. , pp. 124-125. Berkowitz said he could not recall the Russian side using Gorkov's name other thanduring his in-person meeting with Kislyak. Ibid. , pp. 133-134. Berkowits' s WhatsApp communications with a
Russian Embassy employee setting up the time for the Gorkov meeting and the communications with Gorkov's aide
after the meeting similarly did not make any direct reference to Gorkov or VEB.
4585 (U) Ibid. , pp. 125- 127, 130-131; see Handwritten notes, Berkowitz (AB-SSCI-0000028). Berkowitz told theCommittee that he did not specifically recall making the note, and said that it was possible he made it during themeeting or that he may have made it after conducting an internet search to learn more about Gorkov. Berkowitz Tr.,pp. 125- 127.
4586 (U) Treasury, " Announcement of Treasury Sanctions on Entities Within the Financial Services and Energy
Sectors of Russia, Against Arms or Related Materiel Entities, and those Undermining Ukraine's Sovereignty," July16, 2014. VEB has in the past been used as a non-official cover platform for the Russian Foreign Intelligence
Service, SVR. See U.S. Attorney' s Office, Southern District of New York, "Evgeny Buryakov Pleads Guilty In
Manhattan Federal Court ln Connection With Conspiracy To Work For Russian Intelligence," March 11 , 2016.
4587 (U) Treasury, "Announcement of Treasury Sanctions on Entities Within the Financial Services and Energy
Sectors of Russia, Against Arms or Related Materiel Entities, and those Undermining Ukraine's Sovereignty," July16, 2014.

4584 (U)713

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On December 8, 2016, Amerjcan businessman Robert Foresman4590 learned fromVEB Deputy Chairman, Nikolai Tsekhomsky, that Gorkov was traveling to the United States inorder to "meet with Wall Street ... in the aftermath of the election to talk about investment
climate in Russia and what the new U.S. political dynamic could mean for U.S./Russia businessdialog and for outlook for relations with Russia."4591 Foresman was told: "Putin is aware of thistrip, and Sergey [Gorkov] will be briefing him after the trip," and he understood from
Tsekhomsky that Gorkov had access to Putin and "may be a very relevant player for thisU.S./Russia business dialog going forward." 4592
(U) Immediately before Gorkov and Tsekhomsky departed for the United States,
Foresman met with them in Moscow. 4593 During the meeting, Foresman and Gorkov discussed
whether the incoming Trump administration really represented a "new era" in bilateral relations
between the United States and Russia, although Foresman said that he did not recall any
discussions of sanctions.4594

iv.

(U) Kushner Meets with Gorkov(U) Berkowitz told Kushner about the potential Gorkov meeting, and Kushner agreed totake it. 4595 Berkowitz then coordinated logistics with the Russian Embassy, and they settled on
December 13 at 4:00 p.m. at Colony Capital. 4596
(U) Alt}J.ough Kushner had specifically asked for an interlocutor with direct access to
Putin, Kushner said that he only took the meeting in response to Ambassador Kislyak's
continued efforts to set up another meeting, crediting a desire to avoid being "rude to the-Russian
ambassador and inadvertently insult Russia." Kushner explained that he saw less urgency for

4588(U) Tom Winter and Robert Windrem, "Kushner Met With Russian Banker Who Is Putin Crony, Spy School
Grad" NBC News Ma 27 2017. .
·

4589
4590

(U) Ro ert Foresman 1s an American mvestment bank executive with longstanding ties to Russia and ·wellconnected Russian individuals. See infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.K.4.
4591(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 117-121.
4592(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 117-121.
4593(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 123-131.
4594(U) Ibid. The discussions between Foresman and Gorkov are described infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.K.4.v.
4595(U) Emails, Berkowitz and Kushner, et al., December 12, 2016 (NSSCI00000107-108).
4596(U) Calendar invitation, Kushner and Berkowitz, December 13, 2016 (NSSCIO0000l 11) ("Meeting: Sergey
Gorkov"); Text messages, "Dmitry" and Berkowitz, December 12-13, 2016 (AB-SSCI0000005-AB-SSCI0000010).
Colony Capital is an investment firm run by Thomas Barrack.

714

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

himself to meet with Russian officials because Rex Tillerson was "coming on board, [and] had abetter relationship with Russia than I' 11 ever have. " 4597
(U) According to Kushner, Gorkov began the meeting by presenting him with two gifts:
a bag of soil from Kushner's grandparents' hometown ofNovogrudok, Belarus, and a painting
made by children in the same town. 4598 Kushner recalled:

Then he basically said: Look, we 're excited about the new relationship. I know
President Putin is very frustrated with how his relationship with America has
been. I'm friends with him. I think that for Russia and America there's a lot ofopportunity. I run this big bank. This is what I do.
He told me a lot about his bank, about the global economy. I gave my same spiel,basically saying: Look, right now I think there's a lot of opportunity in the world,things could be different under President Trump, again he wants peace, he wants
more trade, all these different things. You know, basic get-to-know-you meeting,but not-very superficial, probably lasted 20, 25 minutes.
In that meeting we did not talk about my business. We didn't talk about any
financial transactions. It was just kind of an overall meeting. So again, neverfollowed up again after that, not very eventful. 4599
(U) Kushner said he was uncertain of Gorkov' s intentions at the meeting:'He just said to me that Putin was a friend of his. So he didn 't directly-he was
not very-he wasn't very explicit in that. Look, it may have been that that's what
he was there to do. It may not have been. Maybe he's been a friend of theambassador who he wanted to get a meeting with me, for all I know, so to just geta favor. I have no idea. 4600
(U) Kushner also told the Committee that he did not know about VEB's sanctions prior
to the meeting, nor did the issue of sanctions come up during the meeting. 4601 When asked
whether he had asked anybody to do research on Gorkov's background, Kushner responded that

4597

(U) Kushner Tr., p. 87.
(U) Ibid., p. 82. The Committee notes that, given the eight hour time difference between Moscow and New
York, Gorkov would have had less than a day to acquire the gifts for Kushner before departing for the United States.
Berkowitz said he logged the gifts with the Transition. Berkowitz Tr., p. 155.
4599
(U) Kushner Tr., pp. 82-83.
4600(U) Ibid., pp. 84-85.
4601(U) Ibid., p. 85.
4598

715

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE~ RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
he did not. 4602 However, Kushner's aide, Berkowitz, told the Committee that he did, in f~ct,
conduct an internet search on Gorkov's background "when Jared asked me ... who the personwas." 4603 Berkowitz said that his search showed that Gorkov was a banker, but he did not recall
discovering that Gorkov faced sanctions by the United States. 4604 Berkowitz also said thatKushner did not ask for any preparation materials before the meeting with Gorkov. 4605
(U) Kushner described his meeting with Gorkov as primarily about future diplomatic
relations between the United States and Russia. 4606 However, VEB released a statement to thepress indicating that the meeting was business-related:

During 2016, when preparing the new Vnesheconombank's strategy, the Bank's. CEOs repeatedly met with representatives of the world's leading financial
institutions in Europe, Asia and America. In the course of negotiations theparties discussed the business practices applzed by foreign development banks, aswell as most promising business lines ·and sectors. The roadsh~w meetings
devoted to Vnesheconombank's Strategy 2021 were held with representatives ofmajor US banks and business circles, including the CEO of Kushner Companies
Mr. Jared Kushner. 4601

4602

(U) Ibid, p. 81.
(U) Berkowitz Tr., p. 150.
4604
(U) Ibid, pp. 150-151.
4605(U) Ibid, p. 150.
4606
(U) Kushner Tr., pp. 82-83.
4607(U) Thomas Frank and Marshall Cohen, "Russian banker who met with Jared Kushner has ties to Putin," CNN,
March 29, 2017; David Filipov, et al., "Explanations for Kushner's meeting with head of Kremlin-linked bank don't
match up," The Washington Post, June 1, 2017; Patrick Reevell and Matthew Mosk, "Russian banker Sergey
Gorkov brushes off uestions about meetin with Jared Kushner," ABC News, June 1, 2017.
4603

4608

716

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

-Immediately f o l l o w i n - n Kushner and Gorkov, Berkowitz
received a text from an aide to G o r k o v ~ , saying that Gorkov felt the meeting
went well and that "[w]e will be in touch."
Berkowitz replied saying "Same report here!
4610
Looking forward."
Berkowitz, however, told the Committee he never discussed how themeeting went with Kushner, and he was merely attempting to be polite.4611(U) As noted above, Foresman believed that Gorkov would be briefing Putin after the
meeting. According to open source information, on December 14, 2016, the private aircraft
which brought Gorkov to the United States traveled to Japan. 4612 On December 15 to December
16, Putin visited Japan, and reports indicated that Gorkov would join Putin there. 4613

Text messages,_ and Berkowitz, December 13, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0000011);(U) Ibid.
(U) Berkowitz Tr., pp. 159-161.
4612 (U) David Filipov, et al., ''Explanations for Kushner's m<;eting with head of Kremlin-linked bank don't match
up," The Washington Post, June 1, 2017.
4613
Ibid.
4611

4614

717

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On the morning of December 19, 2016, Gorkov's aide texted Berkowitz asking him
to "[p]lease inform your side that the information about the meeting got a very positive
response!" 4616 Berkowitz replied that he would do so, and Gorkov's aide told Berkowitz to "[l]ethim know." 4617 Later that day, approximately ten hours later, Berkowitz responded that "I told
him and he said: great! So thank you!"4618 Berkowitz told the Committee that he had norecollection of speaking with Kushner related to this message. 4619
(U) The next day, Gorkov's aide messaged Berkowitz that "we plan on our next visit inearly Feb."4620 Berkowitz responded, "[S]ee you then." 4621 Berkowitz and the aideintermittently exchanged short holiday greetings and a congratulatory note related toinauguration. 4622 The aide later asked Berkowitz if he could "arrange the meeting next week,"
but Berkowitz did not respond. 4623
3. (U) Kirill Dmitriev Pursues Inroads to the Transition Team(U) In addition to outreach through its officials, the Russian government also leveraged
business leaders with Western ties to advance its foreign policy goals with the incoming
administration.
(U) Some taskings for this activity capie directly from Putin through quarterly meetings
he held with a group of approximately 50 Russian oligarchs. According to Petr Aven, Chairmanof the Board of Directors of Alfa Bank, during these meetings, oligarchs would receive

4615
4616

(U) ext message, !vane e o to Ber ow1tz, Decem er 9, 20
AB-S , 1-00000 1(U) Text messages, lvanchenko and Berkowitz, December 19, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0000012)
4618(U) Text messages, Berkowitz to Ivanchenko, December 19, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0000012)
4619(U) Berkowitz Tr., p. 160. Kushner told the Committee that there "was no follow-up after that meeting."
Kushner Tr. II, p. 129.
4620
(U) Text message, Ivanchenko to Berkowitz, December 20, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0000012).
4621(U) Text message, Berkowitz to Ivanchenko, December 20, 2016 (AB-SSCI-0000012).
4622(U) Text messages, Ivanchenko and Berkowitz, December 25, 2016--January 21, 2017 (AB-SSCI-0000013-14).
4623(U) Text messages, Ivanchenko to Berkowitz, February 8-16, 2017 (AB-SSCI-0000015).
4617

718

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

"suggestions or critiques" from Putin. 4624 Participants would treat such "suggestions" as
directives from Putin, even if they were not explicitly stated as such, with the understanding that"there would be consequences ... if [the oligarchs] did not follow through." 4625 At the fourth
quarter 2016 meeting, Putin suggested to Aven that he believed the United States would seek toimpose new sanctions on Aven or Alfa Bank. 4626 Putin "suggested" that Aven and Alfa Bank
take steps to protect themselves, and noted the difficulty in making contacts within the incoming
Trump administration. 4627 Aven said that Putin "expected him to try to respond to the concerns[Putin] had raised. " 4628
(U) Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the U.S.-sanctioned Russian Direct Investment Fund(RDIF), Russia's state-owned sovereign wealth fund, engaged in similar outreach to the Trump
Transition. 4629 Like Aven, Dmitriev used multiple business contacts to try and make inroads
with Trump Transition Team officials, described more fully below, based on his own direct
tasking from Putin.
(U) The Committee notes that Dmitriev has direct access to Putin and frequently refers
to Putin as his "boss."4630

I
I

I

4624

(U) SCOReport, Vol. I, p. 146. The Committee did not interview Aven, but his efforts to engage the Transition
Team are described in the SCO Report.
462s (U) Ibid.
4626 (U) Ibid.
4627(U) Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 146-147.
4628(U) Ibid., Vol. I, p. 147.
4629
(U) Ibid., Vol. I, p. 147.
4630
Ibid., Vol. I, . 147.
4631

719

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYi.

(U) Dmitriev Seeks Assistance from Nader to Contact Trump Transition(U) The morning following the election, Kirill Dmitriev made the first of multiple
attempts to reach out to members of Trump's inner circle.4635 On November 9, 2016, Dmitriev
sent a text to George Nader, a senior advisor to UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al
Nahyan, requesting a meeting with the "key people" in the incoming administration as soon as
possible. 4636 RDIF, under Dmitriev's leadership, had co-invested in multiple projects with UAE
sovereign wealth funds, which put Dmitriev in frequent contact with Nader. 4637

•

I

4636

(U) Ibid., Vol. I, p. 150.

4637

720

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Nader had spent much of 2016 attempting to nurture contacts with both presidential
campaigns, and keeping Dmitriev informed of his progress.464 For example, Nader participated·in a meeting in August 2016 attended by Donald Trump Jr., Stephen Miller, Erik Prince, and Joel
Zamel in which Nader discussed foreign policy matters and a potential social media
campaign.4641 Dmitriev and Nader discussed the possibility of Nader assisting Dmitriev inmaking contact with incoming Trump administration officials. Dmitriev asked Nader to help
convey the message to incoming officials that, "we [Russia] want to start rebuilding therelationship in whatever is a comfortable pa~e for them. We understand all of the sensitivities
and are not in a rush."4642 Nader was told that Dmitriev and the Russian government had
preferred that Trump win the presidency. 4643·°

(U) Dmitriev then flew to New York that day to attend the World Chess Championship,
which was being attended separately by Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. 4644 In an effort tomeet with Trump Transition officials, Dmitriev invited Nader to the tournament, specificallyrequesting that Nader invite Jared Kushner to the event so that Dmitriev could meet him. 4645
Dmitriev was eager for "a chance to see anyone from the Trump camp" in order to "startbuilding for the future." 4646 Nader said that he did not pass along the invitation to Kushner. 4647
According to Nader, Dmitriev continued to raise with Nader the prospect of meeting Transition
officials or others close to Trump, focusing particularly on Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. 4648

Ibid.
(U)
Report, Vol. I, p. 148. As noted above, George Nader, who was interviewed as part of the SCO's
investigation, later pleaded guilty to transportation of a minor boy for purposes of illegal conduct and possession ofchild pornography. U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia, "Man Pleads Guilty to Child Exploitation
Crimes," January 13, 2020. Nader has also been charged with campaign finance crimes. See DOJ, "California CEO
and Seven Others Charged in Multi-Billion Dollar Conduit Campaign Contribution Case," December 3, 2019.
4641(U) See infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.J.3.
4642(U)Report, Vol. I, p. 150. Dmitriev also conveyed to Nader a willingness to conduct press interviews inwhich Dmitriev planned to convey optimism about the possibility of improved U.S.-Russia relations following
Trump's election. Ibid.
4643(U) Ibid., Vol. I, p. 148.
4644
(U) Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 150. According to theReport, Dmitriev exchanged text messages with Russian
businessman Andrey Guryev Jr., prior to leaving for the Championships. In their messages, Guryev wrote, "Goahead, come to us for the chess. Trump received the invitation. There will be a total 'sold-out' [of the tournament if
Trump attends] and uproar ifhe wins." Dmitriev responded, "My Arab friends are in close contact with him, I willask." After Trump claimed victory, Guryev, Jr. messaged Dmitriev, "Well, it seems like this is it." Approximately
one minute later, Guryev, Jr. wrote to Dmitriev, "Putin has won." Ibid, Vol. I, p. 149.4645 (U) Vol. 1, p. 150.
4646 (U) Ibid.
4647 (U) Ibid.
4648(U) Ibid4639 (U)
4640

sea

sea

sea

721

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Nader said that Dmitriev informed him t}lat he (Dmitriev) would also pursue other channels toreach Trump Transition Team officials. 4649
ii. (U) Outreach through Rick Gerson(U) Dmitriev subsequently tried other avenues to reach members of Trump's inner' circle.
In late November, lJAE national security advisor Tahnoon bin Zayed connected Dmitriev to
Rick Gerson, a New York hedge fund manager. 4650 Although Gerson and Dmitriev had nevermet, Gerson had a relationship with Muhammad bin Zayed and was a personal friend of Jared
Kushner. 4651 Gerson told the Committee that Tahnoon bin Zayed made the introduction in orderto make a business connection between the two men. 4652

(U) Dmitriev called Gerson on December 1, 2016, and they talked for approximately 20
minutes. 4653 They also communicated via the private messaging application WhatsApp. 4654
(U) According to Gerson, during the call they discussed several topics, including
investments each had made in ride-sharing companies, and Gerson raised his interest in a ridesharing company in India called OLA. 4655 That same day, Gerson sent Dmitriev a non-disclosureagreement related to a proposed OLA investment, followed the next day by an email that
included an OLA investment summary that had been customized for RDIF. 4656 Although
Dmitriev and RDIF sought to persuade Gerson that sanctions did not present an obstacle to doing
business with RDIF, lawyers eventually advised Falcon Edge Capital against the deal because of
U.S.-sanctioned VEB's relationship to RDIF. 4657

4649(U) Ibid, Vol.I, p. 151.
(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Rick Gerson, October 19, 2018, pp. 8; 14--15.
4651(U) Ibid, pp. 8, 33.
.
4652(U) Ibid, p. 16.
4653(U) WhatsApp Audio metadata, Dmitriev to Gerson, December 1, 2016 (GERSON_00000125). Gerson told theCommittee and the FBI that he and Dmitriev had never met in person. Gerson Tr., p. 124. Although the sea
Report describes a conversation when the two men "met," sea Report, Vol. I, p. 157, the Committee surmises that
this is a reference to when the first s oke, and not necessarily an in-person meeting.
4654(U)
Gerson told the Committee that he "routinely" deleted his WhatsApp
commumcatlons an cou not pro lice them. Gerson Tr., p. 64.
4655(U) Gerson Tr., pp. 11-12.
4656(U) Email, Gerson to Dmitriev, December 1, 2016 (GERSON_00000373--418) (attaching NDA). The sameday, Dmitriev returned the NDA with edits that included removing all references to the "Russian Direct Investment
Fund" and replacing them only with the acronym "RDIF." Email, Dmitriev to Gerson, December 2, 2016
(GERSON_00000419--433).
4657(U) Gerson Tr., pp. 13-14, 32; see also Email, RDIF Legal to Schmidt, December 8, 2016
(GERSON_00000476) (discussing VEB, RDIF and sanctions); Email, RDIF General Counsel to Gerson, et al.,January 6, 2016 (GERSON_00000486) (same). Gerson said that ifRDIF invested in OLA, other sovereign wealthfunds would automatically invest as part of a consortium, including funds in Abu Dhabi (Mubadala) and other Gulf
states. See Gerson Tr., pp. 30-31.
4650

722

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Despite Falcon Edge's decision not to en a e in a business
relation~Dmitriev continued toin order toinfluence with the Trum Administration.

(U) Although the purpose of the December 1 call was ostensibly business, Gerson said
that during the call, Dmitriev also discussed a desire to have "better relations with the U.S." 4660
Dmitriev said that he was optimistic about the future ofU.S.-Russia relations and madereferences to his "boss," which Gerson understood to be a reference to President Putin. 4661
Dmitriev told Gerson that Putin had tasked him with developing a reconciliation plan for UnitedStates-Russia relations. 4662 As a result, Gerson understood that Dmitriev had "two roles":"investments through the [RDIF] and being tasked" by Putin to "develop a reconciliation
plan."4663

4658
4659 (U)Ibid(U) Gerson Tr., p. 20.
4661
Ibid.
4660

4662

723

(U) Dmitriev also asked Gerson whom he should meet with in the incoming
administration in order to advance this goal. 4664 · Gerson committed to talking with members of
the Transition Team, including Kushner and Flynn, to determine who the "key person or people"
would be to discuss matters such as reconciliation with Russia, joint security concerns, andeconomic issues.4665 Gerson also said that he informed Dmitriev that he was good friends withKushner:
He told me he was interested in coming to the U.S. and speaking to everyone thathe could. ft wasn 't just Mr. Kushner; and, in fact, he told me had been regularly
traveling to the U.S. before then. And he went-and that he wanted to start tomeet the new people during the transition or after. 4666

(U) After their conversation, Dmitriev emailed Gerson a number of press articles inwhich Dmitriev made positive comments about the possibility of rapprochement between the twocountries following Trump's election. 4667 According to records obtained by the SCO, Dmitriev
informed Gerson that if Russia was "approached with respect and willingness to understand our
position, we can have Major Breakthroughs quickly."4668(U) Although Gerson said that Dmitriev did riot ask for advic~, in subsequent messages,
Gerson nevertheless offered his perspective on how to improve the relationship between the
United States and Rµssia. 4669 Gerson recalled that he shared several ideas with Dmitriev. These
included access to medical care for children in Syria, joint efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism,
and Russian investment that would provide U.S. jobs in "hard hit" areas. 4670 According toGerson, Dmitriev told him that the suggestions "actu~lly made a lot of sense and he agreed,"adding that he (Dmitriev) ''was going to give these ideas to his boss."4671(U) Both Gerson and Dmitriev understood that the plan would be provided to senior
officials on both sides. Dmitriev "told Gerson that he was reporting directly to Putin and thatthe reconciliation plan would be reviewed by Putin. " 4672 Gerson also "repres~nted to Dmitriev
that he knew Jared Kushner, Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon."4673 Gerson further "told

4664

sea

(U)
Report, Vol. I, p. 157.
(U) Ibid
4666(U) Gerson Tr., p. 21-22.
4667(U) Email, Dmitriev to Gerson,, December 1, 2016
4668
(U)
Report, Vol. I, p. 157;
4669
(U) Gerson Tr., p. 23-24.
4670 (U) Ibid
4671
(U) Ibid4672 (U)4673 (U) Ibid
4665

sea

724

COMMITTEE SENSITI~ - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Dmitriev that he would consult with Flynn and Bannon" on the plan and would "give it to thetransition team," and specifically Kushner. 4674
(U) In later December, Gerson told a colleague, "I'm in constant touch with Kirill theu . He told me he's under direct instruction from Putin to en a e with U.S. firms." 4675
In
addition to their December 1 phone call, Gerson called Dmitriev on January 5, 2017, and theyspoke for approximately 15 minutes. 4677
(U) Gerson told the Committee that, at some point after their initial discussions in
December, he took the collective ideas for U.S.-Russia reconciliation that he and Dmitriev
discussed and put them in a list, which he sent to Dmitriev. 4678 According to Gerson, Dmitriev
responded, having added an additional bullet to the list of ideas dealing with "something about
Ukraine. Something following the Minsk Agreement on Ukraine. I didn't know what the Minsk
Agreement of Ukraine was." 4679 The precise timing of these exchanges is somewhat unclear.
,(U) On January 17, Dmitriev sent the plan to Gerson over WhatsApp4680 :

4674
4675

(U) Ibid; Gerson Tr., pp. 131-132.
(U) Email, Gerson to Udwadia, December 29, 2016

) ("I want to make this work and do a lot

wit
4676
4677

(U) W atsApp Au io metadata, Dmitriev to Gerson, January 5, 2017 (GERSON_00000124).
(U) Gerson Tr., pp. 131-132.
4679(U) Ibid, pp. 132-134.
4680(U) January 17, 2017, text message from Dmitriev to Gerson. During his interview, Gerson said he no longer
had a copy of the document. Gerson Tr., p. 133. This copy was produced by Gerson to the Committee after his
interview, with permission from SCO, which had obtained it separately and provided it to Gerson's counsel.
4678

725

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Resending the 5 point plan with proper numbering of points :):Rick, here are some preliminary thoughts (including yours:)) on US Russia cooperation per our earlier
discussion - we believe that is is [sic] a win-win approach. I plan to be in the US January 27-30 tofurther discuss with you and the most senior relevant people from the US side:I.

Jointly fighting terrorism and significantly enhancing our coordination in that area.
setting up military coordination and joint actions in Syria
resuming work of intelligence agencies of info sharing on terrorism
a joint special forces mission where together US and Russia takes out a key ISIS person orplace or frees an area then announces it after
a massive joint humanitarian effort in Syria. A joint project to fund and build hospitals andemergency medical centers in Syria in both rebel and govt areas or at least to jointly flood
both areas with medical supplies and basic food. Especially medical and nutrition for children

2.

A serious anti-WMD joint effort to reduce WMD by US and Russia and prevent WMD
terrorism across nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. Jointly going after and reducing
the odds of nuclear terrorism security as the profound risk to the world. Rick is involved with
the Nuclear Threat Initiative which Warren Buffett funds and is chaired by former Senator
Sam Nunn who was chairman of the armed services committee. This group already has highlevel Russian involvement so it's an easy place to collaborate in a high profile way.

3.

Developing wi n win economic and investment initiatives that will be supported by bothelectorates.
a visit by top US businesses to Russia to highlight existing US successes in Russia and j oint
future opportunities;
joint RDIF fund wi th OPIC to support US investment in Russia to make US businesses
competitive vs subsidized Chinese businesses in Russia
Russian company builds a plant with RDIF financing to serve the US market in the US
Midwest creating real jobs for a hard hit area with high unemployment. US production byforeign companies a focus of the new administration-highlighting benefits of US Russia business cooperation through media-

4.

Having an honest and open and continual dialogue on differences and concerns
resolving Ukraine crises through fulfillment of Minsk agreements and ensuring Ukraine
fulfills its obligations
working group between the State Department and Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs toaddress key differences

5.

Ensuring there is proper communication and trust among all of the key people from each sidea small group with 2-3 people from each side authorized to finalize an action plan for a major
improvement in the US Russia relationshipcoordination across major agencies and government bodies to achieve tangible impact in thenext 9-12 months
well prepared meeting between the two leaders with several breakthroughs on key issues as
per above.

726

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In an email discussion about the reconciliation plan, Dmitriev told Gerson, "This isFYI so that you have the whole picture. The 2 pager is supported from our side and you are theonly one who has it from your side-as one of the creators:)" Gerson replied "Excellent. I
understand and am on it."4681 Asked ifhe thought Dmitriev had shared the list with anyone,
Gerson said that Dmitriev referred to "his boss," which Gerson assumed was a reference toPutin.468.2·(U) After receiving the updated plan from Dmitriev, Gerson instructed an assistant toconvert the five-point plan on "potential areas of cooperation between the US and Russia" into aformal document. 4683 Gerson also added an introductory text: "Below are potential win-win
steps for achieving a breakthrough in the relationship between the U.S. and Russia throughrespectful communication and partnership in critically important shared goals." 4684
(U) Gerson said that he went to see Kushner at Kushner's office in New York the nextday, January 18, 2017, as Kushner was getting ready to leave for the inauguration.4685 Gersongave a copy of the document to Kushner, and told him briefly about Dmitriev's background,including that Dmitriev had "connections," but did not recall mentioning that it had been
approved by Putin. According to Gerson, Kushner did not know who Dmitriev was and only
glanced at the document after Gerson had handed it to him. 4686 Gerson said Kushner then put the
document in a file that was on his desk and said that he would "give it to the right people."4687(U) On January 18, Gerson received two short calls from Dmitriev. 4688 The Committee
was unable to determine whether these calls took place before or after Gerson delivered the
document to Kui,hner, but given the timing, assesses they were almost certainly related to theplan. Gerson said that Dmitriev knew that Gerson had given the document to Kushner. 4689
(U) Kushner described what he did with the document:
Rick kind ofgave me something that he thought were his thoughts on
US./Russia-Rick really wasn't involved in Russia, but he gave it to me. What I
did . .. wit-h that was, he gave me two copies. . . . I wasn't that involved with the

4681
4682
4683
4684

(U) .l i .
e two ex.c ange seven ema1 s with drafts of the document.
(U) Gerson Tr., pp. 133-134.
4686 (U) Ibid, pp. 134-135; SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 158; FBI, FD-302, Gerson 6/15/2018.
4687 (U) Gerson Tr., p. 134 ("I never followed-up with him. He never told me who ended up looking at it, if
anyone.").
4688(U) WhatsApp Audio metadata, Dmitriev to Gerson, January 18, 2017 (GERSON_00000124).
4689(U) Gerson Tr., pp. 135-136.
4685

727

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Russia file, so I gave one copy to Bannon and one copy to RerTillerso~, whowere kind of more involved in Russia than I was, and so and that was kind of thelast of it. 4690
I(U) On January 19, 2017, Dmitriev sent Nader a copy of the document, telling him thaJ it
was "a view from our side that I discussed in my meetings on the islands with you and ourfriends. Please share with them-we believe this is a good foundation to start from." 4691
(U) On January 26, 2017, Dmitriev informed Gerson that his "boss" had asked whether
the Trump administration had any feedback regarding the proposal.4692 Dmitriev said that he
was facing pressure to begin meeting with U.S. officials.4693 "We do not want to rush things andmove at a comfortable speed. At the same time, my boss asked me to try to have the key US ·meetings in the next two weeks if possible."4694 Dmitriev also informed Gerson that the two
Presidents were to speak by phone that Saturday, and that the information was "veryconfidential." 4695
(U) The same day, Dmitriev reached out to Nader emphasizing the need to continue
trying to establish a back channel for communications between the United States and Russia. In
a text message to Nader, Dmitriev said that he had seen his "boss" the day before, and that Putin
had "emphasized that this is a great priority for us and that we need to build this communication
channel to avoid bureaucracy."4696 Two days later, Dmitriev wrote Nader asking ifhe could"confirm to my boss" that "your friends," an apparent reference to the Trump Administration,
would use information contained in the document provided by Gerson to Kushner in the planned
call between Trump and Putin.4697 Nader responded, "Definitely paper was ... submitted by
Rick [Gerson] and me. They took it seriously!" 4698
(U) Following the January 28 call between Trump and Putin, Dmitriev wrote to Nader
informing him that, "the call went very well. My boss wants me to continue making some publicstatements that us [sic] Russia cooperation is good and important."4699 Gerson also wrote to4690(U) Kushner Tr. II, pp 114-115.
(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 158. Dmitriev's reference to the "meetings on the islands" is almost certainly about
the Seychelles meetings with Erik Prince, described infra.
.
4692(U) Ibid A probable reference to Putin, given Dmitriev's historical use of the word.
4693 (U) Ibid
4694 (U) Ibid.
4695 (U) Ibid
4696
(U) Ibid, Vol. I, p. 159.
4697 (U) Ibid
4698
(U) Ibid
4699(U) Ibid
4691

728

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

.Dmitriev following the call to <;omment on how well it went, and Dmitriev responded that their
document "played an important role." 4700
iii. (U) Seychelles Meetings(U) In addition to using Gerson as a channel of communication, Dmitriev also madecontact with individuals perceived to have significant influence in the incoming Trumpadministration, such as Erik Prince. On January 11, 2017, Prince met with Dmitriev in the
Seychelles, where they discussed opportunities to improve the U.S.-Russia bilateral relationshipunder the incoming Trump administration. The meeting was brokered, in part, by Nader. Prince
later relayed the substance of the meeting to Bannon.
(U) Several aspects of Prince's activities in this time period align closely with the,Dmitriev outreach through Gerson described above. In particular, Gerson was also· in touch with
Bannon, Nader, and Dmitriev during the same time that Prince was in contact with them. 4701
Further, Dmitriev associated the five points on cooperation with discussions he had on "theislands," presumably a reference to the Seychelles.4702 The Committee's ability to investigate
these events, however, was significantly hampered by a lack of cooperation from Prince._4703 In
his only response to Committee requests for documents, Prince offered a brief and deceptive
description of his meetings in the Seychelles.

On or around Jan 11, 2017 I traveled to the Seychelles to meet with somepotential customers.from the UAEfor the logistics business ofwhich I'm
Chairman. After the meeting they mentioned a guy I should meet who was also in
town to see them, a Kirill Dmitriev from Russia who ran some sort of hedge fund.
I met him in the hotel bar and we chatted on topics ranging from oil andcommodity prices to how much his country wishedfor resumption of a normal
trade relationship with the USA. I remember telling him that ifFranklin

4700(U) Ibid Nader and Gerson met with Kushner at the White House in the following months. During a meetingon February 15, 2017, Nader shared a "conspiracy" theory with Kushner and Bannon that foreign intelligence
services in the United Kingdom had worked throughout the Transition and after inauguration with "the Deep State in
the U.S." who were "trying to find stuff about [Trump]." Gerson Tr., pp. 84-86. According to Gerson, Kushnerdismissed the theory, and Bannon did not react before he was quickly pulled into another meeting. Gerson said that
the Steele dossier "wasn't specifically referred to" during the meeting. Nader had two subsequent meeting in the
White House which Gerson facilitated, including in mid-April 2017 related to Qatar and Saudi Arabia and earlyMay 2017 related to the UAE. Ibid, pp. 90-92, 96 ..
4701 (U) Gerson told the Committee that he never met or communicated with Prince. Ibid, pp. 9-10.
4702(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 158.
4703 (U) On November 8, 2017, the Committee issued a subpoena to Erik Prince requesting from him documents
related to the Committee's investigation. Prince responded on November 22, 2017, providing approximately 25
pages of material. Only the cover letter, described above, was relevant to his meetings in the Seychelles.

729

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Roosevelt could work with Joseph Stalin to defeat Nazi Fascism then certainly
Donald Trump could work with Vladimir Putin to defeat Islamic Fascism. The
meeting ended after a maximum of 30 minutes. I've had no communication or
dealings with him or any of his colleagues before or after that encounter last
January. 4704
a. (U) Initial Contacts(U) On January 3, 2017, Nader traveled to New York where he met multiple times with
Prince.
During the course of their discussions, Nader and Prince discussed Dmitriev, andNader made clear to Prince that the Russians were interested in building relationships with theincoming Trump administration. 4706 Although Prince's written statement to the Committee
described his meeting with Dmitriev as an unplanned encounter, during Prince's discussions with
Nader in New York, Nader described Dmitriev's explicit request for Nader to introduce him toincoming administration officials.4707 Nader then asked whether Prince would be willing to meetwith Dmitriev. 4708 Prince replied that he would have to think about it and speak with Transition
Team officials.4709
4705(U) After their dinner on January 3, Nader ·sent Prince a Wikipedia entry on Dmitriev toprovide further background.4710 Nader then sent a separate message to Dmitriev informing himthat he had just met with "some key people within the family and inner circle," a reference toPrince.4711 Nader told Dmitriev that he had spoken highly of Dmitriev to Prince, and said that
Prince needed Dmitriev's bio. 4712 Dmitriev complied, sending Nader a two-page biography
along with a list of positive quotes about Donald Trump that he had given to media outlets. 4713

4704(U) Letter, Prince to SSCI, November 22, 2017. On March 25, 2019, the Committee served an additional
subpoena requesting that Erik Prince produce documents and appear before the Committee. Prince's attorney
responded on April 7, informing the Committee that Prince would not appear before the Committee, and that Prince
was invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Letter, Schwartz to SSCI, April 7, 2019.
4705(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 151.
4705 (U) Ibid.
4101 (U) Ibid.
410s (U) lb id.
4709(U) Ibid. In his testimony to the HPSCI, Prince insisted that he did not travel to the Seychelles for a meetingwith somebody from Russia. "No, rio, let me clarify. I didn't fly there to meet any Russian guy." Transcript of theInterview of Erik Prince, HPSCI, November 30, 2017, p. 52.
4110 (U) Ibid.
4111 (U) Ibid.
4712(U) Ibid., Vol. I, p. 152
4113 (U) Ibid.

730

COMMI'T'.fEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The next morning, January 4, Nader forwarded Dmitriev's information as
attachments to Prince.4714 Prince opened the attachments while in Trump Tower that day talking
with Transition officials and waiting to meet with Steve Bannon. Although Prince spent threehours at Trump Tower that day, he said that he could not remember whether he actually met with
Bannon.4715
f)b. (U) Inviting Dmitriev(U) Shortly thereafter, arrangements were made for Prince to meet with Dmitriev in the
Seychelles.4716(U) Prince booked his flight to the Seychelles on January 7, 2017.4719 In his testimony to

the HPSCI, Prince asserted that he had only gone to the Seychelles to discuss business withmembers of the UAE royal family.
I don't remember who called me. I think it was one of his schedulers. And justsaid, "His Highness would like to see you ifyou can come out to the
Seychelles. "4720(U) Nevertheless, on January 8, 2017, Nader, having apparent knowledge of Prince's
plans to be in the Seychelles, informed Dmitriev that he had a "pleasant surprise" for him;
specifically a meeting with a "special guest" from the "New Team," a reference to Prince. 4721 Ina follow up message to Nader, Dmitriev sought assurances that a meeting with Prince was

4717

I i .
(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 152.
4720
(U) Transcript of the Interview ofErik Prince, HPSCI, November 30, 2017, p. 22.
4721(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 152
411s (U)4719

731

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

worthwhile. 4722 Nader assured Dmitriev that Prince held a position of influence with theincoming administration, writing that, "This guy [Prince] is designated by Steve [Bannon] tomeet you! I know him and he is very very well connected and trusted by the New Team. Hissister is now [Secretary] ofEducation."4723(U) According to Gerson, at some point before the meeting, Dmitriev reached out to him
to inquire about Prince:·
He had mentioned Erik Prince and had asked me if I knew him or what I thought
about him. He would ask me like a reference check on a bunch ofpeople. He'dthrow out names, maybe 15 names. What do you think of dut-dut-dut-dut, and I
told him that I didn't know Erik Prince. I never met him. But I had heard goodthings about his sister, who had done work in school-choice reform. I don't
remember if he had mentioned to me he was going to meet him or he had met him.
But he did tell me that he was in contact with him. 4726
(U) According to Nader, Prince led him to believe that Bannon was aware of Prince's
trip to meet with Dmitriev, and Nader understood from Prince that any information would be
passed on to the Transition team. 4727 However, Bannon denied knowing about the meeting. 4728

c. (U) Meetings Between Prince and Dmitriev

4722(U) Ibid, Vol. I, pp. 152-153.

4723
4724
4725

(U), Ibid(U) Gerson Tr., pp. 63--64. In his interview, Gerson said that the conversation about Prince took place before
Prince met Dmitriev in the Seychelles. However, Gerson was unable to confirm the timeline having deleted theWhatsApp messages in which he communicated with Dmitriev. Ibid, p. 64. According to the SCO Report, thisexchange took place on January 9, 2017; two days before Dmitriev and Prince first met. SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 157.
4727
(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 153.
4728
(U) Bannon Tr., pp. 352-353.
4726

732

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The SCO determined that Prince met twice in the Seychelles with Dmitriev. Prince
first met with Dmitriev on January 11, 2017, in Nader's villa at the Four Seasons Resort in
Seychelles with Nader present, and that meeting lasted approximately 30-45 minutes. 4729 During
the meeting, Prince criticized the Obama administration, and told Dmitriev that he looked
forward to a riew era of cooperation and conflict resolution. 4730 The topic of Russian interferencein the 2016 election was not discussed. 4731,
(U) Prince and Dmitriev also discussed Bannon during the first meeting.· Prince told
Dmitriev that Bannon was effective in his role, if a bit unconventional. 4732 Prince also describedhis own role in providing policy papers to Bannon. 4733 Prince told Dmitriev that he would report
the details of the meeting to Bannon, and if there was interest in having further discussions,either Bannon or someone from the Transition Team would follow up. 4734
(U) There was a second meeting between Prince and Dmitriev. After returning to his
hotel room, Prince learned that Russia was sending an aircraft carrier to Libya. 4735 Prince thencalled Nader and asked him to set up another meeting with Dmitriev. 4736 According to Nader,Prince told him that he had checked with associates in the United States, and needed to get amessage to Dmitriev that Libya was "off the table." 4737 Nader wrote to Dmitriev informing himthat Prince had "received an urgent message that he needs to convey to you immediately."4738
They then made arrangements for the three of them to meet at the restaurant of the Four
Seasons.4739(U) At this second meeting, Prince conveyed to Dmitriev that the United States could not
accept any Russian involvement in Libya because it would make the situation there worse. 4740
Despite having claimed to have spoken with associates in the United States and claiming to
speak on behalf of the United States' position on Russia's involvement in Libya, Prince told the
SCO that he was only making the comments as a former naval officer, and not in an official
capacity .4741

4729(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p; 153.
(U) Ibid
4131 (U) Ibid
4132 (U) Ibid
4733
(U) Ibid
4734(U) Ibid, Vol. I, p. 154.
473s (U) Ibid
4736
(U) Ibid4737 (U) Ibid4738 (U) Ibid
4730

4739 (U) ·

Ibid
Ibid
4741
(U) Ibid, Vol. I, p. 155.
4740 (U)733

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Hours later, Prince sent two text messages to Bannon. 4742 However, neither Bannon
nor Prince had any messages on their phones prior to March 2017, despite records indicating thatthey had exchanged multiple messages. 4743\
d. (U) Post-Meeting Reactions(U) Afterward, Dmitriev expressed his disappointment to Nader about the meetings.
Dmitriev wanted an interlocutor with more seniority within the Transition Team. 4744 Further,according to the SCO Report, Dmitriev felt the conversations lacked substance, and foundPrince's comments to be insulting.4745(U) However, in a message to Gerson, Dmitriev reported that Bannon had asked Prince
to meet with Dmitriev and that the meeting had been positive.4746 Gerson has said that following
the meeting, Dmitriev told him over text and during one of their phone calls4747 that he had met
with Prince. 4748 Dmitriev asked Gerson if Prince was someone he should work with in regards toreconciliation. 4749 Gerson shared the impression he got from Nader, which was that Prince
overplayed connections for contracts.4750 Dmitriev also asked about Betsy DeVos, Anthony
Scaramucci,4751 and Steve Schwarzmann, plus others whom Gerson did not know. 4752

(U) Prince told the SCO that he reported to Bannon the details of his meeting withDmitriev, including the message that Russia sought better relations with the incoming

4742 (U)
4743

Ibid

(U) Ibid, Vol. I, p. 155-56. Both Prince and Bannon claimed to the SCO that they did not know why thephones had no messages. Ibid, Vol. I, p. 156.
'
4744
(U) Ibid, Vol. I, p. 155.
4745
(U) Ibid
4746(U) Ibid, Vol. I, p. 158.
4747
(U) Records show multiple communications between Gerson and Dmitriev on January 18 and January 19,2017.
WhatsApp Audio mefadata, Dmitriev to Gerson, January 18-19, 2017 (GERSON_00000122:::..J24) (showing eightcalls, four ofwhich indicate a connection of a minute or more).
4748(U) FBI, FD-302, Gerson 6/15/2018.
I 4749 (U) Ibid..
' 4750 (U) Ibid
4751
(U) According to Anthony Scaramucci, he and Dmitriev have a relationship that is tied to their involvement in
the World Economic Forum, including several meetings in Davos. In December 2016, Scaramucci and Dmitriev
spoke by phone about the possibility ofRDIF bringing a group of Russian CEOs to the United States to discuss
investments. During the call, Dmitriev made it clear that he was looking to increase business activity between the
United States and Russia. In later conversations at Davos, Dmitriev raised the issue of sanctions and Crimea with
Scaramucci, making the case that Crimea was not an "international situation." SSC! Transcript of the Interview
with Anthony Scaramucci, October 29, 2018, pp. 69-70, 136-152.
4752(U) FBI, FD-302, Gerson 6/15/2018.

734

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

administration. 4753 Prince met Bannon at Bannon's home after returning to the United States in
mid-January 2017. 4754 Prince also believed he shared Dmitriev's contact information with
Bannon.4755 According to Prince, Bannon directed hirri not to follow up with Dmitriev.4756
Prince interpreted the decision as a lack of interest on Bannon's part.4757(U) Bannon, however, denied any discussion with Prince about these meetings. 4758
Bannon said he never had a conversation with Prince regarding Dmitriev, RDIF, or any meetings
with Russians associated with Putin.4759

4. (U) Robert Foresman(U) Robert Foresman is an American banking executive with experience in Russia.
From his decades of work in Moscow, Foresman has longstanding tiesto Russia and wellconnected business executives inside Russia, including some individuals with direct ties to Putin.
Foresman reached out to the- Trump Campaign in 'approximately .March 2016 to offer advice on
Russia and convey that Anton Kobyakov, an advisor to Putin, wanted to invite Trump to the St.
Petersburg International Economic Forum.476 Following the election, Foresman leveraged his
extensive ties to senior businessmen, including by transmitting messages between the. Transition
Team and his Russian contacts, in order to persuade the Trump Transition Team to grant him asenior political appointment in the new administration.

°(U) Among Foresman's associates with ties to the Kremlin are Kirill Dmitriev and Nord
Stream CEO Mattias Warnig. Foresman first met Warnig in approximately 2001 and told theCommittee that h,e had maintained a close friendship with Warnig since that time. 4761 Foresman
described Warnig as someone who was "very close to President Putin.''4762 Foresman based thisbelief, in part, on his experiences working with W arnig in 2001 to set up "the first and mostimportant private channel" between President George W. Bush and Putin.4763

i.

(U) Foresman's Outreach to Trump Campaign

4753(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, pp. 155-156.
Ibid.
(U) Ibid., Vol. I, p. 156.
4756 (U) Ibid.
4757 (U) Ibid.
4758(U) Bannon Tr., pp. 352-53.
4759(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 156.
4760
(U) Kobyakov was an advisor to Putin and a member of the Roscongress Foundation, which organizes theforum. See Roscongress.org, Anton Kobyakov Biography.
4761(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 17-18.
4762(U) Ibid., p. 18.
4763(U) Ibid., pp. 19-20.
4754 (U)4755

735

(U) On March 8, 2016, Foresman emailed an associate of Mark Burnett, a television
executive and producer 'who had worked with Donald Trump in the past, to offer his assistance toTrump,' s presidential campaign. 4764 In his message, Foresman asked Burnett's associate to"remind him [Burnett] that I am ready to meet with Donald Trump and/or his foreign policy teamat any time and to assist his campaign regarding Russia policy and more broadly."4765 Burnett's
associate replied, \'Yes Mark is definitely aware and has put a call out to Trump."4766 In
response, Foresman said:

Good man, thank you. ~ .. · And there's the small matter of the Kremlin inviting
Trump to Russia and asking me to convey this :) And of course I thought
immediately ofMark/ 4767
(U) On March 14, 2016, Foresman's name and phone number ended up on a list of
messages for Trump, which Graffemailed to Corey Lewandowski. 4768 Graffs email to
Lewandowski said that Foresman was referred by Burnett, and wa_s an "Extremely wellconnected banker with big ties to Russia." 4769 Keith Schiller, who was copied on the original
email, forwarded it to Hope Hicks, asking her to print it for Trump. 4770
(U) Foresman told. the Committee that he understood from what Burnett told him that atsome point Burnett had spoken '\directly" with Trump and suggested that Foresman would be "auseful person to meet with." 4771 He said:

I don't have a vivid recollection now whether I said, Mark can you get me ameeting with President Trump, or whether Mark said, Hey, you should meet with
Trump. I can't remember which one.of those it was. ...
Mark had.seen Candidate Trw:np {either on] the day-of [or] before [the Florida
primary] debate. 4772 And had said something to me along the line~ of I spoke

4764(U) Email, Foresman to Rascoe, March 8, 2016 (RMF_SCI_00000036). Foresman had previously served as afundraiser for Jeb Bush's Presidential campaign. Foresman Tr., p. 19.
4765(U) Email, Foresman to Rascoe, March 8, 2016 (RMF_SCI_00000036).
4766(U) Email, Rascoe to Foresman, March 8, 2016 (RMF_SCI_00000036).
4767(U) Email, Foresman to Rascoe, March 9, 2016 (RMF_SCI_00000036).
4768(U) Email, Graff to Lewandowski,.March 14, 2016 (DJTFP00009944).
4769 (U) Ibid.
4770
(U) Email, Schiller to Hicks, March 14, 2016 (DJTFP00009944).
4771(U) Foresman Tr., p. 31.
4772(U) The Florida Republican Primary debate took place on March 10, 2016.

736

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

to-I think he said that he spoke to Donald about you, and he's interested-he'dlove to meet you and you should contact Rhona Graff. 4773
(U) Approximately two weeks later, on March 31, 2016, following a phone conversation
with Graff, Foresman emailed Graff to say that Burnett had spoken with Trump andrecommended that he speak with Foresman.4774 Foresman then informed Graff that he had"developed unique relationships at the highest levels in Russia."· He went on to say that he had:[P]layed a significant role behind the scenes in the crucial area of US-Russian
relations. I initiated a private channel between Vladimir Putin and George W.
Bush in early 2001 4775 and remain actively involved in trying to "turn down thevolume" between Washington and Moscow. I have been approached by senior
Kremlin officials about Mr. Trump and would like to discuss this with Mr Trump.
. . . I have some concrete things to propose which I would not want to put downin an unsecure etnail. 4776
(U) In testimony to the Committee, Foresman said that the reference to the "concrete
things" he wanted to talk with Trump about was related to an invitation to the Saint Petersburg
International Economic Forum.4777 According to Foresman, he had been approached by a
Presidential Advisor to Putin, Anton Kobyakov, asking Foresman:

Would I be able to get an invitation to [Trump] for the Saint Petersburg
International Economic Forum in late May or June? And I said I suppose I
probably can. I said I don 't know President or Candidate Trump. I don 't know
his team, but I don 't think it would be very hardfor me to get something to him.
So that [was] what I wanted to communicate. 4778
(U) Foresman told the Committee that he sought a meeting with Trump, in part to sharehis overall views of Russia, but also to advise Trump not to attend the forum. 4779 According to4773(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 29-30, 32.
(U) Email, Foresman to Graff, March 31, 2016 (DJTFP00010473); Foresman Tr., p. 33.
4775(U) In his testimony to the Committee, Foresman described how, in January 2001, he and Matthias Warnig
worked together to set up a private communication channel between President Bush and President Putin prior to thetwo presidents' first meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in June 2001. These efforts are described in greater detailbelow.
4776(U) Email, Foresman to Graff, March 31, 2016 (DJTFP00010473).
4777(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 36, 48.
4778(U) Ibid., pp. 35-36.
4779(U) Ibid., pp. 38-39.
4774

737

Foresman, he did not think a presidential candidate should visit an adversarial country, especiallyhaving not yet secured the party's nomination. 4780
(U) The meeting Foresman sought with Trump in spring-2016 never happened. 4781 In
late July 2016, Foresman once again reached out to Graff after ajournalist contacted him
requesting a discussion on Trump's business dealing in Russia. 4782 Foresman again offered tomeet with Trump or "any of his children" to discuss matters related to Russia. 4783 Although
Graff responded that she remembered their conversation and offered to "revisit this with some of
the newer members of our campaign team," Foresman did not meet with Trump or his Campaign
at that time. 4784 ·ii. (U) Post-Election Outreach to Transition Teama. (U) Foresman Tries to Connect Peskov with the Transition(U) On November 10, 2016,just two days after the election, Foresman was attending an
event linked to the World Chess Championships, which were.being held in New York. 4785 Whileattending the event, Foresman reintroduced himself to Dmitry Peskov, Putin's press secretary.
Foresman said he suggested to Peskov that Peskov meet with his "counterpart" from the Trump
Transition Team while in New York. 4786 Foresman said that Peskov "wasn't keen on the idea,"
but agreed to do so if the schedule permitted. 4787 Later that evening, Foresman sent an email toPeskov asking if Peskov could meet the following morning with Megyn Kelly of Fox News, who) was seeking an interview with Putin.4788(U) The next morning, Foresman reached out to Burnett, seeking help to put him intouch with the appropriate person in the incoming administration to meet with Peskov.4789 Aftercontacting the Transition Team, Burnett put Foresman in touch with Hope Hicks through a text
message, telling Hicks:

4780(U) Ibid., p. 39.
(U) Email, Foresman to Graff, July 27, 2016 (RMF_SCI_000039-40); Foresman Tr., p. 39.
4782(U) Email, Foresman to Graff, July 27, 2016 (RMF_SCI_000039).
4783 (U) Ibid.
4784(U) Emails, Graff and Foresman, July 27-August 3, 2016 (RCF_SCI_000039); see also Email, Graff to S.
Miller and J. Miller, August 4, 2016 (TRUMPORG_16_000151-000152); Foresman Tr., p. 54.
4785(U) Foresman Tr., p. 56. A UBS client, PhosAgro, a Russian chemical company, was sponsoring the World
Chess Championships that year.
4786 (U) Ibid.
4787(U) Ibid., pp. 56-57.
4788(U) Email, Foresman to Peskov, November 10, 2016 (RMF_SCI_00000002).
4789(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 58-59.
4781

738

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

· Hope meet Bob Foresman. Bob is the most-important banking figure in US I
Russia relationships and is currently Vice Chq,irman of UBS. Bob wants tointroduce you to Dimitry Peskov PRESS SECRETARY OF the Kremlin TODAY IN
NYC. 4790(U) Foresman responded to Hicks that he would call her shortly.4791 According toForesman, after multiple calls between them, Hicks told him that the Department of State did notrecommend that she speak with any foreign 9fficials until after the inauguration.4792 Foresman
then passed this information on to Peskov, who indicated he did not know who Hicks was. 4793
b. (U) Foresman is Introduced to the Transition Team(U) On November 22, 2016, a colleague ofForesman's. sent an email to Anthony
Scaramucci, introducing Scaramucci to Foresman.4794 Within a few minutes, Foresman
responded, offering to meet with Scaramucci.4795 Five days later, on December 4, 2016, (Scaramucci responded, asking Foresman what position he had been thinking about in theupcoming administration. 4796 After some emails back and forth, they agreed to try and meetface-to-face at a breakfast they were both planning to attend oil December 7.4797(U) On December 6, prior to the breakfast, Jared Cohen, the President of Jigsaw and anadvisor to the Executive Chairman of Alphabet Inc., sent a note to Kushner highly· recommending Foresman for a policy position within the administration. Specifically, Cohen
highlighted Foresman's knowledge of Russia and fluency in Russian, and noted that Foresman"has some of the best relationships in the Kremlin of any American I know."4798 The next day,
Kushner forwarded the recommendation to Transition Team <;Jfficials, saying, "Maybe for

4790(U) Text message, Burnett to Hicks and Foresman, November 11, 2016 (MB SEN-INTEL0000021 ). Despite
his efforts to help Foresman get a job with the incoming administration, Burnett told the Committee that he did not
really know Foresman that well, only that Foresman had been helpful in getting one of Burnett's shows on Russian
TV artd had credibility. "He was looking probably for a job interview, I have no idea how qualified, but to me
seemed a really upstanding guy, with his heart in the right place on Christian issues to me, and asked for a referral."
SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Mark Burnett, July 27, 2018, pp. 40, 44--45.
4791(U). Text message, Foresman to Burnett and Hicks, November 11, 2016 (MB SEN-INTEL0000021).'4792(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 60:..05.
4793(U) Foresman Tr., p; 65.
4794(U) Email, DellaRusso to Scaramucci, Foresman, and Sullivan, November 29, 2016
(BF .AS.SSCl.112917000486--487). According to Scaramucci, he knew DellaRusso from a time when the two men
worked together at Lehman Brothers in the mid-2000s. Scaramucci Tr., pp. 43--44.
4795(U) Email, Foresman to Scaramucci, November 29, 2016 (BF.AS.SSCl.112917000486).
4796(U) Email, Scaramucci to Foresman, December 4, 2016 (BF.AS.SSCI.l 12917000486).
4797(U) Emails, Foresman and Scaramucci, December 6-7, 2016 (BF .AS.SSCI.112917000488).
4798(U) Email, J. Cohen to Kushner, December 6, 2016 (BF.AS;SSCI.112917000462). According to Foresman, he
was introduced to Jared Cohen through former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul. Foresman Tr., p. 83.

739

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Ambassador?"4799 Jim Donovan, one of the recipients ofKushner's message, forwarded themessage on to three people, including Scaramucci, on the morning of December 7, prior to thescheduled 7:00 a.m. breakfast at which Scaramucci was to meet with Foresman. 480 Foresman
told the Committee that he did not have an opportunity to meet with Scaramucci at the breakfast,
but th~y had met later that morning, and during an exchange of emails with Jared Cohen,
Foresman wrote, "I met Anthony Scaramucci this morning and he confirmed my name is on
some list."4801.

°(U) Also on December 6, Burnett texted Bannon to introduce him to Foresman. In his
text, Burnett described Foresman as "connected at every level in Russian Government, Church
and Business. He is ready to serve you. He will leave [his current job] to serve you."4802 Bannon
and Foresman exchanged texts in an attempt to set a time to meet, and did meet, although thespecific time ofthe meeting is not clear from the records produced by Burnett or from Bannon's
testimony. 4803 However, on December 8, Burnett texted Bannon saying, "Glad you met withBob Foresman. He is a patriot. An evangelical and a genius." Bannon replied, ''.He is pretty
amazing. " 4804
(U) According to Bannon, the meeting with Foresman lasted five to ten minutes, and the. topic focused primarily on "Christianity in Russia and Eastern Europe, the re-evangelization ofEurope."4805 Talk then turned to the fact that Foresman was looking for an opportunity to join
the administration in some unspecified capacity. According to Bannon, he then "turned him overto [National Security Advisor-designee Michael] Flynn and the guys;"4806(U) However, according to Foresman, the meeting was longer and more substantive.
Foresman recalled that during. the approximately 20-minute meeting, Bannon:
Asked me if I would be interested in being the deputy chief of mission in theAmerican Embassy in Kiev. To which I replied, I don't think that would becommensurate with my qualifications. I don't think that would be·a role that I

4799(U) Email, Kushner tq Dearborn, Donovan, et al., December 7, 2016 (BF.AS.SSCI.112917000462).
(U) Email, Donovan to Goldschmidt, Scaramucci, et al., December 7, 2016 (BF.AS.SSCI.112917000462).
4801(U) Foresman Tr., p. 82; Email, Foresman to J. Cohen, December 7, 2016 (RMF-SCI-00000053).
4802(U) Text Message, Burnett to Bannon and Foresman, December 6, 2016 (MB_SEN-INTEL0000024).
4803(U) Text Messages, Burnett, Foresman, and Bannon, December 6~~, 2016 (MB_SEN-INTEL0000024); Bannon
Tr., pp. 327-328.
4804(U) Text Messages, Burnett and Bannon, December 8, 2016 (MB_SEN-INTEL0000024). In testimony to theCommittee, Bannon claimed that he was less impressed with Foresman than his message indicated. Bannon Tr.; pp.
327-328.
4805(U) Bannon Tr., pp. 327-328.
4806(U) Ibid, pp. 328-329.
4800

740

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

would leave my current-I don 't think that would be the best use of my talents, I
said.
·
And I have a vague recollection ... that we talked aboutforeign affairs. About
Russia and Ukraine, I think was the topic. And he asked me toward the end of themeeting if ... I could send him a memo by that evening. 4807
(U) According to Foresman, Bannon was vague about the topic of the memo, so
Foresman "wrote the memo as a combination of how I see Russia and what sort of role ...
should exist in our government to coordinate Russia policy."4808(U) Bannon, however, denied having tasked Foresman with writing a memo, saying,"No. I'm sure this is Flynn."4809
iii. (U) Foresman Submits a First Russia Memo(U) According to Foresman, he submitted the memo to Bannon's assistant the day after
meeting with Bannon, likely December 9, 2016.4810 That same day Foresman sent a follow-up
email to Bannon's assistant asking if she could "check with Steve whether he would like toforward a copy of my memo to Gen Flynn. Also, any word on my meeting with the General per
Steve's suggestion?"4811(U) The memo described Foresman's perception that Russian relations had shifted from"alarming to hopeful" following Trump's election.4812 It described Russian relations with the
Obama administration as presenting "a greater risk of catastrophic direct conflict with Russia[not faced since] the early 1980s."4813 He then offered advice for structuring the National
Security Council so that Russia was a main focus of the council. 4814 This included the creationof a Russia-specific Deputy National Security Advisor (NSA) position that would ideally beoccupied by an individual so described:

4807(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 88-89, 101. Foresman did not submit the memo until the following day.
(U) Ibid., p. 90.
4809(U) Bannon Tr., p. 331.
4810
(U) Foresman Tr., p. 97.
4811(U) Text message, Foresman to Preate, December 9, 2016 (RMF-SCI-00000443).
4812(U) Email, Foresman to MacFarquhar, December 14, 2016 (RMF-SCI-00000121-125). Foresman sent a copyof the memo to an acquaintance because of"a striking resemblance" between it and an article published in the
National Interest shortly thereafter. Ibid.
4813 (U) Ibid.
4814 (U) Ibid.
4808

741

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Deputy NSAfor International Economics, if the person's background is consistent
with this. ... [A person who is] deeply expert in Russia andfluent in Russian. ...
Many, even most, ofPutin's inner circle are in the private sector, and speak andunderstand the language of the private sector, including making deals. The
person coordinating Russia policy in the NSC should have a deep knowledge ofthe private sector not only in general, but in the Russian context. 4815
iv. (U) Foresman Meets with Flynn(U) According to Foresman, after submitting the requested memo, he met with Flynn and
K.T. McFarl~nd, Flynn's eventual d~puty on the NSC, in Flynn's office in Trump tower. 4816
According to McFarland, she did not know Foresman before the meeting, but took it at therequest of somebody on the Transition Team. 4817 McFarland said that Foresman primarily spoke
about his interest in being Ambassador to Russia; however, she did not find that he had the samelevel of qualifications as others who were being considered at the time. 4818 Contrary to
McFarland's recollection, Foresman told the Committee that he had not been interested in being
named the Ambassador to Russia and that discussion of his role did not come up. 4819
(U) Although McFarland said she did not remember Flynn being present for most of themeeting, Foresman recalled primarily talking to Flynn.4820 While he did not remember
discussion of a possible role for him in the incoming administration, Foresman said that he gave
Flynn and McFarland his memo on Russia and possibly a document related to a Ukrainian peace
proposal Foresman had previously worked on in 2016, and that the rest of the discussion dealt
with U.S. foreign policy related to China, Europe, Iran and ISIS. 4821 During the meeting, Flynn
asked Foresman whether Ambassador Kislyak was a worthwhile interlocutor for the UnitedStates to get messages to Putin.4822 Foresman replied that Kislyak was not the best resource forthose purposes because, "my understanding is that the Foreign Minister Lavrov doesn't have a
direct access to Putin. And that the ambassador to America wouldn't be likely to."4823(U) At the end of the meeting, when Foresman was on his way out, he mentioned to
Flynn that he was headed to Moscow in the near future and would be meeting with "some481s (U)
4816

r

Ibid.
(U) Foresman Tr., p. 97.
4817(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Kathleen Troia ("K.T.") McFarland, March 8, 2018, p. 76.
4818 (U) Ibid., pp. 76-81.
4819(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 102, 179.
4820
(U) McFarland Tr., p. 80; Foresman Tr., pp. 102-103.
4821(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 102-103.
4822(U) Ibid., pp. 105-106.
4823(U) Ibid., p. 106.

742

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY/COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

influential people" who were "close to President Putin."4824 Foresman asked if Flynn had amessage to convey from the incoming administration. 4825 Flynn replied, "you can convey that on
behalf of the President-elect and myself, we genuinely hope for improved relations between our
two countries."4826
v. (U) Foresman's Trip to Moscow(U) On December 8, Foresman received an email from Nikolai Tsekhomsky, who was at
the time the First Deputy Chairman ofVEB. 4827 Prior to that, Tsekhomsky worked at Barclays in
Russia from 2009-2012, overlapping with Foresman during that time. 4828 The email said, "Dear
Bob! How are you? I need your help. Could you give me a call: [redacted] Nikolai."4829
Foresman had his assistant in Moscow arrange the logistics for the call, which took place on
December 9. 4830

(U) During the call, Tsekhomsky informed Foresman that he (Tsekhomsky) wastraveling to New York the following week with VEB CEO Sergey Gorkov for meetings with the
U.S. financial sector, and that Gorkov would be reporting back to Putin.4831(U) Following the call, ·Foresman informed his Moscow-based assistant that he had
agreed to meet with Tsekhomsky and Gorkov. He also informed his assistant that the meeting
was scheduled to take place the following_Monday, December 12, and told the assistant that it
was a "[t]op priority."4832(U) Foresman, Tsekhomsky, and Gorkov met shortly after Foresman landed in
Moscow. 4833 According to Foresman, the timing of the meeting worked out _because theRussians delayed their initial travel for a day, although Foresman did not know why. 4834 During
the meeting, Foresman "conveyed to Sergey that General Flynn had asked me to convey amessage to President Putin."4835 After sharing Flynn's message about wanting better relations

4824
4825

(U) Ibid, pp. 103, 106-107.
(U) Ibid, p. 103.

4826 (U)
4827

Ibid

(U) Email, Tsekhomsky to Foresman, December 8, 2016 (RMF-SCI-00000079).
4828(U) Foresman Tr., p. 116.
4829
(U) Email, Tsekhomsky to Foresman, December 8, 2016 (RMF-SCI-00000079).
4830(U) Emails, Foresman and Ilyina, December 8-9, 2016 (RMF-SCI-00000080-89).
4831(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 117-:-121. For more details about the call and Gorkov's trip, see infra Vol. 5, Sec.
ill.K.2.iv.
4832(U) Email, Foresman to Ilyina, December 9, 2016 (RMF-SCI-00000101).
4833(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 121-122.
4834(U) Foresman Tr., p. 122.
4835(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 123-124.

743

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

between the United States and Russia, Gorkov told Foresman that he would pass the message
along to Putin.4836
vi. (U) Foresman Meets with Allen Vine and Mattias Warnig; Receives a
Second Memo(U) On December 14, Foresman met with Allen Vine, who left Merrill Lynch in March
2006 to lead Nafta Moskova, an investment firm owned by Russian oligarch Suleiman
Kerimov. 4837 Vine is an American, and has been described in the press as the "right-hand man"ofKerimov, a Russian financier and member of the Russian Federation Council who was
sanctioned in April 2018.4838 Foresman understood Vine and Kerimov were affiliated, had
offices in the same building, and that Vine worked for or with Kerimov, but Foresman had notdone "due diligence" on their relationship. 4839 According to the sanctions designation, Kerimov
has allegedly engaged in money laundering activity and tax fraud, for which he was arrested andbriefly detained in France. 4840

I

I

4836

(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 124. For additional details about the conversation regarding a "new era" in bilateralrelations between the United States and Russia, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.K.2.iii.
4837(U) Email, Ilyina to Foresman, December 12, 2016 (RMF-SCI-00000115) (transmitting schedule); "Russian
Banks Lure Talent With Bigger Bonuses," The New York Times (Dea/book), August 16, 2006.
4838(U) Catherine Belton, "Sulaiman Kerimov, the secret oligarch," Financial Times, February 10, 2012. Kerimov
was sanctioned in response to the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England. Treasury,"Treasury Designates Russian Oligarchs, Officials, and Entities in Response to Worldwide Malign Activity," April
6, 2018; Andrew Higgins, et al., "Meet the 7 Russian Oligarchs Hit by the New Russia Sanctions," The New YorkTimes, April 6, 2018.
4839(U) Foresman Tr., p. 28.
4840(U) Specifically, Kerimov "is alleged to have brought hundreds of millions of euros into France - transporting
as much as 20 million euros at a time in suitcases, in addition to conducting more conventional funds transfers without reporting the money to French tax authorities. Kerimov allegedly launders the funds through the purchaseof villas." Kerimov has also been accused of failing to pay 400 million euros in taxes related to those villas.
Treasury, "Treasury Designates Russian Oligarchs, Officials, and Entities in Response to Worldwide MalignActivi ," A ril 6 2018.
4841

744

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYI(U) Foresman described Vine as somebody who was "aware that I had put my hand up,"and somebody who was close to Jared Cohen, who had previously recommended Foresman toKushner. 4844 According to Foresman:

He would have-I believe I would have made him aware of the fact that I had
been in Trump Tower by that point. That! had met with General Flynn.· Thatthings were progressing. And he-he helped to draft a memo-he gave me histhoughts on .the future direction of US/Russia relations, and . .. that he washoping that I would either absorb, ifI were to be in the Administration, or that I
would share as part of my briefings with General Flynn when I returned. 4845
(U) At the meeting, Vine gave Foresman a memo about U.S.-Russia relations that Vine
wanted Foresman to pass along to the incoming administration. 4846 According to Foresman,Vine had originally planned to pass the note to somebody else in order to pass it to Scaramucci,
but after learning that Foresman also had a relationship with Scaramucci and had otherconnections to the Trump team, Vine decided to use Foresman as the conduit.4847(U) That evening, Foresman had dinner with Mattias Wamig, with whom he had worked
to establish an unofficial communication channel between the United States and Russian ·officials
in the early days of the George W. Bush administration. 4848 In testimony to the Committee,
Foresman described how, in 2001, he said to Mattias Wamig:

Wouldn't it be interesting ifwe were to set up a private channel between the new
American President and the new Russian President? And a week later-so I had

4842 (U)

Ibid.
Ibid.
(U) Foresman Tr., p. 137.
4845 (U) Ibid.
4846(U) Ibid., p. 138.
4847 (U) Ibid.
4848(U) Ibid., pp. 19, 145.
4843 (U)4844

745

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYbasically forgotten about it-a week later he came into my office and he said:
Remember our conversation? I'm ready. 4849
(U) After that, the two set up a series of meetings between three Senators close to theBush family in advance of President Bush's first meeting with Putin.4850 In his first meeting with
Flynn, Foresman mentioned this "private channel" he had established for the Bushadministration in order to "sort of credentialize [him]self."4851(U) During his dinner with Wamig that evening, Foresman passed along Flynn's
message to Putin: that the incoming administration hoped to have improved relations with
Russia. 4852 Foresman told the Committee that Wamig later "indicated" that he had indeed passed
the message along to Putin.4853 "I think he might have said something like, Ditto from President
Putin. " 4854

(U) At the dinner, they also discussed who would be the best interlocutor for Flynn, as
the incoming National Security Advisor. 4855 Although Vine had previously told Foresman that
Yuri Ushakov was retiring and would no longer hold a position of influence with Putin, Wamig
strongly disagreed, and told Foresman that Ushakov should be Flynn's point of contact with the· Russian govemment.4856 Foresman assumed that Wamig's insistence that Ushakov was not
retiring indicated that the information came from Putin.4857

•

4849

(U) Ibid, p. 19.
(U) Ibid, pp. 18-21.
4851(U) Ibid, p. 108.
4852
(U) Ibid, p. 145.
4853
(U) Ibid., p. 146.
4854
(U) Ibid, p. 164.
4855
(U) Ibid., p. 146-147.
4856(U) Ibid., p. 145.
4857
(U) Ibid, pp. 145-147.
4850

746

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE. - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYI•(U) U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson met with Putin in Moscow the following day, April
12, 2017. 4860-

(U) After meeting with Wamig and returning to the United States, Foresman rewrote
Vine's memo, and substituted some of his own judgments for those contained in the version
given to him by Vine, including information from Wamig. 4861

(U) As revised, the memo offered an assessment ofU.S.-Russia relations as they stood at
the time, and offered advice on how the United States should attempt to improve bilateral
cooperation with Russia.4862 Several passages in the memo claimed to offer insight into thethoughts and strategic goals of Putin.4863(U) When he received the memo from Vine, Foresman did not tell him that he planned torewrite it. It was Foresman's assessment that Vine believed-the memo would be passed directly
to the Trump Transition Team. 4864 One passage that Foresman made clear to the Committee that
he had changed was the first paragraph of the memo, where he substituted the information
provided to him by Wamig regarding who in the Russian government would be the mostappropriate interlocutor for Flynn: Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy aide. 4865 Ambassador
Kislyak had given Jared Kushner a similar recommendation a month earlier. 4866••

4860 (U)Department of State, "Secretary Til erson' s Visit to Moscow Marks an Important Moment in the
Relationship," April 12, 2017.
4861(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 138-139, 142-143.
4862(U) Memorandum, Foresman to Flynn (RMF-SCI-00003004-3005).
4863 (U) Ibid.
4864(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 140-141.
4865(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 139, 141.
4866
(U) Email, Berkowitz to Kushner, December 12, 2016 (NSSCIO00000l 7).

747

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Although the memo originated with Vine, who works for Russian oligarch Suleiman
Kerimov and asked it to be delivered to the Transitfon Team, and included additional
information from Warnig, Foresman insisted that the memo he eventually gave to the Transition
Team was one that he "wasn't asked by Russians to give. [The Vine memo] was something that
I, in the end, used as a basis for a memo that I had wanted to write about a briefing about
U.S./Russia stuff. And I don't know that anybodY. ever read it actually."4867 , ·(U) Foresman did not retain a copy of the memo he received from Vine and he retained ·only a photograph of the memo he passed to the Transition, which he produced to the Committee
upon request. 4868 However, the Committee obtained a hard copy ofForesman's memo as
delivered to Flynn, depicted below, from Sarah Flaherty, who worked for Flynn and McFarland
during the Transition4869 :4867(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 138-139.
(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 143~144; see Memorandum, Foresman to Flynn (RMF-SCl-00003004-3005).
4869(U) Memorandum, Foresman to Flynn (Flaherty Production).
4868

748

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY,.,·
-VP's appolnl.E!d mntact per son for GF (when GF feels It appropriate, before or after ·nauguratlon) Is

11

I

Vurt Ushalr.ov, VP's top foreign polity aide (former ambassador to US). Had been rumors that Ushakov
would be • retiring" Into a comfortable ambassadorship somewh@re but that now appears o n hold ano
he Is VP's t rusted person for US dialogue for foreseeable future. Contact can be made via official
channel -Ambassador l<lstyak In DC.

-VP has a sober view of the situa tion. He is prepared to downplay short-term tactical o bjectives InI

re tum for progress on long-term Issues that are strategic to both t he RF and US:-lslamlc radlcallsm-China-Iran-the Integrity of t he European Union (Don't misinterpret affinity toward " pro -Russia" pol1t1eal
leaders within t he EU as a desire to destablTize the EU; RuSlila's security could be severely
Impact ed by an unstable Europe)-the strucrural weakening of the RF that endaneers the long-term integrity of the RF by making
vulnerable (l) the Far East, and (2) Central Asia and Tatarstan- VP is profoundly disconcerted nor by the fact of US policies against t he RF since 1992, but by the factthat :-these polk1es h ave hurt In multiple ways both t he RF and llle Wen. and•the very eamomlc and socio I values that the West thinks it is attempting to protect ~viii befundamentally compromised for generations if RF Is weakened to a point that It cannot protect

Its structural Integrity and tegional power- No newly elected IHder In modern h istory has taken on so many, such aimplex Issues at o nce, bothII

domeltlcally and globally, as OJT. Umlted polrtlcal capltal should be used on Issacs that have (1)fundamental securi ty and economic consequences for theus, and can have (2) broad domestic popularand legls/arJve support: the domestic agenda; China; Iran; Islamic radlc:al\sm. Re the latter, Islamic
radicalism, VP belleves that the RF and US can t.oget~r largely erad icate the threat , whereas the Lranlao
threat ls more complex arid the US should not overestimate the RF's Influence over Iran or the dan&ers

I!

Iran could present to the RF's secu rity.
- For the US, the issues Involving the RF (1) do not present intracta~e security concems, and (2) do nothave fundam ental economic consequence.s
I-VP appreciates that the new administration Is unlikely to have sufficient domestic popular andleglslaltve support to subsrontlvcly progress these i ssues In the near term. For example !thisI:

example docs not come from VP], removing sanctions via executive order t oo soon could risk
slmilar o r even more stringent sanctions being codified as law by Congress;.........lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll~~'!""!!"!~~~lllllllllltl~lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllltllllllll"""""!'IIII!"""!'!!'!'!"'~""""'!"'!'~ '749

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

•there Is also limited maneuvering space for Rf leadership to make concessions on these Issues
In apubllcway;-a significant movemont of the RF toward the US will lie feasible only once such rapprochement
has meanfngful popular anti lenislative support In the us, as otherwise it could be limited toIntentions of.one administration (but would give further Impetus to consolldatloo of strategic

adversaries).
•therefore, spending significant politlcal capital on Issues Involving the RF too soon could yield
dlsproportlonal!y small results and .detmtt from progress on issues Ulat are strategic: fot both
the RF and the US.

:..Focus the public discourse and'pol!tfcal caplt.il on areas that are stratenlc to the US to consolidate
popular and lealslative support, ochlovo tangible results and build politlcal capital.
-there Is an extraordinarily high level of goodwlll toward DJT amonn the leadershlp and population of
the RF and much hope and excitement, but also caution as people remember the positive start of US-RF
relations In Obamn's first year (but they clearly see OJT as being very dlfferont from Obama)-Engage as soon as possible through quiet channels: Security; Economic !bl-lateral commercial dialogue
similar to the E\'ans/Abraham/Gref/Usufov format In Bush 431d's first term); Government toGovernment (Pence-Medvedev}

vii. (U) Foresman Reconnects with Flynn(U) On Wednesday, December 14, 2016, an aide to Flynn reached out to Foresman
asking to arrange a call between the two men the following Friday.487 Foresman responded,suggesting that the two of them conduct their call over WhatsApp for security, telling the aide,"I, too, was going to request a call with General Flynn as I have an important message to convey
to him." 4871 The phone call eventually took place on December 16, but according to Foresman,
Flynn had little to say other than to ask that the two stay in touch. 4872°

I got an email out of the blue-surprisingly-pleasantly surprised-from his
assistant saying General Flynn would like to have a phone call with you . . . . I

4870(U) Email, Atencio to Foresman, December 14, 2016 (RMF-SCI-00000027).
(U) Email, Foresman to Atencio, December 14, 2016 (RMF-SCI-00000026).
4872(U) Foresman Tr., p. 151.
4871

750

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYlthought this was an important call. And it was an odd sort of nothing-burger. I
said hello, and he said, Bob, Mike Flynn here. I said: Oh, general. He said: I'm
Mike. How you doing? I'm good Yeah, I'm in Moscow just finishing up andactually you doing well? Yeah, great. So, let's stay in touch. Yeah. Exactly. I
said, Oh, Yeah, No, Yeah, Great. [L]et's meet when I'm back. And, Okay, takecare. So it was strange, I have to say. It was strange. 4873
(U) On January 5, 2017, Foresman reached out to Flaherty to request a meeting with
Flynn.4874 In the email, Foresman wrote that he was:)[R]equestinga 15 min[ute] in person meeting ... to brief him on what I was
asked to convey by the highest level in Moscow. General Flynn called me when I
was in Moscow, as you recall, and we agreed that I should brief him in person. ..
. I assure you that these will be 15 min[utes] well spent. These are not mundane
issues. I am not a foreign policy analyst seeking to share my worldview with the
General; I am operating on the ground and have been asked to convey something
directly to him, after I conveyed to the relevant party what the Qeneral asked me
to convey. 4875
(U) Foresman offered to draft a memo and deliver it to Trump Tower, if a meeting orphone call was not possible. 4876 He also offered to meet with K.T. McFarland. 4877
(U) In his interview with. the Committee, Foresman said that the information he wasreferencing was the information shared with him about Ushakov being the best point of contact
for Flynn in the Russian govemment.4878 He also inteqded to give Flynn and McFarland a copyof the memo he had adapted from Vine's. 4879)

(U) Later that day, Foresman and Flynn met for approximately 45 minutes.4880 Although
Foresman recalls Flynn doing most of the talking, describing his views on strategic global

4873(U) Ibid(U) Email, Foresman to Flaherty, January 5, 2017 (RMF-SCI-00000015). Foresman had an initial interaction
with Flynn's assistant, who put him in touch with Flaherty, and who also asked Foresman if"the information you
have" could be communicated by email. Email, Atencio to Foresman, January 5, 2017 (RMF-SCI-00000030).
4875(U) Email, Foresman to Flaherty, January 5, 2017 (RMF-SCl-00000015).
4876 (U) Ibid4877 (U) Ibid
4878
(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 164-165.
4879(U) Ibid, pp. 164-166.
4880(U) Text message, Foresman to J. Cohen, January 6, 2017 (RMF-SCI-00000419); Foresman Tr., pp. 169-170.
4874

751

a

affairs, Foresman presented his memo to Flynn4881 and made point to verbally highlight the factthat Flynn should deal with Ushakov, if he wanted to have a direct channel to Putin:
And I confirmed to him that I have it from someone who had heard directly from
Putin-someone that I absolutely trust and is credentialized-that Yuri Ushakov,
basically the equivalent of the National Security Advisor, the presidential advisor
on foreign, policy, despite rumors ofretirement, whatever, that he is the guy thatwould be ... I remember saying, would be your counterparty, whether before orafter inauguration, as you wish. . . . And that I don't have a recollection of him
having heard that name, Ushakov, but I put it in the email-I'm sorry-I put it in
the memo, but I verbally emphasized that point, unlike the other points, which I
didn 't verbalize. 4882
(U) The Foresman memo made its way from Flynn to Sarah Flaherty, with a sticky note
addressed to K.T. McFarland reading, "Re: Russia. For your review [and] discussion," which
Flaherty retained until she produced it to the Committee.4883 The Committee was unable todetermine if Flynn, McFarland or any other members of the Transition Team reviewed thesubstance of the document.
(U) According to Foresman, by mid-January 2017, he felt his efforts were "losing
steam," and that some Trump affiliates like Bannon and Flynn had stopped being responsive. 4884
He ultimately lost interest himself in joining the administration. 4885
(U) While Foresman's efforts to serve in the Trump administration seemed sincere, it isalso clear that his Russian contacts, including some with direct links to Putin, considered him apotential conduit to the Trump Transition and possibly the administration, if he were to secure a .
position. However, the Committee lacked sufficient information to determine whether theRussian government specifically directed these contacts to use Foresman as such a channel.

5. (U) Michael Flynn(U) Lieutenant General Michael Flynn joined the Trump Campaign in 2016 as asurrogate and advisor on national security issues. Following the 2016 election, he accepted anoffer to become Trump's first National Security Advisor, and continued advising the Transition

4881(U) Foresman Tr., 170-:-173.
(U) Foresman Tr., pp. 172-173.
4883(U) See Memorandum, Foresman to Flynn (Flaherty Production).
4884(U) Foresman Tr., p. 183.
4885
(U) Ibid, pp. 184-185.
4882

752

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYTeam on national security hires prior to the inauguration. Flynn later became President Trump's
National Security Advisor.
(U) In 2014, Flynn had retired from military service following a two-year stint as the
Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which capped a 33-year career in the UnitedStates Army. At the time he joined the Campaign, Flynn had a relationship with Russian
officials that he had nurtured from his time in the military. Flynn treated Russian officials
collegially, and asked the Russian Government to take official actions that the Transition Team
viewed as advantageous to its foreign policy goals, even when they conflicted with Obamaadministration policy.
(U) Flynn's relationship with Russian officials dated to the later years of his military
service, when he served as the DIA Director. After his 2014 retirement, he appeared on RT, a
Russian state-directed television channel. Before joining the Trump Campaign, Flynn accepted
more than $45,000 in speaking fees for appearing at the RT gala in Russia. After joining theTransition Team, Flynn communicated several times with the Russian Embassy, in order toconvey the foreign policy goals of the incoming Trump administration, including in relation to
sanctions. These communications would also come to be a matter Flynn later lied about ininterviews with the FBI.
(U) The Committee sought an in-person interview with Flynn, but he declined, asserting
his Fifth Amendment rights.4886 However, Flynn Intel Group, Inc., having no such Fifth
Amendment protections, did produce documents to the Committee.

.

.

i.

(U) Flynn's Connections to Russia(U) The first records of Flynn's ties to Russia date to 2013. In June 2013, Flynn traveled
to Moscow at the invitation of then-Major General Igor Sergun,4887 Russia's chief of military
intelligence, or GRU. 4888 Flynn, then the director of DIA, met with GRU officials on a trip that
~ Ambassador Kislyak allegedly also helped to arrange and coordinate.4889 Flynn has claimed that
he was the first DIA Director to be invited to the headquarters of the GRU. 4890 While there,
Flynn briefed the GRU staff and presented a professional development class on leadership.4891

4886(U) Letter, Kelner, et al. to SSCI, May 12, 2017.
(U) FBI, FD-302, Flynn 1/24/2017.
4888(U) Peter Zwack, "Death of the GRU Commander," Defense One, February l, 2016. Sergun was promoted toColonel General shortly before his death on January 3, 2016. Ibid.
4889(U) FBI, FD-302, Flynn 1/24/2017; Greg Miller, et al., "Flynn's swift downfall: From a phone call in the
Dominican Republic to a forced resignation at the White House," The Washington Post, February 14, 2017.
4890(U) FBI, FD-302, Flynn 1/24/2017.
4891(U) Dana Priest, "Trump Adviser Michael T. Flynn on his dinner with Putin and why Russia Today is just like
CNN," The Washington Post, August 15, 2016.
4887

753

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

According to one forme

.

··

.

(U) On April 30, 2014, Flynn announced his retirement from DIA, and he retired frommilitary service on August 7, 2014.4899 Flynn requested information on his post-retirement ethics
guidelines. On October 8, 2014, DIA sent a letter to Flynn which outlined his emolument
restrictions. 4900 Among the restrictions was a requirement that Flynn receive advanceauthorization before receiving compensation from a foreign government:
The Emoluments Clause of the US. Constitution [in part, as interpreted by the
Department ofJustice Office of Legal Counsel] prohibits receipt of consulting
fees, gifts, travel expenses, honorqria, or salary by all retired military personnel,
officer and enlisted, regular and reserve, from a foreign government unlesscongressional consent is first obtained. 4901

4892(U) Greg Miller, et al., "National security advisor Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador, despite
denials, officials say," The Washington Post, February 9, 2017.
4893
U Peter Zwack, "Death of the GRU Commander," De ense One, February 1, 2016.
4894
4895

(U) 1 i ., p. 29.
Ibid.
(U) Treasury, "Treasury Sanctions Russian Officials, Members Of The Russian Leadership's Inner Circle And
An Enti For Involvement In The Situation In Ukraine" May 20, 2014.
4896 (U)
4897

4898
4899

(U) Greg Miller and A am Go dman, "Head of Pentagon Intelligence agency forced out, officials say," The
Washington Post, April 30, 2014; Nicholas Schmidle, "Michael Flynn, General Chaos," The New Yorker, February
18,2017.
4900(U) Letter, Kapnisi to Chaffetz and Cummings, April 7, 2017 (available at oversight.house.gov); Letter, DIA to
Flynn, October 8, 2014.
4901(U) Letter, DIA to Flynn, October 8, 2014 (emphasis in the original). The Committee is not suggesting herethat Flynn's activity violated the Emoluments Clause.

754

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In January 2015, Flynn signed a contract with ~eading Authorities, a speakers'
bureau, which promoted his expertise in leadership, cyber, and terrorism. 4902
(U) On July 31, 2015, Flynn was paid $11,250 by the U.S. subsidiary of Russian
cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab and $11,250 by Russian Charter Cargo airline Volga-Dnepr
Airlines. The payments were for two speeches, to be given on August 19 and October 20,
2015.4903.
.

(U) In August 2015, Flynn first met Trump. According to press accounts, the meeting
lasted approximately 90 minutes. 4904
(U) Later· that month, in an interview with Der Spiegel, Flynn called for the UnitedStates to cooperate with Russia in the Middle East. 4905 On October 5, 2015, Flynn appeared on
RT to discuss international efforts against ISIS. In the interview, Flynn repeatedly criticized theUnited States' approach to dealing with ISIS, saying that there was no coherent strategy, andnoted that Russia had been pursuing ISIS, while suggesting that Russia and the United Stateswork together to confront ISIS. 4906

ii. (U) Flynn Attends the December 2015 RT Dinner(U) Immediately following Flynn's October 5 interview with RT, a Washington, D.C.based representative of RT reached out to Flynn's son abouta speaking engagement for Flynn at
RT's tenth-anniversary celebration, stating that she had "discussed with,[the] General an
opportunity for him to visit Moscow this coming December as a guest of honor of RT's
conference that will mark the 10th anniversary of our news broadcast" and that Flynn "lookedvery interested in it and asked me to check with you [on] his plans for December."4907 Flynn's

4902(U) Nicholas Schmidle, "Michael Flynn, General Chaos," The New Yorker, February 18, 2017.
(U) See Agreement for Talent Services, Leading Authorities Inc. and M. T. Flynn, July 30, 2015
(FLYNN_SSCI_00007621-7623) (Kaspersky Government Security Solutions); Agreement for Talent Services,Leading Authorities Inc. and M. T. Flynn, July 30, 2015 (FLYNN_SSCI_00007624-7627) (Volga-Dnepr Airlines).
In a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis, House Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Elijah
Cummings inquired whether these undisclosed payments violated DOD's prohibitions on retired military personnel
receiving payments or gifts from foreign governments. Letter, Cummings to Mattis, March 16, 2017; see Rosalind
Helderman and Tom Hamburger, "Trump adviser Flynn paid by multiple Russia-related entities, new re.cords show,"
The Washington Post, March 16, 2017.
4904(U) Dana Priest, "Trump Adviser Michael T. Flynn on his dinner with Putin and why Russia Today is just like
CNN," The Washington Post, August 15, 2016; Nicholas Schmidle, "Michael Flynn, General Chaos," The New
Yorker, February 18, 2017.
4905(U) Matthias Gebauer and Holger Stark, ·"Ex-US Intelligence Chief on Islamic State's Rise 'We Were Too
Dumb,'" Der Spiegel, November 29, 2015.
4906(U) YouTube, https://youtu.be/P4f5m28pmOM.
4907(U) Email, Volokhonovich to M. G. Flynn, October 5, 2015 (FLYNN_SSCI_00004737).
4903

'

755

. Son confirmed that Flynn was interested and directed RT to Flynn's speakers bureau. 4908 Shortly
thereafter, RT began working with Flynn's speakers bureau to secure his presence. 4909 Flynn
signed the contract to speak at the RT event on November 11, 2015.4910 On December 1, RT
announced Flynn's participation. 4911

4908(U) Emails, M. G. Flynn, Volokhonovich, and Owenby, October 5-13, 2015 (FLYNN_SSC(00004737--4741).
(U) See, e.g., Emails, M. G. Flynn, Volokhonovich, and Owenby, October 19--November 6, 2015
(FLYNN_SSCI_00000408--412).
4910(U) Email, M. G. Flynn to Owenby, November 11, 2015 (FLYNN_SSCI_00000482--484) (attaching signed
contract).
4911(U) Nich·" · ael Flynn, Geners," The New Yorker, February 18, 2017.
4912(U) Emaction).
4913(U) EmaNovember 18, 2015 (FLYNN_SSCI_00000559).
4914
m
LYNN_SSCI_00000571).
415 (FLYNN_SSCI_00000571).
4909

756

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Flynn traveled to Moscow from December 8-11, 2015, and on December 10, hespoke at the RT tenth-anniversary gala. 4923 He was accompanied on the trip by Michael Flynn
Jr. 4924 During the ceremony, Flynn sat with 10 people at the head table, including President
Putin and the Kremlin's top leadership. Two of the Russian attendees at the table were under
U.S. sanctions at the time for their role in Russia's annexation of Crimea: Sergey Ivanov (then4919(U) SSCI Memorandum, "DIA Documents on L TG Michael Flynn," May 26, 2017.
Ibid
4921
(U) Email, LaPan to McClintock, December 8, 2015 (DIA Production).
4922(U) Email, LaPan to Ketter, December 9, 2015 (DIA Production).
4923(U) Agenda, Michael Flynn: RT TV -America - 10th Anniversary Conference (FLYNN_SSCI_00000583586); Natasha Bertrand, "The timeline of Trump's ties with Russia lines up with allegations of conspiracy andmisconduct," Business Insider, February 11, 2017.
4924(U) Michael Isikoff, "Moscow paid $45,000 for Flynn's 2015 talk, documents show," Yahoo News, March 16,2017.

4920 (U)757

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Putin's Chief of Staff), and Alexey Gromov (Putin's Deputy Chief of Staff). 4925 Dmitry Peskov(Putin's spokesman) was also at the table, and when President Putin got up to speak, Flynn sat
next to Margarita Simonyan, RT's Editor-in-Chief. 4926 Other attendees at the gala included Jill
Stein,4927 other senior RT officials, Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, and the lastCommunist Party ruler of the U.S.S.R., Mikhail Gorbachev. 4928 Flynn said in an interview that· he did not talk to Putin personally, and that he found it "a great learning opportunity" and that
one of the things he learned was that "Putin has no respect for United States leadership."4929(U) Flynn was paid $45,386 (Flynn received $33,750 with $11,250 going to the
speaker's bureau) for speaking at the event. 4930 RT paid for business class travel andaccommodations for Flynn and his son at the luxury Metropol hotel. 4931

On January 3, 2016, GRU chief Sergun died of reported heart attack. 4932
reached out to Kisl ak to ex ress his condolences on Ser un's death. 4933

4925(U) Treasury, "Treasury Sanctions Russian Officials, Members Of The Russian Leadership's Inner Circle And
An Entity For Involvement In The Situation In Ukraine," May 20, 2014; March 20, 2014; Robert Windrem, "Guess
Who Came to Dinner With Flynn and Putin," NBC NEWS, April 16, 2017.
4926(U) Robert Windrem, "Guess Who Came to Dinner With Flynn and Putin," NBC NEWS, April 16, 2017.
4927(U) For more information on Jill Stein, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.L.4.
4928(U) See, e.g., Dana Priest, "Trump Adviser Michael T. Flynn on his dinner with Putin and why Russia Today isjust like CNN," The Washington Post, August 15, 2016;
4929(U) Ibid
4930{U) Agreement for Talent Services, Leading Authorities Inc. and M. T. Flynn, November 11, 2015
(FLYNN_SSCI_00000483-484); Financial records, Leading Authorities Inc., available at oversight.house.gov.
Receipts show that Flynn received a payment of $33,750, while his representatives at Leading Authorities Inc.
received $11,250 in commission.
4931(U) Agreement for Talent Services, Leading Authorities Inc. and M. T. Flynn, November 11, 2015
(FLYNN_SSCI_ 00000483-484); Rosalind Helderman and Tom Hamburger, "Trump adviser Flynn paid by multiple
Russia-related entities, new records show," The Washington Post, March 16, 2017.
4932(U) Ivan Nechepurenko, "Igor D. Sergun, Chief of Russian Military Intelligence, Dies at 58," The New YorkTimes Janu
5 2016.
FBI, FD-302, Flynn 1/24/2017.
493

758

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYiii. (U) Other Flynn Lobbying Act~vities

4937(U) Tom LoBianco and Manu Raju, "House oversight committee: Flynn might have broken the law," CNN,.

April 25 2017.
4938(U) Ibid.
4943(U) SSCI Memorandum, "DIA Documents on LTG Michael Flynn," May 26, 2017.
lb id.
4945 (U) Ibid.

4944 (U)759

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On August 9, 2016, Flynn and the Flynn Intel Group signed a contract with Inovo
BV, a Dutch company, for $600,000 over 90 days, allegedly to run an influence camp~ign aimed
at discrediting Fethullah Gulen. 4946 In September 2016, Flynn filed lobbying paperwork
disclosing ~hat he would be lobbying on behalf of a client named Inovo BV. 4947 On March 7,
2017, Flynn submitted a Supplemental Statement pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration
Act clarifying that, while Inovo BV was ostensibly a Dutch company, Flynn's work for thecompany was primarily ~o advance the interests of Turkey:·

Because of the subject matter ofFlynn Intel Group's work for Inovo BV, which
focused on Mr. Fethullah Gulen, whose extradition is sought by the Governmentof Turkey, the engagement could be construed to have principally benefitted the 1
Republic of Turkey. To eliminate any potential doubt, the Flynn Intel Group
therefore is electing to file a registration under FARA, in lieu ofits prior[Lobbying Disclosure Act] registration. 4948
(U) Flynn Intel Group would earn $530,000 from the contract.4949 Later reports would
link Inovo to Dmitri "David" Zaikin, a Soviet-born former executive in Russian energy andmining_ companies. 4950
(U) On September 19, 2016, Flynn attended a meeting in New York, where Kamil
Alptekin (lnovo BV's owner) introduced Flynn to Turkish government officials. 4951 One of theTurkish officials at the meeting was allegedly Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan's son-in-law.

4946(U) Fethullah Gulen is a Turkish Islamic leader and the head of the Gulen movement. The Gulen movement
has been outlawed in Turkey and labelled an "armed terrorist group." Although once allied with Turkish President
Tayyip Erdogan, the two eventually split, and Erdogan accused Gulen (without evidence) of leading an attempted
coup against Erdogan's government in 2016. Gulen is currently living in the United States. Ceylan Yeginsu,"Turkey Issues a Warrant for Fehtullah Gulen, Cleric Accused of Coup," The New York Times, August 4, 2016.
4947(U) On September 15, 2016, the Flynn Intel Group filed lobbying paperwork with Congress that only mentioned
Inovo BV, but did not clarify that the purpose of the lobbying was for the benefit of the Government of Turkey.
Lobbying Registration Pursuant to the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, Flynn Intel Group Inc., September 15,
2016.
4948
(U) Letter, Kelner to Hunt, March 7, 2017, filed with DOJ NSD/FARA Registration Unit; Registration
Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, Flynn Intel Group, Inc., March 7, 2016.
4949(U) Supplemental Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, Flynn Intel Group, Inc.,
March 7, 2017.
4950(U) Isaac Amsdorf, "Flynn's Turkish lobbying linked to Russia," Politico, April 25, 2017.
4951(U) Supplemental Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, Flynn Intel Group, Inc.,
March 7, 2017; Nathan Layne, "Exclusive: While advising Trump in 2016, ex-CIA chief proposed plan to discredit
Turkish cleric," Reuters, October 26, 2017.

760

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
The group reportedly discussed kidnapping Gulen to remove him to Turkey, according to aperson briefed on the meeting. 4952

(U) On election day, November 8, 2016, Flynn wrote an op-ed in The Hill newspaper insupport of Turkey and urging Gulen's extradition.4953 Flynn did not disclose that he was undercontract with a Dutch company backed by Turkish business interests in the opinion piece.
iv. (U) Flynn's Activities During the Transition(U) According to press reports, in late November 2016, Marshall Billingslea, whoheaded the national security team for the Trump Transition team in Washington, ID;et with
Obama administration officials in the Situation Room at the White House. In that meeting,Billingslea asked for the CIA profile ofKislyak.4954 This account was confirmed to theCommittee by former Obama administration officials.

On December 2, 2016, Russian Embassy officer Sergey Kuznetsov emailed
Flynn to thank him for responding to the Russian Embassy meeting request and for seeing

4952 (U)Isaac Amsdorf, "Flynn's Turkish lobbying linked to Russia," Politico, April 25, 2017; James V. Grimaldi,
et al., "Ex-CIA Director: Mike Flynn and Turkish Officials Discussed Removal ofErdogan Foe From U.S.," The
Wall Street Journal, March 24, 2017.
4953(U) Michael T. Flynn, "Our ally Turkey is in crisis and needs our support," The Hill, November 8, 2016.
4954(U) Greg Miller and Adam Entous, "Flynn was warned by Trump Transition officials about contacts with
Russian ambassador," The Washington Post, May 5, 2017.
4955(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 21, 2017, p. 64.
4956(U) Ibid., pp. 64-<:i5.

761

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATI9N ONLY

Kislyak in New York. 4957 Kuznetsov then asked Flynn ifhe could meet with Kislyak inWashington, D.C. for lunch or dinner at the ambassador's residence. 4958 A few days later, on
December 6, 2016, Kuznetsov emailed Flynn to request a follow-up conversation with Kislyakon the matters discussed in New York. 4959 Kuznetsov also asked Fl nn for a direct tele honenumber. 4960

Later that night, Flynn
emailed Kuznetsov, saying, "Yes," and "I tried to _call multiple times. Your voicemail is not set
up. I will try tomorrow." 4963

Kuznetsov responded to Flynn's email saying,"Thank you. Ambassador was on a meeting last night and couldn't pick up the phone."4968
Kuznetsov then sent Flynn a second email saying, "if [Kislyak] doesn't pick up the cell phone
you can try the office phone."4969 Kuznetsov then sent Flynn a third email that said,"Ambassador just told me that you actually had a talk last night. He asked me to stay in touchwith you to determine the time windows for conversation, as agreed. Looking forward to yourreply."4970

4957(U) Email, Kuznetsov to Flynn, December 2, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00000381). That meeting is discussed infra
Vol. 5, Sec. III.K.2.ii.
4958 (U) Ibid.
4959(U) Email, Kuznetsov to Flynn, December 6, 2016 (TFA0018358).
4960 U Ibid.
4961
4962
4963
4964
4965 (U)

/bi .
Ibid.
4967
(U) Ibid.
4968(U) Email, Kuznetsov to Flynn, December 7, 2016 (TFA0018358).
4969(U) Email, Kuznetsov to Flynn, December 7, 2016 (TFA0018411).
4970(U) Email, Kuznetsov to Flynn, December 7, 2016 (TFA0018410).
4966 (U)762

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Kislyasaid thAmbassador to Ank:ara. 497(U) According to Flynn, he exchanged holiday greetings via text message with Kislyak
on December 25, 2016. Flynn also said that the two had traded phone calls he described aslimited to condolences over the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey, the downing ofa Russian aircraft, and discussions about setting up a phone call between Putin and Trump after
the inauguration. 4976

v. (U) Israel UNSCR Vote(U) After Egypt submitted a United Nations Security Council resolution criticizing
Israel's construction of settlements in Palestinian territories, Trump and his Transition Team
engaged in a coordinated effort to try and stop the measure, including extensive outreach to theRussian Government. The effort was unsuccessful, but caused confusion among Security
Council member nations because they did not know with whom they should be dealing withregard to American diplomacy; a lame-duck administration, or the incoming one.4977

Verizon toll records, Flynn, December 22, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_0000004

1 i ., p. 35.
(U) Ibid4976 (U) FBI, FD-302, Flynn 1/24/2017; Text Messages, Flynn and Flaherty, January 13, 2017 (SF_SSCI000006-9);
see also Greg Miller, et al., "Flynn's swift downfall: From a phone call in the Dominican Republic to a forced
resignation at the White House," The Washington Post, February 14, 2017.
4977(U) In an interview with the Committee, Samantha Power, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations
at the time, said that, "It was very disconcerting and really as a citizen I urge it never to happen again that you put
foreign governments in a position where they don't know-report they are forum-shopping between a current
President and a future President, because that's what started to happen .... But more than that, policies were being
introduced through the back door and piecemeal and without being properly developed, at a time that was justconfusing our friends. It felt like a very unstable period, because unity of command is essential." SSCI Transcriptof the Interview with Samantha Power, July 28, 2017, pp. 58-59.
4974 (U)4975

763

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On December 21, 2016, Egypt introduced a resolution.to.the United Nations Security
Council calling for the cessation of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, and reaffirmingthat the settlements already constructed by Israel had "no legal validity, [and constitute] aflagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the twoState solution."4978 The Security Council planned a vote for the next day, December 22, 2016.
Trump took to Twitter and Facebook to ·voice his opposition to the measure, and the members of
his Transition Team likewise began planning to try and either delay or stop the vote, or toconvince another country to veto the resolution. 4979
(U) Asked about a phone call he made to Flynn regarding the resolution on the morningof December 22, Kushner told the Committee:

I remember during that time we were very focused on the UN resolution. . . . I
remember being on one of the planes and thinking that Egypt had pulled theresolution, which we thought was a good thing. It was a disaster of a resolution.
And so we probably were talking about that. . . . I remember we were trying tofigure out if we should reach out to Russia or who should reach out to Russia.
But like I said, we didn't know who to coordinate with that could actually beeffective on it, which again, hopefully, goes to show that we did not collude withthem during the campaign. So we didn't know who to call. 4980
(U) According to Kushner, he assigned both foreign policy and senior leadership of theTransition Team to work the phones to try and convince other countries to oppose the resolution.

I remember I was talking to Flynn. I was talking to Nikki Haley. I was talking to
Rex Tillerson. I was talking to Reince Priebus. I was talking to Steve Bannon.
And we were all making phone calls trying to do everything we could. But keep inmind, again, we were a little disorganized and we also were trying to figµre out
how to stop something without having the context to really properly do it. So wewere just trying to figure it out as quickly as we could. 4981

4978(U) United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted December 23, 2016.
(U) Twitter, @realDonaldTrump, December 22, 2016; Facebook post, Donald Trump, December 22, 2016;
SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 168; Kate O'Keefe and Famaz Fassihi, "Inside the Trump Team's Push on Israel Vote That
Mike Elynn Lied About," The Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2018.
4980(U) Kushner Tr. II, p. 144; see Verizon toll records, Flynn, December 22, 2016 (FLYNN SSCI 00000042).
4981(U) Ibid, p. 145.
4979

764

(U) About nine minutes after talking with Kushner, Flynn reached Kislyak on his(Kislyak's) cell phone.4986 The conversation focused on two topics: informing the Ambassadorof the incoming administration's opposition to the resolution, and requesting that Russia
intervene and veto the resolution. 4987

(U) Also on December 22, Trump contacted Egyptian President Abdel Fatteh al-Sisi todiscuss the resolution with him. 4988

4982(U) Verizon toll records, Flynn, December 22, 2016 (FLYNN SSCI 00000042); Statement of Offense, UnitedStates v. Michael T. Fl nn No. l:17-cr-232 .D.C. December 1, 2017) ("Flynn Statement of Offense").
4983(U)
Verizon toll records, Flynn, December 22, 2016
(FL
4984

!bi .
(U) Verizon toll records, Flynn, December 22, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00000042).
4987(U) Flynn Statement of Offense 'I\ 4(c).
4988(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 168.
4989
Verizon toll records, Flynn, December 23, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00000043)
498s (U)
4986

Ibid.
Ibid.
4993 (U) Ibid
4994
(U) Ibid4991 (U)4992 (U)765

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On December 23, following a call between Trump and Egyptian President al-Sisi,
Egypt agreed to seek a delay in a vote on the resolution. Explaining Egypt's decision, an al-Sisi
spokesman said that Egyptian President al-Sisi had spoken with Trump, and agreed to wait tocall for a vote until Trump had been sworn in:

During the call, they discussed regional affairs and developments in the Middle
East, and in that context the draft resolution in front of the Security Council on
Israeli settlement. . . . The presidents agreed on the importance of affording the
new US administration the full chance to deal with all dimensions of thePalestinian case with a view of achieving a full and final settlement. 5003
(U) In spite of the efforts made by the Transition Team, on December 23, 2016,. Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, and Venezuela resurrected the resolution and sought a vote. 5004
The Transition Team continued to try and convince Security Council members to oppose theresolution, including at least two calls that day from Flynn to Kislyak. 5<lP 5 Ultimately, Flynn was(U) Ibid.
(U) Ibid., pp. 36-37.
4997(U) Ibid., p. 37.
499s (U) Ibid.
4999 (U) Ibid.
5000(U) Ibid.; Flynn Statement of Offense, 4.
5001 (U) Ibid.
·
5002(U) Ibid., pp. 35-37. According to FBI records ofFlynn's January 24, 2017 interview with the FBI, "Theinterviewing agents asked Flynn ifhe made any request ofKislyak to vote in a particular way or take any action.
Flynn stated that he did not. . . . The interviewing agents asked Flynn if he made any comment to Kislyak about
voting in a certain manner, or slowing down the vote, or ifKislyak described any Russian response to a request by
Flynn. Flynn answered, 'No."' FBI, FD-302, Flynn 1/24/2017.
'
5003(U) "Egypt: Trump convinced Sisi to withdraw UN resolution," Al Jazeera, December 23, 2016. ·5004(U) Somini Sengupta and Rick Gladstone, "Rebuffing Israel, U.S. Allows Censure Over Settlements," NewYork Times, December 23, 2016.
·
5005(U) Verizon toll records, Flynn, December 23 (FLYNN_SSCI_00000043--44).
4995

4996

766

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

informed by Kislyak that Russia would support the resolution, and not veto it. 5006 The resolution
passed 14-0 that day, with the United States abstaining. 5007 After passage of the resolution,
Trump expressed his disapproval, and signaled that his administration would take a different
approach to·the United Nations. 5008
vi. (U) U.S. Sanctions Against Russia(U) On December 28, 2016, President Obama signed an executive order imposing
sanctions on nine Russian individuals and entities as a result of Russia's interference in the 2016
presidential election. 5009 Although the sanctions would not be announced until the following
day, media outlets began reporting that the sanctions were forthcoming. That day Kislyak tried
to reach Flynn by text, and asked Flynn to call him. 501 ° Flynn was on vacation at the time in the
Dominican Republic and said he did not receive the text until 24 hours later. 5011 The Russian.
Embassy attempted to call him the next morning, but Flynn did not answer the call. 5012'

(U) Flynn and McFarland spoke by phone that day, discussing whether the Obamaadministration had political motives in levying sanctions, and whether it was part of an effort todiscredit Trump's victory. Flynn mentioned that he planned to call Kislyak, but McFarland
thought it would be a routine call. 5013
(U) In the meantime, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a tweet5° 14 and a statementthat included a denial of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election, misinformation
about the hacking of election infrastructure in the state of Georgia, and indicating that Russia
planned to respond in-kind to U.S. actions:

5006(U) Flynn Statement of Offense, 4(d).
(U) United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted December 23, 2016.
5008(U) Tweets, @realDonaldTrump, December 23, 24, 26, and 28, 2016.
5009(U) Executive Order 13757, "Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect toSignificant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities," December 28, 2016.
5010(U) FBI, FD-302, Flynn 1/24/2017. According to the sea Report, Kislyak texted Flynn, "can you kindly callme back at your convenience." sea Report, Vol. I, p. 169.
.
5011(U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 169; FBI, FD-302, Flynn 1/24/2017; Greg Miller, et al., "Flynn's swift downfall:
From a phone call in the Dominican Republic to a forced resignation at the White House," The Washington Post,
February 14, 2017,
5012(U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 169.
5013
(U) FBI, FD-302, McFarland 12/22/2017. McFarland also conveyed the general topic of the call with theCommittee, but based on conversations with the White House, refused to discuss any details in order to permit theWhite House an opportunity to assert executive privilege during the Transition. McFarland Tr., pp. 162-165, 170.
Phone records reflect a 43-niinute call from Flynnto McFarland. Verizon toll records, Flynn, December 28, 2016
(FLYNN_SSCI_0000052); Verizon toll records, Simmons, December 28, 2016 (KTMF_SSCI_00000141).
McFarland has said that she learned of the sanctions from the press and was not notified ahead of time. Ibid
5014
(U) Tweet, @RusEmbUSA, December 29, 2016.
5007

I

767

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY\.,COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Frankly speaking, we are tired of lies about Russian hackers that continue to be
spread in the United States from the very top. The Obama administration
launched this misinformation half a year ago in a bid to play up to the required
nominee at the November presidential election and, having failed to achieve thedesired effect, has been trying to justify its failure by taking it out with a
vengeance on Russian-US relations.
However, the truth about the White House-orchestrated provocation is bound tosurface sooner or later. In fact, this is already happening. On December 8, US
media quoted Georgia's Secretary ofState Brian Kemp as saying that the local
authorities tracked down the origin ofa hacker attack on his voter registration
database after the election. The attack was traced to an IP address of the
Department of Homeland Security. This was followed by an ·attempt to quickly
cover up this information by a flood of new anti-Russian accusations that did notcontain a single piece ofevidence.
We can only add that if Washington takes new hostile steps, it will receive ananswer. This applies to any actions against Russian diplomatic missions in the
United States, which will immediately backfire at US diplomats in Russia. The
Obama administration probably does not care at all about the future of bilateralrelations, but history will hardly forgive it for this apres-nous-le-deluge
attitude. 5015

(U) The following day, December 29, the Obama administration announced thesanctions, and expelled and declared persona non grata 35 Russian officials. The administration
also closed two Russian diplomatic compounds in the United States. 5016
(U) That afternoon, Transition Team officials began discussing amongst themselves how
the sanctions would impact the incoming administration's relationship with Russia. 5017 During
this time, McFarland's assistant, Sarah Flaherty, texted Flynn a link to a New York Times article
discussing the sanctions. 5018 McFarland also tried to call Flynn, but did not reach him. 5019
McFarland then discussed the sanctions with Bannon, who assessed that the sanctions would

5015(U) Ministry ofForeign Affairs of the Russian Federation, "Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson MariaZakharova on new threats of sanctions from the United States," Mid.ru, December 28, 2016 (emphasis added).
5016(U) White House, "Statement by the President on Actions in Response to Russian Malicious Cyber Activity andHarassment," December 29, 2016;
Report, Vol. I, pp. 168-169; Missy Ryan, etal., "Obama administration
announces measures to punish Russia of2016 election interference," The Washington Post, December 29, 2016.
5017(U)
Report, Vol. I, p. 169.
5018
(U) Text Message, Flaherty to Flynn, December 29, 2016 (SF-SSCI-000001).
5019(U)
Report, Vol. I, p. 170.

sea

sea
sea

768

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

prevent the Trump administration from improving relations with Russia, and would lead to aretaliatory and possibly escalatory response from Russia. 5020

(U) According to McFarland, Bannon also indicated he was aware that Flynn planned tocall Kislyak. 5021 However, in testimony to the Committee, Bannon said he did not recall
knowing about Flynn's plans to call Kislyak. 5022
(U) McFarland told the SCO that she believed that she told both Bannon and Priebus that
Flynn was scheduled to talk with Kislyak that night. 5023 Later that afternoon, Flynn texted Sarah
Flaherty, asking if she had "Time for a call???"5024 Flaherty responded that McFarland wastalking with another Transition Team member, after which Flynn to responded, "Tit for tat w[ith]Russia [is] not good. Russian [Ambassador is] reaching out to me today." 5025

(U) Flynn delayed his .conversation with the Ambassador until he had an opportunity to
speak to the Transition Team. 5026 He eventually spoke with McFarland at around 4:00 p.m.,
discussing with her what message he should share with the Russian Ambassador. 5027 McFarlandand Flynn spoke generally about their concerns about Russian aggression. The discussion
included the impact of the sanctions on the incoming Trump administration's foreign policy
go~ls, and the desire that Russia not escalate the situation through counter sanctions and exile ofU.S. dipfomats. 5028 They agreed that Flynn should pass that message along in hopes of avoiding
an escalating confrontation. 5029 Flynn told McFarland he would "feel out" Kislyak on sanctions
to see if sanctions would derail the possibility of a new relationship between the United States
and Russia. McFarland does not remember if she relayed her conversation with Bannon to
Flynn. McFarland wanted Flynn to report back on the next call with Kislyak. 5030

(U) McFarland Tr., p. 212; sea Report, Vol. I, pp. 169-170; FBI, FD-302, McFarland 12/22/2017.
(U) FBI, FD-302, McFarland 12/22/2017.
5022(U) Bannon Tr., p. 414.
5023(U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 170.
5024
(U) Text Message, Flaherty to Flynn, December 29, 2016 (SF-SSCI-000001).
5025(U) Text Message, Flynn to Flaherty, December 29, 2016 (SF-SSCI-000001).
5026(U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 170.
5027 (U) Ibid Flynn and McFarland traded several calls, and connected once for seven minutes and once for 28
minutes. See Verizon toll records, Flynn, December 29, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_0000052); Verizon toll records,
Simmons, December 29, 2016 (KTMF_SSCI_00000141).
5028 (U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 170; McFarland Tr., pp. 181-183. In her testimony to the Committee, McFarland
said that, "I'm not sure that the word 'sanctions' was used, but the implication was sanctions." McFarland Tr., pp.
182-183.
5029(U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 170.
5o3o (U) FBI, FD-302, McFarland 12/22/2017.
5020
5021

769

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Meanwhile, throughout the day, the Russian Embassy in the United States continued
to threaten retaliation in series of tweets. 5031a(U) On December 29, 2016, after speaking with McFarland, Flynn called Kislyak anddiscussed multiple issues, including the sanctions. As to sanctions, Flynn asked that Russia no(escalate the situation, and to instead respond in a reciprocal manner in order to avoid a "tit for
tat."5032(U) McFarland had notified several Transition Team members about Flynn's planned·
call with Kislyak. She first emailed several Transition Team officials to inform them that "GenFlynn is talking to [the] Russian ambassador this evening."5033 She later briefed Trump, alongwith multiple senior Transition Team officials, including Bannon, Priebus, and Sean Spicer. 5034
During the meeting, Trump asked whether Russia interfered with the 2016 election, andMcFarland said that it had. 5035 In discussing the sanctions, McFarland informed Trump that
Russia's response to the sanctions would be an indicator of the type of relationship Russia
wanted to have with the incoming administration. 5036 McFarland also recalled that at the end of
the meeting, it might have been mentioned that Flynn was going to speak to Kislyak thatevening. 5037
(U) At 6:08 p.m., after the Kislyak call and Trump's briefing had taken place, Flynn
called McFarland to tell her that he had talked to the Russian Ambassador, informing McFarland

5031(U) Tweets, @RusEmbUSA, December 29, 2016.
(U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 171. According to FBI notes of their January 24, 2017 interview of Flynn: "Theinterviewing agents asked Flynn ifhe recalled any conversation with Kislyak surrounding the expulsion of Russian
diplomats or closing of Russian properties in response to Russian hacking activities surrounding the election. Flynn
stated that he did not. Flynn reiterated his conversation was about the Putin/Trump [video teleconference] and the'Astana thing' [a counterterrorism conference to be held in Kazakhstan in January 2017.] Flynn noted he was notaware of the then-upcoming actions .... The interviewing agents asked Flynn ifhe recalled any conversation with
Kislyak in which the expulsions were discussed, where Flynn might have encouraged Kislyak not to escalate thesituation, to keep the Russian response reciprocal, or not to engage in a 'tit-for-tat.' Flynn responded, 'Not really. I
don't remember. It wasn't, 'Don't do anything."" FBI, FD-302, Flynn 2/15/2017. Flynn conveyed a similar set of
topics by email to Transition officials the following day, but not mentioning sanctions. See Email, Flaherty to
McFarland, Kushner, S. Miller, Bannon, Priebus, Flynn, and Kellogg, December 30, 2016 (NSSCIO0000l 14)(forwarding email from Flynn). Flynn added that he knew Kislyak from "previous engagements" and that he andKushner had met with Kislyak the prior month in Trump Tower. Ibid·
so 33 (U) seo Report, Vol. I, p. 171.
so34 (U) McFarland Tr., p. 60; sea Report, Vol. I, p. 171.
so 3s (U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 171.
S036 (U) Ibid
5037
(U) Ibid. Despite being in the room for this discussion, Spicer repeatedly told the press that the issue ofsanctions was not raised by Flynn in his conversation with Kislyak. Glenn Kessler, "The fall of Michael Flynn: A
timeline," The Washington Post, February 15, 2017.
5032

770

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
that "I think we are going to be ok."5038 McFarland recalled that Flynn told her that the Russian-response to the sanctions would not be escalatory because they wanted a good relationship with
the incoming Trump administration. 5039

(U) Nonetheless, Russia's public threats ofretaliation against the United States
continued throughout the evening of December 29, 5040 and continued until December 30, 2016,
when, at 5:32 a.m. Washington time, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov released a· statement saying:
The US administration announced a new series of sanctions against the RussianFederation yesterday without providing any facts or other evidence.
We will definitely respond to these actions. Reciprocity is a basic tenet ofinternational diplomacy and international relations. Therefore, the Russian
Foreign Ministry and colleagues from other agencies have submitted a proposal
to the President of Russia to declare ''persona non grata" 31 diplomats from the
US Embassy in Moscow and four diplomats from the US Consulate General in St
Petersburg. Furthermore, we have proposed shutting down the US dacha(recreation facility) in Serebryanny Bor and the US Embassy warehouse on
Dorozhnaya Street. We hopr these proposals will be considered as a priority. 5041

(U) However, two hours later, President Putin released a statement reversing thatdecision. Putin's statement made clear that steps against U.S. interests would not be taken, andthat Russia planned to wait until the incoming Trump administration took office to try andrestore relations with the United States. 5042·
We regard the recent unfriendly steps taken by the outgoing US administration as
provocative and aimed at further weakening the Russia-US relationship. Thisruns contrary to the fundamental interests of both the Russian and American
people. Considering the global security responsibilities of Russia and the UnitedStates, this is also damaging to international relations as a whole.

5038(U) FBI, FD-302, McFarland 12/22/2017; Verizon toll records, Flynn, December 29 (FLYNN SSCI 00000052);
Verizon toll records, McFarland, December 29 (KTMF SSCI_ 00000141 ).
5039(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 172.
5040
(U) Tweets, @RusEmbUSA, December 29, 2016.
5041(U) Mid.ru, "Comment by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on recent US sanctions and the expulsion of Russian
diplomats,.Moscow, December 30, 2016," Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, December 30,
2016.
5042
;
(U) Tweet, @mfa_russia, December 30, 2016.

771

As it proceeds from international practice, Russia has reasons to respond in kind.
Although we have the right to retaliate, we will not resort to irresponsible'kitchen ' diplomacy but will plan our further steps to restore Russian-US
relations based on the policies of the Trump Administration.
The diplomats who are returning to Russia will spend the New Year's holidays
with their families and.friends. We will not create any problems for US diplomats.
We will not expel anyone. We will not prevent their families and children fromusing their traditional leisure sites during the New Year's holidays. 5043
(U) Later that day, Trump tweeted his approval of Putin's decision, saying, "Great moveon delay (by V. Putin)-1 always knew he was very smart!"5044(U) On December 31, Kislyak called Flynn to credit Flynn with avoiding a reciprocal
response from Russia. Kislyak said that Flynn's request that Russia not respond in kind had been
passed to senior Russian officials, and they had decided not to take action at the time. 5045_(U) That same day, in a phone call, McFarland told Flynn that she was surprised by
Putin's non-escalation after the sanctions, and told Flynn that the "four amigos" (i.e., Admiral
Rogers, Director Brennan, Director Corney, and Director Clapper) would be briefing Trump on
Russia. Flynn commented that Russia wanted a better relationship with the United States, andthat the relationship was back on track. 5046 Flynn commented that the four properties seized by
the United States from Russia could have been platforms for spying. 5047
(U) In an interview with the FBI, McFarland initially said that Flynn did not tell heranything about his December 31 call with Kislyak. However, she later corrected her statement to
say that Flynn did talk to her about Kislyak and told her that the "relationship is back on track"and that they had a good call; Flynn seemed to think that his phone call had made a
difference. 5048
vii. (U) Scrutiny of Flynn's Ties to Russia

5043(U) Kremlin.ru, "Statement by the President of Russia," President of Russia, Dece!l}ber 30, 2016.
(U) Tweet, @realDonaldTrump, December 30, 2016.
5045(U) Despite this backchannel diplomacy, in July 2017, Russia would expel hundreds of_U.S. diplomatic
personnel, and close two U.S. facilities in Russia.
·
5046(U) SCO Report, Vol.I, p. 172.
5047
(U) FBI, FD-302, McFarland 12/22/2017.
504s (U) Ibid
5044

772

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Flynn's relationship with Russian leaders continued to face scrutiny by both.thepress and the U.S. Government. His lack of candor in addressing questions about his
communications with Russian officials led to his short tenure as National Security Advisor, andhis eventual guilty plea in December 2017 to making false statements to the FBI.

(U) On January 22, 2017, Vice-President Mike Pence swore Flynn in as the National
Security Advisor. 5049 Two days later, on January 24, 2016, the FBI interviewed Flynn about his
contacts with foreign officials during his time with the Transition. 5050 During that voluntaryinterview, Flynn provided false statements about his interactions with Russia:

During the interview, FLYNN falsely stated that he did not ask Russia's
Ambassador to the United States ("Russian Ambassador'') to refrain fromescalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had
imposed against Russia. FLYNN also falsely stated that he did not remember afollow-up conversation in which the Russian Ambassador stated that Russia hadchosen to moderate its response to those sanctions as a result of FLYNN'srequest....
FLYNN also made additional false statements about calls he made to Russia andseveral other countries regr;rrding a resolution submitted by Egypt to the United
Nations Security Council on December 21, 2016. Specifically, FLYNN falsely
stated that he only asked the countries 'positions on the vote, and that he did not
request that any of the countries take a particular action on the resolution.
FLYNN also falsely stated that the Russian Ambassador never described to him
Russia's response to FLYNN's request regarding the resolution. 5051
(U) Knowing that Flynn continued to lie to White House officials and now the FBI about
his contacts with foreign officials, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates informed White HouseCounsel Don McGahn on January 26, 2017, that Flynn's lack of honesty about his interactions
with Russian officials put Flynn at risk of compromise by Russia. 5052

5049

(U) David Nakamura, "Trump, Pence preside over East Room ceremony to swear in senior staff," The
Washington Post, January 22, 2017.
5050(U) Flynn Statement of Offense.
SOS! (U) Ibid., pp. 3-4.
so 52 (U) Adam Entous, et al., "Justice Department warned White House that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian
blackmail, officials say," The Washington Post, February 13, 2017. Yates was fired on January 30, 2017, from herrole as Acting Attorney General for refusing to defend the President's executive order on refugees. Evan Perez andJeremy Diamond, "Trump Fires acting AG after she declines to defend travel ban," CNN, January 31, 2017.

773

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On February 9, 2017, The Washington Post reported that the transcript of Flynn's
calls showed that he had discussed sanctions, in spite of the repeated denials by Flynn and WhiteHouse officials. 5056 While Flynn initially denied that he had discussed sanctions in an interview
with The Washington Post, he later amended his position, indicating through a spokesman that"while he had no recollection of disc1,1ssing sanctions, he couldn't be certain that the topic nevercame up." 5057 In the same article, Ambassador Kislyak suggested that he had been in contact
with Flynn since before the election, but declined to answer any questions about the subjects they
discussed. 5058
(U) On February 13, 2017, Senior Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway said
during a television appearance that the President maintained "full confidence" in Flynn. 5059 Thatsame day, Flynn phoned a reporter for the Daily Caller to say the President "expressed
confidence" in him and urged him to "go out and talk more." 506 Flynn said he did not violate
the law, and that "[i]f I did, believe me, the FBI would be down my throat, my clearances would·
be pulled .... There were no lines crossed."5061 However, later that day, The Washington Post
broke the story ofYates's January 26, 2017, warning to the White House that Flynn was
potentially compromised by Russia. 5062 Later that night, Flynn submitted his resignation letter,°

5053(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Sally Caroline Yates, August 15, 2017, p. 49. Yates definedcompromise as, "whether or not the Russians have information that they could use as leverage over you to get you to
do things they want you to do or to prevent you from doing things they don't want you to do." Ibid.
5054(U) Ibid., pp. 52-56.
5055(U) SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing, Testimony of James Corney, June 8, 2017, p. 26.
5056(U) Greg Miller, et al., "National security advisor Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador, despite
denials, officials say," The Washington Post, February 9, 2017.
5057(U) Ibid
5o5s (U) Ibid.
5059(U) Steve Komacki, "Conway: Flynn has 'full confidence' of Trump," MSNBC, February 13, 2017.
5060(U) Richard Pollock, "EXCLUSIVE: In Final Interview, Defiant Flynn Insists He Crossed No Lines, Leakers
Must Be Prosecuted," The Daily Caller, February 14, 2017.
5061 (U) Ibid.
5062(U) Adam Entous, et al., "Justice Department warned White House that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian
blackmail, officials say," The Washington Post, February 13, 2017.

774

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

saying he "inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect ... with incomplete information
regarding my phone calls with•the Russian· Ambassador."5063(U) In February and June 2017, former F:SI Director Corney told the Committee that
there had been a counterintelligence investigation· into Flynn that he (Corney) had been close toclosing, until information about the phone calls to Kislyak came to light. 5064

We had a case open on Mike Flynn starting in the summertime [2016], acounterintelligence case. I was about to close it in late December because we
had found nothing, after extensively looking, about any contacts between Flynn
and the Russians, except the ones you've s,een in the media. He went and gave aspeech for RT and when he was dir~ctor of DIA he went and did a meeting at the
GRU Our jolks had looked hard and had found nothing. I was about to close the
Flynn case when these calls were brought to our attention. This obviously gave
us a reason to try to understand, is there something about him that we 're missing.
(U) On May 17, 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein issued an order appointing aSpecial Counsel te> investigate issues related to Russian interference in the 201'6 presidential
election. 5065 On August 17, 2017, in his capacity as then Acting Attorney General, Rosensteinsent the Special Counsel a memo clarifying the scope of the investigation. 5066 In that memo,
Rosenstein noted that Mueller had the authority to investigate the following:·

Allegations that Michael Flynn:•

Committed a crime or crimes by engaging in conversations with Russian
government officials during the period of the Trump transition;'•

Committed a crime or crimes by making false statements to the FBI wheninterviewed about his contacts with the Russian government;•

Committed a crime or crimes by failing to report foreign contacts andincome on a Form SF-86 that he completed in anticipation of his being
selected to serve as the National Security Advisor to President Trump;

5063(U) "Read Michael T Flynn's resignation letter," CNN, February 14, 2017SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing, Testimony of James Corney, February 17, 2017, p. 46; SSCITranscript of the Closed Hearing, Testimony of James Corney, June&, 2017, p. 34.
.
5065 (U) Memorandum, "Re: The Scope of Investigation and-Definition of Authority," Rod Rosenstein, August 2,
2017.
5066 (U) Ibid.
5064 (U)775

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•

Committed a crime or crimes by acting as an unregistered agent for thegovernment of Turkey. 5067

(U) On December 1, 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to providing•faise statements to the FBI,and providing false information and omissions on his registration with the Justice Department as
an agent of a foreign government in March 2017. 5068

r5061 (U)
5068

Ibid.
(U) Flynn Statement of Offense.

776

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

L. (U) Other Incidents and Persons of Interest
1. (U) Peter W. Smithi. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) Several efforts by individuals connected to the Trump Campaign to locate and obtain"missing" emails5069 belonging to Hillary Clinton took place during the 2016 presidential
election. One of these efforts was initiated by Peter W. Smith, a now-deceased businessman andRepublican operative, while another involved Barbara Ledeen, a Republican Senate staffer
whose husband had co-authored a book with Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. Smith told
associates that his effort involved meetings with Russian hackers who claimed to have access tothe emails. The Committee examined Smith's initiative,50.7° any potential relationship to Russian
election interference, and its connections to the Trump Campaign. The Committee washampered in these efforts by its inability to interview Smith, who committed suicide on May 14,
2017, and Flynn, who was in touch.with Smith but asserted his Fifth Amendment rights. 5071
(U) The Committee found that Smith's activities were known to some Campaign
officials, including Flynn and Sam Clovis, and connected to the Campaign's focus on obtaining
Clinton's "missing" emails. 'Although Smith claimed he had been in touch with Russian hackers
who had located these materials (and also sought to connect with WikiLeaks), the Committee did
not identify evidence to corroborate Smith's claims that he had access to any Clinton emails orcommunicated successfully with Russian hackers or WikiLeaks about his initiative.

ii.

(U) Efforts to Find the "Missing" Emails(U) During the summer of 2016, following the Democratic National Convention and theJuly 22 WikiLeaks release ofDNC documents, Trump renewed attention on Clinton's emails.
Within the Campaign, Trump expressed frustration that the emails had not been located. 5072
Trump repeatedly asked individuals affiliated with the Campaign, including Flynn, to find the5069(U) The "missing" Clinton emails were used as a short-hand reference to emails maintained on Hillary Clinton's
personal server that were deleted and not produced in response to subpoenas because deemed personal and nonresponsive.
5070(U) The Committee did not delve into Ledeen's activities, but encountered info~ation concerning Ledeen
when pertinent to Smith's activities, as noted infra. In addition, the Committee did not investigate activity by
Flynn's son, Michael G. Flynn, who was also in contact with Smith about Smith's effort.
5071(U) The Committee received a limited document production from Smith's estate, along with a copy of his
computer's hard drive. Productions from other witnesses, in particular individuals who worked with Smith on his
email initiative and had relevant copies of his communications, helped to supplement that information.
5072(U) SCO Report, Vol. I, p. 62.

777

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

emails. Flynn said he could "use his intelligence sources" to obtain them, and Flynn reached out
to multiple people based on that directive, including both Smith and Ledeen. 5073 Trump also
publicized his interest. On July 27, 2016, in reference to deleted Clinton server emails, Trumpproclaimed: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are
missing. I think you would be mightily rewarded by our press"; approximately five hours later,
GRU hackers began spearphishing private email accounts at Clinton's personal office for the
first time. 5074
(U) Smith's initiative relating to Clinton's missing emails began to take shape
approximately one month later, in late August 2016. On August 28, 2016, according to the SCO,
Smith sent an email with the subject "Sec. Clinton's unsecured private email server" to various
recipients, including Sam Clovis. The email stated that Smith was "[J]ust finishing two days ofsensitive meetings here in DC with involved groups to poke and probe on the above. It is clearthat the Clinton's home-based, unprotected server was hacked with ease by both State-related
players, and private mercenaries. Parties with varying interests, are circling to release ahead ofthe election." 5075
(U) On August 31, Smith sent a fundraising email to multiple recipients from his
ProtonMail-account. 5076 The subject line was "2016 Political Reconnaissance," and the email
described Smith's formation of a corporate entity to obtain the Clinton emails 5077 :

sea

5073

(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 4/10/2018;
Report, Vol. I, p. 62. Smith and Flynn first met in November andDecember 2015, when they, along with their respective business associates, began discussing cybersecurity businessinitiatives. See Email, Lee to Smith and Flynn, November 21, 2015 (SSCI-2017-4309-000766) (introducing Smith
and Flynn by email); SSCI Transcript of the Interview with John Szobocsan Tr,; p. 20. On November 25, Smith andSzobocsan met with Flynn, Flynn's son (Michael G. Flynn), and Flynn's partner, Bijan Kian, at the Army-Navy
Club. Szobocsan Tr., pp. 43-46; see Email, Smith to M. G. Flynn, November 23, 2015 (FLYNN- SSCI- 00007680)(arranging meeting). Two weeks later, on December 7, Smith followed up with a conference call with Kian, Flynn,
Spillane, and Szobocsan. See Email, Smith to Flynn, M. G. Flynn, Kian, Szobocsan, and Spillane, December 3,2015 (SSCI-2017-4309-000785) (arranging December 7 call); Szobocsan, Tr. p. 47. Although these discussions did
not appear to materialize in a deal, it appears Smith and Flynn stayed in contact.
5074(U)
Report, Vol. I, p. 49.
5075(U) Ibid, Vol. I, p. 63. The Committee did not obtain this email.
5076(U) ProtonMail advertises itself as a Switzerland-based end-to-end encrypted email service.
5077(U) Email, Smith to Smith, August 31, 2016 (Szobocsan Production).

sea

778

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA I~VESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Subject: 2016 Pohltcal Reconnaissance
From :

ptrs1h (ptrsih@protonmail ch)

To :ptrs1h@protonma1l.ch

Date:

Wednesday. August 31 2016 945 AM

All.
In the '.!01:::! campaign cycle we fom1ed a Delaware Limned Liability Company (Pohtical Campaign
Analytics. LLC). In the '.!016 cycle. we have a similar strucnrre to conduct political recowiaissauce winch
involves research relanng: to cemun relevant public affairs topics The entity fom1ed for this purpose~ KSL::!016. l lC ("K SL "). Similar to otrr effort in '.!01'.! . this entity will raise and spend $::!50.000 . pnnc1pally Ill$10.000 indfridual contribullous. several of which have been coOllllltted.
The primary ::!016 focus is to conduct research regarding: the starus of issues winch are positive to the
Republican nominee . and are negative to the Democra11c nominee . Primary focus on the latter has been to
detennine when the emails wluch Sec. Clinton had o n her personal ser,:er and deleted v.ill emerge fromsources wl11ch maiiaged to capmre those. because of the namre of the server itself and 1he failure of tl1e server
to be protected(U) The fundraising email referenced several steps Smith had already taken as part of his
initiative, which included "daily conference calls with about a dozen individuals andorganiz ations with interest in learning of third parties which had access to these emails, and of
their plans for disclosure and distribution."5078 Contemporaneous emails from John Szobocsan
indicate that this activity included " several early morning conference calls with Flynn's son and5079
a group of nebulous individuals across the globe on issues relating to DT,"referring toTrump.
(U) Smith also described holding four meetings in Virginia on August 27 and 28 withindividuals who claimed to have access to the emails and were interested in selling theirinformation.5080 Smith's email suggested that he believed that the emails had been found andwas willing to pay for them if the documents could be authenticated.5081 The email also5082
mentioned a connection between these individuals and Russia:

5078(U) Ibid
Email, Szobocsan to Bear, August 24, 2016 (Szobocsan Production).
5080 (U) Email, Smith to Smith, August 3 1, 20 I 6 (Szobocsan Production).
508 1 (U) Ibid.
so82 (U) Ibid.

5079 (U)779

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYOur actinues U1 tlus regard commenced on August 25 . and ha,·e iuvolYed daily conference calls with about adozen individuals and orgaruzatlons with lllterest u 1 leaming of tlurd partles w luch had access co these emails.
and of their plans for disclosure and distribution. On the weekend of August '.!7-:!8, KSL organized four
meetings in Virglllla with such parties who clill.ll1 to have access. and separate meetings with the paroes wereconducted. Our conclusion is that this access was made by more than these groups. all of \Yhom are non-state
players. The parties hanng the access are motivated by the desire 10 receive compensation. \\"estated that ourdesire was not to purchase such. and specifically avoided any d1scuss1011 of sums th at such parties may seek.
and made clear that we were not a source of compensa11on to them.
Our advice to these parues was that they needed to demonstrate that they mdeed did have access. and that theemails that they have were not altered or have any deletions been made. Despite this. the parries seek toremalll engaged. and we plan subsequeur contact to verify autheullciry. as if such could be demonstrated. thenthe market would exist for them. These parues have ties and affiliations to Russia. and ha,·e concems abomtheir safery.
Between no\\· and September 30. ''"e plan similar reco1ma1ssance extending to Cluna through a meetmg wewill have in Los Angeles oed to a defense contractor facility there. Our current plan 1s to follow up the
Virginia meetings \\ith a trip to Mosco\\'.

(U) John Szobocsan, a business associate of Smith' s, recalled a meeting that Smith
reported having with "nervous acting students he thought were from Russia" and who Smith said
"were concerned about Putin"; Szobocsan understood that these were "hackers."5083 In an
August 26 email, Szobocsan wrote that "PWS will be near DC tomorrow and Sunday allegedly
reviewing some WikiLeaks related documents."5084 According to Szobocsan, the alleged
documents were not in WikiLeaks' s possession yet; rather, Smith wanted to retrieve thedocuments from the hackers and then provide them to WikiLeaks.5085 In anothercontemporaneous email, after noting that " nothing worthwhile" had come from Smith' s D.C.
trip, Szobocsan referenced Flynn' s son' s involvement in the purported meetings. 5086
(U) Szobocsan told the Committee that he did not attend the August meetings Smith
referenced in his fundraising email, and only heard about them from Smith at the last minute.5087
In emails to a third person shortly after Smith returned, Szobocsan wrote "Doesn't seem as

5083(U) Szobocsan Tr., pp. 136-37.
(U) Email, Szobocsan to Bear, August 26, 20 I6 (Szobocsan Production). Szobocsan continued: "If these arereally unreleased documents, would a i2 data entry project be worthwhile? I'm sure we can get the funds from thegroup."
5085(U) Szobocsan Tr., pp. 144--45.
5086(U) Emails, Szobocsan and Bear, August 30, 2016 (Szobocsan Production) ("Involving Flynn's son this time.").
In their correspondence, both Szobocsan and his interlocutor expressed skepticism toward Smith 's endeavor.
5087(U) Szobocsan Tr., pp. 107- 108. Safron had no awareness of any of these meetings either. Safron Tr., pp. I 19120.
5084

780

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
anything worthwhile came from the trip. " 5088 In statements to the Committee, he claimed to be
skeptical of what Smith told him:

I get the call in the morning: I'm not going to be in the office; I'm going to begone; I'm in Washington. He comes back, he tells me he had this meeting in thishotel. It was like really clandestine. He's trying to make it up, and all thesethings.
He goes out and he said that they were meeting in separate rooms and they werelooking about getting these Clinton emails that these hackers had recovered. And one of them he thought might have been a Russian group, with like Russianstudents, but they were real fearful of Putin and all this stuff, that they might getcaught; and another group, and all these things. 5089
(U) In a follow-up email on September 6, Smith announced the formation of a new .
corporate entity to channel his initiative, KLS Research, LLC ("KLS"), 5090 and provided wiring
instructions for donations. Smith also suggested that he had obtained possession of two sample
Clinton emails and had retained a law firm to review them:

We have engaged the e-discovery team ofa prominent DC law firm to work over
the Labor Day weekend to "Test Match" two separate email files captured.from
the Clinton private server by two different third parties. The purpose is to insure
the integrity of the data by random check points in same locations of each file as
we determine that nothing has been "added" or "left out. "5091(U) Smith distributed a summary document for the KLS effort, captioned the "Clinton
Email Reconnaissance Initiative."5092 The document listed individuals and groups purportedly
affiliated with the effort, including people employed by or associated with the Trunip Campaign:

5088(U) Email, Szobocsan to Bear, August 30, 2016 (Szobocsan Production).
(U) Szobocsan Tr., pp. 107-108.
5090(U) Although the entity Smith formed was formally registered as "KLS Research, LLC," Smith also
occasionally referred to the name of this entity as "KSL." Szobocsan assisted with the corporate registration. On
September 2, Szobocsan received an email confirmation with a Certificate of Good Standing for KLS Research,
LLC from Delaware, certifying that the company was formed on September 2, 2016.: See Email, Aunet to
Szobocsan, September 2, 2016 (Szobocsan Production).
.
5091(U) Email, Smith to Smith, September 5, 2016 (Szobocsan Production). Financial records produced to theCommittee by Szobocsan suggested that Smith's fundraising was not very successful, although the Committee did
not independently verify that information. See "TNT Account Flows," KLS Research LLC (Szobocsan Production)(documenting alleged financial transactions for KLS financial accounts).
5092(U) See Smith, Szobocsan, Safron, "Initial List of Independent Groups, Organizations and Individuals, Clinton
Email R~connaissance Initiative," September 9, 2016 (Smith Production).
·
5089

781

Initial List of Independent Groups, Organizations and Individuals

Clinton Email Reconnaissance Initiative
September 9, 2016
KLS Research, LLC, a Delaware.Umited Uabllity Company, Has Been Formed for This Purpose,(Cfick on·• Name/ Description to View Additional Biog,aphical Information.).TRUMP CAMPAIGN (IN COORDINATION TO THE ElrrENT PERMITTED As AN INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE ORGAN1ZATI0N)

Steve Bannon, CEO of Campaign, CEO of Breitbart
Kellyanne Conway, Campaign Manager (Husband, George Conway ofWachtell lipton, Has Been Involved iO'Our Prior Initiatives)
Sam Clovis, Co-Chairman of Campaign
Lt. Gen (Ret.) Mike Flynn, Primary Military Advisor to.Campaign
Lisa Nelson, Colleague of Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, (Who Has Ties to the Campaign)

Smith attached this ·summary document in follow-up fundraising solicitations to several
individuals. 5093 In one September 20, 2016 email, Smith also claimed that "The Kushner Groupis behind the initiative."5094(U) Smith presented himself to others as a political "operator,"5095 and the Committee
found evidence that Smith communicated with some individuals associated with the Trump
Campaign, including about his email initiative. In addition to the August 28 email that was sent
to Sam Clovis and others, Smith wrote on September 6, 2016, to David Bossie, who had justbeen named the deputy Trump Campaign manager5096 :Congratulations ... for your continuedfrontline work on the search for the
missing/deleted Clinton emails. We have our .own initiative on this that I wpuld
like to discuss with you by phone, as we believe these were taken from the totallyunsecured clintonmail account by numerous parties, several ofwhom we havecontacted. 5097

5093

(U) See, e.g., Email, Smith to Ryan, September 22, 2016 (Szobocsan Production) (attaching a "one-page
summary of the Clinton Email Reconnaissance Initiative" and "two back-up pages on relevant articles and parties
who are providing assistance to us").
5094(U) Email, Smith to Elliot and Szobocsan, September 20, 2016 (Szobocsan Production). Safron was not awareof any actual connections to the Kushners, Safron Tr., p. 165, and the Committee found none.
5095(U) Safron Tr., p. 24.
5096(U) See, e.g., Robert Costa, "Trump enlists veteran operative David Bossie as deputy campaign manager," The
Washington Post, September 1, 2016.
5097(U) Email, Smith to Bossie, September 6, 2016 (Szobocsan Production). It is not clear if Bossie responded.
Smith also reached out to Sam Clovis about other issues. Email, Smith to Clovis, September 16, 2016 (Szobocsan
Production).

782

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In mid-September, 2016, Smith also reconnected•with Barbara Ledeen,5098 a Senate
staffer who had reach~d out to Smith in December 2015 to ask for funding for a similar Clinton
email effort. 5099 Although Smith had declined to get involved in Ledeen's project at thattime, 5100 a mutual acquaintance recommended that Smith get in touch with Ledeen, who"approached [her] months ago about having someone who could access emails quite
thoroughly." 5101 Ledeen responded to Smith's outreach:

Saw the very interesting note below and was wondering ifyou had some moredetailed reports or memos or other data you could share because we have come along way in our effortS,,since we last visited. I think that if we had a chance t~ 'review what the UK folks surfaced, we could contribute on our side and give you
an update on new findings. We would need as much technical discussion as
possible so we could marry it against the new data we have found and then could
share it back to you "your eyes only. "5102(U) Shortly thereafter, on September 15, Le<;leen signed a non-disclosure agreement with
KLS. 5103 That day, Ledeen also emailed Flynn to tell him that "[t]he email project is mostly
funded," likely in reference to her parallel effort to locate the Clinton emails. 5104
(U) Smith tried to recruit a number of cybersecurity professionals to assist the effort.
One of these was Matt Tait, a cybersecurity researcher who Smith contacted in September

5098(U) Email, Smith to Nelson, September 13, 2016 (Szobocsan Production).
(U) In her December 2015 communications with Smith, Ledeen had described an unnamed person who "can get
the emails which 1. were classified and 2. were purloined by our enemies." Email, Ledeen to Smith, December 3,2015 (Szobocsan Production). Ledeen had also shared a 25-page proposal describing, in part, a "Multi-Phase Email
Recovery Approach" to find the Clinton emails.
5100(U) Szobocsan, who in December 2015 met in person with Ledeen and her business partner, Don Berlin, about
their proposal, recalled: "[T]here was really nothing of substance there. They were kind of like: Just give tis a pileof money and we'll go out there and look for Clinton's emails. The whole prospect was:_Let's go out there; We
knew she had an unsecure email server, probably picked up by some intelligence agency someplace, and this could
be in the deep and dark web." Szobocsan Tr., p. 59. On December 16, 2015, Smith wrote to Ledeen: "gave it a very
hard look, but we do not feel this is a viable alternative for us to support." Email, Smith to Ledeen, December 16,
2015 (Szobocsan Production).
5101(U) Email, Nelson to Smith, September 13, 2016 (Szobocsan Production).
5102(U) Email, Ledeen to Smith, Nelson, Szobocsan, September 15, 2016 (Szobocsan Production).
5103(U) Email, Szobocsan to Smith, September 15, 2016 (Szobocsan Production) (attaching "KLS-BarbaraLedeen ·Mutual NDA 20160915").
5104(U) Email, Ledeen to Flynn, September 15, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00015867). Flynn may have received the
proposal from Ledeen·directly in June 2016, judging from an email he sent to Ledeen. Email, Flynn to Ledeen, June
16, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00009821-9822) ("[P]lease tell Don, I received and was able to download the file ...
amazing! I'll speak more off line with you about it this evening or tomorrow.").
5099

783

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
2016. 5105 Tait assumed the request was in relation to the DNC emails previously released by
WikiLeaks, not the Clinton server emails. 5106 During a phone call on September 5, Smith touted
his political connections, including with people who were in the Trump Campaign, like
Flynn. 5107 Tait recalled that Smith was interested in the Clinton server emails, and then Smith"dropped this bombshell":[H]e was in contact with someone who was a dark web specialist, who was incontact with someone who had these emails; that these emails had been hacked
from Hillary Clinton. There was this person on the dark web who wanted to
expose them, but just wanted money in exchange for doing them. He didn't want
to give them up for free. 5108

(U) Smith wanted Tait to help him validate the purported Clinton emails. Smith wasvery explicit that he wanted the emails before the election to help the GOP candidates, including
on lower down tickets. 5109 During a subsequent call on September 12, Smith explained that hehad received a sample from a credible source through a "dark web specialist."5110 Tait had notsigned an NDA provided by Smith, so Smith did not give him the emails and their conversation
was limited to discussing some of the technical attributes of the Clinton server. 5111 Tait made it
clear that his view was that if the hackers were likely Russians, they would be acting in the bestinterests of Russia, and warned: "this is a fire, you will get burnt." 5112 But Tait got the
impression that Smith did not care who was selling the emails; Smith just wanted access tothem. 5113 Smith followed up with further emails to Tait indicating he believed the Clinton emails

5105(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Matt Tait, October 6, 2017, p. 7; Email, Smith to Tait, September 4,2016 (TAIT00000l) (stating in relevant part: "As a firm we have interests in cyberspace investments, andindividually in the election process ,(from the political right) especially in its heavy internet overlay. We find yourposts to be the most informative, insightful and comprehensive available, and would most welcome the chance tochat with you by phone on how we could collaborate with you.").
5106(U) Tait Tr., p. 9.
5107'(U) Ibid., p. 10; see Email, Smith to Tait, September 6, 2016 (TAIT000003) ("As I mentioned on the call, I will
want to connect you with Michael G. Flynn, who is Gen. Mike Flynn's son, and serves as his Chief of Staff, after theelection.").
5108(U) Tait Tr., pp. 16-17.
5109(U) Ibid., p. 23.
SIIO (U) Ibid., p. 34.
5111(U) Ibid., pp. 30--33. This was reflected in a follow-up email from Smith to Tait. Email, Smith to Tait,
September 13, 2016 (TAIT000036-37) ("We know of at least four groups that claim access to the content of thisemail account, and there are countless others.").
5112(U) Tait Tr., pp. 30-33.
SI 13 (U) Ibid.

784

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
had been placed on the dark web, potentially by Russian actors. 5114 Tait declined to participate
in Smith's effort. 5115
(U) Nevertheless, based on his conviction that the Clinton emails were on the dark web,
Smith worked with others to develop an approach to locate them .. This involved creating a list ofterms and phrases that he believed could be used to search the dark web. Smith distributed the'list, including to Ledeen and others. 5116 Smith had assistance from Erik York, a former IBM
consultant, 5117 and Royal O'Brien, CEO of a video game streaming company. 5118
(U) Smith claimed to be working with a Washington, D.C., law firm to help authenticate
Clinton emails he claimed to have located. Two lawyers were identified on Smith's summary
initiative documents, and Safron believed it was "possible" that Smith had retained one of them,to assist with that task. 5119 However, the Committee could not determine that
Smith had successfully located hacked emails that had been deleted from Clinton's email serveror that this testing occurred. Separately, Ledeen obtained fmancial backing from Erik Prince totest Clinton emails that she had located; Prince provided Ledeen with a technical advisor who,
according to Prince, determined that the emails were not authentic. 5120
(U) In October, Smith began to focus on the WikiLeaks releases of Podesta emails andtried to leverage the WikiLeaks documents for his initiative. Smith "batch downloaded" theWikiLeaks documents every time they came out5121 and expressed an interest in connecting with
Assange. 5122 In an email dated October 6, 2016, Szobocsan described a purported WikiLeaks"distribution arrangement" in correspondence with Charles Johnson-a political operative who
had arranged a meeting between Assange and then-Congressman Dana Rohrabacher5 123-but
disclaimed having viewed any of the documents:

5114(U) Email,. Smith to Tait et al., September 17, 2016 (TAIT000038) ("As soon seen, certain Russian students put
all their material (following their scholarship grants on Thursday) via TOR onto the deep/dark web."); Email, Smith
to Tait, September 19, 2016 (TAIT000040) ("The 'missing' Hillary emails have been re-inserted into the dark/deepweb. I look forward to discussing with you how this was done, and what is next."); Email, Smith to Tait, September
22, 2016 (TAIT000049) ("[W]e would welcome the opportunity to talk with you by phone about how these could beaccessed by the media and other parties with interest in them. It has come to our attep.tion that more than the one
party referred to here has placed the same or similar files in the Deep Web.").
5115(U) Tait Tr., p. 39.
5116(U) See, e.g., Email, Szobocsan to Ledeen, Smith, and Safron, October 4, 2016 (Szobocsan Production)(attaching "keywords document").
·
5117(U) See, e.g., Email, York to Szobocsan, Smith, and Safron, October 7, 2016 (Szobocsan Production).
5118(U) See, e.g., Email, O'Brien to Smith, November 1, 2016 (Szobocsan Production).
5119(U) Safron Tr., pp. 143-144.
5120(U) sea Report, Vol. I, p. 64.
5121(U) Safron Tr., p. 135.
5122
(U) Ibid., pp. 133-134.
5123(U) See infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.B.

785

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

We have not seen the content. This is all done by third parties. We believe theemails are accurate but are unable to definitely confirm such.
The distribution arrangements involve a sharing with Wikileaks, who would thenrelease them. The second means of distribution is to identify .these emails throughkey phrase/sentence identifiers in the dark and deep web. 5124
(U) On October 10, Smith sent a new email solicitation to "supporters and prospective
supporters" with updates about the WikiLeaks documents and requesting additional funding. 5125
In November 7, 2016, Smith mentioned by email a "contact I had with one of its [WikiLeaks J
legal team members." 5126
(U) Smith also kept Flynn and Clovis in the loop. On October 10, he forwarded Flynn's
son the update on his initiative and the WikiLeaks materials.5127 On October 15, he updated
Flynn, Flynn's son, Barbara Ledeen, and Sam Clovis5128 :We were fortunate enough to have had the Clinton-related emails .which ·came .to our attention from several
separate sources placed in Wikileaks hands, which we are certain they had from countless other parties. In a few week
period we identified a handful of individuals that had obtained access to the unprotected Clinton emails, All were.
relatively
inexperienced persons looking for notoriety. This is similar to the novice level hackers groups who with ease accessed~.

commercial email accounts of.senior national security figures.

(U) Some recipients of Smith's updates appeared to believe Smith had been successful.
On October 24, after Smith sent another email about WikiLeaks, he received a response fromCharles Johnson threatening that "Steve," likely a reference to Bannon, would sue him for the
documents5129 :5124(U) Email, Szobocsan to Johnson, October 6, 2016 (Szobocsan·Production).
(U) Email, Smith to Smith, October 10, 2016 (SSCI-2017-4309-001415).
5126(U) Email, Smith to Braden, November 7, 2016 (Szobocsan Production). The Committee did not identify the5125

communication Smith was referring to, but did obtain a subsequent email that Smith sent to Barry Pollack, an
attorney for Julian Assange, in January 2017.
·
5127(U) Email, Smith to M. G. Flynn, October 11, 2016 (Szobocsan Production) ("WikiLeaks Clinton-Related
Email Release and Disinformation About Secretary Clinton's Health").
5128(U) Email, Smit!1 to Flynn, M. G. Flynn, Ledeen, and Clovis, October 15, 2016 (FLYNN_SSCI_00013940).
5129(U) Email, Johnson to Smith, October 24, 2016 (SSCI-2017-4309-001350).

786

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
- - - Original Message - Subject Re: Fw: \Nikileaks Releases Continue on Schedule
Local Time: October 24, 201611:51 PM
UTC ·m ·I talked to Steve who will compel you to tum
over to us all 30.000 emails you located andreferred to Wikileaks. BB wants to publish themfirst.
We do not give a rats ass what happens to you,and will turn you over the the Feds for prosecution
if you do not comply.

(U) The Committee examined whether Smith had in fact obtained any non-public
information through his initiatives. Its review of Smith's hard drive produced two documents
released by WikiLeaks that Smith had obtained and which showed file creation dates of October
2, 2016, dates that predated the public release of these documents by Julian Assange. 5 130 These
documents were not otherwise available on the public internet at that time, which raised thepossibility that Smith had in fact obtained hacked Clinton emails in advance. The Committee
identified these documents for the SCO for forensic review, which then established that the filecreation date did not reflect when the files were downloaded to Smith' s computer. Rather, theSCO determined: "Smith used an older Apple operating system that would have preserved that
October 2, 2016 creation date when it was downloaded by Smith (no matter what day it was infact downloaded by Smith)." Instead, the file creation date on these documents appears to be"when WikiLeaks staged the document for release." 51 31 As a result, the Committee found noevidence that Smith obtained any of the WikiLeaks materials in advance of their public releaseor any of the " missing" Clinton emails.

2. (U) The Alfa Bank Server Storyi.

(U) Introduction and Findings(U) In July 2016, a group of "prominent computer scientists" identified unusual internet
activity connecting two servers registered to Alfa Bank, a Russian financial institution, with an

5130 (U)Both documents were attachments to Podesta emails that WikiLeaks later released. See SCO Repor1, Vol. I,

p. 64.
Sill (U)

Ibid.

787

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
email domain associated with the Trump Organization. 5132 The unusual internet activity
reflected thousands of Domain Name System queries--commonly referred to as a "DNS
lookup"-for an email domain used by the Trump Organization and originating from those two
Alfa Bank servers. Public reporting in October 2016 suggested the possibility that this activity
reflected the existence of communications between the two organizations. 5133 That suggestion
was denied by both entities, but their alternative explanations were not consistent.
(U) The Committee spoke with Trump Organization IT staff about its understanding ofand response to the activity and also considered the results of an FBI investigation. Based on theFBI' s assessment, the Committee did not find that the DNS activity reflected the existence of
substantive or covert communications between Alfa Bank and Trump Organization personnel.
However, the Committee also could not positively determine an intent or purpose that would
explain the unusual activity.

ii.

(U) The DNS Connection Between the Trump Organization and
AlfaBank Servers(U) Moscow-based Alfa Bank is part of the Alfa Group consortium and, as of 2017, wasthe largest private bank in Russia based on total assets, total equity and deposit and loan
portfolios: As of 2017, the bank's top four majori~areholders were Mikhail Fridman,
German Khan, Aleksey Kusmichev, and Petr A

verflllI

5132(U) According to public reporting in 2018, following disclosure of the Russian hack of the DNC, the computerscientists began searching for evidence that Russian hackers might also have infiltrated Republican-affiliatedorganizations and identified this activity through that process. See, e.g., Dexter Filkins, "Was There a Connection
Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?" The New Yorker, October 8, 2018. The computer scientists
were not identified publicly by name.
5133
U See, e. ., Franklin Foer "Was a Trum Server Communicating With Russia," Slate, October 31, 2016.

-

788

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) According to logs and documents purporting to reflect analysis by computerscientists, along with public reporting about the DNS lookups, during the 90-day period between
June 17, 2016 and September 14, 2016, two servers registered to Alfa Bank (IP addresses
217.12.96.15 and 217. 12.97.15) conducted DNS lookups of the domain "maill.trumpemail.com" a total of2,817 tirnes. 5137 An additional 729 DNS lookups were conducted by a thirdserver registered to Spectrum Health, based in Michigan.5138 Of the total number of DNS
lookups of the Trump Organization server, approximately 99.8% originated with these threeservers during that three-month period, as reflected below5 139 :DNS-Lookups-For-maill . trump-email.com-Through-9-14.txt
1422 IAS15632 I217 .12 . 96.15 I217 .12. 96. 0/ 23 IJSC "'Alfa-Bank" IMoscow!Mos kva IRussianFederation I RU
139SIA515632 l217.12.97.1Sl217.12.96.0/23IJSC "Alfa-Bank" IMoscow!Moskval RussianFederation I RU
729IAS30710l167.73. 110. 8ll67.73 .96.0/ 20 ISpect r um Health lGrand RapidslMichiganlus 1us
2IAS306ll74.118.76.182 l74. 118. 72.0/ 211Peer t o Peer lRehobothlRhode Island lus 1us
11AS4071Sl71.5 .34.Sl71.5.34.0/ 241Datacenter.BZ, LLCIWorthington !Ohiolus 1us
l lAS3249l l64. 98.42.242 l64.98.32.0/ 20ITucows.com Co. ITorontolOntariolCA!CAl lAS32392l98.130.1.253 l98.130.0.0/ 1SIEcommerce Corporation lColumbus!Ohio lUS IUS
l lAS226lll205.134.252.154l205.134.252.0/24IInMotion Hosting!Los
AngeleslCalifornialuslus
llAS16509l54.206 .26.93l 54 .206.0.0/ 17IAmazon.com, I nc. ISeattle I New South WaleslUS !AU(U) Generally speaking, a DNS lookup is used by internet-connected devices to translatea human-readable domain into the corresponding Internet Protocol (IP) address that the device

5136 (U)Ibid.

The Committee reviewed logs and analytical documents describing this activity, but did not independently
assess their validity or authenticity. They are described here for background purposes only, and are consistent withthe contemporaneous public reporting. The Committee was provided with these logs and documents in response toa document request. See DNS-Lookups-For-mail l .trump-email.co m-Through-9-14.txt (PERKINSCOIE-SSCI0000140); " White Paper #1 - Auditable v3," (PERKINSCOIE-SSCI-0000126-131). They also appear to be
publicly available. See, e.g. , ljean.com/NetworkData.php (providing links to text files containing logs and analysis);ljean.com/Network.Records/Log-Of-DNS-Lookups-For-mail l .trump-email.com-851 .txt (text file of DNS lookups
for mail I .trump-email.com); ljean.com/Network.Records/DNS-Lookups-For-mail l .trump-email.com-Through-914.txt (text file compiling number of lookups based on requesting [P address).
5138 (U) See DNS-Lookups-For-mail l .trump-email.com-Through-9-14.txt (PERKINSCOIE-SSCI-0000140).
5139 (U) Ibid.

5137 (U)789

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
uses for communicating. 5140 DNS lookups of a particular domain can suggest the existence ofcorresponding Internet communications to that domain, but they are not conclusive. One
possible explanation for this activity was t~at someone was using the Alfa Bank servers tocommunicate (or try to communicate) with the Trump Organization.

(U) When press inquiries relating to this information began in September of 2016, theTrump Organization tasked Jae Cho, its corporate IT director, with identifying any potential Alfa
Bank connection. 5141 The Committee interviewed Cho about his investigation and conclusions.
(U) According to Cho, at the time of the suspicious activity, the domain maill.trumpemail.com belonged to the Trump Organization's email marketing company, Cendyn Hospitality
Marketing. 5142 Cho learned from Cendyn that the trump-email.com domain was originallycreated for Trump Hotels email marketing sometime between 2009 and 2011 5143 and the domain
had been used as recently as November 2015 for Trump Hotel marketing emails. 5144 At somepoint prior to September 29, 2016,
domain registration was transferred from Cendyn to the
Trump Organization; internal emails suggested it may have occurred on September 23, 2016,
around the time the press began inquiring, although Cho could not identify any specific date withcertainty. 5145 According to Cho, the Trump domain had been used to send mass marketing
emails, but not to receive email. 5146

the(U) Cho looked up the IP addresses belonging to the two Alfa Bank servers. Based on aport scan of one server's IP address on October 1, 2016, Cho found that it was not configured as
an email or web server: "It only had port 53 open, which is a port for DNS lookup."5147 From

5140

(U) This is sometimes referred to as a "forward" DNS lookup. DNS lookups can also be used to determine adomain based on an IP address, which are referred to as "reverse" DNS lookups.
5141(U) The tasking o~curred after the Trump Organization began receiving press inquiries about the DNS lookups.
SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jae Cho, February 15, 2018, p. 7.
5142(U) Ibid, p. 12.
5143(U) Ibid, p. 13.
5144(U) Email, Trump Hotels to Spectrum Health, November 25, 2015 (TRUMPORG_6_001619-1622) (containing
header information identifying maill.trump-email.com); Eniail, McMullin to LaDolcetta and Deyo, November 25,.
2015 (TRUMPORG_6_001627) ("The email header provided is a valid email that was sent out for a Trump
marketing campaign on behalf of Trump Hotel Collection. The campaign was sent out to 930,427 email addresses ..
. . ·The email sent to Spectrum Health was sent out from a 3rd party external mail server that is used for marketing
purposes.").
5145(U) Cho Tr., pp. 37--46; Email, McMullin to LaDolcetta, Deyo, Cho and Cohen, September 29, 2016
(TRUMPORG_6_001447) ("I can verify that the domain has been transferred into Trump's Go Daddy accountCendyn is no longer the registrar."); Email, LaDolcetta to McMullin, Hicks, & Cho, cc: E. Trump, September 30,
2016 (DJTFP00018140).
·.
5146(U) Cho Tr., pp. 14, 31.
'-·
5147(U) Ibid, pp. 17-18; see Email, Cho to Miller and Hicks, bee: LaDolcetta, Martin, E. Trump, September 30,
2016 (TRUMPORG_6_001474-1475) (screenshot ofport scan of IP address 217.12.96.15 using mxtoolbox).

790

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYthis, he inferred that both of the Alfa Bank servers were configured as DNS servers, andtherefore could not have been used to transmit email communications to the Trump domain. 5148
Cho did not explain if he also conducted a port scan of the other Alfa Bank IP address, or how hedetermined that the configuration on October 1, 2016 would have been the same as the server's
configuration during the time period in question.

(U) Cho did not recall conducting a system-wide review of the Trump Organization
network to determine if there wer~ any connections from the Trump Organization side with any
ofthe Alfa Bank servers. 5149 Instead, he looked up the public IP addresses for two separate Alfa
Bank email servers he had identified, which he then provided to Cendyn to check if Cendyn
could identify communications involving those servers. 5150 In response, Cendyn found six
messages to Alfa Bank recipients from clients using one of its email applications, but stated thatthese communications were not connected to the Trump Organization. 5151 Cendyn identified
these as emails sent by existing banking or hotel customers of Cendyn through a meeting
management application to an Alfa Bank email address. 5152 Cho did not locate any substantive
communications between the Trump Organization and the two Alfa Bank servers and did not
pursue further investigation of the DNS activity.5153)(U) Cendyn did not explain how the unusualDNS lookup activity might relate to thoseemails and did not filter its records to find information like the DNS logs at issue. 515~
Nonetheless, based on Cendyn's findings, Cho concluded that the rough "correlation" between
these email~ and the DNS logs might explain how the press had "put these together as some kindof activity between Alfa Bank and Cendyn, which happened to have one of their host names with
our Trump name in it, 'Trump-email.com."' 5155 The Committee did not engage C,endyn on thismatter.

(U) Unprompted, the Committee also received two letters, dated March 16 and July 20,
2018, from an attorney representing Alfa Bank conveying the findings of internal investigations
into the unusual DNS activity. The letters represented that Alfa Bank had retained Mandiant, a•

_)

5148

(U) Cho Tr., pp. 16-18.
(U) Ibid., pp. 19-20.
5150(U) Ibid.; pp. 18-19, 21; see Email, Cho to McMullin, LaDolcetta, and Cardena, September 30, 2016
(DJTFP000 18534).
5151 (U) See Email, McMullin to Cho and LaDolcetta, October 4, 2016 (DJTFP00018533-18534) ("We did find a
total of 6 messages to recipients of Alpa-Bank [sic] that were sent out of our applications. Cendyn does use internal
SMTP servers for our various applications and are not dedicate [sic] to specific clients.").
5152(U) According to Cendyn, emails were sent on March 15, June 22, June 28, August 2, and August 15. Ibid.
5 15 3 (U) Ibid, pp. 24-25, 30-31.
5154 (U) Email, McMullin to LaDolcetta, October 5, 2016 (DJTFP00018919) ("The logs [of A record lookups] do
not contain the details to allow us to filter out the requests on a per domain basis.").
5155 (U) Cho Tr., p. 31.
.
5149

791

\

cyber incident response firm, to conduct an internal investigation based on the DNS logs and had
found no evidence of substantive communications between Alfa Bank and the Trump
Organization. 5156 However, one letter noted that Alfa Bank had "continue[d] to receive
unsolicited marketing emails from an address allegedly affiliated with the Trump Organization,"
which it did not identify. 5157 As to the cause of the DNS activity, that letter posited Mandiant's"working hypothesis is that the activity was caused by a marketing or spam campaign directed at
Alfa Bank employees by a marketing server affiliated with the Trump Organization."5158

The Committee has no reason to dispute thosedeterminations.

3. (U) Changes to the RNC's Platformi.

(U) Introduction and Findings(U) The Committee investigated whether or not changes to the RNC's platform were theresult of any Russian attempts to interfere with or otherwise influence the platform. Media
speculation surrounding this issue stemmed from an incident involving a Republican delegate
named Diana Denman and Trump Campaign staffer J.D. Gordon. Denman, a member of the

5156(U) See Letter, Dinh to Burr and Warner, March 16, 2018; Letter, Dinh to Burr and Warner, July 20, 2018.
(U) Letter, Dinh to Burr and Warner, March 16, 2018.
51ss U Ibid.

5157

792

Platform Committee, proposed an amendment to provide "lethal defensive assistance" toUkraine. After Trump Campaign staffers intervened, Denman's language was modified to"appropriate assistance" before delegates adopted the amendment(U) After interviewing Denman, Gordon, and all of the individuals directly involved in
the matter, the Committee founa that the changes to the RNC's platform with respect to arming
Ukraine were not the result of Russian interference, nor were they a coordinated attempt by tlie
Trump Campaign to "weaken" the platform on Ukraine.
ii.

(U) Before Platform Weeka. (U) Denman's involvement on the Platform Committee(U) Diana Denman first became involved in Republican politics and foreign affairs
during her tenure as Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, and continued in her role
as a delegate for the Reagan Campaign in 1984.5161 Denman described herself to the Committee
as "very supportive of the freedom fighters and those who were involved in the eighties in El
Salvador and Nicaragua." 5162 In addition to her involvement in Latin America, Denman also
traveled to Eastern Europe in 1989 and witnessed the first free elections in Ukraine on a, trip with
the International Republican Institute (IRl). 5163
(U) Between her role as a Reagan delegate in the 1980s and the 2016 election cycle,
Denman stayed involved with foreign affairs through her service on two boards at the
Department of Defense: the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services and theWestern Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, which supports a bipartisan exchangewith military leadership in Latin American countries. 5164
(U) Denman started in the 2016 election cycle as a delegate for Senator Ted Cruz at the
Texas state party level, and she was later chosen as a Texas delegate to the Republican National
Convention. 5165 After securing a delegate spot, Denman asked to b.e assigned to the Platform
Committee; specifically, she wanted to be on the subcommittee handling military and national
security issues. 5166
b. (U) Denman's Draft Amendment

.

5161

(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Diana Denman, Deceµiber 4, 2017, pp. 4-5.
Ibid., p. 7.
S163 (U) Ibid., p. 8.
5164(U) Ibid., p. 6.
5165 (U) Ibid., p. 5.
5166(U) Ibid., pp. 5-7.
S162 (U)793

(U) After being assigned to the Platform Committee, Denman began to receive emails
from delegates on other committees requesting her support for their amendments to the
Republican platform. 5167 On July 8, 2016, Denman began an email exchange with Ilan Berman,of the American Foreign Policy Council, to discuss language for her own platform amendment
on Ukraine. 5168 Herman Pirchner, Jr., President of the American-Foreign Policy•Council, also
provided input to Denman's amendment. 5169 Denman told the Committee that she was motivatedto draft something on Ukraine because:[L]ooking back to my involvement in Latin America, Central America, the only
country that I could identify ... -that had . .. their borders encroached andcrossed by another country was the Ukraine. So it seemed to me that that was
something that I might address because of the support that America gave during
the eighties to other countries thatwere invaded by a neighbor. 5170
(U) Denman felt strongly that her amendment should provide for "lethal defensive
assistance" to Ukraine because of her experiences in Latin America and her understanding ofcurrent weapons technologies:

When I was down in El Salvador and Nicaragua, I saw the weapons used against
the freedom fighters, and they had their hearts in their hands and their beliefs fortheir country. But when I saw first-hand what was being used against them ... I
wondered how they would ever prevail for their own countries . . . . And .. .in
reading now . . . the high level of weapons today being produced by othercountries in the world, that goes into my thinking ofwhat they 're able-what thetwo sides are up against. 5171
(U) Once her draft amendment was finalized, Denman emailed her language to all of theother delegates on her subcommittee. 5172 She also submitted language for an amendment related
to the Monroe Doctrine.5173 She brought a paper copy of her amendment to the Platform
Committee meeting in Cleveland on July 11, 2016. 5174

5167(U) Ibid, p. 9.
'(U) Ibid, pp. 10--11. See also Emails, Berman, Pirchner, and Denman, July 8, 2016 (DENMAN00000l-2);
Emails, Potapenko, Berman, Pirchner, and Denman, July 8, 2016 (DENMAN000140-142).
5169(U) Denman Tr., p. 12.
mo (U) Ibid, p. 10.
5171(U) Ibid, pp. 24-25.
5172(U) Ibid, p. 16.
S!73 (U) Ibid., p. 13.
5174(U) Ibid
5168

794

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

iii.

(U) Platform Weeka. (U) The Amendment Process ,(U) The week before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, the delegates ,selected for the Platform Committee met to discuss and finalize the Republican platform. 5175
The Platform Committee was divided into subcommittees of interest, one of which covered
national security. 5176
(U) · There were three entities involved in overseeing the Platform Committee andsubcommittee process: RNC officials (chairs or co-chairs of the subcommittees), Trump
Campaign officials, and the delegates themselves.5177 The Trump Campaign staff involved in thenational security subcommittee were John Mashburn, Trump Campaign Policy Director; Rick
Dearborn, Trump Campaign staff; J.D. Gordon, Director for the Trump Campaign's National.
Security Advisory Committee; and Matt Miller, National Director of Veterans for Trump. 5178
Mashburn acted as the senior-most advisor and gave the other Campaign staff instructions
regarding how to handle any issues in the subcommittee meetings. 5179 Gordon and Miller were
stationed in the national security subcommittee room to monitor the process. 5180

(U) Mashburn told staff that he believed that, in 2012, the Romney campaign had"gotten really really involved in the writing of the platform planks, and it had caused a lot of
problems with a lot of delegates."5181 His:goal was to avoid that mistake and to let the delegates
write the platform as they wished. 5182 Three or four weeks prior to the draft platform comingfrom the RNC, Mashburn spoke with Dear6orn and then, later, with Manafort, about his views
that the Campaign staffers at the convention should not insert themselves in the delegates'
drafting processes. 5183 Mashburn told the Committee that Manafort agreed with him that theCampaign "should only get involved if it's something directly contrary to where the candidate
has a stated position."5184 Mashburn seems to have delivered those instructions successfully, at

5175(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Matt Miller, December 20, 2017, pp. 9, 12.
(U) Gordon Tr., p. 14; M. Miller Tr., p. 13.
·
5177(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with John Mashburn, February 5, 2018, pp. 102-104.
5178(U) Ibid., pp. 97-98.
5119 (U) Ibid.
5180(U) Gordon Tr.~ pp. 12, 14; M. Miller Tr., p. 11.
5181,(U) Mashburn Tr., p. 94.
5182 (U) Ibid.
5183(U) Ibid., p. 95.
5184(U) Ibid., pp. 95-96.
5176

795

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

least at first, to Dearborn and Gordon.ms However, Miller could not recall any guidance he wasgiven about platform discussions or amendments prior to the platform committee meeting. 5186
(U) Miller and Gordon asked to preview amendments to the ·platform the evening prior
to the breakout sessions for each interest group. 5187 Miller did not seethe amendments, but
Gordon reviewed them and submitted them to Mashburn.msb. (U) Deriving Candidate Trump's Views on Ukraine(U) Prior to the Platform Committee meeting on Jqly 11, 2016, Trump Campaign
advisors did not have a clear view of Trump's position on Ukraine beyond comments he made inspeeches and one comment at the March 31, 2016, meeting of his National Security Advisory
Committee (NSAC). Gordon was present for both the NSAC meeting in March 2016 and the
Platform Committee meeting; 5189
(U) Mashburn told the Committee that "the candidate had never taken a position about
assistance to Ukraine, lethal assistance ... humanitarian assistance. He had said stuff about
Russia, Crimea, the Ukraine ... but he had never said anything about the type of military
assistance or humanitarian assistance we could provide." 5190
(U) J.D. Gordon told the Committee that he had "a little bit of visibility" about Trump's ·views from the March 2016 NSAC meeting at the Old Post Office. 5191 At that meeting,according to Gordon, Trump mentioned "that he didn't want a World War III over Ukraine. But
he had also been saying that on the campaign trail." 5192
(U) When asked whether he was aware of the Campaign's position on aid to Ukraine
prior to the convention, Dearborn responded "not really at the time going into the convention. It
may have been listed in one of the speeches that he had. He gave a ton of speeche~, so I wasn't

5185(U) Gordon said: "The process was for all of the six subcommittee sessions to review the platform and submit
amendments, the process was that if there was anything that was very different than Mr. Trump's policy statements
and view, we should let the co-chairman know, so the co-chairman can have a robust debate." Gordon Tr., p. 14.
Dearborn understood the instructions to the Campaign staffers in.each subcommittee room to be "monitor what
happens in the subcommittee ... make sure that what we've been saying and where we are on the issues tracks andjust monitor it." Dearborn Tr., pp. 123-125.
5186(U) M. Miller Tr., p. 9.
5181 (U) Ibid, p. 13.
5188(U) Ibid, pp. 13-14.
r
5189(U) Gordon Tr., pp. 14, 26-28.
5190(U) Mashburn Tr., p. 100.
5191
(U) Gordon Tr., p. 26.
5192 (U) Ibid

796

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

up on every single one."5193 Matt Miller, a Trump Campaign staffer also in the platform
committee room with Gordon, told the Committee that he "did not find out until later, in readingsome press accounts ... that it [the language regarding lethal assistance] did not match what
candidate Trump had said at the time. It went further than what candidate Trump had said about
Russia and the Ukraine."5194(U) Both Mashburn and Gordon expressed to the Committee that the Republican party's
position on whether or not to arm Ukraine was not unified at the time. Gordon believed "it was
debatable within Republican circles whether to arm the Ukraine or not."5195 Mashburn told theCommittee that "there were people in the House that wanted 'lethal assistance.' · Then there was
the distinction between offensive and defensive assistance. So there was a split among
Republicans on that issue before we ever got there." 5196

c. (U) The Denman Amendment in Subcommittee(U) Inside the subcommittee room, there was a long conference table with platfo11I1
committee Chairman Steve Yates and Vice Chairman Ron Rabin at one end ofa long rectangular
table, Denman at the opposite end, and delegates along either side. 5197 Miller and Gordon sat aside table with an attorney from Jones Day (counsel to the Campaign), who served as aparliamentarian, according to Miller. 5198 Miller recalled that prior to the Denman amendment,
the subcommittee had "debates on trans-gender [people] serving in the military, LBGTQ issues,and there were votes on that," along with two other amendments that Miller had himself
drafted. 5199
(U) There was significant media discussion about changes to the language ofDenman's
amendment. 5200 According to Denman and Gordon, Denman's original amendment text called
for "lethal defensive weapons" in Ukraine, 5201 After the subcommittee meeting and the Platform
Committee meeting, the language was changed to "appropriate assistance."5202

5193(U) Dearborn Tr., p. 125.
M. Miller Tr., p. 17.
5195(U) Gordon Tr., p. 28.
5196(U) Mashburn Tr., p. 100.
5197 (U) M. Miller Tr., pp. 10-11. In addition, during his interview with the Committee, Miller drew the layout ofthe platform committee room. Ibid, p. 10, Exhibit 1.
5198(U) Ibid, p. 11.
5199(U) Ibid, p. 15.
5200 (U) See Josh Rogin, "Trump Campaign Guts GOP's anti-Russia stance on Ukraine," The Washington Post, July18, 2016; see also Brian Naylor, "How the Trump Campaign Weakened The Republican Platform on Aid to
Ukraine," NPR, August 6, 2016.
5201(U) Denman Tr., pp. 14, 22-23; see also Gordon Tr., p. 16.
5202(U) Gordon Tr., p. 16.
5194 (U)797

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Some of the details of Denman' s recollection of events vary significimtly from theCampaign staffers who the Committee interviewed, but all parties agree on the following:
Denman submitted her original amendment to the Platform Committee delegates; the amendment
came up in the subcommittee; J.D. Gordon asked the subcommittee Chairman to table Denman's
amendment because he thought the language contradicted Trump's position on Ukraine; J.D.
Gordon called Campaign advisers for assistance; and the language was eventually modified andvoted out of the subcommitt~e. Denman did not recall re-raising the issue, but Miller recalledthat the following day Denman attempted to vote the original language out of the full platform
committee, and the vote failed. 5203

d. (U) Gordon's Concerns with the Language(U) _Gordon's role was to raise concerns if any amendments contradicted the candidate's
stated positions, Given his understanding of Trump's stated position on Ukraine, such as it was,
"Diana·Denman's amendment had those three words [lethal defensive assistance], which I
viewed as problematic because that would result, if adopted as it was, in a major policy
difference than Mr. Trump." 5204 Gordon told the Committee that "Mr. Trump had stated publicly
and privately that he didn't want World War III over Ukraine and he wanted better relations with
Russia. So arming Ukraine is inconsistent with that view."5205(U) Gordon called Mashburn and Dearborn "so they had a chance to discuss it and makesure they could pose an objection if they wanted to" 5206 ; he also asked Miller to speak with either
Steve Yates, the subcommittee Chairman, or Rob Rabin, the Vice Chairman, "and basically ask
them to table the amendment, and we could work with Ms. Denman to get something that wasn't
as ... restrictive."5207 This interference in the subcommittee process was precisely what
Mashburn had hoped to avoid. 5208 Campaign staff who were interviewed by the Committee
could not remember if any other amendments were tabled, but there were no other amendmentsthat Gordon asked Miller to approach Yates or Rabin about. 5209
(U) Gordon told the Committee that he discussed his concerns about Trump's views on
Ukraine and Denman's amendment language with Dearborn and Mashburn and "they understood

5203(U) Denman Tr., pp. 29-30; see also M. Miller Tr., pp. 19, 31.
(U) Gordon Tr., p. 14.
5205(U) Ibid, pp. 14-15.
5206(U) Gordon Tr., p. 17; Mashburn Tr., pp. 101-103.
5207(U) M. Miller Tr., pp. 15-16.
5208(U) Mashburn Tr., pp. 99-104. Mashburn stated that "J.D. didn't do what we told him" because Gordon had
table,d the Amendment and negotiated new language, rather than first contacting Mashburn and Dearborn for advice
or allowing the delegates to proceed on their own. Ibid
5209
(U) M. Miller Tr., p. 23.
5204

798

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYMr. Trump's views. It wasn't a secret he felt the way he did." 5210 Dearborn also recalled that
Gordon "said that [Ms. Denman's Ukraine amendment] may be different from what our position
was in some speech that was given by the then-candidate, now nominee." 5211 Both Mashburnand Dearborn relied on Gordon's interpretation of Trump's policy and the amendment text.
Dearborn said that he had not even reviewed the amendment's text at the time of his discussions
with Gordon. 5212e.

(U) Denman/Gordon exchanges(U) Denman told the Committee that after she read her plank in the national security L
subcommittee during the morning of July 11, 2016, Gordon and Miller left their seats to speakwith Yates and Rabin. 5213 Yates and Rabin then asked Denman for a copy of her amendment. 5214
, Then Gordon and Miller returned to their seats, a~d the subcommittee proceeded to consider
other amendments. 5215 Denman was confused about why her plank was not being considered
and approached Gordon and Miller, neither of whom she recognized; both men explained thatthey were there on behalf of the Trump Campaign, and Miller .reminded Denman that he hadcalled her prior to the convention to offer assistance. 5216

(U) Denman did agree to table her amendment "for the time being" at the request of
Gordon and Miller. 5217 Denman's understanding was that "there was a·voice agreement that it
would be handed over [to the Trump Campaign staffers and the subcommittee leadership] ...
that they would refine it and work with it."5218 ' Miller's account of the interaction comports with
Denman's, as he told the Committee, "We got her agreement to change it to 'appropriate means,'and it was voted on in committee and passed. Then the next day I think she tried to insert'lethal' again in the full committee and it was voted down again. So the language that appears[in the platform] is 'appropriate."'5219(U) During the July 11 ·session, Denman raised her hand to ask about the status of her
amendment, at which point there was "some discussion and a suggestion that other wording

5210(U) Gordon Tr., p. 17.
(U) Dearborn Tr., pp. 125-126.
5212(U) Ibid., p. 126.
5213
(U) Denman Tr., pp. 14-15.
5214(U) Ibid., p. 16.
5215(U) Ibid.' p. 17.
5216(U) Ibid., pp. 17-18.
5217(U) Ibid., p. 32.
5218(U) Ibid., p. 40.
5219 (U) M. Miller Tr., p. 19. A memorandum drafted by Dearborn for Manafort to describe the "tick tock" ofevents also supports that Denman offered the Amendment in the full committee on July 12, 2016, and theAmendment was voted down. Memorandum, Dearborn to Manafort, August 1, 2016 (DJTFP00004698).
5211

799

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

should be put in." 5220 During that discussion, Denman approached Gordon at _the side table, who
she recalled being on a cellular phone. 5221 Denman told the Committee that Gordon told her hehad to clear the language with ''New York" but that she didn't believe him. 5222 Denman told theCommittee that she pressed Gordon on who he was speaking to and he told her three times that
he was speaking to "Mr. Trump."5223(U) Gordon disputes this account, and told the Committee that he was "talking to mypolicy colleagues" and that he never told Denman that he was speaking to Trump. 5224 Gordon
further told the Committee that he never spoke to Manafort or Trump about the subcommittee
discussions while they were happening. 5225

(U) Mashburn and Miller were present that day and do not have ariy recollection of
Gordon calling anyone in New York or speaking with Trump. 5226 In fact, Mashburn told theCommittee that "if I had every one of the people in each of these subcommittees calling New
York for advice and skipping me and Rick [Dearborn], me and Rick [Dearborn] would have been
fired for not doing our job supervising what was going on."5227 Mashburn also testified that
Campaign staff did not escalate a single platform issue to New York during the entire
subcommittee day. 5228
(U) Denman told the Committee that she "felt that it was better to be sure" the Ukraine
language remained in the platform at all-"that it not be dropped"-so she agreed to the change
in language from "lethal defensive assistance" to "appropriate assistance."5229 'f6e final
Republican platform reflected this change.

iv.

(U) Media coverage of the platform issue(U) Denman never spoke with Miller, Gordon, Mashburn, or Dearborn about theamendment after the vote. 5230 However, after the committee vote, during the convention, andafter the convention ended, the Campaign received press inquiries about what happened. 5231 On

5220(U) Denman Tr., p. 19.
(U) Ibid., p. 20.
5222 (U) Ibid.
5223(U) Ibid., p. 21.
5224(U) Gordon Tr., p. 18.
5225(U) Ibid., p. 19.
I5226(U) Mashburn Tr., pp. 101-102, 128; M. Miller Tr., p. 22.
5227(U) Mashburn Tr., p. 128.
5228
(U) Ibid., p. 129.
5229
(U) Denman Tr., p. 19.
5230(U) M. Miller Tr., p. 26; Denman Tr. p. 36; Mashburn Tr., p. 142.
5231
(U) M. Miller Tr., p. 33.
5221

800

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY\.

July 18, 2016, The Washington Post published an opinion column chronicling the change inamendment language; on August 6, 2016, NPRpublished its own account of the amendment
changes on its website.5232(U) During a July 31, 2016, segment on Meet the Press, Chuck Todd asked Paul
Manafort "how much influence" Manafort had in what Todd characterized as "something in the
Republican Party platform that essentially changed the Republican Party's views when it comesto Ukraine."5233 Manafort told Todd: "I had none. In fact, I didn't even hear of it until after our.
convention was over."5234 Later in the interview, Todd clarified with Manafort, "so nobody in
the Trump Campaign wanted that change in the platform?"5235 Manafort responded: "No one,zero."5236(U) The Committee did not speak with Manafort about the Platform Committee, but
Manafort's statement on Meet the Press that he was not involved in the change is corroborated
by documents the Committee received. J.D. Gordon participated at the platform week as part of
the Campaign and asked for the amendment to be tabled, but other witness testimony anddocument production indicates that Manafort did not have any awareness of "Campaign"
involvement until the day aft~r his.Meet the Press interview. 5237 Manafort emailed Dearborn on
August 1, 2016, with the subject line "Ukraine," asking "did you find out what happen? [sic] I
need to understand the precise tick tock and how it happened." 5238 Dearborn responded toManafort attaching a memo with the "tick tock," writing "I can attest to the fact that neither you,Gates or anyone else on the campaign knew of these events other than those listed above[Gordon, Mashburn, Miller, Brian Jack, and Dearbom]." 5239 When the Committee asked
Dearborn about his use of the word "attest," he did not know why he chose that word or phrased
the email that way, as it looked to be reassuring Manafort that Manafort did not have priorknowledge. 5240 However, Dearborn's language makes sense when viewed through the context
that Manafort was following up on press inquiries and wanted to be sure that he had the story

5232 (U)Josh Rogin, "Trump Campaign Guts GOP's anti-Russia stance on Ukraine," The Washington Post, July 18,
2016; Brian Naylor, "How the Trump Campaign Weakened The Republican Platform on Aid to Ukraine," NPR,
August 6, 2016.
5233(U) "Transcript of Meet the Press," NBC, July 31, 2016.
5234 (U) Ibid5235 (U) Ibid5236 (U) Ibid.
5237
(U) On August 1, 2016, Manafort requested a "tick-tock" of the events from the subcommittee, which J.D.
Gordon provided to Rick Dearborn, and which Dearborn eventually provided to Manafort, and which the Committee
received as part ofa voluntary document production. See Email, Dearborn to Manafort and Gates, August 1, 2016
(DJTFP00004696-4698) (attaching a timeline of events); Dearborn Tr., p. 127.
5238
(U) Email, Manafort to Dearborn, August 1, 2016 (DJTFP00004696).
5239(U) Email, Dearborn to Manafort, August 1, 2016 (DJTFP00004696).
5240(U) Dearborn Tr., pp. 129-134.

801

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

straight, since Manafort had been questioned about the subject on national television less than 24hours before his email to Dearborn.
·(U) J3ased on the Committee's interviews with Campaign staff at the event, Manafort
was never a participant in any discussions related to tabling or editing Denman's ·Amendment. 5241 Further, the Committee found that the changes to the Denman Amendment
were the result of Gordon deriving a foreign policy position from Trump's limited public
remarks, not the result of any foreign interference or undue influence.
4. (U) Russia's Efforts to Support Third Party Candidates ·i.

(U) Introduction and Findings(U) Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election sought to sow discord, to create
doubt in democracy, and to expand social divisions. Historically, Russia has accomplished thisby supporting third party candidates in an attempt to drive a national political conversation topotentially more extreme points of view. The Committee notes that "support" in this context
does not indicate that the supported candidates are necessarily witting as to why Russia or
Russian organizations are promoting their campaigns.

(U) The Committee found that RT took an interest in Dr. 'Jill Stein's candidacy for U.S.
president as an alternative third party candidate, culminating in her attendance at the RT
anniversary dinner in Moscow, which was also attended by Lt. Gen. Flynn and Russian President
Vladimir Putin. Because of her attendance at the RT dinner, and her interactions with several
Russian government officials while a candidate for president, the Committee sought to interview
Stein and understand how the Russian government may have viewed her campaign as a potential
vector to influence the U.S. election. After many months of negotiation, the Stein campaign
produced documents to the Committee, and Stein participated in a voluntary interview with theCommittee.
(U) The Committee thanks Dr. Stein for her cooperation with the Committee's inquiry.
This section's focus on her campaign's interactions with Russian officials and Russianorganizations should not be read as meaningful in any way except that Dr. Stein agreed tocooperate with the Committee's inquiry while some other Americans present at the RT
anniversary dinner did not. 5242

5241

(U) See, e.g., Gordon Tr., p. 19.
(U) Flynn declined to speak with the Committee on multiple occasions, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights
against self-incrimination. The Committee did speak to William Stevens, a career foreign service officer. whoserved as spokesman for Embassy Moscow from August 2014 until August 2016. Stevens, whose official duties
required him to engage with Russian media, attended the December 15, 2015, RTDinner in his official capacity.
5242

802

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

ii.

(U) Jill Stein and RT/RT America(U) The IC has described RT as the Kremlin's "principal international propaganda
outlet" and as actively collaborating with entities such as Wikileaks. 5243 In the United States, RT
operates as RT America TV, th'.e English-language channel of RT America, which the Russian
government created and financed. 5244 RT America is an important messaging tool for the
Kremlin. 5245 The IC assesses that "RT America has positioned itself as a domestic US channel
and has deliberately sought to obscure any legal ties to the Russian. govemment." 5246 On
December 11, 2017, RTTV America, Inc. registered as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents
Registration Act (FARA). 5247 Several corporate entities related to other pro-Kremlin media
sources, including Sputnik, RIA Novosti, and RIA Global LLC, registered soon thereafter. 5248
(U) Part ofRT's efforts to impugn the U.S. democratic process involve its support for
third-party candidates and pushing messaging that 1'the US two-party system does not represent
the views of at least one-third of the population and is a 'sham. "'5249 The content of RT' s
coverage of Stein, and other candidates, is consistent with this messaging.

(U) Dr. Jill Stein has been involved in Green Party politics since 2002. 5250 Stein firstentered politics through Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR); as part of PSR, Stein was
involved in advocating against nuclear testing. 5251 After her work with PSR in Massachusetts,
the Green Party approached Stein and, in her words, asked her to "keep doing what you're doing
but call it a race for governor [of Massachusetts,] and reach a broader group of people."5252 Stein

The Committee appreciates his insights into this and other matters. See generally Stevens Tr.; see also Emails,
Stevens and Kavalec, December 12, 2016 (CDP-2017-0001 lF-000267).
5243(U) Declassified ICA, p. 3.
5244(U) Ibid, Annex A, p. 6.
5245 (U) Ibid.
5246(U) Ibid\
5247(U) See, e.g., Registration Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, RTTV America,
Inc., December 11, 2017. RTTV America's registration states that "the registrant does not agree that it isacting/acted as an agent of a foreign principal, but it is registering because DOJ has taken the position that thecontractual relationship with ANO-TV Novosti falls under the registration obligations ofFARA." Ibid
5248
(U) See, e.g., Registration Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938,. RIA Global,
LLC, February 16, 2018.
5249(U) Declassified ICA, Annex A, p. 6.
5250 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jill Stein, December 19, 2018, pp. 5-8.
5251(U) Ibid, pp. 5--6, 11.
5252(U) Ibid, p. 7. Stein's opponents were eventual winner Senator Mitt Romney and Shannon O'Brien.

803

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
described her campaigns as "a form of citizen participation. " 5253 In both 2012 and 2016, Steinran for president as the Green Party's nominee. 5254

a. (U) Jill Stein's relationship with RT(U) During both the 2012 and 2016 campaigns, Stein was interviewed on RT programsand believed the amount of coverage RT provided to third party campaigns was the same during
both election cycles. 5255 According to Stein, RT covers third party campaigns regularly and had
done so "as long as I have been aware ofthem." 5256 Stein explained that RT requests for her tocover an event or interview generally went through Stein's press staff, and she did not have"special relationships" herself with RT producers. 5257'
(U) During the 2012 presidential election campaign, RT hosted the Green Party
5258
debate.
During the 2016 campaign, there was a Green Party debate on RT, though Steinclarified that it "wasn't the Green Party presidential debate" but was instead a small "debate"that was part of one of RT's regular programs, called "Watching the Hawks." 5259 Stein
explained that this "was a relatively small production" compared to the 2012 debate hosted on
RT.5260(U) Stein recalled that during the 2012 and 2016 election cycles, she did not think twice
about media requests from RT, because she "was happy to get [her] message out through any
media source ... [she] was just really glad when anyone would cover us." 5261 When asked about
her understanding of the relationship between RT and the Russian government, Stein responded
that during the 2016 election:

I just assumed that they had some kind of relationship with the Russian
government and now my understanding is that they are probably state media,
though they go through some nonprofit. Whatever, you know. Is their structure
any different from Voice ofAmerica? Or BBC? I can't tell you. 5262

5253(U) Ibid, p. 8.
(U) Ibid, pp. 8-9; see also Jill2016.com, "About Jill."
5255(U) Stein Tr., pp. 14--15.
5256(U) Ibid, p. 14.
5257(U) Ibid, p. 16.
5258(U) Ibid, pp. 73-74.
5259(U) Ibid
5260(U) Ibid, p. 74.
5261(U) Ibid, p. 18.
5262(U) Ibid, p. 19.
5254

804

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Stein told the Committee that the relationship between RT and the Russian
government was not a cause of concern for her during the 2016 election cycle,5263 and stated that• she doubted there was "formal Russian support for my candidacy."5264 Stein attributed_this ,_belief to RT's coverage of Gary Johnson, another third party candidate, and her own past policy
statements, such as her past criticism of a Russia's bombing campaign in Syria and her advocacy
for shifting money from military spending toward a transformative climate program. 5265 Thoughseveral RT employees expressed personal support for Stein through emails, Stein viewed theseemails as routine interactions and not as official support of her ~andidacy. 5266

b. (U) September 5, 2015 RT Gala in New York City(U) In September 2015, Stein was invited to attend a gala in New York City celebrating
RT's tenth anniversary. 5267 Stein described the event as "a reception where people stood aroundand I mostly talked to my colleagues from the peace community, who are also guests on RT." 5268
Stein recalled seeing Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the event, where Lavrov gave aspeech. 5269 Stein sought out Lavrov in order to engage him in a discussion on nuclear weapons.
Stein recalled that her exchange with Lavrov was brief and that Lavrov "was not optimistic that
nuclear weapons discussions could be resumed." 5270 Stein told the Committee that the encounter
lasted around a minute, and she did not think that Lavrov recognized her. 5271 After the event,
Stein posted a photograph on her Facebook page of herself and Lavrov at the event, writing "Dr.
Stein and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov were introduced and had a good discussion." 5272
Stein did not recall any other interactions with Russian government officials at the event, but she
did attempt to set up follpw-up meetings with Russian officials. 5273

c. (U) Attempt to meet with Putin and Lavrov(U) Following the September RT Gala event in New York City, Stein was invited toattend RT's anniversary gala in Moscow in December 2015. 5274 Prior to this trip, Stein recalled

5263 (U)Ibid, pp. 22, 27-28.
(U) Ibid, p. 22.
5265(U) Ibid, p. 23.
5266 (U) Ibid John Mecham, a senior news editor at RTAmerica, wrote in a text message to Stein's press staff: "Ifeel like I've been part of the campaign:)" and "You guys have been good friends of RT when others have not."Text messages, Mecham and [Stein press staff], November 4, 2016 (JSTEIN-002-0000056).
5267(U) Stein Tr., pp. 24, 28-29.
5268(U) Ibid, pp. 28-29.
5269(U) Ibid, pp. 29-31.
5270(U) Ibid, p. 29.
5211 (U) Ibid5272 (U) Facebook post, Jill Stein, September 30, 2015 (JSTEIN-001-00000018).
5273(U) Stein Tr., pp. 29-30, 59.
5274 (U) Email, Volokhonovich to Stein, October 14, 2015 (JSTEIN-001-00000140).
5264

805

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

attempting to set up meetings w_ith both Putin and Lavrov. 5275 On October 28, 2015, Stein
communicated with Nadia lvanova, an employee at RT TV, about setting up meetings with
Russian politicians and representatives from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MF A). 5276
, Ivanova told Stein that RT was engaged in negotiations to set up government meetings for Stein
during her trip. 5277
(U) Stein told the Committee that her motive for seeking these meetings with Russian
government officials was that "my campaign said 'go to the top. Ask to meet with Putin.' Why
not? So, Putin. Lavrov. They badly needed to hear_what I have to say [about disarmament]."5278
On November 9, 2015, Stein again requested a meeting with Putin or Lavrov, suggesting that "adirect meeting with President Putin will allow us to open a second track dialogue that will
facilitate greater understanding by the American people of the actual situation involving Russia
and the enormous potential and constructive cooperation between our nations." 5279
(U) Although Stein told the Committee that she did not understand RT to be state media
at the time, she exclusively asked RT to set up meetings with Russian officials.5280 Stein statedthat she "wanted to explore" whether RT could set the meetings up "regardless of whether they
could or not" because it was a matter of "shooting for the top." 5281 Stein explained that she did
not go through the Russian embassy to set up meetings with Russian officials because she did nothave any contacts at the Russian embassy and did not know who else to contact, apart fromRT. 5282 RT officials never told Stein she needed to go through the embassy, or refused her
requests; their back-~nd-forth with Stein's campaign amounted to asking her to put her requests
in writing "as a matter of protocol."5283(U) Eventually, Stein was told that a meeting with Putin and Lavrov would be
unlikely. 5284 Ivanova, however, stated that Stein would "be able to see and talk with our
President at the gala dinner after our conference (we will seat you at the same table)." 5285
Ivanova also offered meetings with Alexey Pushkov, the Head of the Foreign Affairs Committee

5275(U) Stein Tr., p. 59.
(U) Ibid; Email, Ivanova to Stein, October 28, 2015 (JSTEIN-001-00000141-142). In an email, Ivanova
wrote: "We are currently working on meeting organization options with Russian politicians and representatives ofthe Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that you could meet with during your visit to Moscow. Could you please let meknow when you will be able to confirm your visit, so that we can proceed further with these negotiations."
5277(U) Email, Ivanova to Stein, October 28, 2015 (JSTEIN-001-00000141-142).
5278(U) Stein Tr., p. 59.
5279(U) Ibid, p. 62; Email, Stein to Ivanova, November 9, 2015 (JSTEIN-001-00000146).
5280(U) Stein Tr., p. 61.
5281(U) Ibid, pp. 64---o5.
5282(U) Ibid, p. 65.
5283 (U) Ibid
5284
(U) Email, Ivanova to Stein, November 13, 2015 (JSTEIN-001-000000148).
5285(U) Ibid; Stein Tr., p. 51.
5276

806

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
in the State Duma, and Konstantin Kosachev, the Chairman of the Federation Council
Committee on International Affairs, instead. 5286
. d. (U) December RT Dinner in Moscow(U) In December 2015, RT organized and offered to pay for Stein's travel to Russia toattend the RT Anniversary Gala. 5287 Stein's attendance at this dinner has been widely reportedby the press, including by publishing a photograph of Stein sitting next to Putin at the dinner. 5288
(U) On December 9, 2015, Stein flew to Moscow to attend the RT Anniversary Gala. 5289
However, Stein paid for all of her own expenses and was reimbursed by her campaign because"it was very important that we [the campaign] were not going to he accepting money from aforeign entity of any sort, let alone something connected with a foreign govemment." 5290 Stein
also was not paid to participate on any panels at the event. 5291
(U) After arriving on December 9, 2015, Stein and her communications director went to
the hotel to rest. 5292 Stein told the Committee that she never felt surveilled or followed during
her time in Russia. 5293
(U) On December 10, 2015, Stein attended a full day of panels and conferences before
attending the dinner and gala that evening. 5294 Stein participated in a panel with Cyril Svoboda,
the former Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic; Willy Wimmer, the former Vice
President of the Organization for Security and Economic Cooperation in Europe; and Ken
Livingstone,_ the former mayor ofLondon. 5295 RT provided a topic for Stein's panel:

5286 (U)Email, Ivanova to Stein, November 13, 2015 (JSTEIN-001-000000148); see also Stein Tr., pp. 65---67.
Stein did eventually meet with Pushkov during her trip to Moscow, as described below. For more on Kosachev, seeinfra-Vol. 5, Sec. III.C.5.i.a._5287 (U) Emails, Ivanova and [Stein staff members], November 9-19, 2015 (JSTEIN-001-00000150-152) (regarding
the campaign paying for Stein's expenses, rather than accepting complimentary accommodations from RT).
5288
(U) See, e.g., Robert Windrem, "Guess Who Came to Dinner with Flynn and Putin," NBC News, April 18,
2017.
.
5289
(U) Stein Tr., p. 39; Email, Ivanova to [Stein staff member], December 7, 2015 (JSTEIN-001-00000179-180)1(attaching Stein's Moscow trip itinerary).
5290(U) Stein Tr., p. 37; see also Emails, Ivanova and [Stein staff members], November 9-19, 2015 (JSTEIN-00100000150-152).
5291 (U) Stein Tr., p. 38; Emails, Ivanova and [Stein staff members], November 9-19, 2015 (JSTEIN-00100000150-152).
5292(U) Stein Tr., p. 39.
5293(U) Ibid., pp. 45-46, 56-57, 70-71.
5294(U) Ibid., p. 40. ·5295(U) Ibid., pp. 40-41

807

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
"Frenemies: defining foes and allies in proxy politics."5296 Stein felt that the topic provided heran opportunity to "reiterate [her] campaign platform on foreign policy, particularly with regard towar, and war in the Middle East."5297 Stein recalled seeing Flynn at points throughout the dayprior to the dinner, but she told the Committee that she did not have any substantive
conversations with him. 5298 Stein's explained that her focus throughout much of the day was oninteracting with the international news media, attending some of the panels, and networking. 5299
Stein left the conference in the evening to go back to the hotel and get ready for the dinner. 5300 .
(U) Prior to the seated dinner, there was a cocktail reception where Stein recalledsocializing with Jesse Ventura and his wife and networking with "the peace community."5301 At
the dinner, Stein was seated next to Willy Wimmer, who had been on her panel that morning,and Flynn. 5302 Despite being seated at his table, Stein stated that she only spoke briefly with
Flynn because Flynn "seemed completely disinterested" in Stein's discussion of a "peace
offensive in the Middle East. " 5303 Stein found it strange that Flynn would be at the gathering. 5304
(U) Later in the evening, somewhere between five and thirty minutes prior to Putin's
speech, additional dinner guests arrived at Stein's table: President Putin; 'President Putin's Press
Secretary, Dimitry Peskov; President Putin's Deputy Chief of Staff Alexey Gromov; and .·President Putin's then-Chief of Staff Sergey lvanov. 5305 Margarita Simonyan, the Editor-inChief of RT, was also seated between Flynn and Putin. 5306 Stein said she was surprised to be at
the head table seated with Putin, despite Ivanova's previous statement to Stein via email that
Stein would be seated with Putin. 5307 During the dinner, Stein recalled that she did not speak
directly with Putin, though she did remember Putin shook hands with those seated around thetable. 5308 Stein recalled that Simonyan introduced Putin, who gave his remarks, and departed

5296(U) Ibid, pp. 41--42; see also RT, "10 Years on Air" International Conference Booklet (JSTEIN-00100000041).
.
5297(U) Stein Tr., p. 42.
5298(U) Ibid, pp. 42--43.
5299(U) Ibid, pp. 43--44.
5300(U) Ibid, p. 44.
5301(U) Ibid, pp. 46-47.
5302(U) Ibid, pp. 47--48. Stein described Wimmer as "the only person within earshot who spoke English" though
President Putin's Press Secretary Dimitry Peskov, who also speaks English, was seated on the other side of Stein.
See ibid. Stein said that she did not know Peskov spoke English, and that she originally thought he was a bodyguard
for President Putin. See ibid, pp. 47--48, 52.
5303(U) Stein Tr., p. 49.
5304(U) Ibid, p. 48.
5305(U) Ibid, pp. 47-51; see also ibid, Exhibit A (photogral'h of Stein's table at the RT Anniversary Gala in
Moscow).
5306 (U) Ibid, p. 51.
5307(U) Ibid, pp. 50-51; see also Email, lvanova to Stein, November 13, 2015 (JSTEIN-001-000000148).
5308(U) Stein Tr., pp. 49-50.

808

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

shortly thereafter along with Peskov, Gromov, and Ivanov. 5309 Stein's earpiece did not work, so
she did not know what Putin said.until the following day. 5310 Stein did not witness any
communications or interactions between Flynn and Putin. 5311 After Putin's departure, Stein andher communications director left the dinner and went back to the hotel. 5312
(U) On December 11, 2015, Stein sent her followers a newsletter, entitled "My ·encounter with Putin and other news," which recounted the prior evening's events. 5313 Steinclaimed in her newsletter that Putin's comments about agreeing with politicians from othercountries on "many issues" referred to her panel from December 10, 2015. 5314 However, Stein
explained that this was her own theory after reading a translation of Putin's remarks and not theresult of any direct suggestion of this by Putin. 5315 That same day, Stein also met with Pushkov
at a restaurant over coffee, for about an hour. 5316 Stein characterized Pushkov's aff~ct during themeeting as "polite interest."5317 Stein was told that Kosachev could not attend. 5318 After her
meeting with Pushkov, Stein texted Nadia Ivanova from RT, asking for contact information for
Pushkov's assistant. 5319 Stein characterized this as routine follow-up to "leave a door open after
making contacts." 5320 Stein never received nor inhiated any additional follow-up to her meetings
in Moscow. 5321
(U) Later on December 11, 2015, Stein participated in an excursion to the Kremlinorganized by RT, which she described as a bus tour with the other guests at the conference which
Stein used as an opportunity to network with other attendees. 5322 That evening, Stein attended atheater event and a dinner ev~nt with other members of the group. 5323 On December 13, 2015,
Stein returned home. 5324
'

I

5309

(U) Ibid., pp. 51-53.
(U) Ibid., p. 49.
5311(U) Ibid., p. 53.
5312(U) Ib'id., pp. 55-56.
5313(U) Ibid., p. 57; see also Newsletter, "My encounter with Putin and other news from Russia," December 18,
2015 (JSTEIN-001-00000027).
5314(U) Stein Tr., pp. 57-58.
5315(U) Ibid., p. 58.
5316(U) Stein Tr., pp. 66--67.
5317(U) Ibid., p. 66.
5318(U) Ibid., p. 67.
5319(U) Ibid.; Text Messages, Stein and lvanova, December 13-14, 2015 (JSTEIN_ 001_00000128).
5320(U) Ibid., p. 68.
5321. (U) Ibid.
5322(U) Ibid., p. 69.
5323 (U) Ibid.
5324(U) See Email, [Stein staff member] to lvanova, November 30, 2015 (JSTEIN-001-00000062-63) (attachingvisa and flight information).
5310

809

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Following the conference, Stein continued to receive media outreach from, andregularly appear on, RT, including when RT broadcast Periscope coverage of Stein's reactions to
the Trump/Clinton debates during the 2016 election cycle. 5325 During ~he 2016 election cycle,
Stein also had contact with Julian Assange, who was a speaker at the Green Party convention in 'August 2016. 5326 Stein stated that all of her communications with Assange were related topreparing him for interviews at the Green Party events. 5327 Stein told the Committee that she
never gained any non-public knowledge about Wikileaks releases during the 2016 election
cycle.s32s

5325(U) Ibid., pp. 76--77.
(U) Ibid., pp. 86--87.
5327(U) Ibid, pp. 86--88.
5328(U) Ibid, pp. 87-89. For more on WikiLeaks, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.B.6.
5326

810

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYIV. (U) EXECUTIVE BRANCH INVESTIGATIONS(U) In the summer of 2016, the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) began collecting andanalyzing information related to potential Russian interference in the upcoming U.S. elections.
The IC obtained intelligence information that indicated the Russian government, at Putin's
direction, was seeking to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. As a result, the IC began asmall, highly compartmented effort to understand the full scope of this activity.5329 The FBl's
Cyber Division had already opened a separate investigation into Russian-government sponsoredcyber intrusions into th~ Democratic National Committee (DNC) based on Russian intelligence
services' cyber intrusions in the summer of2015 and again in early 2016. Cyber Division's
investigation related to the DNC breach resulted in a series of interactions between the FBI andthe DNC, which are described in detail below.

Shortly after WikiLeaks released thousands of documents
stolen by Russian hackers from the DNC, 5330 t h e - government provided information
related to a potential Russian influence operation targeting the U.S. election. That informationsuggested that the Russian government had made an offer to the Trump Campaign to assist theCampaign with the anonymous release of information harmful to Hillary Clinton's electoralchances. 5331 Based on this information, and with the context of the Russian hacking
investigation, FBl's Counterintelligence Division initiated a full counterintelligence investigation
on July 31, 2016, "to determine.whether individual(s) associated with the Trump campaign are
witting of and/or coordinating activities with the Government of Russia.'' 5332 This umbrella
investigation was codenamed Crossfire Hurricane.
FBI provided a basic counterintelligence briefing5333 to Trump and two
members of his Campaign staff on August 17, 2016. 5334 An FBI agent delivered this briefing at
the outset of a larger intelligence briefing the ODNI traditionally offers to both candidates at the5329(U) See irifra Vol. 4.
(U) See irifra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.B.
5331(U) FBI, FD-1057, "Dissemination oflnvestigation Opening," July 31, 2016.
5330

5332~

·

.

,

.·

- T h e FBI's notes suggest that the same counterintelligence briefing w~ offered to the Clinton
Campaign. However, the Committee did not verify with DNC officials, campaign staff, or the FBI that Clinton or
her senior staff received this briefing.
·5334- - FBI "Documentation ofCounterintell_igenc~ ~d Security Briefin~ to the_Republican Candidate forP r e ~ d J. Trump, New Jersey Governor Chns Christie, and General (retired) Michael Fl~," Dated
August 30, 2016.
5333

811

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

SECRET level after the conventions. 5335 Flynn was one of Trump's two advisors inattendance. 5336
- T h e Committee was able to review the talking points FBI used at thebriefin~emo5338 the agent wrote to record the briefing afterward. Both reflect a
cursory overview by FBI focused on encouraging awareness of counterintelligence issues. The
briefing provided basic facts about foreign adversary intelligence operations and encouraged thecampaign to use adequate communications security. For example, it cautioned that Trump andhis staff were a target for foreign HUMINT, SIGINT, and cyber operations, and it said that
intelligence officers from foreign countries could pose as diplomats or use non-official cover toapproach those close to the candidate. 5339
The briefing discussed Russia as a U.S. adversary with a robust intelligencepresence. It did not provide any specific warnings to the Campaign regarding the allegations FBI
was pursuing in Crossfire Hurricane. 5340 According to the Agent's record of the encounter, FBI
told Trump and his staff that "[Foreign intelligence services] will send their !Os in diplomatic
cover, business NOCs, as well as sources they have developed around you to elicit informationand gain assessments on you." 5341 The agent's notes do not refer to FBI's suspicions about Page,
Papadopoulos, Manafort, or Flynn's contacts with Russian officials. 5342
-Shortly after opening Crossfire Hurricane, FBI's Counterintelligence Division
opened counterintelligence investigations on four separate U.S. persons under this umbrella
investigation: George Papadopoulos (Crossfire Typhoon), Carter Page (Crossfire Dragon), Paul

5335

(U) Ibid.
Ibid
5331 (U) Ibid.
533s (U) Ibid.
5339 (U) Ibid.
5340 (U) Ibid.
5341
Ibid.
5336 (U)812

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Manafort (Crossfire Fury), and Michael Flynn (Crossfire Razor). 5343 Subsequent to the originalcases, the FBI opened a number of other cases on both U.S. ersons and forei nationals related
to these investigations, including on
then-Attorney General Jeffrey Sessions-)-(U) The FBI, as part of its investigation into Russian interference, successfully obtained
a warrant to conduct Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)-authorized surveillanceagainst Page. 5344 The initial FISA application was approved on October 21, 2016, after Page had
left his role as an advisor to the Trump Campaign. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
reauthorized surveillance three times, but authorization ultimately expired on September 22,
2017. In its application and renewals seeking FISA authorities, the FBI and the Department ofJustice relied heavil -.but not solely-on information provided by Christopher Steele, a former
officer and FBI confidential human source. 5345 Steele'~
information and. the FBI's response to Steele's information is described in detail below.

In May 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert
Mueller III as Special Counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
Two memoranda provide the clearest articulation of the scope of the Special Counsel's Office(SCO) investigation. First, an August 2, 2017, memorandum from Rosenstein to Mueller
authorized SCO to conduct i n v e s t i ~ to Carter Page, Paul Manafort, George
Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, a n d - . 5346 Second, an October 20, 2017,
memorandum from Associate Deputy Attorney General Scott Schools to Rosenstein clarified
that SCO had the authority to pursue certain additional, related ~ ~ s . 5347 These
additional investigations included Michael Cohen, Rick G a t e s , _ ,5343(U) At the time FBI' s Counterintelligence Division opened a counterintelligence case on Manafort, the FBI' s
Criminal Investigative Division had an existing criminal investigation into Manafort that related to Manafort's pastwork in Ukraine. This investigation was handled by the FBI's Washington Field Office. See L. Page Tr., pp. 38, 53.
Separately, the New York Field Office had opened a counterintelligence "contact" investigation on Page in April
2016, but limited investigative activity took place. See DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 64. Both investigations were
eventually transferred to the.Crossfire Hurricane team.
·
5344(U) FISA orders are intelligence gathering tools, and as such, the government must submit a sworn statement
explaining the basis for its belief that the target is an agent of a foreign power and that the facilities-phone
numbers, email addresses, and the like-that the government proposes to surveil are used by that foreign power. See
50 u.s.c. § 1804.
5345(U) The Committee reviewed the FISA applications filed with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and alimited set of underlying materials related to those applications. As described by the Department of Justice's Officeof the Inspector General (OIG), these applications relied on erroneous information and included a number ofomissions. and inaccuracies. See DOJ OIG FISA Report.
5346(U) Memorandum from Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein to Robert S. Mueller, ill, August 2, 2017.
5347(U) Memorandum from Associate Deputy Attorney General Scott Schools to Deputy Attorney General Rod J.
Rosenstein, October 20, 2017.

813

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
5348
Roger Stone, andIn addition to those individuals, the memorandum
specified links from primary targets to secondary targets approved for investigation. These~ e c o n d a r y targets related to Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, and_ _ 5349 The SCO's mandate, however, did not expressly retain a priority on
counterintelligence matters.

-Shortly after its creation, SCO was reassigned a number of open FBI case files
related to SCO's mandate. These case files included existin FBI investi ations of

ire Hurrica

stigation);

50(U) Over the course of its investigation, the SCO successfully secured numerous
criminal indictments and convictions. This included indictments of Russian nationals associatedwith a Russian government-sponsored social media campaign and GRU personnel who hacked
into the DNC and other related targets. 5351 It also secured convictions of Paul Manafort and Rick
Gates for activity stemming from their work in Ukraine, as well as nµmerous other convictions
related to conduct which criminally misled or obstructed investigations into Russian election
interference. 5352 This latter category included convictions of Roger Stone, Michael Cohen, andMichael Flynn. 5353 These criminal cases, prosecuted while under immense public ·and political
scrutiny, brought to light significant criminal conduct.
(U) While criminal prosecutions are a vital tool in upholding our Nation's laws,
protecting our democratic system from foreign interference is a broader national security missionthat must be appropriately balanced with the pursuit of criminal prosec\}tions. It is theCommittee's view that this balance was not achieved. Russian interference with the U.S.
electoral process was inherently a counterintelligence matter and one not'well-suited to criminal
prosecutions. As a result, the Committee found that some of the counterintelligence aspects of
the FBI's original Crossfire Hurricane investigation were crowded out by the SCO's effort toidentify, charge, and prosecute crimes. In other cases, nascent counterintelligence efforts by FBI
were subsumed by SCO, and were neither fully pursued nor returned to FBI until SCO's
conclusion almost two years later. Because the SCO's investigation was ultimately a criminal

5348 (U)

Ibid.
Ibid.
(U) Enclosure to FBI September 5, 2019, Letter to Chairman Richard Burr.
5351(U) SCO Report, Appendix D.
5352 (U) Ibid.
5353 (U) Ibid.
5349 (U)5350

814

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
inquiry, it did not fully address the depth and complexity of Russian interference in the 2016
election, an effort that this Committee has itself undertaken.

A. (U) The DNC Hack and FBl's Response
1. (U) Introduction and Findings

inning inJuly 2015 and continuing until at least October 2016, at least one
Russianintelligence services compromised the DNC's computer networks.
The DNC hack presented
a novel scenario for the IC and federal law enforcement: political entities had been hacked
before, but never before had a nation-state actor hacked a private political party in the UnitedStates, exfiltrated information, and then weaponized that information through public leaks. The
scenario was further complicated by the fact that the DNC was a private political party withsignificant public presence, and the FBI was also looking at the domestic effects of a foreign
threat during a U.S. presidential campaign.
(U), the DNC was hesitant to engage with the Bureau on thematter of the political organization's being under attack by a foreign country's intelligence
services, owing to resonant tensions stemming from the FBI' s investigation into Hillary
Clinton's email servers. 5356 Further complicating matters, the DNC's IT staff did not understandthe nature of the threat it faced, despite multiple entreaties from an FBI agent at the Washington
Field Office. The Committee investigated allegations that the FBI did not properly escalate its
concerns about the DNC hack and that the DNC did not fully cooperate with the FBI. The
Committee found that communication on both sides was inadequate, further confusing an alreadycomplex situation.
(U) The Committee appreciated the voluntary cooperation it received from theindividuals associated with the DNC, as well as from former FBI officials now in the private
sector. The DNC and its counsel were extremely accommodating in allowing the Committee toaccess potentially privileged materials, and provided staff with copies of incident response

5354(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jim Trainor, December 8, 2017, p. 6. Jim Trainor is a 20-year
veteran of the FBI who was the Assistant Director of the FBI Cyber Division from June 2013 until Se tember 16,
2016. Durin his interview with the Committee, Trainor rovide(U) Declassified ICA; Netyksho indictmenill,L__
SSCI Transcript of the Interview with _ _ , May 14, 2018, pp. 21-25.

5356 (U)815repbrts prepared by the DNC's cybersecurity vendor, CrowdStrike. 5357 Several Hillary for
America (HF A) Campaign staffers, including Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook andClinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta, also submitted to voluntary staff interviews, which
provided limited insights into the DNC hack but did provide helpful information in other areas of
the Committee's inquiry. 5358
r(U) After conducting witness interviews and reviewing documents from the IC and third
parties, the Committee found the FBI lacked an appropriate process to escalate their warnings ofthe DNC hack within the DNC and that the FBI's victim-driven response paradigm hindered its
ability to investigate the hack with the necessary urgency.
2. (U) FBl's Role Responding to Nation-State Cyber Attacks on Private Entities-i.

(U) The I C's Division of Labor for Cybersecurity(U) Within the U.S. Government, the FBI,. and Department of Homeland Security
have different but com lementa roles related to c her incident response. .
, has insights into foreign adversary
activity, and is often one of the first to know that a foreign intelligence service has attempted tocompromise, or has successfully compromised, a victim network. will then pass that
notification to fBI, which engages with the victim, and DHS sometimes provides additional
services to assist in remediation or ongoing engagement with the IC. 5359
Because information about an attack can come f r o m - - or even a
foreign partner, FBI must first work with- or ■ to protect their equities before sharing
information with the victim. 5360 Jim Trainor, Former Assistant Director of the Cyber Division atFBI, described the Bureau as "always the one that's more forward-leaning" about sharing
information with victim entities because FBI agents are "the ones on the hook to try to provide
the notification." 5361 Once FBI receives permission to share threat indicators, field office agentswill contact the victim entity. 5362 FBI agents use
to "havecomplete visibility on ... victim notifications."53 Trainor noted that the best scenario is foragents to do "a lot of outreach" in their area of responsibility, so that when an incident occurs,

5357(U) As is common practice with incident response, Crowdstrike was h'ired through the DNC's private ·counsel,
Perkins Coie LLP.
·
.
'
5358
(U) In general, HFA's production to the Committee was limited, given that the Campaign had a mandatory 30day automatic age-off processes for its staff email accounts.
5359(U) Trainor Tr., p. 21.
5360(U) Ibid5361 (U) Ibid
5362
(U) Ibid, p. 22.
5363(U) Ibid, pp. 18-19.

816

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE"'." RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

the FBI is dealing with "victims [who] have a relationship and a confidence and a trust ... [whoknow] who the agent is, who the cyber squad is."5364 The FBI has
cyber
squads, and victim notifications are a ortion of a c her s ua
k. Whendealin with a lar er c her attack, the FBI

When asked whether the FBI tria es its victim notifications, Trainor describe

3. (U) FBl's Role: The Victim-Driven Response(U) Instead of treating hacked entities as crime scenes, where the FBI can collectevidence as needed the FBI treats hacked entities as victims,. Washington Field Office AssistantSpecial Agent in Charge (ASAC)
told the Committee that it is "very typical" in the"majority of cyber cases" that after the FBI a roaches a potential victim about a c ber intrusion,"we ma never hear from them a ain." 5368
testified that the FBI

and that even in those cases "it's quite a bit of a
struggle ... as the entity decides what level of cooperation they're going to provide."5369(U) As a first step, FBI a g e n t s _ , the FBI's case record system, to accesscontact information that may already exist for the victim. 5370 If there is no contact information,
agents will call the organization and convey:

5364 (U) ~ - 19.

Tr., p. 8.
(U) Tramor Tr., pp. 22-23. "Doxing" is the practice ofleaking stolen documents from a compromised victim's
files.
5367(U) Trainor Tr., p. 22.
536s (U)Tr., p. 13.
5369(U) Ibid., pp. 14--15.
5310 (U) Ibid., p. 11.
5365 (U) 5366

1111

817

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYAgents
After engaging with the victim, working side by side" and_But the FBI is "not there to rebuild the network andremediate the network" following a cyber incident; generally, a victim organization will hire athird-party cybersecurity vendor to complete that process. 5374
72(U) One cons~ce of the victim-driven response is that victims who do cooperate doso at their own pace. recognized that "every organization ... [has] valid reasons why they
don't want the FBI in their building, on their computer systems." 5375 Put simply: "half the time,the entity we're calling just doesn't want to deal with us." 5376
(U) As of May 2018, there was no formal policy within the FBI for escalating
notifications up the chain of command at a victim entity. 5377 testified that "if anorganization decides that they have it[under control or the don't want to do it I don't think we
icall will escalate it much further ...

(U) There are reasons why, to date, the FBI does not compel victims to cooperate. The
FBI needs the victim organization's help to investigate the crime because the victim knows its
own systems best, so forcing cooperation could potentially alienate the very people whose help
the FBI needs. Additionally, the FBI recognizes that using compulsory process to force
cooperation would be adding hassle to the hacked entity, which has already been the victim of acrime.

(U) When asked about using compulsory process to force victims to cooperate, Trainor
admitted that the FBI could "get a grand jury subpoena to compel them ... ; But that's a little
challenging."5379 Even with compulsory process, Trainor told staff that "FBI doesn't know the
network as well as the DNC or any other victim. It becomes very complicated ... that's thecollaborative part of being on scene together. So ... we're not going to get that even with agrand jury subpoena."5380 Trainor's opinion was that compulsory process should be a last resort

5371(U) Ibid(U) Traino,rTr., pp. 17-19.
5373(U) Ibid, pp. 23-24.
5374(U) Ibid
5372

5375 (U)5376

Ill

Tr., p. 14.
(U) Ibid, p. 21.
5377(U) Ibid, pp. 28-29.
5378(U) Ibid, pp. 28-29.
5379(U) Trainor Tr., pp. 33-34. The Committee notes that search warrants might also be available.
5380(U) Ibid, pp. 36-37.

818

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

because "it would have a serious chillin
it should only be 1:1sed

anies wanting to work with us" and so
5381

4. (U) Private Cybersecurity Vendors(U) Typically, after the FBI notifies a victim organization, the organization will hireoutside counsel who can then bring in a cybersecurity firm to address the intrusion andrecommend remediation. 5382 Depending on how the cybersecurity firm is retained, and how
outside counsel and the victim organization want to work, the cybersecurity firm's work
product-including the technical details related to the intrusion and attribution theories-could
be covered under the privileged umbrella of attorney work product. 5383 Many victim
organizations are wary of publicly announcing cyber intrusions because of negative media
attention and perceived reputational harm. This creates a tension as the cybersecurity
community and law enforcement are better equipped to defend against cyber attacks when more
information is shared. 5384
. (U) Trainor described the ideal incident res onse coo eration as when ''the internal staff

Tra·
where FBI agentsin order to speed up the review ofthem throughcooperating with the FBI, navigating various regulatory requirements, and dealing with any data privacy issues that

.

.

.

.

Some ven ors mitigate this by mputtmg threat indicators into a
co ective efense mechanism for their chents, or y participating in organizations like the Cyber Threat Alliance.
But, there is currently no requirement that cybersecurity vendors report new indicators from every cyber intrusion
into any collective repository.
5385(U) Ibid, p. 35.
5386(U) See, e.g., Andrea Peterson, "The Sony Pictures Hack, Explained," The Washington Post, December 18,
2014.
5387
(U) Trainor Tr., p. 36.

819

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYi,(U) The DNC Hack: A Case Study in the FBI Victim Notification Process(U) The FBI agents and headquarters personnel working the DNC case were frustrated
by the lack of responsiveness at the DNC, while witnesses from the DNC repeatedly told theCommittee that they did not thirik the FBI ap ro riatel conve ed the threat icture. FBI
ersonnel told the Committee that the were

Trainor asked the Committee to "just imagine the FBI having theWashington Field Office giving a grand jury subpoena to the DNC." 5389 Yet DNC witnesses
repeatedly told the Committee that there was no "alarm bell" from the FBI, and DNC staff
believed that the FBI received everything it needed from CrowdStrike and the DNC. 5390
None of the Committee's witnesses expected that the compromise of the DNC's
networ~ lead to the exfiltration and ex osure of the DNC's emails and information. 5391 At
the time of the compromise, FBI saw theconsistent" with ast
behavior, that i
Trainor told the Committee that although he was familiar with the~ assume that was a possibility with the DNC hack because the FBI-••5393

In reviewing staff interviews,, and witness document
produc~mmittee gained insights into the challenges facing both the DNC and the FBI.in confronting a new kind of attack on America's democracy. The uniquely political nature of
the DNC as an organization and the FBI's approach towards victims of cyber attacks led to
miscommunications and missed opportunities to thwart, or eradicate, the Russian cyber actors
from the DNC systems. The below timeline conveys the Committee's understanding of the DNC
hack, the FBI's response, and how the FBI, CrowdStrike, and the DNC worked together during
this historic attack.
-~.

5388

(U) Ibid, p. 37.
(U) Ibid, p. 34.
5390~serman Schultz Tr., pp. 8, 23, 32-24; Brazile Tr., pp. 18, 86.
5391-However, Wasserman Schultz told the Committee that she was concerned based on her
ex eriences, that:5389

not raise these concerns wit Crow Strike or DNC counsel at e time o the intrusion. SSCI Transcript of theInterview with Debbie Wasserman Schultz, October 2, 2017, p. 19.
5392(U) Trainor Tr., p. 29.
5393(U) Ibid, p. 55.

820

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

5. (U) Summary of Events(U) Prior to the multiple- GRU intrusions into the DNC, the DNC networks
were protected by a firewall, spam filters, an IT directory that managed password rotation, theWindows Defender system, and two-factor authentication on the VPN system. 5394 The DNC
trained new staff on computer use; part of that training included simulating phishing attacks andsenior employees received a high-level cybersecurity briefing from a third-party vendor. 5395
DNC CEO Amy Dacey told the Committee that cybersecurity was "a priority" for both her and
DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. 5396 The DNC had also hired a third-party vendor to
conduct penetration testing on the DNC's publicly available assets. 5397 The DNC contractedwith The MIS Department, Inc. (MIS) to provide some IT services. Yared Tamene, a contractor
for MIS and the DNC's IT Director, was responsible for IT and network security, and hereported to Andrew Brown, the Technology Director, who in tum reported to both DNC COO
Lindsey Reynolds and DNC CEO Amy Dacey. 5398

From August 2015 until early May 2016, the FBI
attempted to assist the DNC in recognizing and responding to Russian intrusions into the DNC
network. 5400
(U) Despite multiple conversations with the FBI in 2015 and early 2016, Tamene told
the Committee that the first indication he had "of confirmed foreign actors on our network,
meaning unauthorized access to the network," was April 28, 2016. 5401 In May 2016, the DNC
hired CrowdStrike, a third-party cybersecurity vendor, to respond to what they by thenunderstood to be a foreign nation-state attacking their network. 5402 On June 12, 2016, the DNC
completed remediation related to the incident and transitioned to new systems. 5403 On June 14,
2016, the DNC approached and cooperated with the The Washington Post to publish an article
announcing that the Russian intelligence services had hacked the DNC. 5404

5394.(U) Tamene Tr., p. 18.
(U) Ibid., p. 18; SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Amy Dacey, September 20, 2017, p. 14.
5396(U) Dacey Tr., p. 14.
5397(U) Tamene Tr., p. 18; Brown Tr., p. 13.
5398(U) Tamene Tr., pp. 4-5; Brown Tr., pp. 5-7.
5399 (U) ~ pp. 5-6; Trainor Tr., p. 6.
5400(U)Tr., pp. 5, 44; Tamene Tr., pp. 10, 53.
5401(U) Tamene Tr., p. 9.
5402 (U)Tr., p. 44.
5403(U) Tamene Tr., p. 58.
5404 (U) Ellen Nakashima, "Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole opposition research on Trump," The
Washington Post, June 14, 2016.
5395

SeeJIIIIIII

1111

821

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In the June 14, 2016 The Washington Post article, CrowdStrike's CTO Dmitri
Alperovitch associated one threat actor, dubbed "Fancy Bear," with the GRU and associatedanother threat actor, dubbed "Cozy Bear," with the FSB. The following day, Alperovitch
published an article on CrowdStrike's blog associating Fancy Bear with the GRU, but allowingthat Cozy Bear could have been either the SVR or the FSB. 5405 Through the remainder of thesummer and fall of 2016, emails obtained from the DNC hack were published by online GRU
persdnas DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, as well as WikiLeaks. 5406 In September 2016, the DNC's
cloud environment, hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), was the victim of another intrusion
attempt, detected by CrowdStrike. 5407
(U) On October 7, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a public statement that the IC was"confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromise of e-mails from US
persons and institutions, including from US political organizations."5408· 6. (U) Detailed Timeline(U) April 2015
In April 2015, the FBI's Washington Field Office (WFO) hosted a threatawaren~fing in Washington, D.C. to advise industry, think tanks, and universities about
the increased risk of cyber attacks during the spring and summer timeframe. 5409 During April
2015, the FBI engaged with a university on the west coast and one think tank in Washington,
D.C~ to alert them that their infrastructure had been compromised b y - cyber actors. 5410 The
actors were using U.S. infrastructure in an attempt to conceal the true origins of their
attacks and blend in to normal internet traffic. 5411 FBI's WFO engaged with both victims and(U) See infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.B.
(U) Tamene Tr., p. 62.
5408(U) ODNI and DHS, "Joint Statement from the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the
Director ofNational Intelligence on Election Security," October 7, 2016.
5409(U) Trainor Tr., pp. 13-14.
5410 (U) Ibid, pp. 8-10 ..
5411(U) Ibid, p. 9.
5407

822

(U) August 2015

pecial Agent (SA)waswas the FBI' s main point of contact for
the DNC notification process.
Both Trainor andcharacterized the initial DNC
notification as one of approximately ■ priority victim notifications from the larger pool of-5415

On August 6, 2015,
received approval fromto share information.related to the incident
5416
and to notify theitential victims.
one of■ agents on his squad, was responsible
for notifying theprioritized, potential victims. 5417 Trainor told the Committee that the
notifications would have conveyed: "you very well may have been ciimromised, you may havebeen a victim ... thiitou've received a spear .ishing email." 5418
testified that in thisparticular case, theallowed FBI to share
IP addresses with victims to help them search
for nefarious activity on their networks. 5419·
. (U On August 6, 2 0 1 5 , _ called Tamene, the DNC's IT Director, and assed
alon theIP addresses. 5420 On that same phone call,but he did suggest that Tamene look up public reporting on
the cyber actors mini-DUKE and mini-DIONIS. 54215422 Tamene told the Committee that on thatp. 8-13.
Tr., p. 5; Trainor Tr., p. 6; Brown~7.
Tr., . 6. The FBI did not m a k e - available for a Committee interview; the Committee
interv
siiervisors and othe~ FBI personnel instead.
5415
Tr., p. 6;
Tr., p. 8; Tramor Tr., p. 25.
541
Tr. p. 6.
5417
Tr., p. 15. The Committee notes that in late summer 2015, the FBI's Cyber Division accounted
forofFBI resources-as a comparison, the Counterterrorism Division accounted f o r . of the FBI's
resources. FBI h a d . agents in Cyber, split between headquarters and the field offices. Trainor Tr., p. 26.
541s (U) Ibid.
5419 (U)Tr., p. 7.
5420(U) Ibid., pp. 11-12.
5421(U) Ibid., p. 12.
5422(U) In general, both Tamene's testimony and the FBl's timeline of the interactions indicate that there were threephone calls from the FBI to the DNC in the fall of 2015. created a contemporaneous timeline that theCommittee was able to view. Tamene's testimony of the timing and content of the calls was reliant on his memory.
5412 (

•

5 3
41
5414

Ill

823

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
first phone call, which he remembered happening in September of 2015, reached him
through the DNC switchboard and told him that the FBI thought "there m ~ m e activity thatis nefarious" and rovided the out oin IP address. 5423 Tamene said t h a t - also gave him
the FBI in case the DNC systems(U) After speaking w i t h - Tamene called DNC Technology Director Andrew
Brown and went through the DNC firewall l ~ s assistant engineer. 5425 No one on the
DNC's IT staff saw anything to substantiate- concems. 5426 Brown told the Committeethat "there was no indication like: Hey, the FBI is ringing a fire bell; we think you're getting
hacked."5427 Brown said he did raise the FBI's outreach with Dacey in his biweekl meetin , but
he "didn't flag for her any direct actions" related to the FBI call. 5428
■ FBI did not hear from the DNC a f t e r - initial call. 5429
(U) CrowdStrike would eventually report that COZYBEAR had been sitting on the
DNC's email server since the summer of 2015. 5430 According to their report, after gaining
access to an individual DNC staffer's computer through a spearphishing campaign, COZYBEAR
actors moved laterally through the DNC's system and gained access to the email server. 5431
(U) December 2015
On December 24, 2015
FBI that it continued to5432
seeefforts against the DNC.
On December 28, 2015,
again contacted Tamene
and told him that the DNC may have been compromised. He provided the same IP addresses,
but included another indicator that he thought might help the DNC find the bad actors. 5433 -Tamene recalled two conversations w i t h - not one. Tamene remembers thatcalled him
approximately a month after the initial p ~ and that that second conversation 1s when
told Tamenethat the "actor is probably an entity called 'DUKES."' Tamene Tr., pp. 10-13. At the time ofoutreach,open source reporting was widely available on the internet linking "Dukes" to sophisticated Russian cy er actors.
5423(U) Tamene Tr., pp. 10-11.
5424(U) Ibid., p. 12.
5425 (U) Ibid.
5426 (U) Ibid.
5427(U) Brown Tr., p. 15.
542s (U) ~ - 19 _5429
(U) Tr., p. 17.
5430(U) Brown Tr., p. 27.
5431(U) Ibid., . 49.
5432 (U)Tr., p. 17.
5433(U)Tr., p. 17. Tamene remembers this second phone call as happening approximately a month after the
initial notification, so in October 2015, not December, but DNC Technology Director Andrew Brown rememberedthat it was a December engagement. Tamene Tr., p. 13; Brown Tr., p. 16.

824

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYcharacterized this second notification as ~scalation because "there was still a persistentpresence, at least through attempts." 5434 again received no follow-up information from
Tamene or anyone else at the DNC after his December 28, 2015., outreach. 5435
( ~ told the Committee that the DNC searched again and did not find any of theindicators had passed to them. 5436 Brown again told Dacey about the interaction with
the FBI, characterizing his response as: "we're treating it seriously and we're dealing with it." 5437
The DNC had purchased a new firewall in late December 2015 and Tamene's team was "in theprocess of putting it in as sort of transparent to the existing firewall" to ensure better logging
capabilities. 5438 , During this timeframe, the DNC also purchased Splunk, a tool that aggregatesand enables quicker searching of logs. 5439,

(U) January 2016

After two weeks following the second notification without any word from Tamene,that Tamene might not be the appropriate contact within the16called the DNC switchboard and asked to speak to theperson.5441 Again,_ was directed to
Tamene.
On January 15, 2016,
called Tamene to check in, and Tamene toldthat he would search the DNC systems and get back to the FBI. 5443 Tamene told theCommittee that, prior to April 2016, "there was no sense o ~ " to notifications. 5444 Yet both Trainor a n d - testified t h a t - would have c o ~sense ofurgency. 5445 Tamene also told the Committee that he had no awareness o f ~ everasking to speak to his supervisor or attempting to escalate the conversation within the DNC. 446 .
(U) Trainor told the Committee that he "first became aware of the challenges associatedwith the DNC ... [the] lack of cooperation, lack of response, the fact that the exfil was going5434 (U) -Tr., p. 18.

(U) 'mT,p. 19.
(U) Brown Tr., p. 16.
5437(U) Ibid., pp. 19-21.
5438(U) Tamene Tr., p. 17.
5439(U) .bid.,. 27.
5440(U)Tr., p. 19.
5441 (U) J, id.
5442 (U) Ibid.
,

5435
5436

5443 (U)5444

Ill

Tr., p. 23.
(U) Tamene Tr., p. 28.
5445(U) Trainor Tr., p. 16.
5446(U) Tamene Tr., p. 28.

825

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYon" in January 2016. 5447 Around this time, Trainor said the FBI Section Chief escalated thematter to a more senior level within the DNC. 5448 Trainor was confident that "it got raised
beyond a working level and got raised within the DNC ... the bottom line is they were able,from what I understand, were able to convince them [the DNC]." 5449 The Committee notes theconflicting testimony, but could not find any record of any FBI attempts to raise the rofile oftheir warnings during this time period. ASAC- told the Committee thathadin the DNC IT staffs technical abilities, and that, during early 2016,"was
comfortable he was dealing with people that actually understood the consequences of what was
happening and how to remediate it." 5450·
(U) February 2016

(U) On February 8, 2016,_ still had not heard back from Tamene, s o left a voicemail telling Tamene that he wanted to meet to provide Tamene with some additional
threat intelligence. 5451 The next d a y , _ spoke with Tamene by telephone and they set up
an in-person meeting for February 10, 2016, so t h a t - could provide Tamene withadditional information. 5452

(U) On February 10, 2 0 1 6 , ~ Tamene, and Suraj Gaur, anotherDNC IT staffer,
met at a coffee shop in Sterlin , VA.
The FBI rovided the DNC IT staff with additional
threat information, includine recalled that at this meeting,provided
indicating nefarious activity, including
55
Tamene t o l d - that he would review
the indicators thatprovided. 5456 For Tamene,
he realized that the DNC's logging capabilities did not go back far enough todescribed. 5457

5447(U) Trainor Tr., p. 31. Trainor told the Committee that, during the December-January timeframe, he "start[ed]to hear, either from my staff or maybe even from the seventh floor at headquarters, whether it's the Deputy or the
EAD or somebody, that the DNC may not be takingthis as seriously." Ibid, p. 47.
5448(U) Ibid5449 (U) ~ P - 48, 50.
5450 (U) Tr., 26.
5451(U) Ibid, p. 24.
5452(U) Tamene recalled that this in-person meeting w i t h - was in late January 2016, not February. Tamene
Tr., p. 14. See alsollll Tr., p. 24.
5453(U) Ibid., pp. 24-25.
5454 (U) Ibid., p. 25.
.
5455(U) Tamene Tr., p. 16.
5456 (U)Tr., p. 25.
5457(U) Tamene Tr., p. 16.

p:

1111

826

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Tamene told the Committee that he remembered- telling him at this meetingthat the FBI "believes these to be Russian state actors, Russian state-sponsored actors. " 5458
Tamene relayed- statement about the foreign actors to Brown, and they both agreed thatt.he DNC should c o n ~ n ca abilities. 5459
also suggested that
Tamene run a s c r i p t , which could
discover nefarious activity.
Tamene was nervous about
on the network if
the environment was compromised, so he and his team tried to figure out ways to withoutalerting the malicious actors. 5461
(U) Tamene told the Committee that, after their meeting, he t o l d - by email ortext message that the logs did not go b a ~ a t the DNC had not found anything
yet, but that they were still working o n - .5462 He also t o l d - that the
DNC had purchased Splunk, a tool to aid its investigation, and had extended its logging
capabilities. 5463

ter, on February 29, 2016,, to Tamene, Gaur, and a(U) Tamene recalled that sometime in February, tabletop exercise on April 5, 2016. 5466

called to invite him to an FBI,(U) March 2016

5458

(U) Ibid, pp. 32-33.
(U) Ibid, p. 32.
5460(U) Ibid. WMI is Windows Management Infrastructure, a Microsoft tool that allows system administrators toaccess and audit system management information across an enterprise's networks. See Microsoft.com,.Microsoft
Windows Dev Center, "About WMI." Because WMI works across the entire system, attackers sometimes use it to"create an initial foothold on a system." See Timothy Parsi and Evan Pena, "WMI vs. WMI: Monitoring for
Malicious Activity," Fireeye.com, August 18, 2016. Running a WMI Bindings Script could enable a systemadministrator to see an adversary manipulating the WMI system.
5461(U) Tamene Tr., p. 32.
5462 (U) Ibid., p. 29.
5463 (U) Ibid.
5464 (U) Tr., p. 27.
5465 (U) W.5466 (U) Tamene Tr., p. 29.
5459

827

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On March 1, 2016, Su.raj Gaur responded to and reported that the DNC had
not found any malicious traffic but that they would increase their logging capability. 5467 On
March 24, 2016, FBI identified additional spea hishin activi at the DNC. The next da , FBI~ t o r s of that activity to the DNC,
-5468.
(U) April 2016e

you do if you have an incident and what are some of the ways you can interact with [theFBI]."5472(U) Tamene thought the exercise was helpful because it h~lped him understand how toleverage the Splunk program and because it confirmed, for him, that he was "moving in the right
direction" with the DNC's cybersecurity posture. 5473 Tamene remembered that the FBI asked forthe DNC's logs on April 10, 2016. Tamene started collecting the log information and asked
Andrew Brown and DNC COO Lindsey Reynolds for permission to share the logs.'5474(U) On April 15, 2016, the FBI notified the D N C - that it was still seeing signs ofcompromise, and provided additional
for the DNC to use. 5475 The FBI also
made another request for the DNC's logs.
Brown described this request for logs as a shift
in the FBI engagement, telling the Committee that "all of a sudden the FBI asked us to send them

5467 (U)5468

Ill

Tr., p. 30.
(U) Ibid, pp. 31-32. FBI also saw some spearphishing attempts directed at the HFA Campaign; it also notified
HFA on March 25, 2016.
5469(U)Tr., p. 33; Tamene Tr., p. 29.
5410 (U)Tr., p. 33.
5471(U)Tr., pp. 33-34.
5472(U) Brown Tr., p. 16.
5473(U) Tamene Tr., p. 30.
5474 (U) ~ - 33 _5475(U) Tr., p. 36.
5476(U) Tamene indicated to the Committee that in addition ~agement with Agenthe alsoreceived one or two emails about spear phishing from A g e n t - colleague, Agentduring the
March-A~016 timeframe. Tamene Tr., p. 55.
5477(U) Tr., p. 36.

828\

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

logs," which was a "new request." 5478 At that point, the FBI had been requesting logs for almost
two months.
(U) Three days later, on April 18, 2016, Tamene told
to install and configure a new firewall; he also relayed that, so far, thehad not yielded any results. 5479 On that same day, FBI learned that a second Russian cyber actor,
FANCYBEAR, was also operating within the DNC network. 5480 On April 19, 2016, the FBI
again provided additional information to the DNC and again asked for the logs-the second
request in two days, and the fifth request for logs cumulatively. 5481
(U) Tamene told the Committee that the repeated requests for logs did not "seem like anescalation" to him, and that "Agent- never used alarming language." 5482

o the point where DNC could search its own logs for those same indicators.
ASAC
told the Committee that the DNC had enough information to find the nefarious
activity, but that "it was going to take them a lot longer and a lot more manpower to do it."5484
After the fifth request for the logs, Tamene told the FBI that Brown would have to approve therequest for any logs. 5485 Tamene t o l d - that Brown was aware of the compromise andthat he had briefed Lindsey Reynolds, the DNC's chief o eratin officer. 5486 On A ril 20, 2016,sent Tamene and Gaur a(U) The following day, Tamene told
he did not have authorization to share thelogs.5488 On April 25, 2016, the FBI
the DNC's general counsel to request a meeting. 5489
The next day, on April 26, 2016,
called Michael Sussman, a partner at the law firm of
Perkins Coie and the DNC's external cybersecurity counsel. 5490 Sussmann t o l d - that ·5478(U) Brown Tr., p. 18; Brown Tr., p. 23.
Tr., p. 36.
(U) Ibid., p. 47.
5481(U) Ibid., p. 40.
5482(U) Tamene Tr., p. 37.

5479 (U)
5480

5483

Ill

m- Tr., pp. 39--40.

(U) -5484(U)5485 (U)Ibid.' p. 41.
Ibid.
5487 (U) lb id.
5488 (U) Ibid.
5489 (U) Ibid.
5490(U) Ibid., p. 42
5486 (U)829

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

should engage with Tamene and that Sussman would enc~amene to cooperatewith the FBI. 5491 On April 27, 2016, Sussman and Tamene c a l l e d - and told him they ·were planning to ineet with Dacey on April 28, 2016. Sussmann relayed that he expected Dacey
to approve sending the FBI the logs. 5492
(U) On April 28, 2016, Tamene discovered APT-28, or FANCYBEAR, on the DNC's
netw~ht months after the FBI first contacted the DNC. Despite his earlier conversations
w i t h - about APT-29, or COZYBEAR, Tamene described the discovery of
FANCYBEAR as "the first indication that I had of confirmed foreign actors on our network." 5493
(U) Tamene saw that a utility server that the DNC used to manage adding users to thedomain had been compromised. 5494 On that domain server, the DNC used a program calledto manage passwords. 5495 had two-factor authentication, but the IT team received
an alert that an IP address was tryin~nto t h e - account by guessing the
password. 5496 After examining t h e - accesses, Tamene and his team could see that there
were nefarious
access attempts that Tamene described as "irrefutable" indicators ofcompromise. 54

JIIIIII(U) In addition to t h e - activity, Tamene and his team also found a "process that[they] didn't recognize" running on the utility server. 5498 Tamene told the Committee that
FANCYBEAR was running processes at system-level privileges, which could have given themaccess to "potentially everything ... they could delete _things, they could copy things, they could
exfiltrate things." 5499 Brown told the Committee that "they were kind of at the heart of the
network at that point, by the time we saw them getting administrative passwords."5500(U) On April 29, 2016, after confirming the GRU/FANCYBEAR activity, when he"knew for sure" that the DNC was compromised, Tamene called Brown, and then Reynolds, toobtain permission to reach out to the FBI. 5501 Brown separately called Dacey and Reynolds toalert them to the problem, but could not reach Dacey. 5502 Dacey told the Committee that she

5491(U) Ibid, p. 43(U) Ibid
5493(U) Tamene Tr., p. 9.
5494(U) Ibid, p. 42.
5495 (U) Ibid
5496
(U) Ibid, p. 43.
5497(U) Ibid, Pi 43; Brown Tr., p. 9.
5498(U) Tamene Tr., p. 43.
5499(U) Ibid, pp. 45--46.
5500(U) Brown Tr., p. 14.
5501(U) Tamene Tr., p. 37.
5502 (U) Brown 10.
5492

830

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
received a call Friday evening from Reynolds explaining that "the IT team ... had noticed
unusual activity on our system and they said that they thought that a breach had occurred and it
was not something they had seen before and they were concerned about it and needed help tofigure out what was going on."5503 Dacey immediately called Sussmann. 5504 Tamene and the
DNC team, including counsel, "spent several hours on the phone thinking through what [their]~were."5505 That same day-11 weeks after the FBI's first request-Tamene sent
an email stating that the DNC IT department had permission to provide the logs, andsubsequently provided the logs to the FBI. 5506_
(U) Tamene told the Committee that he t e x t e d - on the night of April 29 and said
"we have evidence that we're compromised; I have the logs ready for you; let me know what you
can do." 5507 responded by text and told Tamene "if you need us to help you _ne:xt week,
let me know. I see that you sent us the logs. Thank you." 5508 Tamene told the Committee, "thetone here still wasn't 'fire drill' or 'evacuate.': It wasn't that. It was never that. Even after we
had confirmed a co~.;.there was no sense of urgency from him [ S A - "5509
Tamene attributed- relative calm to the fact that he was a "cool customer" or that hehad not seen the activity Tamene had seen. 5510 Tamene was nervous to attempt any remediation
on his own because he did not want to "show [his] hand to the adversary, who may have fullcontrol of [the] network." 5511'.
.
(U) On Saturday, April 30, 2016, Sussmann emailed CrowdStrike President Shawn
Henry to discuss a potential incident; on a phone call later that afternoon, Sussmann told Henry. that "somebody at the DNC had seen some activity" and that there had been "prior,. communications ... with the FBI," and that Sussmann wanted CrowdStrike's help. 5512 Later thatday, Dacey, Reynolds, Brown, Tamene, Perkins Coie attorneys, and CrowdStrike employees
Shawn Henry and Chris Scott had a phone call to discuss incident response options. 5513

(U) May2016

5503(U) Dacey Tr., .p. 5.
(U) Ibid., p. 6.
5505(U) Tamene Tr., pp. 9-10; Dacey Tr., p. 6.
5506(U) . . Tr., p. 43; Brown Tr., p. 23.
5507(U) Tamene Tr.; p. 37.
5508(U) Ibid, p. 38.
5509(U) Ibid, p. 40.
5510(U) Ibid, pp. 40-4L
5511(U) Ibid., p. 39.
5512(U) Henry Tr., pp. 39-40.
5513(U) Tamene Tr., pp. 38-39; Brown Tr., p. 10. Henry doesn't remember this phone call with the DNC but
Brown, Tamene, and Dacey all recalled that CrowdStrike participated in this call.

5504

831

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On May 1, 2016, Srissmann, Henry, and one or two CrowdStrike employees
discussed more information about the breach and started the paperwork for the DNC to retain
CrowdStrike. 5514 Dacey called Congresswo:tpan and then-DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultzthat Saturday to let her know "that there was a concern, that we had a problem that they thought'
was significant in the system and we needed more informatiqn, so that we had brought on
CrowdStrike to help."5515(U) Dacey told the Committee that one of the reasons she chose CrowdStrike was
because of Henry's fomier FBI career, and that the DNC "encouraged [CrowdStrike] to talkdirectly to the FBI and that we wanted them to be coordinating and working with them once weknew about the breach."5516 That weekend, Tamene and his team wiped their computers andbegan using a newly created Grnail account to communicate about the incident. 5517
(U) On May 2, 2016, CrowdStrike inciden,t responder Robert Johnston called Tamene to.
discuss communication and securi
rotocols. 5518 Johnston also ave Tamene a list of technical
5 1
assets he needed from Tamene,
5 9Johnston gave Tamene one of CrowdStrike's Falcon sensors, a tool which detects nefarious
activity presently occurring in the environment. 5520 Later on, the DNGIT team also installed
CrowdStrike's Falcon Forensic Collector, which detects historical sus icious activi .•5521
Tamene told CrowdStrike aboµt his earlier conversation with A ent
about
and CrowdStrike hel ed Tamene toto figure out what was going on."Henry recalledthat during that initial week, CrowdStrike deployed 200 sensor devices on the DNC network. 5523
CrowdStrike did not do an assessment of the DNC's defenses at the time of the attack because
their focus was responding to the active intrusion. 5524 At the end of the investigation, the DNC' ss14 (U) Henry Tr., pp. 40--41.

ms (U) Dacey Tr., p. 7. Wasserman Schultz remembered that Dacey came to speak with her on "April 20something" and told Wasserman Schultz that there were two Russian spy agencies on the DNC's network.
Wasserman Schultz Tr., pp. 4-5. Based on Dacey's testimony and CrowdStrike's timeline of when it discovered thesecond actor, it seems likely that either Dacey and the Chair had multiple conversations relaying this information, orthat the only conversation occurred in May, as Dacey remembered.
5516(U) Dacey Tr., p. 15.
5517(U) Tamene Tr., p. 47.
SSIS (U) Ibid., p. 47.
5519(U) Ibid., p. 48.
5S20 (U) Ibid.
5S21 (U) lb id.
5522(U) Ibid., pp. 48--49.
5523(U) Henry Tr., p. 41.
5524(U) Ibid., p. 48.

832

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
discovered that 37 of 700 hosts on the DNC's network were compromised, including a domain
controller. 5525'
had technical conversations
26 Tamene recalled that he
wdStrike was working on theene of some areas where

FBI notes show that on May 3, 2016, RobertJohnston, of CrowdStrike, reached out to the FBI to tell them that the DNC had retained
CrowdStrike for the incident response. 5530
(U) During the first week of May, Tamene worked with CrowdStrike and participated indaily calls with Brown, Reynolds, Dacey, CrowdStrik~aham Wilson of Perkins Coie. 5531
Tamene told the Committee that he spoke with Agent-- after CrowdStrike was retained toconfirm t h a t - was "getting the information he need[ed] from CrowdStrike."5532 Whenpressed about what exactly was shared with the FBI, Tamene told the Committee that he did not"know for a fact exactly what CrowdStrike gave A g e n t - but that "every time that the
FBI asked the DNC, the DNC cooperated."5533 Tamene told the Committee that he believed that,during the incident response phase, he "passed the baton" to CrowdStrike to deal with the
FBl.ss34(U) Within a few days, CrowdStrike's sensors relayed that one threat actor,
COZYBEAR, "had compromised certain email accounts. . . . Voice over IP servers ... servers
related to internal text messaging, [and] text messages in the environment ... they had
apparently been collecting intelligence going back to July of 2015." 5535 By mid-May,

5525(U) Tamene Tr., p. 77.
Tr., p. 44.
(U) Tamene Tr., p. 53.
552s (U)Tr., p. 44.
5529(U) Ibid., p. 44.
5530(U) Ibid., p. 54 ~ referred to notes during his interview).
5531(U) Tamene Tr., p. 50.
5532(U) Ibid., p. 53.
5533 (U) Ibid., p. 54.
5534(U) Ibid., p. 56.
5535(U) Henry Tr., pp. 50-52.

5526 (U)
5527

11111
11111

833

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
CrowdStrike "recognized that FANCYBEAR ... haµ been in the environment as early as April
18th [2016]."5536 Henry characterized the compromise of the networkas "widespread."5537(U) Dacey told the Committee that "within a week a:(tef' bringing on CrowdStrike,
Michael Sussmann called to tell her that CrowdStrike had identified one of the perpetrators of
the attack as FANCYBEAR, "a state-sponsored foreign entity, Russian in nature."5538 During
this same conversation, Sussmann told Dacey that .FANCYBEAR had been "interested in the
research files at the DNC" and that they "had exfiltrated a few files from the system" related to
Trump research." 5539 A short time after her conversation with Sussmann, CrowdStrike alerted
Dacey that they had found a second actor-COZYBEAR-that had been in the system for alonger time, and "seemed to be."554 CrowdStrike told Dacey that "there was
no indication" that COZYBEAR and FANCYB EAR had known of the other's presence on thesystem. 5541°

(U) At some point during the remediation process, the DNGIT staff did see one
indicator of potential exfiltration. According to Tamene, "it looked like someone took a bunchof files, zipped them, and then charred them to be a bunch of other files so that they can be small,
5-meg uploads out of that system." 5542 Tamene told the Committee that the folder in the fileshare was called "Trump.zip."5543 Henry testified that CrowdStrike was "able to see some
exfiltration and the types of files that had been touched" but not the content of those files. 5544

, (U) In mid-May, Tamene met with vendors as MIS, not as DNC IT staff, about obtaining
new email systems and preparing the new technical infrastructure for remediation. 5545
CrowdStrike and the DNC IT staff determined that June 10, 2016, would be the day when the
DNC switched tp new systems. 5546
(U) The Committee notes there is discrepancy in witness testimony regarding how
communicative CrowdStrike was with the FBI during the incident response phase. On May 20,
2016, A g e n t - contacted Tamene for an update on the incident response; Tamene told.

5536(U) Ibid., p. 58.
(U) Ibid., p. 52.
5538(U) Dacey 9.
5539(U) Ibid., p. 10. The Committee appreciated the DNC's cooperative approach to sharing information that may
have properly been protected by the attorney-client privilege.
5540(U) Ibid, p. 11.
5541 (U) Ibid., p. 1 I.
5542
(U) Tamene Tr., pp. 58-59.
5543(U) Ibid., p. 58.
5544(U) Henry Tr., p. 60.
5545(U) Tamene Tr., p. 56.
5546(U) Ibid., p. 57.
5537

834

there had been some developments but that Tamene was unsure what he was authorized
to share with the FBI. 5547 On May 26, 2016, reached out to Tamene again, and Tamenet o l d - he was authorized to share some information with the FBI, but did not actuallyshare any additional information on that call. On May 31, 2016, ~·5548
a ain.
Durin this call,asked for an update and p r o ·5549•
Henry told the Committee that one of CrowdStrike's
consultants spoke within May after the Falcon sensors were deployed. 5550 timeline only includes one CrowdStrike call in May: the initial May 3, 2016 call from RobertJohnston to alert the FBI that CrowdStrike was working on the incident response.
(lJ) June 2016

(U) On June 10, 2016, the DNC had an all-staff meeting and asked its personnel to return
their laptops and devices to the IT staff. 5551 Brown told the Committee: "most people thought
they were getting fired. But we had to maintain operational secrecy ... we didn't want to tip ourhand to the intruders that we knew they were there." 5~52 From June 10, 2016, to June 12, 2016,
the DNC IT staff and CrowdStrike unplugged all·of the old, potentially compromised systems,
and worked to re-ima e devices and hardware for the new systems. 5553 DNC IT staffers used
5554•
The new network had security "baked in,"(U) On June 13, 2016, A g e n t - contacted Tamene- to ask for an updateon the incident response. 5556 Later that day, Sussmann and Henry called then-FBI Assistant
Director for Cyber Jim Trainor to tell him that the DNC hack was going to be made public. 5557
On June 14, 2016, the DNC told the FBI that the workstations had been re-imaged andcompromised servers were remediated. 5558 That afternoon, i~ediately prior to the release of anarticle in The Washington Post, Wasserman Shultz held a call with DNC officers, including
Donna Brazile, to tell them that the DNC had been hacked by a foreign entity and that1111

Tr., p. 48.
(U) Ibid., pp. 48-49.
5549 (U) Ibid., p. 49.
5550(U) Henry Tr., p. 70.
5551(U) Brown Tr., p. 26.
5552 (U) Ibid.
5553(U) Tamene Tr., p. 57; Brown Tr., pp. 26-27.
5554(U) Tamene Tr., p. 57.
5555(0)~.59.
5556 (U) Tr., p. 49.
5551 (U) ~ Tr., pp. 68-72.
5558(U) Tr., p. 49.
5547 (U)5548

835

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
remediation was underway. 5559 Brazile remembered that the call occurred about five minutes
prior to the Post story breaking. 5560 On the evening of June 14, 2016, The Washington Post
published an article about the DNC hack, with quotes from DNC staff, Sussmann, andCrowdStrike employees. 5561
(U) On June·1s, 2016, Alperovitch published excerpts from CrowdStrike'sanalysis of
the FANCYBEAR and COZYBEAR intrusions on CrowdStrike's blog. 5562 Later that day, after
reading CrowdStrike's blog post, the FBI reached out to the DNC to ask for copies of themalware that CrowdStrike had collected. 5563
(U) That same day, the GRU online persona Guccifer 2.0 made its first publicappearance on a newly created website where it released ''just a few docs from many thousands .
. . I extracted when hacking into DNC's network."5564 The initial Guccifer 2.0 blog release
included the DNC's Trump research file. 5565 The Guccifer 2.0 persona's Twitter account became
operational on June 20, 2016. 5566

(U) As Brown remembers it, a day or two after The Washington Post story, "all of asudden this Guccifer 2.0 persona pops up purporting to be the person, the individual, he claimed,
who hacked into the DNC systems and started releasing files that had been purportedly· stolen
from the DNC."5567 Brown told the Committee that there was "definitely an effort to review thematerials that were being released by Guccifer ... [by the] folks on the DNC research team andour legal counsel."5568 CrowdStrike coordinated with the DNC to look at timelines of what had
been exfiltrated. 5569

5559(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Donna Brazile, January 22, 2018, p. 17.

Ibid(U) Ellen Nakashima, "Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole opposition research on Trump," The
Washington Post, June 14, 2016.
,'
5562(U) Dmitri Alperovitch, "Bears in the Midst: Intrusion into the Democratic National Committee," CrowdStrike,
June 15, 2016.
5563(U) . . Tr., p. 50., Through CrowdStrike's investigation, the FBI learned that the DCCC had also been
compromised. The FBI worked with the DCCC to remediate the issues and found the DCCC to be cooperative.
Trainor 89-93.
5564(U) David Sanger, et al., "Tracing Guccifer 2.0's Many Tentacles in the 2016 Election," The New York Times,
July 15, 2018. For more on the GRU's use ofGuccifer 2.0 for its hack-and-leak campaign, see infra Vol. 5, Sec.
III.B.
5565 (U) Ibid
5566 (U) Ibid
5567
(U) Brown Tr., p. 31.
5568(U) Ibid, p. 32.
5569(U) Henry Tr., p. 93.
5560 (U)5561

836

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Henry told the Committee that Guccifer's claim of sole responsibility for the DNC
hack was ''very interesting ... as an investigator ... [as] an attempt just to refocus blame andthrow investigators off the track."5570 Henry told the Committee that "operationalizing theintelligence" through leaks ''was a major change in the stakes ... Collection of intelligence andespionage is acceptable. The actioning of intelligence to have some type of an operational
impact [was] ... kind of a new paradigm."5571_____ilD_ On June 16, 2016, FBI ersonnel includin AD Trainor, Cyber Division Unit Chief- • Section Chief
DNC CEO Amy Dacey,
CrowdStrike President Shawn Henry, CrowdStrike employee Robert Johnston, and Michael
Sussmann from Perkins Coie met to discuss how CrowdStrike and the FBI would work together
going forward and any outstanding requests from the FBI. 5572 Henry characterized thecollaboration as "absolutely" a "two-way street," stating that the FBI and CrowdStrike had'" throughout the investigation. 5573
(U) Wasserman Schultz told the Committee that she "was never told that the FBI had
any interest in or requested access to [the DNC] servers."5574 In fact, Wasserman Schultz said
that she understood that the DNC cooperated with the FBI through the transition to the newservers, and that "if there was a request, we most definitely would have provided access to ourservers."5575 Wasserman Schultz told the Committee that she believed her imperative as Chair
was to "address. the intrusions and make sure that whatever information the FBI would haveneeded, that they got it."5576(U) Trainor recalled that Henry and Sussmann had expressed frustration that the FBI had .
not notified the DNC of the FANCYBEAR and COZYBEAR intrusions earlier. 5577 But, as
Trainor pointed out to Henry and Sussmann, the FBI had notified the DNC quickly andrepeatedly about the FANCYBEAR intrusions in March-April of 2016. 5578 Trainor remembereddescribing the FBI's ideal cooperation scenario at this meeting, and he recalled that the DNC

5570(U) Ibid, p. 91.
(U) Ibid, pp. 91-92.
5572(U) Dacey Tr., p. 22,
Tr., p. 52, Trainor Tr., p. 56.
5573(U) Henry Tr., p. 69.
5574(U) Wasserman Shultz Tr., p. 23.
5575(U) Ibid, p. 23.
5576(U) Ibid, p. 25.
5577(U) Trainor Tr., p. 59.
551s (U) Ibid
5571

1111

837

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
response was: "we'll give you everything you need."5579 Subsequently, Trainor had "several
conversations with the law firm nearly every day from there on out."5580
at FBI Head uarters, A g e n t ; Tamene said he would
it h initial meeting, and the(U) On June 17, 2016, the dareached out to Tamene askin for
ask for authorization to.fact that the DNC'

layed to Trainor that it would give the FBI5582( U ~ e 20, 2016, CrowdStrike reached out to the FBI, and provided some of theindicators- had requested. 5583 CrowdStrike still had not provided the FBI with forensic
images nor an unredacted copy of their report. 5584 Around this time, Trainor spoke to John
Carlin, then-Assistant Attorney General of the National Security D ~ d j u r y
subpoena in the DNC matter. 5585 Ultimately, Trainor believed t h a t - wasunnecessary because he "was able to get the DNC to cooperate to some degree or level that was
satisfactory and allowed [the FBI] to pursue the investigation." 5586 Trainor told the Committeethat he was not aware of any situation during his tenure in the Cyber Division where the FBI everused
to secure victim cooperation. 5587
(U) July 2016

(U) On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks began releasing emails captured from the DNC
hack. 5588 Although Donna Brazile's emails were among those publicly released, she said that she
never received any official victim notification prior to or subsequent to those releases. 5589
(U) On July 24, 2016, immediately prior to the start of the Democratic National
Convention, Wasserman Schultz resigned as DNC Chair and Donna Brazile became Interim

5579(U) Ibid., pp. 57, 60.
(U) Ibid., p. 57. During one of those calls, Trainor offered to brief the DNC, DCCC, RNC, and the Clinton
Campaign at the classified level. Ibid. Trainor cannot remember if a classified threat briefing was offered to the
Trump Ciimaign.
5581 (U)Tr., p. 52.
5582(U) Tramor Tr., p. 61.
5583 (U)Tr., p. 53.
5584(U) Ibid., p. 53.
5585(U) Trainor Tr., pp. 24, 41.
5586(U) Ibid., p. 40.
5587 (U) Ibid.' p. 41.
5588(U) Tom Hamburger, Karen Tumulty, "WikiLeaks releases thousands of documents about Clinton and internaldeliberations," The Washington Post, July 22, 2016.
5589(U) Ibid., p. 32.
5580

Ill

838

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVE TIGATION ONLY

Chair. 5590 At around 1:00 p.m. that day, after speaking with Wasserman Schultz, Brazile ran into
Mark Elias in the Logan Hotel lobby in Philadelphia. 5591 Elias told Brazile details of the hack,including background on the Russian actors and background on CrowdStrike, and he also told
B,razile about the work Sussmann had been doing for the DNC~ 5592 Elias also told Brazile that
127 of her emails had been released. 5593 Brazile asked Elias to have Sussmann set up a briefingfrom the FBI.5594(U) In July, as additional material purportedly from the DNC was being released,
Johnston called Tamene to ask for help in substantiating that some of the leaked emails werelegitimate DNC emails. Specifically, Johnston wanted to know where emails that were older
than the DNC retention policy were stored. 5595 As leaked emails were published, the DNC IT
staff saw phishing attempts on staffs personal email accounts "or <loxing from details that werereleased publicly through Wikileaks ... there was a lot of activity targeting DNC staff."5596
According to DNC IT Director Brown, activity targeting DNC staff was reported to the FBI on
an ongoing basis. 5597

(U) August 2016
I

(U) Brazile told the Committee that "as Interim Chair in August, her "total focus" wascybersecurity. 5598 Brazile wanted to ensure that the DNC was making appropriate notifications
to donors and staff whose personally identifiable information (PII) had been compromised, since
she herself had PII compromised and had not been notified.5599 Brazile also reviewed invoices atthe DNC and discovered that the DNC had "recreated everything the FBI wanted ... at a cost ofover $65~000." 5600·
On August 2, 2016, the FBI asked CrowdStrike for additional information but"they [CrowdStrike] insisted DNC legal be involved so ... that [didn't go] very far." 5601

Ibid., pp. 5-6.
(U) Ibid., p. 37.
5592(U) Ibid., p. 38.
5593(U) Ibid., p. 38, 42.
5594(U) Ibid., p. 39.
5595(U) Tamene Tr., p. 61.
5596(U) Brown Tr., p. 47.
5591 (U) Ibid., p. 47.
5598(U) Brazile Tr., p. 67.
5599 (U) Ibid., p. 67.
5600 (U) ~ - 90.
5601 (U) Tr., p. 55.
5590 (U)5591

839

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In early August, DHS reached out to Andrew Brown to provide assistance to the
DNC. 5602 Brown directed DHS to contact Sussmann. 5603 Brazile's response to additiqnal aid
from DHS was "let's get some help. We need help."5604 On or about August 5, 2016, Brazile
attended President Obama's birthday party at the White House. During the party, both National
Security Adviser Susan Rice and Attorney General Eric Holder told Brazile that the DNC needed
to cooperate with the FBI. 5605
(U) On August 11, 2016, Brazile received a briefing at the FBI, which DNC Director ofTransition Tom McMahon and DNC officers Henry Munoz and Ray Buckley also attended,along with Sussmann and Henry. 5606 At that briefing, AD Trainor and Cyber Division personnel
walked through the Russia cyber threat. 5607 Brazile told the Committee that she thought thebriefing was "professional" and "thorough" and that she believed it was her "duty as an
American citizen" the direct the DNC to cooperate.5608 Brazile said that the FBI never raise.cl any
issue with the DNC's cooperation during the briefing. 5609 Brazile told the Committee that when
she left the FBI she "wanted to go straight to the Pentagon" because she felt like the DNC hack"was a major attack on our country."5610(U) After meeting with the FBI, Brazile organized the DNC's Cyber Security Task
Force, a group of about 30 volunteers from Silicon Valley, to conduct penetration testing,security assessments, and ongoing cybersecurity support for the DNC. 5611 Tamene told theCommittee that the Task Force included the Chieflnformation Security Officer (CISO) ofGoogle, the former CISO ofFacebook, and employees from Lyft, Uber, and Coinbase, among
others. 5612
(U) On August 31, 2016, more than two months after AD Trainor met with senior DNC
officials at FBI Headquarters, the FBI received a draft of CrowdStrike's report that ASACdescribed as "heavily redacted." 5613 Trainor became frustrated and he told the Committee that

5602

(U) Brazile Tr., p. 81. Brazile recalled this as occurring on either August 4, 2016, or August 6, 2016.
(U) Brown Tr., p. 44.
5604(U) Brazile Tr., p. 82.
5605(U) Ibid, p. 73.
5606(U) Ibid., p. 69.
5607(U) Ibid, p. 70.
5608(U) Ibid, p. 79.
5609(U) Ibid, p. 81.
5610(U) Ibid, p. 80.
5611(U) Ibid, p. 91.
5612(U) Tamene Tr., p. 63.
5613 (U)Tr., p. 55.
5603

Ill

840

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
when he finally received a copy of CrowdStrike's report, he doubted its completeness because heknew that outside counsel had reviewed it. 5614

(U) September 2016
(U) On or about September 21, 2016, Robert Johnston of CrowdStrike called Tamene toalert him to nefarious activity on the DNC's Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud account. 5615
The intrusion involved an actor using a compromised access key to look at the assets in A WS
and determine what type of equipment the DNC had. 5616 CrowdStrike's Falcon sensors triggered
an alert on the DNC's Command Hub which hel ed the IT team find a Se tember 2 2016 lo

After discovering that the AWS activity started September 2, 2016, DNC IT staff, CrowdStrike,Amazon Support staff, and the DNC's Cyber Security Task Force worked together to remediate
the incident. 5619 Tamene told the Committee that CrowdStrike was coordinating with the FBI
about the intrusion, but he himself never spoke with A g e n t - or anyone from the FBI
during this remediation. 5620 Brown told the Committee that the DNC had "worked with law
enforcement around" the A WS incident; but, when asked about whether the FBI was involved,
he said he did not know "the specifics of how law enforcement was involved at that point."5621(U) October 2016(U) Henry told the Committee that "the FBI provided a request [for forensic images] to
the DNC through Perkins Coie" and that Perkins Coie told CrowdStrike to "give the FBI what
you have access to, what you can." 5622 Henry recalled that CrowdStrike provided the FBI withforensic images, a copy of their report, and a USB with some malware on it. 5623
(U) Brown, Tamene, Dacey, and Wasserman Schultz all told the Committee that the
DNC cooperated with the FBI as much as possible. Brown said: "we gave the FBI everything
they ever asked.for. I'm not aware of any decision ever being made to deny a request that the

5614(U) Trainor Tr., pp. 61, 63.
(U) Tamene Tr., p. 62; Brown Tr., p. 35.
5616(U) Tamene Tr., p. 66.
5617(U) Ibid., pp. 66--67.
5618(U) Ibid, pp. 69-70.
5619(U) Ibid, pp. 62-63.
5620(U) Ibid, pp. 64-65.
562 1 (U) Brown Tr., pp. 36-37.
5622(U) Henry Tr., p. 83.
5623(U) Ibid., pp. 83-86.
5615

841

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
FBI made for something."5624 With respect to the confusion about whether or not the FBI had
gotten direct access to the DNC's servers, Brown told the Committee that "a lot of the servers
were actually virtual servers" and that the DNC had taken andof all of5625
the runnin servers.
Brown told the Committee that, as far as I'm aware. And that was the level of access that was requested." 26
According to ASAC- on October 13, 2016, CrowdStrike sent the FBI a bill for $4,000 for
the forensic images that FBI requested. 5627·

(U) In October 2016, DHS briefed DNC and RNC staff on DHS's Election Day
activities, making both organizations aware that DHS was working with the states to secure
voting infrastructure. 5628 Throughout October, the DNC IT staff continued to see intrusion
attempts on their network. 5629 Brazile told the Committee that the DNC kept the FBI aware ofeach attempted intrusion. 5630 After each attempted intrusion, Brazile had a notification process
whereby the DNC would alert the'DCCC, the DGSC, the DGA, HFA, and the RNC. 5631 Brazile
herself would notify the RNC. 5632 Brazile told the Committee that the last attempted intrusion
she was aware of took place on October 26, 2016. 5633

7. (U) Conclusions(U) In many ways, the DNC hack was a novel scenario, fraught with confusion andmiscommunication, inherently enmeshed in the domestic political space that FBI traditionally
avoids. But in other ways, the DNC hack played out like a typical FBI cyber case-a victim
reticent to cooperate with the FBI, a victim who subsequently hires a third-party cybersecurity
vendor through counsel, potentially limiting the FBI's access and insights. While the Committee
understands that the FBI operates with limited resources and currently follows a victim-driven
model when responding to cyber threats, it is clear to the Committee that the FBI could have, andshould have, escalated its messages within the DNC much sooner than it did. The FBI
complained about lack of access to the DNC servers and the refereeing of information by Perkins

5624(U) Brown Tr., p. 34.
(U) Ibid.
5626(U) Ibid, p. 35. The Committee ·notes that using forensic images of compromised systems is standard protocol
in cyber investigations, because it removes the chance that information on the compromised systems could bealtered or deleted by mistake.
5621 (U) Tr., p. 55.
5628(U) ~ e Tr., pp. 122-123.
5629(U) Tamene Tr., p. 72.
5630(U) Brazile Tr., p. 93.
5631(U) Ibid, p. 97.
5632(U) Ibid
5633(U) Ibid, pp. 99-100.
5625

842

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCoie, but ultimately it did not pursue compulsory process, and witnesses admitted that the FBI
did eventually get what it needed.

i.

(U) Escalation

By the time the.DNC retained CrowdStrike in May 2016, the FBI had identified
two act~er intrusions on the DNC's network-F ANCYBEAR and COZYBEAR-both ofwhich are associated with the Russian intelligence services. 5634 As Trainor told the Committee:"they had a real mess on their hands." 5635 Trainor, a 20-year veteran of the FBI who spent thelast third of his career on c ber issues, could not think of any other FBI investigation where the.5636 As Henry put it, "the Russians are probably themost sophisticated foreign adversaries that we have seen in terms of their tactics ... theirstealthiness, and their creativity."5637(U) But the FBI did not treat the initial intrusion into the DNC like the mismatch it was:sophisticated foreign adversa versus non rofit. When asked wh the FBI did not just escalate
the situation at the DNC,
ASACtold the Committee that he wanted to protect
equities. But whep. pressed about whether
the FBI ever discussed finding a cleared person at the DNC to receive a defensive briefing,said he did not know whether those conversations had taken place. 5638 The FBI could
have engaged with the DNC Chair, a sitting member of Congress, with a classified briefing, butthey continued to engage the DNC's IT staff, despite the futility of those efforts over a period ofmonths. 5639·
(U) DNC IT staffers suggested that more urgent warnings could.have helped mitigate thethreat sooner, and they contrasted the FBI's efforts during the 2016 cycle to the 2008 cycle.5~40
As Brown:told the Committee: "the DNC had been targeted by Chinese APTs in 2008 ... [and]law enforcement had come to the office and met with the -Chairman to tell them: we think you're
under attack ... that was not the level of outreach we were getting from the FBI in the.fall of
2015."5641

1111

Tr., p. 48. .
(U) Trainor Tr., p. 51.
5636(U) Ibid, p. 55.
5637(U)Tr., p. 37.
S638 (U)Tr., p. 35.
5639(U) Wasserman Schultz Tr., pp. 32-33.
5640(U) .See, e.g., Tamene Tr. p. 80 ("it would have been better if people higher up than me were talking about thesethings."); Brown Tr. p. 23 ("I would think that if the FBI had reason to believe that they thought we were actuallycompromised and that the actors were an APT-type of actor, that they would have given us a little more information,
a little more urgency on that notification.").
·5641(U) Brown Tr., p. 22.
S634 (U)
5635

-e

843

(U) During an all-members brief to Congress about the Intelligence Community
Assessment (ICA) in January of 2017, Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz confronted then-FBI
Director Corney about the lack of engagement with DNC leadership during the hack. 5642 Duringthat exchange, Director Corney defended the FBI and said they had properly engaged and that
the Congresswoman should have a follow-up meeting with the FBI. 5643 Wasserman Schultz thenmet with the FBI, which she told the Committee "confirmed ... that they didn't do anything ·proactive to go up the chain of command in the DNC to ensure that we would know about theirconcerns that a Russian spy agency was on our network. " 5644

ii.

(U) Engagement with CrowdStrike/Obtaining Necessary Investigative
Materials·(U) The biggest miscommunication between the DNC, CrowdStrike, and the FBI was theextent to which FBI received or did not receive the materials it needed for its ongoinginvestigations in a timely manner.

(U) DNC witnesses and CrowdStrike's Shawn Henry indicated that the FBI received allof the materials it asked for, and that the FBI never complained about the DNC's cooperation to
Wasserman Schultz or Brazile.
(U) Henry told the Committee that CrowdStrike "had more than 100 exchanges back andforth with the FBI," including FBI field offices, from May 2016 until September 2017. 5645 But
Trainor characterized the DNC's cooperation as "moderate" overall, and lamented that getting
materials from CrowdStrike and the DNC was "slow and laborious in many respects." 5646
Trainor testified that the manner in which the FBI received information from CrowdStrike-in areport reviewed by counsel-was not his preference. As Trainor told the Committee: "havingthat information [raw data about the computer intrusion] collected, fully viewed by an attorney,scrubbed, sent over to the FBI in a stripped-down version three weeks later is not optimal."5647_(U) Trainor told the Committee that while it was common for victims to retain
cybersecurity vendors, it was uncommon to have "everything thoroughly reviewed and vetted[by outside counsel] before being shared."5648 Trainor told the Committee that Perkins Coie

5642

(U) Wasserman Schultz Tr., p. 51.
(U) Ibid, p. 53.
5644(U) Ibid, p. 56.
5645(U) Henry Tr., pp. 67--68.
5646(U) Trainor Tr., pp. 45, 65.
5647(U) Ibid, p. 35.
5648(U) Ibid, pp. 63--65.
5643

844

COMMITTEE SENSIJIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
asked the FBI for a list of forensic images and other technical information that the FBI wanted,
and the FBI gave Perkins Coie that list. 5649 Ultimately, the FB_I got what it needed, including theforensic images from CrowdStrike.

only does the victim entity know the system best, but multiple personnel on-site allows for skill
gaps to be addressed and for expertise to be appropriately marshaled to meet the threat. Further,
the use of a cybersecurity vendor and cybersecurity counsel as potential filters for information
creates the impression-true or not-that the organization is n o t ~ i t h theFBI. Des ite what FBI felt was dela ed or filtered cooperation, given political sensitivities and the lack of any
precedent for doing so.

5649(U) Ibid, pp. 66, 69.

845

CO~TTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYfB. (U) The Steele Dossier: Its Origins and Handling
1. (U) Introduction and Findings(U) In the summer and fall of 2016, a set of memos that came to be known as the Steele
dossier ("dossier")5650 circulated among limited circles in Washington and played a role inspurring Federal Bureau oflnvestigation (FBI), Congressional, and p r i v a t ~ dto Russian interference in the 2016 elections. These memos, compiled b y Christopher Steele, alleged cooperation between
Russian government officials and Trump Campaign officials, Trump Organization employees,
and Trump himself, as well as information regarding Hillary Clinton, Russian cybercrime, andother topics. Nearly four years after Steele deliyered the first of these memos, many of thedossier's specific allegations about the activities of individuals are uncorroborated.
(U) The Committee did not seek to prove or disprove the assertions in the dossier.
Instead, the Committee explored Steele's methodology, explored the information available on
Steele's subsources, examined how the FBI handled Steele as a source, and sought to understandhow the FBI investigated the assertions in Steele's r.eporting.
(U) The Committee found that the tradecra.ft reflected_ in the dossier is generally poor
relative to IC standards; the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General(OIG)5651 and many who the Committee spoke with at the FBI also found serious fault with
Steele's tradecraft. For example, FBI and·DOJ OIG investigations discovered that Steele's
sources were sometimes several steps removed from the information they provided, and Steele
did not adequately convey that separation in the memos. Further, some information Steele
logically would have known did not appear in the documents for unclear reasons, and theCommittee found several opportunities for interested parties to inset1 disinformation. The

5650(U) This report refers frequently to a collection of memos Christopher Steele produced in the summer and fallof2016 as "the dossier." This term encompasses 20 memos-17 of them have been publicly released, and theCommittee received three additional memos from FBI, which FBI had received from Steele. Rather than repeatedlyrefer to a particular memo written by Steele by its date and number, the Committee discusses the collection ofmemos as the dossier. The Committee notes that the memos that make up the dossier appear less polished thanreports that Orbis Intelligence produced for its corporate clients and shared with the Department of State. Two of
the additional memos the FBI provided the Committee did not originate with Steele: FBI got them from Steele,
Steele got them from Jonathan Winer, who got them from Sydney Blumenthal, who got them from Cody Shearer, afreelance journalist. Shearer had compiled them as source notes for an eventual story. The Committee does notrefer to those additional two memos as part of the larger Steele dossier. See infra Vol. 5, Sec. IV.B.4.viii.
5651(U) The DOJ OIG conducted_ three investigations cited in this Report: the DOJ OJG FISA Report; "Audit of theFederal Bureau oflnvestigation's Management of its Confidential Human Source Validation Processes," November
2019; and "A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice inAdvance of the 2016 Election, Appendix One," June 2018.

846

Committee was unable to establish a clear picture of the access and credibility of Steele's
subsource network due to Steele's unwillingness to talk to the Committee, other than throughwritten questions.
(U) The Committee found that, within the FBI, the dossier was given a veneer ofcredibility by lax procedures, and layered misunderstandings. Before corroborating theinformation in the dossier, FBI cited that information in a FISA application. After a summary of
the uncorroborated information was later appended to the ICA, the FBI also briefed it to the
President, President-elect, and Gang of Eight, while noting that it was unverified. 5652 That highlevel attention likely prompted the press to publish the dossier memos in January 2017.
(U) The dossier's creation was rooted in the end of the 2016 primary season. As Trumpemerged as the Republican front-runner, Fusion GPS cofounder Glenn Simpson reached out to
Democratic Party contacts to offer opposition research bn Donald Trump, building on the
research he had begun for a different client the year before. Fusion GPS is a consulting firm thatclaims to conduct in-depth research, largely focused ori public records. Simpson had frequently
worked on Russia-related issues in the past and represented different clients with different
interests, including sometimes working for Russian oligarchs and sometimes against them.
(U) The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary for America Campaign("Clinton Campaign") worked through a law firm, Perkins Coie, to obtain opposition research, inpart to preserve attomey-client·privilege claims over the information. 5653 Perkins Coie, withMark Elias acting as the main intermediary, hired Fusion GPS. Under that contract, Fusion GPS
provided previously completed research and offered to continue to pursue several lines ofinquiry: the outsourcing of Trump brand products overseas; Trump's taxes; and Trump
Organization's overseas business projects, bankruptcies, casino issues, and alleged associations
with organized crime. Simpson told the Committee that it was Fusion GPS's idea to pursue
overseas ~ies-that research was not directed by Perkins Coie, the DNC, or the Clinton
Campaign.
,(U) Fusion GPS sought to go beyond the public records research it had alreadycompleted on Trump. It subcontracted with Steele's Orbis Business Intelligence (Orbis) in Jup.e
2016 to conduc~ research overseas, specifically in Russia. Steele turned to one main subsource inparticular, who reached out to a subsource network in Russia 'and Europe in early June to collect

5652(U) The FBI briefed the Gang of Eight the summary of the Steele material that was included in the ICA on themorning of January 6, 2017.
5653(U) Perkins Coie is a law firm that has long provided legal services for both the DNC and Clinton Campaign.
Marc Elias served as the primary Perkins Coie intermediary. Brazile Tr., pp. 114, 128, 154--155.

847

information on Trump's past dealings in Russia .. Steele first debriefed the main subsource5654 on
June 16, 2016, but he continued to gather additional information through the fall.
(U) Steele delivered his first memo to Simpson on June 24, 2016, several days after The
Washington Post published a report describing a Russian government hack into the DNC
network. By mid-December, the dossier numbered 20 memos in total, spanning a wide range of
topics and including Russian attempts to gather kompromat on Donald Trump and Hillary
Clinton, ties between the Russian government and Trump-affiliated individuals, and reactions ofboth the Trump team and Moscow to press reporting on the hack of the DNC. 5655 It is unclear
how many of these memos Perkins Coie actually briefed to the DNC or Clinton Campaign;senior staff at the Campaign organizations did not recall much of the information in the dossier
being discussed.
(U) At the beginning of July, Steele reached out to FBI Special A g e n t _ , who
had been Steele's handler for earlier FBI engagements, including Steele's provision ofleads for
FBI's investigation into the Federation International de Football Association (FIFA). Steele
expressed concern about information he had received and sought to urgently inform FBI. On
July 5, 2016,. traveled t o - to meet with Steele and review his information.

(U) considered Steele a credible sou~ce, and therefore- did not want todiscount the reporting, despite its sensational nature. worked to get Steele's first memo in
the hands of the relevant division within the FBI. _By the end of August, received a pointof contact in Counterintelligence Division who would receive the documents, but the Crossfire
Hurricane team at FBI-responsible for investigating ties between the Trump Campaign andRussia-did not receive the documents until mid-September.
(U) In late July 2016, Steele met with another contact in the U.S. Government tocommunicate his concerns about Donald Trump, Russia, and the election. Steele and Bruce Ohr,then Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, who had known Steele ina professional capacity since 2007, met for breakfast in Washington, D.C. Steele conveyed his
deep concern about Russian activities and told Ohr he had given his information to FBI.

5654

(U) Steele refers to his sources and subsources in a variety of ways. FBI refers to Steele often as a source,
dropping others in Steele's source network to subsources and sub-subsources. This report refers to Steele as an FBI"source," to Steele's "main subsource," and to other "subsources" and "sub-subsources." For more on Steele's
source network, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. IV.B.4.i.
5655(U) It remains unclear to what extent the Trump Campaign's members were aware of the dossier's existence, up
until the President-elect received a briefing from Intelligence Community leaders in early January, 2017, and thedossier was published shortly thereafter.

848

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

- B y early October, FBI's Crossfire Hurricane team in the Counterintelligence
Division had reviewed several of Steele's memos a n d - related notes. As the teamevaluated this information, it did not have an adequate understanding of S t e e l e ' ~. t . Steele's reputation as a productive FBI confidential human source a n d led to the FBI treating the memos as credible before they were corroborated, and FBI'svetting process for Steele himself was not sufficiently rigorous or thorough.
(U) The Crossfire Hurricane team requested a face-to-face meeting with Steele, which
took place on October 3, 2016. The team attempted to learn more about Steele's subsource
network, but Steele was unwilling to share details. The parties walked out of that meeting withwidely varying views of Steele's obligations to the FBI.

(U) Steele briefed two people at Department of State on his work on the dossier. In
September, Steele showed the dossier to Jonathan Winer, another long-time contact, then serving
at the Department of State as Special Envoy to Libya. 5656 Winer's background was in counteringinternational money laundering and organized crime, and he had done occasional private sector
work for, and against, Russian oligarchs. Winer knew Steele because they shared a communityof interest on Russian oligarchs and organized crime. Then, in mid-October, Steele met with
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs Kathy Kavalec, conveying
to her an overview of the allegations in the still-growing dossier. The Committee found that
Department of State personnel granted the dossier credence in part based on Steele's past reports
on Ukrainian political dynamics, which he during the past several years had shared with the
Bureau of Europe and Eurasian Affairs.

The FISA application and renewals were approved but later became the subject of aninvestigation by the DOJ OIG, which found "multiple instances in which factual assertions relied
upon in the first FISA application were inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate
documentation. " 5659

5656(U) By 2016, Winer and Steele had kn.own each other for nearly a decade, and the two would pass each otherbusiness leads occasionally. Winer Tr., pp. 11, 13. Winer told the Committee that he did not disclose to security
officers at Department of State his ongoing relationship with Steele. Winer Tr. II, p. 25.
5657(U) For more information about Carter Page, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.F.
5658(U) The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approves information collection under Title 1 for a period of90
days; then the burden is on FBI to prove that continued surveillance is necessary and fruitful. FISC Rules ofProcedure, Rule 16.
5659(U) DOJ OJG FISA Report, p. viii.

849

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Simpson and Steele briefed major media outlets during September and October on
the maiq findings from the dossier. Simpson was not expecting the reporters to write only basedon these briefings, but he wanted to prompt them to ask questions of government officials, inparticular of FBI officials. At the time, Stede ~enerally frustrated with the FBI's perceived
slowness in responding to the allegations, and said Steele was specifically frustrated that
then-Director Corney on October 28, 2016, had reopened the investigation into then-candidate
Hillary Clinton's emails. That frustration prompted Simpson and Steele to renew briefings forpress outlets on the allegations in the dossier and encourage them to ask questions of the FBI
about whether they were investigating Donald Trump. On October 31, 2016, Mother Jones was
the first to publish an article summarizing the contents of Steele's memos and discussing Steele's
background, though not naming him. Mother Jones was the only organization that published thestory at that time:·(U) FBI officials, shocked by the article and viewing it as a confidential human source
divulging information to the press, followed normal practice and terminated the relationship with
Steele. Steele, for his part, had seen no obligation to keep the dossier information confidential.

(U) After the election, still seeking to prompt U.S. Government attention on the
allegations in the dossier, Steele asked his friend and occasional business associate Sir Andrew
Wood5660 to alert Senator John McCain and McCain's staffer, David Kramer, to the existence ofthe dossier at a conference in Halifax, Canada, in mid-November. On November 28; Kramer
flew to London to meet with Steele and review the dossier. Kramer soon after received copies ofthe memos from Simpson and passed them to Senator McCain. Over the next month, Kramer
showed the memos to journalists and other contacts in and out of government in Washington,
D.c.s661

5660(U) Wood was the British Ambassador to Russia from 1995-2000 and also served in Russia from 1964-1966
and 1979-1982. Chathamhouse.org, "Sir Andrew Wood, Associate Fellow." Since his retirement from the British
Foreign Service he has served as an independent consultant, including to a Russian investment fund called
Renaissance Capital. Sophie Brodie, "Renaissance Capital hires former Moscow Ambassador," Financial News
London, February 5, 2003.
5661(U) See infra Vol. 5, Sec. IV.B.6.

850

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) While FBI had formally ended its relationship with Steele in early November, Steele
continued conversations with ADAG Ohr well into 2017. Ohr believed FBI was supportive· of
his interactions with Steele. By mid-November 2016, FBI began formally debriefing Ohr on his
interactions with Steele, at one point asking Ohr to ask Steele to provide additional information
to FBI. The DOJ OIG expressed qualms about this arrangement and found that several in the
FBI considered it unorthodox.
(U) Aside from the FISA application and its renewals, the dossier information also
appeared in summary form as an annex to the ICA, over some author objections. The annex
noted that there was "limited corroboration" of the.dossier summary information. In early
December, President Obama tasked the IC with a comprehensive assessment of Russia's
involvement in the 2016 election. FBI-particularly Deputy Director Andy McCabe-requested
that the dossier information be included in the assessment, pointing to the President's request forcomprehensiveness. CIA analysts pushed back on FBI' s request, seeing the memos as
uncorroborated and questioning the sourcing. All three primary author agencies eventuallycompromised on summarizing the allegations in an annex to the assessment. In early January, aprincipal-level team from ODNI, CIA, FBI, and NSA briefed a highly compartmented version of
the full assessment to the President, the President-elect, and the Gang of Eight. Then-FBI
Director Corney briefed Trump one-on-one on the contents of the annex. 5662'

(U) On January 10, 2017, BuzzFeed published the contents of the dossier, noting that theclaims were unverified, and citing a CNN story that the IC had briefed a summary of theinformation to President Obama and President-Elect Trump. The next day, The Wall Street
Journal named Steele as the author. Over the following months, several of those mentioned in
the dossier's memos denied the allegations, with one, Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian technology- executive, filing ari unsuccessful defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed.

(U) In May 2017, the SCO was established, ending FBI's attempts to corroborate
information in the dossier. In the end, few allegations were definitively corroborated, and SCO
said its own leads and research overtook work to verify Steele's findings.
(i.

(U) Obstacles to the Committee's Investigation(U) The Committee attempted several times, over the course of three years, to interview
Steele about his work, at a time and location of his choosing, with whatever security precautions
he requested. Several interlocutors purported to represent Steele's interests to the Committee,
including Adam Waldman? one of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska's attomeys5663 ; Dan Jones, a

5662(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, pp. 179-182. For detailed information on the assessment, see infra Vol. 4.
(U) Waldman Tr., pp. 175-185. Starting in approximately September 2008, Adam Waldman began representing
Deripaska in the United States. Short-Form Registration Statement pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act
5663

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYformer staffer on the Committee5664; and Steele's attorney, Robert Weinberg. Steele repeatedly
refused a meeting, but provided one tranche of written answers to Committee questions on
August 16, 2018. 5665
(U) A further restriction on the Committee's investigative efforts was the centralizationof information regarding the dossier within the SCO and the SCO' s decision not to share that
information with the Committee. FBI had begun efforts to corroborate accusations within thedossier in the fall of 2016, an effort that progressed slowly through the winter and into the springof 2017. When the SCO began work in May 2017, however, all those efforts ceased at FBI.
After that point, the Committee has limited insights into how or whether SCO pursued thedossier at all. SCO did not share the results of any further inquiries, to the extent any were
undertaken, with the Committee. Special Agent in Charge David Archey briefed the Committee
in July 2019 on the SCO's investigative process and information management:

We [the SCOJ were aware of the Steele dossier, obviously. We were aware ofsome of the efforts that went into its verification ... we did not include Steele
dossier reporting in the report.... [T]hose allegations go to the heart of things
that were in our mandate-but we believed our own investigation. The
information that we collected would have superseded it, and been something wewould have relied on more, and that's why you see what we did in the report andnot the Steele dossier in the report. 5666
Archey declined to provide further information on whether FBI or SCO attempted to verify
information in the dossier, although he noted that the SCO did not draw on the dossier to support
its conclusions. 5667
(U) Finally, the Committee repeatedly asked the FBI for several additional pieces of
information regarding its relationship with Steele and his subsource network. First, theof 1938, Registration No. 5934, May 8, 2009. Waldman remained registered under FARA until April
2018·. Supplemental Statement pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, Registration No. 5934,
May 31, 2018.
5664(U) Dan Jones told the Committee that "Steele did ask me to assis.t him in communicating with ·some parties."
When asked who, Jones replied "The Senate Intelligence Committee. . . . At least in the case that I'm thinking of,
the Senate Intelligence Committee reached out to me." Jones went on to explain that in referring to "the-Committee," he meant the Minority StaffDirector, with the consent of the StaffDirector. Steele's attorney later told
the Committee that Jones did not have the authority to speak for Steele. Jones served as a Professional Staff
Member on the Committee from 2007 until 2015. SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Dan Jones, March 26,
2018,p.27.
'
5665(U) The Committee submitted written questions to Christopher Steele in May 2018. He responded in August
2018 with 17 pages of answers. See Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.
5666(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with David Archey, July 15, 2019, p. 86.
5667 (U) Ibid.

852

Committee asked FBI to provide additional information on Steele's contributions to the FIFA
investigation, including whether his leads implicated Russians, in particular associates of Oleg
Deripaska. An answer to this question would have helped the Committee identify separation oralignment of the interests of Steele and Deripaska. The Committee also asked FBI to update andclarify its assessment of Steele's subsource network, including its identification of a particularperson as Steele's main subsource. The FBI did not answer these requests.
2. (U) Examining the Steele Dossier's Creation and Sourcingi.

(U) Background on Steele(U) In the run up to the dossier's creation, in the spring of 2016, Steele had a reputation
among his associates for providing generally dependable reporting on issues regarding Ukraine,
Russia, and countries in the region. In particular, he had a reputation within the FBI for
providing valuable reporting regarding the FIFA scandal5668 and among several at the Bureau ofEuropean and Eurasian Affairs at the Department of State for providing information on Ukrainethat they regarded as largely credible. However, the Committee found information that calls into
question the accuracy of Steele's reporting.
a. (U) Steele's professional background(U) David Kramer conveyed the following on Steele's credentials:
Based on what Sir Andrew told me and then based on my direct interaction with
Steele, he's someone who had extensive background in the Russia area itself, hadserved there for a few years back in the nineties, then left and set up his own

5668(U) In May 2015, the U.S. indicted 14 current and former FIFA officials and associates on corruption charges,
followin an FBI investi ation. See "FIFA Corru tion Crisis: Key Questions Answered," BBC, December 21, 2015.
5669

853

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
consulting company. And.from what I gather, it seemed like he had impressive
credentials; and we seemed in sync in terms of our analysis or interpretation ofwhat was happening in Russia. 5672
(Orbis).

Steele5673

and founded Orbis Business Intelligence(U) No witnesses claimed Steele had any orientation toward a U.S. political party.
Winer, speaking as a long-time acquaintance of-Steele's, said, "He's not political in partisan .
terms. It's not what he is about, in my opinion, at all. If he has any politics, it's about Putin, as
in knowing what he is and not liking what he's done domestically and intemationally." 5674
Kramer said "[Steele] felt that the relationship between the UK and the United States was
unique; he valued it more than anything, and he felt that, as America's closest ally, that he had an
obligation to bring [the dossier memos] to the attention of the right people and for it to be taken
seriously ."5675
The Committee notes that Steele made an assertion durinwith FBI and to the DOJ OIG about his relationshi with(U) Steele told the DOJ OIG that he was '"favorably disposed' toward the Trump family
before he began his research because he had visited a Trump family member at Trump Tower
and 'been friendly' with [the family member] for some years. He described their relationship as'personal' and said that he once gifted a family tartan from Scotland to the family member."5677
The. Committee did not obtain further information about Steele's claim of a friendship with

5672

(U) Kramer Tr., pp. 7-8. Wood told The Guardian in January 2017 that he believed Steele was a ''very
competent professional operator," and "I do not think he would make things up. I don't think he would necessarily
always draw the correct judgment but that's not the same thing at all." Luke Harding and Alice Ross, "Sir Andrew·
Wood former UK-Moscow ambassador consulted on Trump dossier," The Guardian, January 13, 2017.
5673
5674
5675

(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jonathan Winer, July 10, 2017, p. 38.
Kramer Tr., . 29.

5676
5677

•

inal . The report did not specify which family member.

The Committee notes Steele is likely referring, again, to854

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
b. (U) Work with FBI-Steele's relationship with FBI began in the spring of 2010, when Bruce Ohr,
who was then responsible for the transnational organized crime program for DOJ, introduced
to Steele. 5678 At that meeting,. sought to determine whether Steele or his firm had
information that might be useful to FBI.

He was as he described a Russian expert, had worked over there for a number ofyears. That was his wheelhouse ... he had a source network, a sub-source
network, still active, which was his means of obtaining information. I did not atthat time ask to determine who these [sub]sources were or what they did But
based on Bruce's recommendation, based on my conversation with him, andrecognizing him as a professional, I assumed that .the source network was for
real, was solid. 5680
(U) -described two elements of Steele's motivation for working with FBI:He had two motivations at the time when we first met to try and engage with us.
One was heh-level Russian criminal
activity, but
the law enforcement
services within London were not interested in it.
So he viewed us, the FBL asa place where this information could rest, where possibly we could do somethingwith it. 5682
(U) According to Steele's other motivation was financial. 5683 said the total
amount Steele was paid over the course of his work with FBI, unrelated to the dossier, wasbetween $95,000 and $96,000. 5684
(U) Steele's relationship with FBI started slowly and picked up significantly withcollaboration around the FIFA investigation. indicated that, at the beginning of therelationship between Steele and the FBI, in the 2010 timeframe, Steele would send an occasional
report on "an oligarch or some kind of an activity that was going on." FBI was not paying him

5678 (U) -Tr., p. 6.

Ibid., p. 8.
(U) Ibid., pp. 8-9.

5679 (U)5680
5681(U) later explained that, while he does not know why British authorities were not interested, he surmises
it was because "at the time England ... was in a restructuring of their law enforcement and intelligence services.
They had a serious resource issue." Ibid, p. 12.
5682(U) Ibid., p. 8.
5683(U) Ibid, p. 9.
5684(U) Ibid, p. 24.

855

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATJON ONLY

for these reports. 5685 The relationship deepened surrounding the FIFA investigation in 2011. 5686
told the DOJ OIG that "minimally corroborated"-the description used in the FBl's
Human Source Vetting Report on Steele-was consistent with his understanding of the entire
collection of Steele's reporting to the FBI. 5687
(U) said that FBI officially named Steele as a Confidential Human Source in
October 2013, in part because FBI wanted to compensate Steele for his assistance with the FIFA
investigation. There was rtever a contract or a regular payment, although the formality •Of therelationship between the FBI and Steele was a subject of disagreement between the twoparties. 5688 told the Committee that FBI agents instructed Steele he was not allowed todisclose his work with the FBI. 5689 said FBI looked for an dero ato information about
Steele and his business in their databases, advised theof thearrangement, and told Steele's former- 5690 None of those steps resulted in concerning
information. Steele became a confidential human source (CHS) for the FBI in 2013 andremained one until November 2016. 5691

3. (U) The Dossier's Origin'si.

(U) Before Steele's Dossier: Simpson's Preliminary Opposition Research
into Trump·(U) The' gassier, and Steele's activities, were entirely constructed under the umbrella of acontract with the DNC and Clinton Campaign, but Fusion GPS's opposition research into Donald
Trump began months earlier, during the Republican primaries. In the fall of 2015, Fusion GPS
signed' a contract with Paul Singer and the Washington Free Beacon, in which Fusion GPS
would conduct research on Trump's business dealings. 5692 While he began the research projectgenerally neutral on Trump, Simpson said:

I didn 't know anything about Trump in the beginning and had no opinion of him . .
. . Over the course ofwhatever it was, six or seven months, I did develop-I madesome judgments about this person and his character and integrity, and /felt byIbid., p. 13.
Ibid., p. 15.
(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 266.
5688
(U)Tr., p. 23; see also DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 92.
5689 (U)Tr., p. 25.
5690(U) Ibid., p. 33.
5691(U) Ibid., p. 24.
5692(U) Fusion GPS invoice, October 20, 2015 (WFB_SSCI_0000004); Simpson Tr., pp. 15-16.
5685 (U)5686 (U)5687

856

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

the spring that he was not suitable to be .the President of the United States andthat he did not have those kind of qualifications or character. 5693
(U) Simpson said as the primaries progressed, work for the Washington Free Beacon"sort of trailed off." 5694 Simpson stated, "I just remember it becoming increasingly obvious that
Donald Trump was going to be the nominee, and it became increasingly obvious to me that
.Republicans opposed to Donald Trump would have no need for my services soon."5695 However,
Simpson had six months of research done, and he found the subject interesting. He said:

At that point, this other opportunity came along to continue to look at theseissues. And I was also, of course, intellectually interested in continuing the work.
And so we took on a new client. But our old client and our new client basically
had the same interest and the same concerns. 5696
ii.

(U) DNC and Clinton Campaign Seek Opposition Research on Trump(U) Fusion GPS approached their eventual new clients to offer research on Trump. 5697 In
their recent book, Crime in Progress, Simpson and Fritsch report that the morning of March 1,
2016, "knowing a Trump nomination was now all but inevitable" and that the Washington Free
Beacon clients would likely end their contract with Fusion GPS, Fritsch sent an email to a senior
figure in the Democratic.Party establishment. The subject line was "Trump," and the email read"Ok he has to be stopped. We have done the most on him." The contact immediately responded"Yes. Let's talk,'' 5698 While Simpson says he "wasn't a big fan of the Clintons," there was soon'"unanimity" on "the need to do what they could to keep Trump out of the White House."5699(U) Elias, the primary interlocutor between Perkins Coie and the Clinton Campaign,
represented to the Committee that he believes he hired Fusion GPS in March or April of 2016

5693

(U) Simpson Tr., pp. 50-51.
(U) Ibid., pp. 42-43.
S69S (U) Ibid.
S696 (U) Ibid., p. 51.
5697(U) Crime in Progress, p. 54. Simpson would not answer whether Perkins Coie had been a client before andsaid he could not remember ch:arly who had reached out to whom first about Trump research. Simpson Tr., p. 56.
However, in their book, Simpson and Fritch clearly state they offered their services to Perkins Coie. Crime in
Progres~, pp. 55-57. Fritsch and Simpson published this book two years after Simpson's interview with theCommittee. Given Simpson's unwillingness to share many details during that interview, the Committee cites thisbook to fill in gaps, much as the Committee cites press reporting, in full awareness that neither is considered
testimony or bound by laws regarding lying to Congress. The Committee cites the book not to confirm the veracityof the information, but to point out Simpson's purported view of the situation and the discrepancy between
Simpson's willingness to share information with Congress and the detail included in the book.
5698(U) Crime in Progress, p. 54.
5699(U) Ibid., p. 55; Simpson Tr., p. 51.
5694

857

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

after Fusion GPS reached out to partners at Perkins Coie, but said at the time there was no Russia
focus to the information provided. 5700 Simpson and Fritsch said in their book they sat down withElias on April 20 to discuss the business arrangement. Elias told the two of them that the Clinton
Campaign wanted to understand how Trump had managed to recover from a string ofbankruptcies that should have ruined him: "Where did his money come from, how much did hereally have, and who helped him?"5701(U) Simpson understood the ultimate client for the research to be the DNC and theClinton Campaign. 5702 However, for the purpose of the contract, Perkins Coie was the signatory.
Simpson said the contract was a "general_services agreement." The contract is between "LC,"which is the corporate name of Fusion GPS, and Perkins Coie. 5703 The two parties likely
finalized the contract sometime in May 2016. 5704 Elias told Fusion GPS to report only to him, so
Fusion GPS's communications could be solely with a lawyer and thus covered by attorney-client
privilege, where the clients, in this case, were the DNC and the Clinton Campaign. 5705
iii.

(U) DNC and Clinton Campaign Leadership Awareness of the Contract(U) Leadership at the DNC and Clinton Campaign were unaware----or at most marginallyaware-that Perkins Coie had hired Fusion GPS. John Podesta, the Chairman of the Clinton
Campaign, told the Committee that he had no reason to believe that anyone on the Clinton
Campaign had any contact with Steele or Fusion GPS. 5706 He said "I have no first-handknowledge about that." When the Committee asked if Podesta had second-hand knowledge of
Fusion GPS's work with Steele or work on the dossier, Podesta said:
I never saw a document that looks anything like the dossier. We were getting
information coming in. Some of it was coming in from press inquiries. I don 't
know how they got that information. So there's a kind ofweb of connection that
may have been fed by s_ome of the stories that have been most sensational that are
now associated with the dossier or circulating in the press. Where those camefrom, whether they originated with Fusion or other places, I don't know. 5707

5700(U) Attorney Proffer, Elias, May 21, 2018.
(U) Crime in.Progress, p. 57.
5702(U) Simpson Tr., p. 58.
5703(U) Ibid, p. 60.
5704(U) Crime in Progress, p. 59.
5705(U) Ibid, p. 55.
5706(U) SSCI Transcript of the First Interview with John Podesta, September 18, 2017, p. 42. The Committee notesthat Elias was representing Podesta at the interview. Elias did not raise his role hiring Fusion GPS or his direct
knowledge of these matters. Podesta also acknowledged that he knew Glenn Simpson while the latter was working
at The Wall Street Journal. Ibid, p. 42.
5101 (U) Ibid, p.44.
5701

858

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Podesta later said that, in his role as Campaign Chair, he would not necessarily have known
whether the Clinton Campaign contracted with Fusion GPS. 5708 DNC and Clinton Campaign
officials seemed to not know where the information was originating. Podesta told the Committeethat "I didn't know who Chris Steele was until after the election. And ... I was unaware of thecontents of [the dossier] until BuzzFeed, obviously, published it." 5709 He also told the Committeethat he had "no knowledge of who paid [Simpson] to contract with Steele."5710·(U) Donna Brazile, who served as the Interim Chair of the DNC from late July 2016
until February of 2017, said that she was unaware of Steele's activities. On November 4, 2016,
she received press inquiries asking if she knew "MI-6 was on our payroll."5711 Brazile sent a text
message to Elias, because she knew "the lawyers always sign off on contracts." 5712 According toBrazile, Elias called her and said "You don't need to know." Brazile told the Committee: "Andyou know wqat? I let it go." 5713 Brazile further told the Committee that she was not aware ·during her time as Interim Chair that any funding was used for opposition research. 5714 She also
made clear that if she had known about Steele's work, she would have passed it to FBI. 5715
(U) Elias, the main interlocutor for Perkins Coie to the Clinton Campaign, represented to
the Committee through counsel that he had independent authority to authorize expenditures on
research. He had consulted with Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook about outside hires
but only at a "high level." Elias did not share the identity of the person or entity retained. 5716
While he was authonzed to sign off on sub-vendors for Fusion GPS, Elias did not recall being
told about Steele or Orbis, and he was unaware that Steele was providing p.on-public information
gathered by human sources. 5717 Elias then became aware of Steele in June or July 2016,
although the context of that awareness is unclear. 5718
(U) Steele in his written responses to the Committee said that he became aware of
Perkins Coie in August and met Elias in September. 5719 remembered Steele saying that he

Ibid., p.47.
Ibid, p.41.
(U) Ibid., p.43.
5711(U) Brazile Tr., p. 124.
5712
(U) Brazile told the Committee that her text to Elias said "MI-6 on our payroll? Need to know." Ibid., p. 126.
5713
(U) Ibid., p. 127. For more on "I let it go," see ibid., p. 134.
5714
(U) Ibid, pp. 137, 140.
5715,
(U) Ibid., p. 147.
5716
(U) ·Attorney Proffer, Elias, May 21, 2018.
s111 (U) Ibid.
5718(U) Ibid., p. 3.
5719(U) Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.
s108 (U)s109 (U)5710

859

was working for a law firm-name unspecified-when they met in early July. 5720 Steele told the
DOJ OIG that by late July 2016, he had met with Simpson and "an attorney" from Perkins
Coie. 5721
(U) Simpson implied in his interview with the Committee-but would not state
outright-that Perkins Coie knew he had hired a subcontractor, along with pursuing otheroverseas iines of inquiry. 5722 In his book, Simpson said that Elias "had never even heard of
Steele. While Elias was aware that Fusion had engaged someone outside the United States togather information on Trump's ties to Russia, he did not ask who it was or what the person's
credentials were."5723(U) Elias represented that the charges associated with Fusion GPS were around $60,000
per month, unevenly split between the Clinton Campaign and the DNC, including the $10,000
per-month fee paid to Perkins Coie. 5724
(U) The Committee was unable to fully establish how much of the Steele information
was actually transferred to the DNC and the Clinton Campaign. As a general practice, Fusion
GPS passed research back to Elias weekly, sending both original source materials and summary
documents. 5725 Simpson would not say whether or when he gave the memos to Perkins Coie. 5726
Elias, through counsel, did not provide details on what information he provided to the DNC or
the Clinton Campaign, citing attorney-client privilege. His attorneys conveyed that he provided"advice on communications strategies and the information from.Fusion when warranted. Suchinformation was infrequent, provided orally, and given to both the Clinton Campaign and the
DNC."s121(U) Robby Mook told the Committee that counsel starting in the summer had briefed
him, Podesta, Clinton Campaign Communications Director Jen Palmieri, Jake Sullivan, andGlenn Caplan (a communications staffer) on "pieces of the reporting" in the dossier. 5728 The
briefings were oral, generally, but Mook remembered one paper memo that counsel distributed
then retrieved at the end of the meeting. 5729 Palmieri told the Committee she never saw thedossier during the campaign, but she also recalled the Elias briefings: "I don't recall the term

5720(U) Tr., p. 38.
(U) DOJ O/G FISA Report, 96.
5722(U) Simpson Tr., p. 100.
5723
(U) Crime in Progress, p. 80.
5724(U) Attorney Proffer, Elias, May 21, 2018.
5725(U) Ibid ·5726(U) Simpson Tr., p. 114.
5727
(U) Attorney Proffer, Elias, May 21, 2018.'
5728(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Robby Mook, January 26, 2018, p. 27.
5729(U) Ibid, pp. 28-29.
5721

p:

860

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

'dossier' being used. He had reports. Some of the things ... that I know are in the dossier.
Some of the things that I have read are in the dossier I had heard about from Marc, including thefamous encounter at the hotel."573 Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz told theCommittee she had no awareness of the dossier, Steele, or Simpson, until the dossier and thosenames appeared in the press. 5731°

(U) The Committee also asked Mook whether he fourid the briefings by Elias to bealarming enough to warrant sharing the information with law enforcement. Mook said "No, I
don't recall ever feeling like we had sufficient evidence to go to law enforcement withanything. " 5732
(U) Simpson told the Committee that the research contract with Perkins Coie was
generally open-ended, as most of his contracts are. He said that Fusion GPS does n9t let clientsdefine the research; rather, Fusion GPS demands the flexibility to pursue whatever research theywish. 5733 Further, Simpson said he often has some freedom to use the information he collects inways separate from the contract. Simpson said the report belongs to the client, but the
information is public, and Simpson indicated he could do as he wanted with it. 5734
(U) For this project, Fusion GPS pursued several lines of inquiry: outsourcing o( Trump
brand produqts, taxes, overseas projects, bankruptcies, casino issues, and associations withorganized crime. 5735 During their initial meeting, Simpson and Fritsch briefed Elias on Trumplinks to Russia. They said, "This angle was all new to Elias, and he loved it."5736 Simpson said
it was Fusion GPS's idea to pursue overseas ties:

We weren't pursuing ties between the Russian government and the Trump
campaign. . . . We were interested in Donald Trump's business trips to Russia,
much as we were interested in his other trips elsewhere. . . . It was just kind of mygeneral assumption that he couldn't get a deal done over there because of all thecorruption, and that there might be some [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act] issues

5730 (U)SSC! Transcript of the Interview with Jennifer Palmieri, February 9, 2018, pp. 37-38.
(U) Wasserman Schultz Tr., pp. 54-55.
5732· (U) Mook Tr., p. 48.
5733(U) Simpson Tr., p. 18.
5734(U) Ibid, pp. 19-20. Simpson told the Committee that it is rare he works with a presidential campaign,
generally because his services are expensive. "Every few years, if the market is there we'll do a presidential
campaign. Generally speaking, our price structure prices us out of the campaigns and elections market except for inpresidential years." Ibid, pp. 8-9.
5735(U) Ibid, p. 58.
5736(U) Crime in Progress, pp. 58-59.
5731

861

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYt.

that were lurking in all of this. So that's kind of the way I ended up retaining
Chris Steele. 5737
iv.

(U) Fusion GPS Contract with Steele(U) Simpson hired Steele in May or June of 2016. 5738 Simpson told the Committee that
"By the time we got to June, or actually probably May, and I realized I was going to haveresources to explore some of these issues further .... I realized that we were getting close toexhausting the open source .... So I decided that it was time for some human intelligence."5739(U) Through networking, Fusion GPS often hired experts from around the globe on
specific topic areas. 5740 Simpson said, "A big part of our work is in fact talent spotting andfinding people who are reliable. It's something that journalists develop a skill and experience indoing. The term 'reliable sources' is out there for a reason. So it's one of those habits that yoµ
develop in a lifetime of journalism, figuring out who's telling you the truth and who's
reliable."5741 Simpson assessed that Steele was among the best at research inside Russia. 5742
Simpson recalled that he met Steele after they were introduced by a mutual friend, possibly Alex
Yearsley, in approximately 2009. Simpson recalled that he and Steele we were "in touch
intermittently over a period ofl guess six or seven years." 5743

(U) told the Committee "There are other people who do the ~ame thing Chris does.
Why Simpson went to him and not somebody else, I have absolutely no idea."5744 Simpson hired
Orbis-as opposed to a US-based firm, for example-because they had worked together
successfully in the past and he was impressed with the work, according to David Kramer. 5745
Kramer also thought Simpson and Steele had worked together on the FIFA irtvestigation. 5746 To
the best of Simpson's recollection, he had not hired Steele before on Russia issues. 5747

5737

(U) Simpson Tr., pp. 64--65.
(U) Ibid, p. 42.
5739(U) Ibid, p."98.
5740(U) Ibid, p. 10.
5741(U) Ibid, pp. 11-12.
5738

5742

(U) Simpson Tr., p. 92; Kramer Tr., p. 10. Winer thought perhaps he had introduced Simpson and Steele, but
he was not sure. Winer Tr., p. 67. Simpson and Steele met in the spring or summer of 2009. Simpson Tr., pp. 7879. {"It was a pretty casual relationship for a long time. He would come to Washington and look me up and wewould talk about oligarchs and kleptocrats and Putin, and I would do the same when I was in London. We tried tohelp each other develop business, corporate clients, the usual thing. Over time we did give each othersubcontracts.")
43
57 (U) ~ o n Tr., pp. 68--69, 78.
5744 (U) Tr., p. 71.
5745(U) Kramer Tr., p. 10.
5746(U) Ibid, p. 22.
5747(U) Simpson Tr., p. 115.

862

(U) told the Committee that his understanding of the tasking from Simpson to
Steele was "Find out about Donald Trump's business ties in Russia." The Committee saw no
indication that information Steele gleaned about Clinton was also part of the tasking. 5748 The
initial contract between Fusion GPS and Orbis was for one month. Fusion GPS paid a flat rate;
Simpson remembered between $20,000 and $30,000 per month. Fusion GPS ultimately paid
Orbis about $160,000, according to Simpson and documents provided to the Committee.5749(U) Fusion GPS's work for Perkins Coie ended on Election Day. 5750 Steele's final
memorandum was completed on December 13, 2016. ·Noone paid for it. 5751

v.

(U) Steele Creates the Reports that Become the Dossier

In early June 2016, under.the contract ~ith Fusion GPS, Steele reached out tohis existmg subsource network and a small number of new subsources for an information on
Donald Trum 's business interests. 5752

(U) Several witnesses c ~ d that Steele was deeply disturbed by the reports. Judging
from the testimony of Simpson, and Winer, Steele interpreted the information he received
as kompromat on Trump---a way for Moscow to influence, _or even blackmail, a presidential
candidate. Simpson recalled that Steele immediately expressed concern that the informationreflected a "major security problem; this is a national security issue for [the United States]."5754. Steele said he was obligated to report the perceived kompromat to some authority. 5755 Simpson
did not object, but also did not advocate for it. He deferred to Steele's judgment.5756 Simpson
said he was not sure who he would tell, even if they were obligated to report it.:

5748 (U) Tr., p. 73.
,
5749 (U) Simpson Tr., pp. 157-159; Bean LLC, statement of account August 2016 (CLMSSCI000012); Bean LLC,

statement of account October 2016 (CLMSSCIO000 17); Bean LLC, statement of account November 2016
(CLMSSCI000021); Bean LLC, statement of account January 2017 (CLMSSCI000025). Fusion GPS's production
to the Committee shows $162,139.84 paid to Orbis, including a payment in January 2017 for $53,970. Simpson did
not know the reason for the January payment, but speculated it was closing out the account., Simpson Tr., p. 159.
5750
(U) Simpson Tr., p. 155.
·
5751
(U) Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018; see also Simpson Tr., pp. 155-156.
5752
Written Res onses Steele, Au st 16, 2018; see also Simpson Tr., p. 70.
5753
5754

(U) Simpson Tr., p. 113.
(U) Ibid., p. 116.
5756
(U) Ibid., p. 117.
5755

863

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
I'm working for a political campaign and there are rules at the JusticeDepartment about getting involved in political campaigns, and it's a stupid thing
to do to try to sort ofget a law enforcement investigation of the other side. It's
just dumb. 5151

(U) Simpson was unspecific with the Committee about his client's awareness of Steele's
interactions with FBI on this issue. He said, "I can tell you that I did not ask my client whether
we could [report it], and my client didn't direct me to dO'this. At the time it was done, my client
was not aware it was being done." 5758 Simpson in his book said that he and his business partner
decided not to tell Elias that Steele was sharing information with the FBI, 5759 Elias represented
to the Committee through his attorneys that he did not authorize or direct Fusion· GPS to provide
any information to any U.S. law enforcement or intelligence organizations. 5760
(U) Simpson told the Committee that the first memorandum was couriered hard.copy to
Fusion GPS's Washington, D.C. offices, sometime near June 20. 5761 Simpson read theinformation in the context of the Russian hack ofDNC systems, 5762 which had been published in
The Washington Post on June 14.5763 He described his initial reaction to the first Steele report:
It wasn't like I was at that point harboring some suspicion that there was someconnection between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. To thecontrary. We weren't looking for information about sexual activities and weweren't looking for Kremlin KGB conspiracies. ...
_J

I guess a lot of other people would have thrown it in the trash maybe because it
seemed like it was too crazy to believe. But I had worked with Chris for a longtime and I had exposure to Russian influence operations from covering that at the
Journal. So I didn't throw it in the trash, and I was concerned at that point it

5757(U) Ibid., p. 117.
(U) Ibid., p. 119.
5759
(U) Crime in Progress, p. 80.
5760(U) Attorney Proffer, Elias, May 21, 2018.
5761(U) Simpson Tr., p. 112. In his book, however, Simpson wrote that Steele did not want to send the package via
email, and a human courier was "expensive and time consuming and carried its own risks. So Steele called FedEx."
The package did not show up on June 23, when it was due to arrive, because two FedEx delivery attempts failed.
Simpson finally received the report on or around June 24. Crime in Progress, p. 75.
5762(U) Crime in Progress, p. 75. It is unclear whether Simpson knew about the hack of the DNC servers before
The Washington Post article: "The moment was already fraught. Not long before, Fusion had learned that the
Democratic National Committee's computer systems had been thoroughly breached by Russian hackers in March
2016, a fact later reported by the Washington Post on June 14, 2016."
5763(U) Ellen Nakashima, "Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole opposition research on Trump," The
Washington Post, June 14, 2016.
5758

864

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

might be true. And my client had just been hacked and told by the FBI that it was
the Russian government. 5764

4. (U) Examining the Dossier's Sources and Tradecraft(U) Steele defined his subsources in two categories: first, "confidential service providers
or external 'associates' of Orbis BI and tasked and debriefed by us directly." The Committee
assesses that the main subsource is one of these "associates." The FBI refers to the same person
or group of people as "agent handler." The second category are people "who typically havedirect access to the intelligence, are tasked and debriefed by [an associate] and who are typicallyunaware of Orbis BI or the identity of the ultimate client and are not paid for information."5765
The Committee refers to this category as sub-subsources. Steele told the FBI on October 3,
2016:

Steele said his associates, who the Committee refers to as subsources, met their sub-subsources
face-to-face, and also said that some sub-subsources transmitted information to the subsourcesby "encrypted electronic communications systems," but "such exchanges ... were restricted as arule to interactions outside Russia and the CIS." Some subsources, or associates, were paid on a
fixed monthly retainer, others were not, and "none were financially incentivized to obtain any
particular information." According .to Steele, his sub-subsources were not paid and were notaware that their information was being passed to Orbis or Fusion GPS. 5767
(U) placed Steele's subsource network generally in the larger picture of Russianorganized crime and government:

The Russian and Eurasian environment in terms of criminal activity, you havetrue organized crime members, the guys with the gulag tattoos. You havebusinessmen, some of the wealthiest businessmen in the world. .. You havepoliticians. And from over there, it's all like this [indicating intertwining]... So if
he's got a source network that is tapped into whatever level or strata that /just

5764(U) Simpson Tr., pp. 65--67.

5765
5766
5767

ntten esponses, tee e,

ugust

,

.

865

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
described over there, it's going to touch-and it did-different aspects of that
realm_s16si.

(U) Questions on the Credibility of Steele's Source Networka. (U) Steele's Confidence in His Source Network and Product(U) Steele repeatedly expressed confidence in his subsources to a number of Committee
witnesses while withholding the subsources' identities, in line with the practice of professional
intelligence services. Steele further told the Committee in his written responses to questions that
"We judged all of our [sub-subsources] were 'credible."'5769 said:

He had confidence in his sources and his source network. [These allegations
wereJ so outlandish, and I told him, I said: you've got to be kidding me. People
are going to look at me when I send this back like: Get out of here. He hadcomplete confidence in his sources is what I can say. 5770.
.
(U) Simpson said he was less concerned about who the sub-subsources were than their
credibility and access to the information. "At the end level. it's: Who's this person closest to in
Moscow? Does he work in Sechin's office? Is she sleeping with so-and-so? ... you want toknow is that person in a position to know what they're saying." 5771 Simpson also emphasized hisconcern that a leak of a subsource's or sub-subsource's identity could be fatal.
· (U) David Kramer said that, regarding the dossier, "I think he felt quite confident overall
about it. I do think that there were some pieces in there he felt that were on firmer ground thanothers." Kramer cited the entry in the dossier about an alleged Michael Cohen trip to Prague as
one example: "it could have been in Prague, it could have been outside of Prague. He also
thought there was a possibility it could have been in Budapest. .. [but Steele] never backed off
the idea that Cohen was in Europe."5772(U) On one of the central allegations in the intelligence collected by Steele, that Russia
had compromising information on then-candidate Trump, Kramer also conveyed Steele's level ofconfidence: "I had the impression that he was fairly confident about it. Did he think it was
ironclad? I didn't have that impression. He did tell me that he had also heard that there was

5768(U) Tr., pp. 11-12.
(U) Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018. Emphasis is Steele's.
5110 (U) Tr., p. 89.
5771(U} Simpson Tr., p. 103.
5772
(U) Kramer Tr., p. 31.
5769

866

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

video of a second hotel scene, from St. Petersburg, that was not put in the memos. But I don't
know the level of confidence he had in that. " 5773-;
(U) Simpson drew from his own experience as a journalist to qualify the support for thememos, stating the memos did not meet journalistic standards for publication:
What I would liken it to in a journalistic category is my notes. You go out andyou do a bunch of interviews and you talk to ten people ... and like I said, sevenof them seem to be telling the truth, but have trouble getting the facts straight, andthen there's three liars ... if it was a finished Wall Street Journal story, we would
delete the crackpots and the people who just can't keep track ofwhatever, and[Steele] may have done some of that. But it wasn 't the kind offinished reportyou
would give a client in ordinary circumstances. 5774 .
(U) When the Committee asked.if he had ever attempted to independently verify Steele's
work, Simpson said "I guess I'd put it in a kind of negative context, which is I never had anoccasion where his work proved to not be reliable."5775 Simpson continued:
When we got these memos, we would do all kinds ofpublic record work andthings in my office to figure out whether what people were telling Chris wasplausible and credible. Does this person really exist? Was he in this place·at thetime that he said that they were? 5776·

That research produced nothing conclusively contradictory. According to Simpson: "Nothingthat I have seen disproves anything in the dossier. Which isn't to say I think it's·all true. I don't
think Chris thinks it's all true, either. But there's a difference between things being fake or ahoax or a fraud or a lie and things being incorrect. " 5777
b. (U) Limited Insight into Subsources' Identity and Access

5773(U) Ibid., pp. 34-35.

.
Simpson Tr., pp. 106-107. Simpson later said the British style of intelligence collection is morejournalistic. For example, he said, "When I write a newspaper article for the Washington Post about the plane crash,
I put ten people in who saw the plane crash and some people say the left engine-was on fire, and other say it was theright ... I'm a journalist, so I don't have to figure out who is right." Ibid, p. 110.
5775
(U) Ibid, p. 93.
5776(U) Ibid, p. 96.
5777(U) Ibid, p. 171.
5774 (U)867

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

7

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Most recipients of Steele's memos had very little information on the quality of the

subsource network and took Steele at his word that they were credible. 5778 Simpson, forexample, did not know the identities of Steele's subsource network. He said, "Chris is very
guarded about this stuff. So I don't have any names."5779 said he never talked to Steele
about how he vetted his source network. "From the crimi~e, we weren't concerned about
the identities of his [sub]sources. From the counterintelligence side, that's the first thing theyneed to know: who are the sources? Who's that chain? ... For [Criminal Division] it's more
about the lead information."5780 further said that at that time FBI did not know where
Steele was getting his information, nor did it know specifics on how or whether Stee=d his
subsources or how the subsource network transmitted the information to Steele. 5781 ~ also
did not know whether -Steele knew the identities of all those in his subsource network.
Throughout their relationship, Ohr had never had specifics about Steele's subsource network anddid not ask, but said the reporting generally seemed good and credible. 5783 Ohr told theCommittee, "[Steele's reports] seemed to be information that was coming from a person who
was knowledgeable about the situations that they were describing."5784(U) One of the people who knew the most about Steele's subsource network is David
Kramer, from a conversation he had with Steele in the latter's dinin room in late November,
5785
2016. Kramer said "I was shown a list
andHe verified to the Committee thatthose people would have had appropriate access to provide the information. 5788 Steele had
confidence his sub-subsources were good: "I think he felt they were diverse enough and senior
enough to have known various elements of what he had been told. So I think h~ felt that it lent
credibility, to what he was reporting." 5789

(U) One clear lesson from the u:s. Intelligence Community's experience in lead up to the 2003 Iraq war wasthat intelligence analysts and consumers of intelligence need to know key details about a source, such as their accessto the information, reporting history, and motivation for providing information, ifnot their identity. See SSC!,"Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence
Assessments on Iraq," July 9, 2004, p. 26.
5779(U) : s o n Tr., pp. 100-102.
5780 (U) Tr., p. 45.
5781(U) Ibid., p. 18-19.
5782(U) Ibid., p. 20.
5783(U) B. Ohr Tr., p. 24.
5784(U) Ibid., p. 28.
5785(U) Kramer Tr., pp. 14, 26.
5786(U) Ibid., p. 18
5787(U) Ibid., pp. 26-27.
5788(U) Ibid., p. 39.
5789(U) Ibid., p. 17.
5778

868

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Kramer told the Committee that Steele knew the identities of his sub-subsources but,
"He was not in a position to be in touch directly with these individuals. It was through anintermediary."5790 According to the DOJ OIG: "Steele did not have good insight into how manydegrees of separation existed between the Primary Sub-source's sub sources and the persons
quoted in the reporting, and that it could have been multiple layers of hearsay upon hearsay." 5791
Kramer did not know the name of that main subsource. 5792 Kramer further said that theintermediary, or main sub source was "somebody [Steele] had full confidence in and had worked
with before." 5793 Kramer did not pass on to anyone-including the FBI or the Committee-thenames of the subsources or sub-subsources. 5794
(U) Steele conveyed very little to the Committee on how he vetted his sources. He wrotethat he had known his main subsources for a number of years and that "all came to us
recommended by professional contacts who knew them and whose judgement we had reason totrust." Steele wrote that the main subsources had a "good track record," reporting on Russia
issues using their subsource networks before the dossier project began. Steele also told theCommittee that "validation was based on an assessment of their access and motivation andespecially on their previous reporting track record. Reporting was assessed in terms of its
consistency with intelligence obtained from other" public and non-p6blic sources. 5795 The
generality of these responses made them difficult for the Committee to evaluate, but theCommittee found some information that called into question the rigor and thoroughness of thisprocess.

(U) Steele's written responses to the Committee's questions did not include muchinformation on the access of his subsource network. He wrote that none of the main subsourceswere new, however, he used a small number of new sub-subsources for this project. He said that

5790

(U) Ibid., pp. 15-16.
(U) DOJ OIG FJSA Report, p. 190.
5792
(U) Kramer Tr., p. 16.
5793(U) Ibid., p. 17; A clear lesson from the 2003 Iraq War experience was that depending too heavily on one or twosources can create the possibility for misinformation to become accepted as fact.
5794(U) Kramer Tr., pp. 19-20.
5795
Written Res onses Steele, Au ust 16, 2018.
5791

5796

869

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

most subsources were "established, with solid reporting track records on other sensitive
Russia/CIS issues."5797- T h e person FBI identified as the main subsource presented a less rigorous
representation than did Steele, telling the FBI that "he/she did not view his/her contacts as a
network of sources, but rather as friends with whom he/she has conversations about current
events and ovemment relations."579',The Committee has limited information on the geographical distribution of the
sub source network. While Simpson told the Committee he did not know the identities of thepeople in the network, he knew some were "Russians who don't live in Russia but talk to peoplein Russia and can go there." Others were "people who live in Russia and have connections to theGovemment." 5800 Steele described the geographic arrangement as follows: "Most of the work,
though not all, was conducted in Euro e where the ma· ori of our sub-subsources werebased. " 5801

ii.

(U) Parsing the Dossier's Subsources

5797(U) Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018. For U.S. intelligence, "established" is a term of art thatreflects a record ofreliable reporting. Steele's written responses suggest that he used the term in generally the same
way.
5798
(U) DOJ O/G FISA Report, p. 188, fn. 334.
5799
(U) SSCI Memorandum, "FBI Briefing on Steele 'Dossier' Sourcing," February 15, 2018.
5800(U) Simpson Tr., pp. 102-103.
5801(U) Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.
5802(U) SSCI Memorandum, "FBI Briefing on Steele 'Dossier' Sourcing," February 15, 2018. The Committee
notes that Priestap was so concerned about protecting the identity of the source that he would not allow his briefing
to be transcribed.
5803 (U) Ibid
5804
(U) Ibid
5805(U) See infra Vol. 5, Sec. VIL

870

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

-Despite limited direct information from Steele and the main subsource, theCommittee endeavored to determine the ~ t e e l e ' s subsource network.
Staff drew from FBI's debriefs of S t e e l e _ , the subsource descriptions in
the dossier, Sim son's book, the notes of De artment of State officials, the findings of the DOJ
OIG, 5806, to compare descriptions of sources.
(U) Western intelligence services have established as standard practice the importance ofcommunicating clearly to a reader any uncertainty about a source's access to information.
Intelligence collectors convey some context about the identity and access of the original source,
so analysts and consumers can make an informed evaluation of the credibility of the information.
Instead of following this best practice, Steele's descriptions are inconsistent and not completelytransparent about the steps through which the information passed from the origin to Steele,
making it difficult for the reader to discern how close Steele was to the information. Some ofthis lack of clarity may have been intentional, for source protection purposes, but it makes it
extremely difficult to evaluate the credibility of Steele's information. For example:•

Report 80, the first of the dossier memos com leted on June 20 2016
"former to level Russian intelli ence officer."were several people between Steele and the soknowing more about the relationship between
an intelligence analyst would not use this kind of information without corroboration,
because the credibility of such distant reporting is difficult to assess.

5806(U) The Committee notes that the DOJ OIG included in its report a long discussion of source descriptions andSteele's roblematic blendin of anal sis and re orted assertions of fact. Ibid, p. 189-193.

871

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

These source
descriptions give an unclear picture of whether this was one source or several, and it is
not clear whether the FBI, Steele, and Steele's main subsource were in agreement about
who the named sub-subsource was.
•(U) Steele describes a set of sub-subsources in his reports that have similar-yet slightly
different-descriptions. It is difficult to determine if this is a single stream of reportingor many different sub-subsources supporting each other's information. Understanding
this is critically important for evaluating the credibility of a body of reporting.

I

I f [ - Separately, Steele also cites a "senior Kremlin official,"

5812

a "Kremlin
insider,"
and a "senior member of the PA"
regarding meetings between
Carter Page and Divyekin, along with other subjects. Some of the re ortin
from these sub-subsources matches the re ortin
5813

5814

a different description than all those above.

5810
5811
5812

(U) Stee e Dossier, "Company Inte ligence Report 2016/080," June 20, 2016; Steele Dossier, "Company
Intelligence Report 2016/101," August 10, 2016.
5813(U) Steele Dossier, "Company Intelligence Report 2016/134," Ocotber 18, 2016; Steele Dossier, "Company
Intelligence Report 2016/135," October 19, 2016.
5814(U) Steele Dossier, "Company Intelligence Report 2016/111," September 14, 2016.
5815(U) SSCI Memorandum, "FBI Briefing on Steele 'Dossier' Sourcing," February 15, 2018.

872

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The DOJ OIG report stated that another of Steele's subsources, in discussions with
the FBI in August 2017, said that his/her reports in the dossier had been "exaggerated" and thathe/she "did not recognize anything as originating specifically from him/her." The main source,
on the other hand, said that this subsource was "one of the key sources" for the dossier, inparticular allegations about Michael Cohen and Prague and the same meetings between Page andDivyekin, discussed directly above. 5817 The Inspector General report further says that thesubsource may have been attempting to minimize his/her role.

I

•-In

the first of Steele's reports, Source D describes events at the Ritz Carlton
Moscow and is described as "a close associate of Trum who had or anized and mana ed

and the subsource voicing strong support for can 1date C inton in the 2016 U.S.
e ect1ons.").
5818
The Committee saw no credible information t h a t - had a role with the Trum Cam ai .

The Committee assesses the RACC is almost certain y not a legitimate orgamzatlon.
(U) SSCI Memorandum, "FBI Briefing on Steele 'Dossier' Sourcing," February 15, 2018.

873

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
reason to believe would have insight into the alleged activity at the Ritz throughhis ties with the Trump Campaign.

•(U) The main subsource told FBI that a staff member at the Ritz Carlton said there were"stories concerning Trump's alleged sexual activities, not that the activities themselves
had been confirmed by the staff member as stated in Report 80," according to the DOJ
OIG.ss21

I

5820 (U)
5821

Ibid.

5822
5823

(U) DOJ O/G FISA Report, p. 193, footnote 345 ("The Primary Sub-source told WFO Agent 1 that he/she
found a YouTube video of the sub-source speaking and that it sounded like the person on the telephone call.").
5824(U) SSCI Memorandum, "FBI Briefing on Steele 'Dossier' Sourcing," February 15, 2018. Carter Page told theCommittee that he never met Paul Manafort. Page Tr., p. 214.

874

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Regarding Millian's self-described access to Trump Campaign officials, Millian had
limited interactions with at least two people connected to the Trump Campaign during 2016, andRick Gates, former Deputy Campaign Chairman, told the FBI that Millian appeared on a special
access list for the Trump Campaign. The Campaign had a "Friends and Family" list for people
attending campaign events. Each of the Trump children would submit names to the list, as
would close friends and staff of immediate family members. Rhona Graff-Trump's trusted,long-time assistant-was the keeper of the list. Gates had no insight into who might have added
Millian but said Cohen would have had the opportunity to add Millian to the list. 5825
(U) The earliest contact the Committee is aware of between Millian and the Campaign is .
an email on March 15, 2016, when Millian emailed Michael Cohen at his Trump Organization
address and offered to serve on the Trump Campaign's foreign policy team. 5826 Cohen appears
to have dismissed the request. 5827 Millian and Cohen had a brief exchange on September 5,
2016, when Millian re-introduced himself as a Trump supporter and forwarded questions fromjournalists about Millian's role with the Trump Organization. 5828 Cohen told the Committee thathe "just responded to kind ofbe kind." 5829 Millian responded a week later, on September 13,
2016, saying thank you, then following with: "I'm friends with Greek American George
Papadopoulos, who says he is now your official campaign [sic] advisor on foreign policy from
Ben Carson group. He asks questions about you. Do you know George?"5830 The Committee
has no evidence that Cohen responded or furthered the relationship. In his second interview,
Cohen told the Committee that Millian also proposed that Cohen bring Trump to a function in
Switzerland, but that Cohen dismissed him completely. Cohen said, "I believed he was a.
complete con artist and I just wasn't in the mood to deal with him." 5831 _Cohen told the5825(U) FBI, FD-302, Gates 11/7/2018.
(U) Email, Millian to Cohen, March 15, 2016 (MDC-S-000261). ("Please feel free to incorporate me in the
Russian direction as you know I have an insider level knowledge on what is happening in Russia after 10 years of
hosting Russian ministers, governors, businessman and pyblic leaders. Now, I'm a US citizen after my name having
been cleared by national security and FBI.") Millian included a link to a Fox News interview he did.
5827 (U) Cohen; in his first interview with the Committee, said he recalled Millian also reaching out via phonearound the same time as this email. His reaction was "wow, this guy is off the wall .... I was completely
disinterested in what he had to say." Cohen Tr. I, p. 287. The Committee has no indication that Cohen responded tothis inquiry. Millian, from his RACC email account, also invited Michael Cohen to an event on March 23, 2016.
Cohen told the Committee he did not attend, and never signed up for the RACC's mailing list. See Cohen Tr. I, p.
289; Cohen Tr. II, p. 323. Email, Millian to Cohen, March 23, 20.16 (MDC-S-000258).
5828(U) Millian wrote, "Just wanted to bring it to your attention. This unexpected and unwelcome pressure only.
makes me a stronger supporter of your cause...." Email, Millian to Cohen, September 5, 2016 (DJTFP00018153).
Cohen responded the same day, in entirety: "They are just I to [sic] negative reporting on trump and everyone
connected to him. I believe you gave them enough and if they, and I'm sµre they will, want more, ignore him."
Email, Cohen to Millian, September 5, 2016 (DJTFP00018152).
5829 (U) Cohen Tr. I, p. 292.
·
5830(U) Email, Millian to Cohen, September 13, 2016 (DJTFP00018152).
5831(U) Cohen Tr. II, p. 320.
5826

875

Committee that he never met Millian5832 and that the Trump Organization had no relationshipwith Millian. 5833
(U) Millian and Papadopoulos exchanged several emails and met at least once.
Documents the Committee obtained indicate email exchanges through the summer and into thefall. Millian was scheduled to pick Papadopoulos. up at the airport in New York in September
2016, 5834 and Papadopoulos told the FBI the two discussed business opportunities in November,2016. 5835

(U) The Committee notes that much about Sergei Millian resembles activities by a
Russian intelligence officer or cooptee. In attempting to interview Millian, the Committee foundthat his organization, the RACC, has several listed addresses but no apparent actual offices.
Millian also has four names-Sergei Millian, Sergio Millian, Sergey Kukuts, and Sarhei Kukuts.
Further, Millian publicly professed his non-involvement in the 2016 campaign, then departed theUnited States for China. 5836■

The DOJ OIG found a document circulated among the Crossfire Hurricane team in early October
2016, which indicated that "Person 1," who the Committee assesses to b e - had historicalcontact with persons and entities suspected of being linked to Russian Intelligence Services. The

5832(U) Cohen Tr., p. 286; Cohen Tr. II, p. 319.
(U) Cohen Tr., p. 292.
5834(U) Email, Papadopoulos to Epshteyn, September 12,.2016 (B&P GP File 2018 000603-608).
5835(U) FBI, FD-302, Papadopoulos 9/19/2017. For more on the relationship between the two, see infra Vol. 5,
Sec.ill.E.
5833

876

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

document further described re orting from,,5g3g(U) The Committee was unable to fully establish the role Russia's attempts to interfere with the 2016 election.

iii.

played, if any, in(U) Counterintelligence Concerns(U) Disinformation is a constant concern in the intelligence profession, particularly for
those, like Steele, who work against targets well-known for sowing doubt. Collecting usable
intelligence from human sources necessitates skepticism and diligent
effort to corroborate the\information. Steele would have been aware that human sources can vary in their credibility, andone source can be credible on one subject and not on a similar subject. Steele wrote to theCommittee that he saw "no reason to believe" that his subsources or sub-subsources wereseeking to "influence rather than inform."5839 According to Simpson, Steele was acutely awareof that possibility:
When Chris talks about his work in Russia, the first thing he says is: I've been
doing Russia all my life professionally, and one of the central problems of myprofession is disinformation. It's something that we get trained on originally andthat we deal with for our entire careers. So I am trained to spot disinformation,and you should know that any time you gather information in Russia some of it
may be disinformation. And I'm not telling you that there's not disinformation inthis material. What I'm telling you is I'm trained to spot it and if I saw it it's notthere_ss4o(U) Kramer was also aware of Steele's concern there could be possible disinformation in
the dossier:[Steele] said that he did his best to try to factor that into what he was putting
together, but felt that there was not a deliberate dis-or mis-information campaignthat was launched. And if the sources, the names on that list I saw, were in fact
the sources, it strikes me as difficult to believe that they would have come together
to have a disinformation campaign. Can it be ruled out completely? No. Can
there be parts in there that are true and other parts that are deliberately false?

5838(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 166, footnote 302.
Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018. "Influence rather than infonn" is an intelligenceprofessional' s tenn of art. An asset handler will say the infonnation may be intended to influence rather than infonn
ifs/he is concerned the asset has a particular agenda and wants the target government to see things a certain way.
5840
(U) Simpson Tr., p. 107-108.

5839 (U)877

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

That's possible. But I think he did-I think he and his intermediary did their best
to try to factor that in and account for it to the best they could. 5841
(U) James Baker, former FBI General Counsel, summed up the environment this way:

This is how it operates. The organized crime. The overlay between the organizedcrime, the oligarchs, the government, the intelligence services. It's all like one
big giant mess. And so, given that ... how do you sort through that when you aretrying td do a legitimate investigation and then figure out what's the truth. And
so you are extremely skeptical of anything that anybody is telling you. 5842
(U) Dr. Fiona Hill, a Russia expert who served on both the National Intelligence Council
as National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia and on the NSC as Senior Director for
European and Russian Affairs, discussed the possibility of Moscow inserting disinformation in
the dossier in her deposition in the House: "it's very likely that the Russians planted
disinformation in and among other information that may have been truthful, because that's
exactly, again, the way they operate." She went on to say that:

And this is why I was concerned about the Steele report because that is avulnerability. Christopher Steele going out and looking for information. He's
obviously out there soliciting information. What a great opportunity to, basically,
you know, present him with information that he's looking for that can be couchedwith some truth and some disinformation. 5843
(U) There was ample opportunity for Steele's source network to be coopted by Russian
security services, which would have allowed the service to shape the information that was
eventually included in the dossier.

5841(U) Kramer Tr., p,. 36. Kramer further clarified that he thinks these sources would not have had a natural way tocoordinate their information. Ibid., p. 37.
5842(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with James Baker, October 2, 2018, p. 139.
5843
(U) Deposition of Dr. Fiona Hill, in front of the HPSCI, joint with the Committee on Oversight and Reform andthe Committee on Forei n Affairs, U.S. House of Re resentatives, October 14, 2019, p. 179 and pp. 390-391
5844

878

the DOJ OIG said that "In late January 2017, a member of
the Crossfire Hurricane team received information [redacted] that [Russian Intelligence Services]
may have targeted Orbis and research (sic) all publicly available information about it." 5846

Winer, who had received many non-dossier
Russia and Ukraine-related reports from Steele, said Steele was "concerned about his sources.
He was concerned about protecting.his sources. He didn't want them [the Russian intelligence
services] deconstructing his network." Winer told the Committee that in an effort to reduce risk
the Orbis header was removed from any re orts that Steele sent the De artment of State anddocuments were "password protected."

5845(U) Ibid(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 191, footnote 342.
5847
(U) Richard Norton-Taylor, "M16: The nightmare scenario as a rogue agent goes public," The Guardian, May
13, 1999. According to the article, "Britain's secret intelligence service, M16, was thrown into unprecedented
disarray last night when a renegade former officer published the names of over 100 agents-some said to be falseon the internet."; see also Jane Mayer, "Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump dossier," The New Yorker,
March 5, 2018.
5848(U) Winer Tr., pp. 23-25. Winer's interactions with Steele are covered more comprehensively later in thissection.
5846

879

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYI

DOJ, Office of the Inspector General, "A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
•

•

•

■

880

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

- F i n a l l y , the U.S. Government has
R u s s i a ~ o n influencing Steele's election re rt-First, a January 12, 2017, report describe
assessing that a subset of
Steele's reporting regarding Michael Cohen was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Second, a report from February 27, 2017, is from:an individual with reported connections to Trump and Russia who claimed thatthe public reporting about the details of Trump's sexual activities in Moscow
during a trip in 2013 were false, and that t h e y ~"in zltrat in a source into the network" ofa who compiled a dossier of information on Trump's activities.
The
noted that it had no iriformation indicating that theindividual had special access to RJS activities or iriformation. 5854

iv.

(U) Multiple Links Between Steele and Deripaska(U) The Committee found multiple links between Steele and Deripaska, including

through two ofDeripaska's lawyers, and indications that Deripaska had early knowledge ofSteele's work. Steele had worked for Deripaska, likely beginning at least in 2012, and continued

881

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
to work for him into 2017, providing a potential direct channel for Russian influence on thedossier. 5856
(U) A February 2016 email strongly suggests Deripaska's awareness of Steele's work,
generally. Steele wrote to Ohr on February 21, 20165857 :5856(U) Several other people who appear in this section also have ties to Deripaska. Simpson told the Committee hehad written stories about Deripaska for The Wall Street Journal. Simpson Tr., pp. 147, 181. Simpson also said that
"I believe that I have reached out to his companies and employees on numerous occasions when I was a journalist.
And beyon~ that, I don't think I've knowingly had any contact with his organization." Ibid., p. 88. However, David
Kramer said that Simpson had once worked for Deripaska. He said: "Actually, I know Simpson had ....just that hehad been hired .to do some work for Deripaska in the past. I will tell you that call:sed me a little consternation."
Kramer Tr., p. 12. The Committee was not able to rectify this discrepancy. Jonathan Winer, a decade-longprofessional contact of Steele's, also worked for Deripaska, but Winer told the Committee in his first interview that
he never met Deripaska in person and has not been in touch with him for 15 years. In a second interview, Winer
clarified that Deripaska hired Alston & Bird, specifically Senator Bob Dole, in 2003, to help with an immigration
issue. Winer, in his capacity as an attorney at Alston & Bird, provided assistance to Senator Dole. Winer citedattorney-client privilege in declining to provide details on his work for Deripaska, but he did give a general example:"For exampie, if someone, anyone, wanted to travel to the United States and couldn't travel to the United States, I
could tell somebody, these are the kinds of things you might have to do if you want to be able to come to the UnitedStates, and they're real; they're not bogus. It's not a matter of doing it half-heartedly, and these are theconsequences, positive and negative. That's the kind of thing that someone like me might tell an oligarch." Winer
Tr., pp. 23, 88-89; SSCI Transcript of the Second Interview with Jonathan Winer, April 18, 2018, p. 4. Winer also
said that Bill Browder was one of his clients. Winer, Tr., p.11. For more, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. ID.C.6. Deripaska
retained the law firm Alston & Bird from 2003 until approximately 2009. Lobbying Registration pursuant to the
Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, Alston & Bird LLP, November 14, 2003; Lobbying Report pursuant to the
Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, Alston & Bird LLP, October 20, 2009. Deripaska has over time retained anumber of individuals to assist him in obtaining visas to the United States, with inconsistent success. The
Committee has limited insight into the network of attorneys and firms retained by Deripaska, but it has included
B an Cave in the U.S. and the U.K. and the Endeavor Law Firm. Other individuals who have not registered, suchashave similarly sought' to work with
Deripaska in the United States, potentially on similar issues. Waldman Tr., pp. 261-262.
5857(U) Email, Steele to B. Ohr, February 21, 2016 (HPSCI (3-23-18)-DOJ-000004). This email suggests that
Steele planned to share the Orbis report with the United States Government, initially through, his primarycontact and handling agent. The Committee notes that neither Steele (through counsel), Ohr,
FBI, nor the
Department of Justice have been able to locate that report or produce it to the Committee.
·

882

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYth-

'On ~eb 2! , 2016 • 9 l<& P'-i Chr s Sttt e>, ho~ you art ...e I I understan~'a< APEC and a m«I n1 w

tt and Adam W Chat OVO has bffn a•antra an o" c a v sa b>"' s t :he US sn tne ,...,, ns l;pputnl v"v.~re sorre counter squ ■ Is •rom State but ht

I am• r.o :o d ere,be an n•-er·aatncv ,,.ttt n1 on h m th 5
wh ch I auess vou w- be
art c rcu•at n1 some recent ~ns e Orb s report n1 on the llF eadel'Sh p 5 ar,et na o' cera n
bus ness' svres . th a, ew :o prusur s n1 them nto towtn1 the em t ne, upec,, Iv o,,er up ta ' 1ht O\IO s amon,stthose iar~ed SUU6t n1 ht s no• the udtrsh o toal some h1,e a tied I sha I bt send n1 th s reoori n1 n tht • rst
nstancet~as ht has as~d for e1• rtasons l understand •o, a such nport,n1 be f tertd throu1h h,m (to'IOO 1t
OoJ and othersl Nttd us tos rtctn• ind based on n'o 'rom, _ I p ac:td source th dortc accus

now hu the v• H

attend n1 Mean11th tsa,>> Wt r c on IN:•tfort that the 'otthcom n1 OV0 contact reprutnts a eood oopon.un tv la< the USG and tha , st,1 now. you
shou•d ~ push n1 atan open door (IS Ovt> s a so I rt of the :t,,ust o1 ovr ntw ntt I Mtan,~ e oo 0rw11d ro
d scuss n1 u, sand a ranre of ocher ssues o' muuie nwes• ,,.t,~n e cen If •oee_ther, hopef\inmrn Europe
dur n1 tht ~ tv.ttl<s P tHt •'-'P me posted)>!161.Chr s(U) The Committee has no further information on what Steele meant by " OVD is also
aware" of his work.
(U) T he Committee found ample evidence to dispute Steele's assessment that Deripaska
is "not the leadership tool some have alleged." Rather, Deripaska is a key implementer ofRussian influence operations around the globe.5858(U) Multiple witnesses, to include Simpson, Ohr, and Waldman, either told theCommittee or implied to the Committee that Steele had a business relationship with Deripaska.
One recognized link between the two men was a pair of lawyers: Deripaska's London-based
attorney, Paul Hauser, and Waldman, Deripaska's D.C.-based attorney.
•(U) Ohr was aware that Steele had a business relationship with Deripaska. 5859 Ohr told
the Committee that Steele mentioned Hauser at breakfast in the context of " informationthat could make out some kind of a criminal case against Paul Manafort."5860•

Further, in two sets of Ohr's handwritten notes provided to the Committee,~ n c e s links between Steele and Deripaska. In one set of notes titled "Chris" thatare undated, Ohr writes " Paul Hauser and OD [Deripaska] almost ready to talk w/ us re$

5858 (U)For more information on the relationship between Deripaska and Putin, see inf ra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.A.8.i.

5859 (U)B. OhrTr., pp.37,41-44, 148,152.
5860 (U) Ibid., pp. 44, 146.

883

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYManafort stole."5861 The rest of the first set of notes include information that appears in
the dossier memos. In the second set of notes titled "PARTIAL CHRON,'' Ohr appears
to list his interactions with Steele from 2007 through October 2016. In that list, heincludes this notation: "9/30/2015 Met OD & Paul Hauser NY."5862 It is unclear why he'associates that meetingwith Steele.

•(U) While St~ele never confirmed for Simpson that he had worked for Deripaska,
Simpson told the Committee that the possibility had occurred to him. When asked, andoil advice from counsel, Simpson refused to give details on why he thought the two might
have worked together in the past. 5863•

(U) As of February 2017, Steele was working for Hauser and for a German client,
Bilfinger, likely separately. 5864

(U) Steele also had links to Waldman. Steele in his written responses to the Committee
referred to Waldman as "a former friend and professional associate I met in London whenworking fot a law firm on legal casework." 5865 Waldman told the Committee that he met Steele
while working jointly on an unnamed client possibly between 2012 and 2016, though Waldman
did not employ Steele. The Committee assesses the unnamed client was probably Deripaska.
Waldman said that Steele's project in ,this effort was business intelligence related to "hisrelationship with members of the U.S. Government."5866 More recent ties include the following:

5861(U) Ohr, handwritten notes (HPSCI (3-23-18)-DOJ-000036) .. Deripaska appears to be engaged in these efforts
while simultaneously working cooperatively with Manafort to,counter the public revelation involving Russia'sinterference in the 2016 U.S. elections. See infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.7.
5862(U) Ohr, handwritten notes (HPSCI (3-23-18)-DOJ-000037).
5863(U) Simpson Tr., pp. 85-86, 88-90. Simpson, in response to the question "Were you ever aware that [Steele]
had in fact done work for Mr. Deripaska7'' said "I don't believe he's ever told me that," thert later, when pressed, "I
don't-he's never specifically told me that. There was. work-it became-:-the possibility had occurred to me, put itthat way.' .. Because when we were doing [a] report on Paul Manafort we found this lawsuit, we found thisliquidation proceeding." Simpson remembered the proceeding as related to business dealings between Manafort and
Deripaska. "It wasn't a Deripaska matter, it was a Manafort matter, this liquidation proceeding .... [I]n the course of
researching this, the question of who was trying to collect the debt became a question." Simpson, on advice ofcounsel, refused to answer any more questions. Counsel cited a confidentiality agreement between Fusion GPS andOrbis. Intelligence.
.
.
5864(U) B. Ohr Tr., p. 152. Ohr told the Committee that his recollection was Steele working for Paul Hauser andsimultaneously for a German Engineering company called Bilfinger. It was unclear if the tw,o were related. In atext between Ohr and Steele on March 16, 2017, Steele provided the name of the DOJ official "responsible foroverseeing the FCPA/DPA applied to Bilfinger, our non-paying German engineering company client." Text
message, Steele to Ohr, March 16, 2017 (HPSCI (3-23-18) DOJ-000026). Also see Committee Memorandum from
December 18, 2017, summarizing FBI, FD-302, B. Ohr 2/14/2017.
5865(U) Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.
5866(U) Waldman Tr., pp. 189-194. As of the date of the interview, November 3, 2017, Waldman said he still
repres~nted the unnamed client.

884

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) On January 12, 2016, Steele in an email to Bruce Ohr said, "I heard from Adam
WALDMAN yesterday that OD [Deripaska] is applying for another official US visa ice[sic] APEC business at the end ofFeb."5867 On February 8 and 21, Steele followed up,
writing Ohr that Deripaska had been granted an official visa. 5868•

(U) In January or early February of 2017, Steele discussed Waldman with Simpson.

Simpson paraphrased the conversation between the two:
[Steele said,] "Well, [Waldman] knows [Senator] Mark.Warnerand he says that he can talk to Warner and the Committee about
telling them what we know." So I just said: "Okay,fine,whatever. " At the time I was encouraging him to meet with theCommittees, but particularly the Senate Committee, because we
assumed it was going to be a more substantive and bipartisan
investigation. 5869•

(U) Steele in February 2017 asked Waldman to represent him, pro bono, working toestablish a conversation with the Committee, but in the spring of 2017, ·Steele told
Waldman he had hired a new lawyer. Waldman said the two had not spoken since. 5870

- T h e DOJ OIG reported that "sensitive reporting from June 2017
i n d i c a t ~ ] to Russian Oligarch 1 was [possibly aware] of Steele's
election investigation as of early July 2016,"5871 and later that "an early June 2017 USIC report
indicated that two persons affiliated with RIS were aware of Steele's election investi ation inearl Jul 2016." 5872

i

5867

(U) Email, Steele to B. Ohr, January 12, 2016 (HPSCI (3-23-18)-DOJ-000001).
(U) Email, Steele to B. Ohr, February 8, 2016 (HPSCI (3-23-18)-DOJ-000002); Email, Steele to B. Ohr,
February 21, 2016 (HPSCI (3-23-18)-DOJ-000004A).
5869(U) Simpson Tr., p. 186-187. See also irifra VoL 5, Sec. 111.A.7.
5870(U) Waldman Tr., pp. 180, 197-199.
5871(U) DOJ OJG FISA Report, p. 93, fn. 211.
5872
(U) DOJ OJG FISA Report, p. 191, fn. 342.
5873
U The Committee found that Kilimnik is a Russian intelligence officer. See irifra infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.A.8.ii.
5868

5874
5875 (U)

Ibid.

885

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYI•(U) Sam Patten, a political cm;isultant who had worked in Ukraine and a former business
partner to Kilimnik, said, "When [the dossier] was in the news [Kilimnik and I] talked
about it, that Konstantin saw it as proof of a cooked story being pushed around." 5879'--'--' The
OIG reported that "a 2015 report concerning oligarchs written by the FBI's Transnational
Organized Crime Intelligence Unit (TOCIU) noted that, from January through May 2015, 10
Eurasian oligarchs sought meetings with the FBI, and five of these had their intermediaries
contact Steele." That report noted such activity was unusual and recommended a validation
review of Steele. 5882
(U) Steele was adamant with the DOJ OIG that "Russian Oligarch 1" had no influenceon the dossier and that Oligarch 1 had no contact with any of Steele's sources. Steele said he5876 (U)Ibid.
(U) McCabe Tr., pp. 85-86.
5878(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 191, fn. 342.
5879
(U) Patten Tr., pp. 152-153.
5880(U) DOJ OJG FISA Report, p. 92.
5881(U) Ibid, p. 93.
5882(U) Ibid., pp. 92-93.
5877

886

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

worked for the oligarch's attorney and that he had met the oligarch one time. He also said he had
no information indicating the oligarch knew of his investigation. 5883 Steele declined to answer
the Committee's direct questions on whether he worked for Deripaska, but he said no client
would have known about the dossier or provided input, other than Fusion GPS. 5884
v.

(U) A Possible Omission in the Dossier(U) Steele and his subsources appear to have neglected to include or missed in its
entirety Paul Manafort's business relationship with Deripaska, which provided Deripaska
leverage over Manafort and a possible route of influence into the Trump Campaign.

(U) Steele mentions Paul Manafort by name roughly 20 times in the dossier, always in
the context of his work in Ukraine; and, in particular, Manafort's work on behalf ofthenUkrainian President Victor Yanukovych. Deripaska, who had a long-standing business
relationship with Manafort, is not mentioned once. Neither is Kilimnik, Manafort's right-handman in Kyiv, who himself has extensive ties to Deripaska. 5885 Despite Steele's expertise on
Ukraine and Russia, particularly on oligarchs, the dossier memos are silent on the issue.
(U) Steele, however, had worked for Deripaska-through Deripaska' s attorneys-on
matters related to a past business dispute between Deripaska and Manafort. In October 2016,
Steele told the FBI that he had previously been retained to work on a litigation matter concerning
debts allegedly owed by Manafort. 5886 Deripaska's attorneys had retained Steele to work on a
Manafort tasking, prior to Steele's Trump-related work with Fusion GPS. 5887 At the time,
Manafort was engaged in a dispute with Deripaska related to an investment that had failed morethan six years earlier and that had resulted in a distancing of the relationship between Manafort
and Deripaska. 5888
(U) Additionally, despite not including the topic in his memos, Steele verbally briefed hisconcern about the Deripaska-Manafort relationship and the leverage that existed, along withother topics, to a DOJ official who he hoped would pursue the issue with FBI. 5889

5885(U) Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.
U For more on Kilimnik, see in ra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.A.

5886
5887
5888

cember 2019.

(U) See infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.A.4.ii.
5889(U) B. Ohr Tr., p. 37.

887

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE-:-- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In his book with Fritsch, Simpson revealed that Fusion GPS was also involved inthis endeavor. Simpson writes that:

Weeks before Trump tapped Manafort to run his campaign, Christopher Steele
had hired Fusion for help investigating Manafort. The matter had nothing to dowith politics and was a typical commercial assignment. Orbis had recently been
queried by an American law firm about finding Manafort 's assets. The firm's
unidentified client claimed that Manafort owed him millions of dollars. 5890
The Committee notes that Simpson did not tell the Committee about this businessarrangement. 5891·

vi.

(U) A Confluence of Events: Natalia Veselnitskaya and the June 9, 2016
Meeting'(U) Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS had, since 2014, worked with Natalya
Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with ties to the Russian government, Russian intelligence, andAras Agalarov. The Committee found no evidence that Veselnitskaya used her ties with Fusion
GPS to influence the contents of the dossier. Nevertheless, the Committee sought to understandthe significance ofVeselnitskaya's relationship with Simpson because of the timing of theirinteractions, and because Veselnitskaya and Simpson both appear as key players in other events
related to the 2016 election. 5892·

5890
(U) Crime in Progress, pp. 50-51. Simpson later says that he and his partner debated whether the situation
presented a possible conflict of interests, given that they were also investigating Manafort for the DNC, but theydecided there was no conflict "since the parties were not adverse to each other."
5891(U) The Committee sought to understand the reasons for apparent omissions in the dossier and several
explanations are possible. One explanation is that Steele was compartmenting his work between clients. Steele's
claimed business practice was to not use information from one client's project on another. This asserted businesspractice, however, is partially refuted by the above mentioned October 2016 FBI interview, where Steele presented
some information as stemming from his past work related to the project targeting Manafort. DOJ OIG FISA Report,
p. 112. Another explanation is that Steele was self-censoring his findings, in ari attempt to protect his own business
relationship with Deripaska. Alternatively, Deripaska or his associates could have requested that Steele shape thecontent of the dossier. Finally, Steele could have judged that the information on Manafort and Deripaska wassomehow unreliable or irrelevant; this seems unlikely, however, given that Steele had recently done extensive workon Manafort on behalf ofDeripaska's attorneys. Steele would have known that Manafort's debts and ties to
Ukrainian political figures could-and eventually did-prove a problem for the Trump Campaign and an entry point
for Deripaska to attempt to exert influence.
5892(U) For more on Veselnitskaya's links with Russian officials, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. III.C.

888

'

(U) Fusion GPS, specifically Simpson, conducted research for Veselnitskaya related toBill Browder, Prevezon, and the Magnitsky Act. 5893 Veselnitskaya worked with a U.S. law firm,
BakerHostetler, who hired Fusion GPS in early 2015 to conduct that research. 5894 Simpson told
the Committee that:[BakerHostetler] is an old client of mine, very respectable lawyers, and they havetheir ethical obligations to know who their clients are, and I relied on that. And
Natalya was-represented to me as the lawyer for the client. So her identity was
not actually something that I was terribly curious about . .. she was just thelawyer who hired my lawyers. 5895
(U) On June 9, 2016, Simpson went to New York City to attend a hearing on
BakerHostetler's role in the Prevezon case. Veselnitskaya was there to represent Prevezon.
Later that day, Veselnitskaya attended a meeting with several associates in Trump Tower withrepresentatives of the Trump Campaign and Trump Organization. 5896 Simpson told theCommittee that he had no knowledge of the meeting before it occurred and was unaware that
Veselnitskaya had any meeting related to the Trump Campaign planned.5897 Soon after the
meeting, Veselnitskaya attended a dinner organized by one of the BakerHostetler lawyers inWashingtonD.c.·with Simpson, RinatAkhmetshin, who also attended the Trump Tower
meeting, and others. Simpson recalled to the Committee that while he may have briefly
interacted with Veselnitskaya, he did not recall having any substantive conversation with her andstated that he remained unaware of the existence of the June 9, 2016 meeting in Trump Tower
until 2017, when the meeting became public. 5898
(U) Although Simpson told the Committee he was unaware Veselnitskaya planned tomeet with Trump Campaign staff and family members in June 2016, he had supplied at least
some of the research she presented to the June 9, 2016 meeting-the purported "dirt" on Hillary
Clinton's donors. Veselnitskaya told the Committee that "The first person who ever told us

5893(U) Bill Browder is the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and was the largest foreign
investor in Russia until 2005. According his profile in Time, "Since 2009, when his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, diedin prison after uncovering a $230 million fraud committeed by Russian government officials, Browder has beenleading a campaign to expose Russia's endemic corruption and human rights abuses." See Bill Browder, "I'm Bill
Browder. Here's the biggest mistake Putin made when trying to get access to me through Trump," Time, July 16,
2018.
5894
(U) Simpson Tr., p. 195. Fusion GPS was retained by the law firm BakerHostetler to assist its client-Russianoligarch Denis Katsyv-in the Prevezon case [(U.S. v. Prevezon Holdings, Ltd., et al., No. 13 Civ. 6326)].
5895(U) Simpson Tr., p. 195.
5896
(U) For More on the Agalarovs, see infra Vol. 5, Sec. ill.C.
5897(U) Simpson Tr., pp. 166-167.
5898(U) Ibid, pp. 166-167, 201; Transcript of the Interview of Glenn Simpson, HPSCI, November 14, 2017, p. 118.
"And I found out about it ... within a day ofit being disclosed in the New York Times. Someone called me and said'you heard about this meeting? And I said no."889

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
about the involvement or existence of Ziff Brothers5899 was Mr. Glenn Simpson. The first reportthat I obtained from him was dated December 2014. That was the very report ... that Ziff
Brothers was one of the DNC sponsors."5900 She went on to say that "I have his reports in thenumber of hundreds of pages."5901 Simpson, however, thought the Ziff brothers research was
mostly useless, and was puzzled by Veselnitskaya's use of it as derogatory information at theJune 9, 2016 meeting. 5902

(U) Veselnitskaya said that she was unaware of Steele, and that Simpson had nevermentioned him. 5903 Veselnitskaya suggested that she would have appreciated Steele's help on a
project, but Simpson had not made the introduction. She told the Committee:
For a sort of unknown reason, Glenn Simpson avoided.approaching {SteeleJ in2014, and I had to grab all the pieces of information myself. ..[Simpson] evenemphasized that he had no capabilities to work in London because he had no one
he used to know there. 5904
(U) The Committee has no indication that Veselnitskaya and Simpson's relationshipextended past his work on the Prevezon case and related work. However, the two have different
recollections of their last communications. The last time, in Simpson's recollection, was thedinner discussed above at some point after the June 9, 2016 meeting. Simpson told theCommittee that "in neither of these encounters did she say she was going to go meet with the
Trump campaign [for the June 9, 2016 meeting]. She didn't ask me for information. I'm notfamiliar with the information she gave them." 5905
(U) Veselnitskaya did not recall these interactions. 5906 Her memory of their lastcommunication is an October 2016 communication, through Simpson's lawyer. She said: "Youunderstand I cannot disclose what it was about, but it has nothing to do [with] the subject matterof your investigation. " 5907

5899(U) The Ziff brothers are American inyestors. Juliet Chung, "Ziff Brothers Investments Set to Gradually Close
U.S. Hedge Fund," Wall Street Journal, October 31, 2013.
5900(U) Veselnitskaya Tr., p. 52.
5901(U) Ibid., p. 72.
5902(U) Simpson Tr., p. 210.
5903
(U) Veselnitskaya Tr., p. 75.
5904(0) Ibid,pp.117-118.
5905(U) Simpson Tr., p. 201. If Simpson's recollection is correct, Veselnitskya saw him both before and after the
meeting at Trump Tower and in neither instance mentioned to him that she had used his information to brief senior
members of the Trump Campaign.
5906(U) Veselnitskaya Tr., pp. 100-101.
5907 (U) Ibid, p. 100.
.

890

vii.

(U) A Separate Information Stream Joins the Dossier: Two Additional
Memos(U) Separate from the memos that comprise the dossier, in September 2016 a set of
documents emerged alleging sexual and financial misconduct by then-candidate Trump andthose associated with his businesses. Cody Shearer, a sometimes freelance journalist, hadcompiled his notes in the course of "an ongoing news reporting project," and "No person ororganization with whom Shearer shared his notes had permission to transmit them to anyone,"
according to Shearer's attorney. 5908 Sidney Blumenthal, an associate of Shearer's and longtime
associate of Hillary Clinton, who received the documents from Shearer, described them as. "justraw notes ... raw, preliminary, investigative, uncorroborated notes."5909(U) The notes were contained in two documents. · The first document, entitled "TheCompromised Candidate," alleged sexual misconduct and financial misconduct involving Trumpand financial misconduct involving members of Trump's family. 5910 That document references
an FSB agent and a Turkish businessman, but no other sources are discussed. The second
document, entitled "FSB Interview," states that there was a split within the FSB on "how far thisshould go," referring to an intelligence operation against Trump, and it describes in some detailthe kompromatthe FSB allegedly held on Trump. 5911•
(U) Blumenthal said he would be surprised if Shearer was talking to an actual member of
the FSB, but Blumenthal said he knew nothing about the sources of the documents. 5912
According to Blumenthal, "[Shearer] has a· wide network of contacts, and I've been surprised in
the past that some of the things he turns up, which seem wild, turned out to be true." 5913
(U) The original provenance of the information in the documents is still unclear.
Blumenthal told the Committee that Shearer sent him the documents unsolicited. The first
document arrived on September 24, 2016, and the second arrived on October 12, 2016. 5914
(U) Winer received the first document, "The Compromised Candidate," from ·Blumenthal following a dinner on September 24, 2016. 5915 Winer described Steele's work toBlumenthal during dinner, based on Winer's memory of the documents, and Blumenthal noted

5908(U) Letter, [Attorney] to SSCI, February 28, 2018.
(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Sidney Blumenthal, March 23, 2018, p. 43. _5910(U) Winer Tr. II, p. 13; Document, produced by Blumenthal to SSCI, (SSCI-Blum-enthal-0003-6)
5911 (U) SSCI-BLUMENTHAL-0003-0010.
,·
5912(U) Blumenthal Tr., p. 40.
5913(U) Ibid, p. 43.
5914(U) Ibid, pp. 20-22.
5915(U) Ibid, pp. 30, 32-34. Shearer did not attend the dinner.
5909

891

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

that he.had received notes from Shearer earlier that day that sounded similar.5916 Blumenthal
provided the first document to Winer, which Winer then shared with Steele. 5917 Winer said, "Ithought Chris should see it. He was in town, and I shared it with him." 5918 According to Winer,
Steele thought the document might corroborate some of his own work. 5919 In mid-October,
Blumenthal received the second document from Shearer, "FSB Interview," and passed it toWiner as well. 5920
(U) Steele provided the second document, "FSB Interview," to the FBI, after receiving itfrom Winer. 5921 Before doing so, he appended a description of the document to the.top entitled"Company Note," dated October 19, 2016, which stated:·v

We received this report from Jon WINER, US State Department on 18 October
2016. It is the second in this series we have seen. We consider it potentiallysignificant and apologize in advance for its rough format. The sub-source, as weunderstand it, is a Turkish businessman with strong Russian, including FSB, links.
He is in touch with Cody SHEARER, a contact ofSidney BLUMENTHAL, a.friendof the CLINTONs, who passed it to WINER. We have no means of verifying thesource/s or information but note that some of the report is remarkably similar toour own, albeit from completely different sourcing chain, and therefore could be
important collateral, especially on the reported Ritz Carlton incident in 2013;
TRUMP's compromise by the FSB (and knowledge ofit); and subsequent Kremlin
funding of the TRUMP campaign (through the AGALAROVs). We judge that
WINER at least would be happy to discuss all this further with you. 5922

5916(U) Ibid, pp. 32-34. In response to a question, Blumenthal said that it was "totally coincidental, very, very
coincidental" that he received Shearer's notes on the same day he had dinner with Winer.
5917(U) Winer Tr. II, p. 11. Winer, in his first interview with the Committee, did npt mention the existence of these
documents, but he described how he came to possess them in an op-ed in the The.Washington Post in February of
2018. The Committee then called Winer in for a second interview to discuss this issue and other follow-up
questions.
5918(U) Ibid, p. 15.
5919(U) Ibid, p. 16.
5920-bid, pp. 13-15. Blumenthal Tr., pp. 22, 48.
5921
FBI, Background on Documents Known to the FBI Comprising the "Steele Dossier." Steele does nota ear to ave rovided the first document ("The Compromised Candidate") to the FBI; see als
An October 19, 2016 internal FBI email sa s(U) FBI, Background on Documents Known to the FBI Comprising the "Steele Dossier."

892

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION. ONLY((U) Winer recalled that he did not share the documents with FBI or any security officer
at Department of State. 5923 Winer also told the Committee that, at the time, he was unaware that
Steele had passed one of the documents to the FBI, and he found out from journalists that Steelegave the document to the FBI. 5924
(U) The Committee was unable to fully pursue questions about the information in these
two additional documents, their origins, or their credibility. The Committee requested
documents from and an interview with Shearer, but he refused. In a le:tter, his attorney cited "anongoing news investigation ... therefore protected by the Reporter's Privilege grounded in theFirst Amendment." 5925 Steele, in his written responses to Committee questions, said: "We are(post-dossier) aware of the sourcing details of Shearer's information on the relationship between
Russia and Donald Trump and his campaign but we are restricted from being able to share this·with the Committee."5926

5. (U) FBI's Handling of the Dossier(U) Personnel at the FBI, from Steele's handling agent to FBI leadership, considered
Steele's information to be extremely sensitive and potentially relevant to ongoing investigations.
They assigned Steele's reporting credibility based on a flawed understanding of his past workwith the FBI and likely assuming that the source and subsource descriptions in the dossier
memos accurately reflected those subsources' access. The dossier joined a stream of intelligenceand investigative reporting about Russia's attempts to interfere in the 2016 elections, and FBI in
its pursuit of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation never fully explored the allegations in thedossier or Steele's tradecraft.
i.

(U) The Dossier's Path Through the FBIa. (U) FBl's First Awareness(U) An urgent phone call from Steele to Special A g e n t - in early July 2016 led
tq two months of cautious confusion, as FBI tried to decide how to handle information that was

uncorroborated, concerning, and extremely politically sensitive.

5923(U) Winer Tr. II, pp. 20-22.
(U) Ibid, p. 22.
5925(U) Letter, [Attorney] to SSCI, February 28, 2018. The Committee's decision not to compel testimony does not
signal its agreement with this position.
5926(U) Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.
5924

893

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) On July 2 or 3, 2016, Steele called- his FBI handler who was posted i n and said "We need to talk." 5927 •
said Steele showed an "extreme" sense of urgency, and5"he was not an excitable guy. "Steele did not want to give additional details over the phone,so agreed to meet in person. 5929
(U) went to on July 5 to meet with Steele, who likely gave him the firsttwo dossier memos (Reports 80 and 86). 5930 told the Committee: "I know for sure the firstone I read was the report talking about hiring hookers to urinate on the bed ... [Steele] put thereport in front ofme and said: You have to read this. At which time I did. And I said okay, tomyself; this is now going to change things a little bit." 5931
(U) recalled Steele giving a little background on his clients. the conversation as:paraphrased

So he said: Look, here's the story: I was hired by a guy named Glenn Simpson todevelop information on Donald Trump's business activities in Russia. [Simpson]
was hired by a law firm; I don't know who is behind the law firm, but I know
there's a law firm who hired Simpson and Simpson hired me. 5932
(U) At the time, did not recognize Simpson's name. said that "in the first
conversation we had, I said: you know, clearly if this is politically motivated, which obviously it
is-he wasn't aware from which side-somebody's doing this to ultimately do something with
it. They're not just going to keep it under a rock." 5933 At the point of their early July meeting,
Steele had already sent at least the first memorandum to Simpson. 5934
(U) said Steele's main motivation for collecting the information was to fulfill his
contract with the client. However, also recalled that Steele wanted to deliver the
information to FBI because of "his concern that the possible President of the United States could
have these ties to Russia ... [and] Russia being able to somehow compromise ultimately the next

5927(U) Tr., pp. 34-35.
Ibid.

592s (U)5929
5930!J}J,,,,,!!11,d.

Ibid., pp. 35-36. thought he ma have received two memoranda in total, but he was not sure. He
was certain that he received Report 80. See also
5931 (U) Tr., p. 37.
5932 (U) Ibid.
5933(U) Ibid., pp. 55-56.
5934(U) Ibid., p. 59.

894

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

President of the United States." 5935 At th~t, Steele was not arguing that the information
should be made public. 5936 According to ·.
He said: You know, people have to see this. I said, okay. I said, but right now we
don't know who has to see this ... I've got to determine within the Bureau whoneeds to know this, who has to see this, because the issue at this point was I havea credible source of information with a very kind of explosive document that iscompletely u11corroborated and unverified. 5937
(U) ~ made the point that FBI could not act on the information without
corroboration.
Steele said he had not corroborated the information yet,' but that he wasworking to, and he was working on other memos. 5939 also made clear the FBI was nottasking Steele to gather more information. 5940
(U) flew back t o - with a hard copy of the first memo. He told theCommittee he was worried about getting the memo into the right hands within FBI, discreetly,
given the sensitivity of the information. He said that:

Because of the nature of this information it had to be really as much as possible
directed to the people who needed to know about it, without broadcasting it. It
had to be done discreetly even within the Bureau. And . .. those people who
ultimately needed to know about it are not advertising themselves throughout the
Bureau. They 're not saying: hey, we are doing the super-secret stuff, the counterespionage stuff,· here's our office. 5941
(U) had a trusted colleague at the FBI in New York who had experience with
political corruption cases. 5942 While he said he did not consider this information politicalcorruption, he wanted to start with an FBI colleague who, as he put it, was "somebody at least
who had been involved in matters with those names, or at least with Hillary Clinton's name." 5943
In mid-July,_ colleague in New York told him to send the Steele memos. 5944 sent

Ibid., -p. 43.
Ibid., p. 44.
(U) Ibid., p. 40.
593s (U) Ibid., p. 42.
5939(U) Ibid, p. 40.
5940(U) Ibid, p. 42.
5941(U) Ibid, p. 47.
5 42~ (U) Ibid, p. 49.
5943(U) Ibid
5944(U) Ibid, p. 51. 5935 (U)5936 (U)5937

did not reveal the name of his colleague to the Committee.

895

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

them via secure email on July 28, 2016. 5945 His colleague reported back in late July that
"Executive Management" in New York was aware, as was FBI Headquarters "to the [Executive
Assistant Director] level."5946 Then, in early~st, one of the division counsels in the New
York Office and another executive spoke to a n d - sent them the memos. The counsel
told- that a group in FBI heiid
uarters may already be investigating something similar, but
he did not provide specifics. 5947
recalled, "Then throughout the month of August, I was
waiting to hear back who the people were at headquarters who I could send this to." 5948
(U) At some point during August 2016, Bruce Ohr called- to say that he had seen
the dossier, and to ask how FBI was responding. did not ask how Ohr knew about or had
seen the dossier, b u t - communicated that the EAD-level of FBI headquarters was aware of. the memos and their contents. 5949
(U) Finally, in mid-September 2016, FBI headquarters passed- the name of theindividual at FBI headquarters who was responsible for the related investigation. paraphrased the message as "There is a group working something and ... they're going to needto see this." 5950 The group was in the Counterintelligence Division (CD). 5951

(U) Deputy Assistant Director Pete Strzok, at that point the lead for FBI' s Crossfire
Hurricane investigation, told the Committee that his team became aware of the Steele
information in September 2016. He said, "We were so compartmented in what we were doing,[the Steele reporting] kind of bounced around a little bit," also, in part, because- and Steele
did not normally report on counterintelligence matters. 5952 Strzok said that the information was"certainly very much in line with things we were looking at" and "added to the body ofknowledge of what we were doing." 5953
(U) Steele, meanwhile, was still under contract with Fusioµ GPS and simultaneously
discussing his memos with other contacts in the U.S. Government. Steele called Simpson in late
September 2016 and said that FBI wanted his memos; Simpson's response was "okay, give it to

5945(U) Ibid, p. 54; see also DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 100. The report describes in detail the meetings inside FBI ·establish~ho should receive the memos from Steele.
S946 (U) Tr., p. 51.
5947(U) Ibid, pp. 53-54.
5948(U) Ibid, p. 53.
5949(U) Ibid, pp. 62-63.
5950(U) Ibid, p. 59.
5951'(U) Ibid, p. 61.
5952(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Peter Strzok, November 17, 2017, pp. 29-30. The team received six
Steele memos on September 19. DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 103.
5953
(U) Strzok Tr., p. 31.

896

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
Jthem." 5954 Steele called~ on September 30, 2016, to report that he had also given thememos to Jonathan Winer.

b. (U) FBI Headquarters Takes the Lead on the Dossier(U) In September and October 2016, FBI Headquarters worked to corroborate Steele's
reporting and validate the identity and access of his subsource network. McCabe told theCommittee he remembered getting the information in mid-September 2016, and recalled:

It was concerning to us. It was concerning to us all. The Steele information
raised a lot ofquestions. Steele was somebody who [had] a productive history
with us as a source. ,We took his information seriously. But it was obviously very
detailed, significant, kind ofserious allegations. So·we immediately went into amode of trying to understand how should we think about Steele's information,
how accurate is it, how credible is it, how significant is it? That kind of
unleashed the whole process of trying to figure out how we could confirm it ordisprove it, and what ultimately we should do with it. 5956
(U) The first step was for FBI Counterintelligence Division personnel to interview Steele
directly. 5957 That meeting happened,on Octoberl, 2016, i n - 5958 attended andserved as interlocutor. The FBI personnel discussed with Steele his subsources, FBI's Crossfire
Hurricane investigation, and the outlines of a future arrangement with Steele to gather more
information. They also discussed restrictions on Steele'.s sharing of his information. 5959

(U) ~ the Committee that the FBI agents asked Steele for information about his
source network.JIii reminded Steele that "if you want ultimately this stuff to be deemed
credible, they're going to have to know [the identity of your sources]." 5960 Steele described thesources' access, but did not provide names. said, "That's his bread and butter, is his
sources ... he doesn't want to divulge that to anybody." 5961
(U) The FBI agents discussed their counterintelligence investigation into Russian

activities with Steele, including George Papadopoulos's conversation with the Australians
related to outreach from Russia on damaging information about Clinton. Steele said he was not

5954(U) ~ o n Tr., p. 121.
Tr., p. 64.
5956(U) McCabe Tr., p. 61; DOJ OIG FISA Report, pp. 116-117.
s9s1 (U) Tr., p. 62.
S9S8 (U) Ibid. .
'5959(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, pp. 110-117.
S960 (U) Tr., pp. 66-67.
S961 (U) Ibid.

, s9ss (U) -897

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

aware of Papadopoulos. FBI also raised their investigation into Manafort, Flynn, and Page. 5962
The Committee questions whether this is common or appropriate practice-sharing details froman ongoing counterintelligence investigation with a human source, in this case a foreign citizen,
even if the goal is to ask that source to collect additional information. Simpson may havebecome aware of the FBI's interest in Papadopoulos based on the FBI's discussion with Steele
during this interview. Simpson says in his book that Steele passed that information along toFusion GPS: "The session yielded an important bit of intelligence for Fusion. .FBI agents
surprised Steele by asking him what he knew about Trump adviser George Papadopoulos ...
suggesting that there was an active Bureau investigation that relied on sources other thanSteele." 5963
(U) The Counterintelligence Division agents asked Steele to collect more informationthat might corroborate what he had found. 5964 However, said, "It was specifically stated
that, look, anything you collect from today g~orward, we want to be exclusively for us, theBureau, not to be provided to anybody else."- said Steele's response was "okay," but there
was no signed contract. 5965 Steele told the agents that he had given information to "a longtime
friend at the State Department to be sure it's getting to the right place in the USG," almost
certainly meaning Jonathan Winer. The agents told Steele to "stand down" on efforts to further
disseminate the information and only deal with the FBI. 5966 The content of this conversation
later became a point of contention between Steele and the FBI.

___!U) -summarized that the agents offered Steele payment for "his efforts for coming
to and for the reports~ust for agreeing to engage in further activity and taskings inthis regard." According t o - the agents further said "if you can corroborate thisinformation we will pay you." Steele accepted, but he was ultimately never paid by FBI for any
reports related to the election. 5967 The FBI began the process to approve a $15,000 payment to
Steele, but-recalled that "we didn't get authority and we didn't actually have the money set
aside and in hand until the end of October [2016]." 5968 By that point, FBI had broken off therelationship because FBI learned that Steele had broken the exclusivity arrangement by speaking
with the press. 5969

596

~ D O J OJG FISA Report, pp. 116-117;~ m e in Progress, p. 114.
5964
(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, pp. 111-112.
5965
Tr. . 67.
5963

5966

-

Tr., pp. 85-87; DOJ OJG FISA Report, .pp. 110,

898

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

.illl,_Later in October 2016, Steele forwarded- other memos as he completed them,which 1111 forwarded to FBI headquarters. 5971

c. (U) The Official End to the FBI's Relationship with Steele(U) Steele's official reporting relationship with the FBI ended in early November 2016,
immediately after Mother Jones published an article on October 31, 2016, which outlined
Steele's allegations. The article said, in part:

A former senior intelligence officer for a Western Country who specialized in
Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent months he provided
the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources,
contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist
Trump-and that the FBI requested more information from him. 5972
(U) ~alled Steele to ask if he was the source for the article. Steele admitted that hewas, to w h i ~ responded:That's going to change everything. I said: "Firstly, you 're not going to get themoney, because nobody's going to authorize giving you the money because youwere not supposed to talk to anybody, as you know. " And then secondly, I said,"odds are likely we are not going to be working together going forward, becauseof this disclosure,. "5973

5910 (U)Ibid.

5911 (U) Tr., p. 78.
5972 (U) David Com, "A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate

Do~otherJones, October31 2016.
59 7 3 - - Tr., pp. 80-81; see also

899

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) communicated his surprise and disbelief with the sit,uation to the Committee,
saying "I've seen crazy source-related stuff in 20 years in New York and this was one of thecraziest."5974 He paraphrased his conversation with Steele:

So I said: "Listen, is it about the money?" I said, "because we have the money
now. Is it about the money?" ... because I couldn't understand why on earth,because there had literally been no indication between our meeting in October,early October, to then that he would do anything like this, nothing. Nothing led
up to it. He wasn't getting increasingly angry, aggravated, .frustrated, making
comments about our lack of effort or lack of work. There was nothing that led me
to believe anything was wrong. 5915-

continued:[Steele says], 'yes, I'm owed the money, but that's secondary" .... He goes-andI'm paraphrasing. . . "I'm very upset about, we 're very upset, about the actions
ofyour agency." I had no idea what he was talking about . ... He goes: "Last
Friday, Director Corney reopening the "-he said something like ''your Director, "or "the reopening of the investigation. " So at that point I'm now understandingthat he did this because he was upset that the Director's reopening of theinvestigation was going to negatively affect the election for Hillary Clinton,
meaning he's working to provide information regarding Trump and compromiseof Trump's organization and then Director Corney provides this blast, a shot tothe side. 5916
0later clarified: "This was my impression only at the time and not based on anything I
asked him ... he was so upset because this was g9ing to allow Russia to get-it was going toallow Russia's candidate to get into office."5977(U) explained the next steps: "After that point-after everybody digests what
happened, becaus<? phones were ringing at that point, people's ears were bleeding. Management
said we were going to close him. At that point it's just obvious. That's all you could do." 5978
explained that ''[o]nce he's closed, nobody is allowed-we can't talk to him, we cannot

Tr., p. 83.
(U) Ibid., pp. 80-81.
5976(U) Ibid., p. 82.
5977(U) Ibid., p. 90.
5978(U) Ibid., p. 87.
5974 (U) 5975

900

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY .

operate him, we cannot task him." 5979 summed up the situation as "Frankly, when he went
to the press there were no more agreements in place."5980(U) Steele, on the other hand, did not believe he was under any obligation to report only
to FBI. In his written answers to the Committee, he said

At no point were we ever asked about contacts with the media by the FBL let
alone instructed not to have any. The FBI were not our client on this project, did
not own the product and had no right to determine what we did with it. This wasmade clear to them at the time. 5981
d. (U) Simpson and Steele Seek Other Outlets for the Dossier(U) Simpson and Steele continued to reach out to the press and, later, Steele madecontact with an associate of Senator John McCain. Simpson described to the Committee his
logic on going back to the press:

So I'm sitting on a real bombshell piece of information now, which is that the
FBJ's investigating the Russians, the Trump campaign and whether they've
connected with the Russians, and Corney comes out with a thing about Hilary
Clinton .... 5982
Simpson continued:
I felt that if the standards had changed and the FBI was willing to disclose
investigations, then the press should go back to the FBI and ask them whether
they 're investigating Donald Trump. And I was expecting all this to be exposed
after the election, but when this happened I said they should expose it now. 5983
(U) Contributing to Simpson's calculation was an October 31, 2016 article in The New
York Times: "Investigating Donald Trump, FBI Sees No Clear Link to Russia." The story said
that "for much of the summer, the FBI pursued a widening investigation into a Russian role in
the American presidential campaign," but concluded that:

5979(U) Ibid, p. 91.
(U) Ibid, p. 73.
5981(U) Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.,
5982(U) Simpson Tr., p. 135.
5983
(U) Ibid., p. 136.
5980

901

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

[LJaw enforcement officials say that none of the investigations so far have found
any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government.
And even the hacking into Democratic emails, FBI and intelligence officials now
believe, was aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Mr.
Trump.5984(U) While the article said that FBI officials declined to comment, it cited as sources "anofficial" and "senior officials" in outlining a wide counterintelligence investigation. Simpson in
his book said other news outlets saw this article as a definitive reason to stop pursuing the story
Simpson had been advocating. Simpson further alleges that FBI was intentionally trying todissemble. 5985
(U) Simpson began advocating with Steele to go public with what he knew:
I said to Chris right before the election: you know, maybe you should come backand we should just do a press conference on the Capitol steps and tell everyone
what we know. And he said: I'm not coming back, because I don't understandwhat's happening at the FBI and I don't know why they would tell the press thatthey weren't investigating Trump when I know they are . ... Chris was concerned,
as was L that something had happened in the FBL there had been some sort of afaction or a political division within the FBI that had caused them to dredge up
new allegations against Hillary Clinton and suppress information about Donald
Trump.5986

ii.

(U) FBl's Investigative Approach(U) FBI Counterintelligence Division's efforts to investigate the allegations in thedossier were focused on identifying Steele's source network and recruiting those people to serve
as sources for, or provide information to, the FBI. FBI also made efforts to corroborate theinformation in the dossier memos, but the Committee found that attempt lacking in boththoroughness and rigor. The FBI pursued FISA coverage of Carter Page in October 2016,
including information from the dossier, but at the time it had very little information on Steele's
subsources or corroboration of Steele's information.

(U) As of May 2017, when the SCO began its own investigation, the FBI had taken thefollowing investigative steps:

5984(U) Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers, "Investigating Donald Trump, FBI Sees No Clear Link to Russia,"
The New York Times, October 31, 2016.
5985(U) Crime in Progress, pp. 120-121.
5986(U) Simpson Tr., pp. 145-146; see also Kramer Tr., p. 28.

902

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

a. (U) Steele's Reputation as a Proven Source(U) Steele had built a solid reputation as a source in the FBI's work on the FIFA
investigation, which predisposed the FBI to give credence to his reporting on counterintelligenceissues. The' Committee has very little insight into exactly what Steele provided to FBI regarding
FIFA, so it wa~ossible to independently judge Steele's contributions to the multi-year
investigation. told the Committee that Steele provided valuable investigative leads thatwere later borne out by further investigation. said:

Our squad initiated the FIFA investigation. Steele made a CQuple of introductions
to individuals who provided different levels of information regarding corruption
within FIFA and ultimately had provided a very interesting piece of intelligencethat really highlighted the highest level of corruption for us. 5990
(U) The DOJ OIG report reflected this understanding as well: Steele introduced FBI to acontact, and "but for Steele's assistance in arranging this meeting, the FBI would not have had
the impetus to open the FIFA investigation in 2010."5991 also told DOJ OIG that Steele
provided two other investigative leads to the FBI in connection with FIFA. One was a report that
Putin acknowledged a Russian oligarch had bribed the President of FIFA so Russia could win its
bid to host the 2018 World Cup tournament. In 2012, Steele also introduced FBI to two British

5987(U) SSCI Memorandum, "FBI Briefing on Steele 'Dossier' Sourcing," February 15, 2018; DOJ OJG FJSA
Report. 189-190.
5988
DOJ OJG FJSA Re ort . 195(U) SSCI Memorandum, "FBI Brie mg on Stee e 'Dossier' Sourcing," Fe ruary 15, 2018. On standup of the
SCO, the Committee lost access to all relevant information regarding FBI's efforts to verify the dossier, as it did
with all information the SCO declared to touch its "equities."
5990 U
Tr., p. 13.
5991
DOJ OJG FJSA ~ pp. 87-88. The Committee notes that the unnamed Handling Agent 1 for the
DOJ OIG 1s also Special Agent-

903

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

officials who had more information on this topic. 5992 Other FBI sources had corroborated
Steele.' s reporting; 5993 said it was "Not exactly similar, but very close." 5994 .
(U) The DOJ OIG report also made clear, however, that Steele did not.provide testimony
in any court proceeding and his information was not used to obtain any compulsory ~.
process. 5995 That report. discusses the gap in understanding of Steele's role between- andthose on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, saying that "SSA 1 told us the [Crossfire
Hurricane] team had 'speculated' that Steele's prior reporting had been corroborated and used incriminal proceedings because they knew Steele had been 'a part of, if not predicated, the FIFA
investigation."'· However, told the DOJ OIG that "only 'some' of Steele's prior reporting
had been corroborated-most of it had not-and ... Steele's information was never used in acriminal proceeding. " 5996 told the Committee, that "In the criminal world ... Christopher
Steele would never be a witness in a criminal case for us. The individuals who he introduced us
to would not be witnesses in a criminal case for us. But the intelligence that he provided issignificant for us in terms ofleads, in terms of which direction to go."5997(U) Steele had provided information to the FBI on subjects other than FIFA. told
the Committee that "[Steele's] information was put into a number ofIIRs that were sent out tothe [intelligence] community. A few times-I can't say exactly how many-we would receive a~nse saying: that looks to be on point; can you develop more information on that line?"5998
said the information from Steele "ran the spectrum of average to very good." 5999 FBI also
told the DOJ OIG that St~ele in 2013 provided "lengthy and detailed reports to FBI on three
Russian oligarchs, one of whom was among the FBI's most wanted fugitives." 6000
(U) Steele and the FBI had different views on the nature of their relationship. The FBI
had Steele officially enrolleid as a CHS as of 2013. 6001 Steele, however, saw the relationship ascontractual. 6002 Steele told the DOJ OIG that the nature of his relationship with the FBI "wasnever really resolved and both sides turned a blind eye to it. It was not really ideal." 6003 FBI

5992(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 88.
Tr., p. 14.
(U) Ibid, p. 15.
5995(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 88.
5996(U) Ibid, p. 371.
s991 (l!) Tr., p. 14.
5998(U) Ibid., p. 17.
5999(U) Ibid., p. 21.
6000(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 88.
6001
U Ibid, p. 90.
6002
Ibid . 89.
5993 (U) 5994

904

paid Steele $95,000 between 2013 and 2016 for a variety of work, but largely because of his
work on the FIFA investigation. 6004

b. (U) FBl's Vetting of Steele(U) FBI examined Steele's history as a source using official procedures, but the review
was lacking in thoroughness. Peter Strzok explained that generally the procedure for a "humanvalidation review" is for FBI' s Directorate oflntelligence to analyze an asset's entire case file,looking at the reporting history, the circumstances of recruitment, their motivation, and theircompensation history. 6005 Strzok recalled that the result was "good to continue; that there were
not significant concerns, certainly nothing that would indicate that he was compromised or
feeding us disinformation or he was a bad asset." 6006 However, Strzok also said that after
learning that reporters and Congress had Steele's information:[FBI] started looking into why he was assembling [the dossier], who his clients
were, what the basis of their interest was, and how they might have used it, and
who would know, it was apparent to us that this was not a piece of information
simply provided to the FBI in the classic sense of a kind of a confidential source
reporting relationship, but that it was all over the place. 6007

-Steele's handling agent submitted quarterly and annual source reports on Steeleover the years, which raised no derogatory information and generally reflected positively on
Steele's reporting, according to the DOJ OIG. 6008 In November 2016, a supervisory special
agent on the Crossfire Hurricane team requested a Human Source Validation Review on Steele,
which Counterintelligence Division delayed until early 2017 due to concerns about leaks ofsensitive information. The Validation Unit com leted its re ort on March 23, 2017.

VMU assesses it is likely [Steele] has contributed to the FBI's Criminal Program.
VMU makes this assessment with medium confidence, based on the fact that
[Steele's] reporting has been minimally corroborated. 6010

6004

(U) Steele never received any compensation for his work on the dossier. (U) Strzok Tr., p. 39.
6006 (U) Ibid., p. 41.
6007(U) Ibid., p. 32.
6008(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 185.
6009
(U) Ibid., p. 186.
6010
(U) Ibid., p. 186.

Tr., pp. 23-25, 74-76.

6005

905

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

Priestap later told the DOJ OIG that he was surprised by the assessment of"minimallycorroborated," which conflicted with his. general understanding that Steele had a "long,
successful track record of reporting, that had withstood, in effect, judicial or court-of-law
scrutiny." It had not. Priestap also expressed concern that the FBI's internal report on Steele did
not address whether Steele's reporting could be corroborated. 6011
(U) The DOJ OIG in November of 2019 investigated the integrity ofFBI's vetting of
human sources. The report says "We found that the FBI's vetting process for CHSs, known asvalidation, did not comply with the Attorney General Guidelines. We also found deficiencies in
the FBI's long-term CHS validation reports, which are relied upon by FBI and DOJ officials in
determjning the continued use of a CHS."6012 The DOJ OIG further found that the FBI's longterm CHS validation reports were insufficient "because they did not ensure the full scope of along-term CHS's operation was reviewed," and FBI validation personnel told OIG "they werediscouraged from documenting conclusions and recommendations."6013(U) The Committee notes that prior to Steele's dossier reporting in 2016, Steele's
interactions with the FBI had been exclusively with the Criminal Division of FBI, rather thanCounterintelligence Division. In the case of Steele, Counterintelligence Division assumed
Criminal Division had fully vetted Steele and that the credibility of his work transferred into a
new topic area. Steele's original handler, said that he had assumed Counterintelligence
Division was doing its own checking on Steele.6014 The DOJ OIG pointed out the incomplete
efforts to explore Steele's credibility in a footnote:

We found that the first time the Crossfire Hurricane team accessed Steele's Delta
file was in November 2016. The Supervisory Intel Analyst told us that the team
was in contact withbe inning in September and relied on himfor
iriformation about Steele.
expressed surprise that the Crossfire· Hurricane team did not access Steele's Delta file earlier. He said that the teamshould have "turned the file upside down" looking for iriformation two months
earlier and that he assumed that some members of the team had thoroughly
reviewed the file. 6015

6011

(U) Ibid, pp. 186--187.
(U) DOJ, Office of the Inspector General, "Audit of the Federal Bureau oflnvestigation's Management of its
Confidential Human Source Validation Processes," November 2019, p. i.
6013(U) Ibid Generally, a CHS is considered "long-term" after five years. FBI never answered the Committee'squestion on whether Steele was considered a "long-term" source.
6014 (U) Tr., p. 45.
.
.
6015(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 105. A "Delta file" refers to FBI's Delta database, "which FBI agents use torecord their interact~ons with, and information derived from, CHSs," according to the DOJ OIG. Ibid., p. 13.
6012

'

906

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) The Committee also found that FBI' s vetting process for Steele was lacking in rigor
and thoroughn~ss.
·c. (U) FBl's Attempts to Corroborate Steele~s Allegations(U) FBI worked to find corroborating information for the allegations in the dossier. The
Committee saw few indications, however, that efforts to establish corroboration were either
robust or successful, and FBI's other investigative steps were completed after critical junctures in
the fall of 2016. Finding additional facts was difficult with Steele's reporting, according to.
who said "[corroboration] didn't happen often with his information because from ourposition his information was at such a unique level that it's very difficult to corroborate that typeof information." 6016 said Steele's information was "at a unique level" 6017 because Steele
had "a very small number" of "highly placed" individuals who were providing information but
were unaware that that information was going to Steele. 6018·
(U) Baker confirmed the challenge FBI faced on the 2016 Steele memos:
It pretty quickly led into some type of a conversation about how in the world are
we going to go about validating this? . . . There were discussions about how to
get back in touch with him about this material to gei more details and to start todig down to identify as quickly as possible his sub-sources and for the Bureau togo out and interact with the sub-sources to try to validate what was going on. 6019

(U) In an attempt to corroborate individual allegations in the dossier, FBI laid out theallegations in Steele's memos in a detailed spreadsheet. McCabe said the spreadsheet was"really just the most general stuff that you could prove with travel records and kind of publicly
known information, which, quite frankly, is not very satisfying." 6020 Strzok said that, starting in
September 2016, "there were people, agents and analysts, whose job specifically it was to figure
this out and to do that with a sense of urgency." 6021
(U) The Committee reviewed a redacted version of that spreadsheet, which reflected
progress made until May 2017, when the SCO began its work and FBI halted efforts on thedossier.

6016

(U) -

6017 (U)ibidTr., p. 17.

6018(U) Ibid., p. 18.
(U) Baker Tr., pp. 126-127.
6020(U) McCabe Tr., pp. 89-90.
6021(U) Strzok Tr., p. 54.
6019

907

(U) One column of the spreadsheet was devoted to any information FBI had found tocorroborate the allegations. Much of the information cited there as corroboration was press
reporting. Given that Simpson and Steele briefed the press extensively on their information, thepress pieces cited might also pe sourced back to the Steele memos, rather than to additional,
corroborating information.
(U) FBI also was unable to disaggregate some of the subsources' original reporting frominformation that had already appeared in the press. McCabe said:

Were these things that Steele was telling us or that his sub-sources were telling
him were already widely known in the press or otherwise and they were justreporting on what they were picking up in open source, or did they come acrossthese facts before they were widely known and therefore you got pretty good
intel? Quite frankly, for a lot of the Steele information it's quite hard to makethat distinction. 6022
(U) As described by the DOJ OIG, as of September 2017, the FBI had corroborated
limited information in the dossier, and much of that information was publicly available. 6023 This
included basic facts such as Carter Page's travel to Moscow and the titles for some Russian
government officials mentioned inthe dossier. 6024 Further, many of the substantive allegations
contained in numerous key reports in the dossier, including Reports 80, 94, 95, and 102,
"remained uncorroborated and, in several instances, were inconsistent with information gatheredby the Crossfire Hurricane team." 6025 The Committee was unable to secure from the SCO a final
accounting of which allegations SCO pursued or was able to corroborate.

6. (U) Other Recipients of the Dossierii.

(U) Bruce Ohr and the Department of Justice(U) Bruce Ohr, an Associate Deputy Attorney General who had known Steele for anumber of years, acted as a conduit for Steele's information into the FBI and DOJ from about
2009 through the summer and fall of 2016 and into 2017, well after FBI officially cut ties with
Steele in early November 2016. \Ohr met Steele in 2007 in London, where they were both working intheir o f ~ . Ohr was Chief of the then-Organized Crime and Racketeering Section

6022(U) McCabe Tr., p. 195.
(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 198.
6024 (U) Ibid
6025
(U) Ibid
6023

908

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVE TIGATION ONLY

ofDOJ, and Steele was working for the British Government on Russia-related matters. 6026 Ohr
told the Committee that he re orted his contacts with Steele to the appropriate section ofDOJ,
6027•
Ohr said:
Generally the impression that I got was that Chris Steele was very concerned
about the power and reach of Russian organized crime and its ability to corrupt
the Russian government, and that includes ... mobsters, oligarchs, government
officials, all working together in various ways. 6028
(U) The two stayed in touch after Steele left British Government service to establish
Orbis. Ohr and Steele did not discuss ongoing investigations; Steele would occasionally-about
once a year-provide Ohr copies of his memos. Ohr received these memos acting in his official
capacity, and he typically would pass them to the FBI. 6029,
(U) Ohr introduced Steele t~ in the spring of 2010 so t h a t - could be Steele's
main FBI point of contact. 6030 The intent was for FBI to get Steele's memos directly, rather thanhave Ohr serve as an informal intermediary.6031 Ohr maintained his own direct contact with
Steele, in a professional capacity. 6032
(U) In late July 2016, Steele communicated the contents of his first dossier memoranda
to Bruce Ohr and his wife, Nellie, who at the time was working on contract as a researcher with
Fusion GPS. 6033 On July 30, 2016, Steele asked Ohr and his wife to meet for breakfast thefollowing day. 6034 Nellie Ohr told the Committee that she thought it would be a mostly social
breakfast. 6035 However, according to Bruce Ohr, Steele "conveyed his fears that there ... were
contacts between the Russian government and the Trump campaign." 6036 Steele also told theOhrs that Carter Page had contacts with high-level Russian officials, that a source close to the6026(U) B. Ohr Tr., pp. 9, 12.
(U) Ibid., pp. 15-16.
6028(U) Ibid., p. 11-12.
296o(U) B. Ohr Tr., pp. 19, 22-23.
·
6030(U) Ibid., pp. 17-18; see also- Tr., p. 6.
6031(U) B. Ohr Tr., p. 22.
6032(U) Ibid., pp. 34, 40.
6033(U) B. Ohr Tr., p. 35. Nellie Ohr left Fusion GPS in September 2016. B. Ohr Tr., p. 62. Nellie Ohr told theCommittee that Steele knew she worked for Fusion GPS. ~he stated "He told me that Glenn knows that we're
meeting. Glenn knows I'm meeting you." When asked if that was surprising to her, she said yes, that "I hadn't beenaware that they knew each other." N. Ohr Tr., pp. 17-18.
6034(U) Email, Steele to Ohr, July 29, 2016 (HPSCI (3-23-18)-DOJ-000008-9). Ohr and Steele also met for
breakfast on Friday, September 23, at Steele's hotel (Capital Hilton). See Email, B. Ohr to Steele, September 21,
2016 (HPSCI (3-23-2018)-DOJ-000011).
6035(U) N. Ohr Tr., p. 25.
6036(U) B. Ohr Tr., p. 35.
6027

909

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

former head of the SVR had heard that the Russians "have Trump over a barrel," and that
Deripaska and his attorney had "infol'l11ation that could make out some kind of a criminal caseagainst Paul Manafort. " 6037 Bruce Ohr also told the Committee that, at the meeting, Steele
discussed that he had shared the information with Fusion GPS. 6038 Further, Ohr said that, while
he was not certain when he learned the information was also being shared with the Clinton
Campaign, he recalled that he "probably was aware from the beginning."6039(U) After the meeting, Ohr recalled being troubled by the information he received
unex ectedl from Steele and contacted both Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bruce Swartz
andtold Ohr that an Executive Assistant Director at FBI Headquarters andexecutive management in the New York Field Office knew about Steele's reporting and wereaddressing it. 6040
(U) Ohr met with Glenn Simpson in late August 2016. Simpson told the Committee that
"Chris [Steele] also told me that he had provided some of this stuff to a Justice Department
prosecutor named Bruce Ohr and ... told me that Bruce wanted to talk to me. So I also met with
Bruce."6041 The Committee received documents indicating that on August 22, 2016, Simpson
reached out to Ohr on email, asking Ohr to call Simpson and providing his phone number. 6042
According to the DOJ OIG, the two met later that day at Simpson's request. 6043 Ohr told theCommittee that at the meeting:[Simpson] passed some leads or possible intelligence. I think he may have been
the one to say, or one of the ones saying: Look at Alfa Bank, look at this guy
Torshin. So he provided some information at that time, and then I provided thatto the FBI 6044
(U) Ohr said he knew Simpson was working on behalf of a client, and he assumed theinformation he was gathering would be beneficial to the Democrats. 6045

6037(U) Ibid., p. 37. Ohr clarified that the Attorney was Paul Hauser. He would not provide further information on
his interactions with Hauser because it "might touch on other FBI investigative matters." Ibid., pp. 41--43:·
6038(U) Ibid., p. 38.
'
6039(U) Ibid., pp. 38-39. Ohr's recollection of when he became aware of who was funding Steele's work was hazyand not specific as to a date. According to the DOJ OIG, it was at a second meeting with Steele on September 23,
2016, that Steele identified the person who was funding Fusion GPS's opposition research, "however, [Ohr] did notrecognize the name and could not remember it long enough to write it down after the meeting." DOJ OIG FISA
Report, pp. 278-279.
6040(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 277.
6041
(U) Simpson Tr., p. 179.
6042
(U) Email Simpson to Ohr, August 22, 2016 (HPSCI (3-23-18)-DOJ-000010).
6043 (U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 278.
.
.
6044
(U) B. Ohr Tr., p. 115.
6045
(U) Ibid., p. 128-129.

910

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Steele again reached out to Ohr in mid-September 2016 to request a meeting on
matters of "mutual interest."6046 Ohr and Steele met on September 23, 2016. 6047 The DOJ OIG
reports that, at the meeting, Steele discussed several topics, including more of Steele's ongoing
efforts related to the 2016 U.S. election and Deripaska's6048 willingness to come to the UnitedStates to testify against Manafort. 6049
(U) Steele and Ohr talked again at Steele's request about a month later, on October 18,
2016.
In interviews with the DOJ OIG, neither Ohr nor Steele could recall the substance ofthe call, but both believed it might have been about Deripaska. 6051 The Committee obtained
documents that support the idea they discussed Deripaska, perhaps primarily. After the call,
Steele sent Ohr an email "[f]urther to our Skypecon earlier today and in terms of background."In his email, Steele relayed that Hauser had asked if Steele would forward information about the"unfolding Government ofUkraine-RUSAL dispute." 6052 Steele attached information about adispute between the Ukrainian government and RUSAL related to the latter's assets in Ukraine.
•Steele noted that Hauser was concerned about the politicization of the dispute and "rumours
circulating this mom (sic) about new USG sanctions against RUSAL." 6053
6050(U) Shortly after his Skype call with Steele, Ohr contacted McCabe, and they agreed tomeet later that day. 6054 Ohr told the Committee that he reached out to McCabe in particular
because McCabe had a backgroun&in Russia-related cases and had previously worked with
Ohr. 6055 Later that day, Ohr met with McCabe and Lisa Page, who was then serving as special
counsel to McCabe. 6056 Ohr told the Committee his motivation was to pass Steele's information
to FBI,6057 but Page's notes from the meeting indicate that the group also discussed
Deripaska.6058 McCabe told the Committee that Ohr's goal at the meeting was to find out who at
FBI headquarters he should talk to about Steele: "I kind of handed him off to the team, the CI
team, which would have been some combination of Bill [Priestap] or Pete [Strzok] or John

6046

6, 2016 (HPSCI (3-23-18)-DOJ-000011-000012)

6047
6048
6049
6050

(U) 1 i ., pp. 278-279.
Email Steele to Ohr, October 18, 2016 (HPSCI (3-23-18)-DOJ-000013); DOJ 0/G FISA Report, p. 280.

6051
6052
6053

(U) Email, Steele to Ohr, October 18, 2016 (HPSCI (3-23-18)-DOJ-000014--000015).

Ibid

6054
6055

(U) B. O Tr., p. 51. O was as ed whether McCabe's past work on matters related to Deripaska had any
relation to his reaching out to McCabe in particular. Ohr stated he was unable to answer the question because ofconcerns that doing so would r e v ~ .
6056(U) McCabe Tr., pp. 9 2 - 9 3 ; - - - - 6057
B. Ohr Tr. . 49-50.
6058

911

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

[Moffa]."6059 Ohr recalled that he conveyed to McCabe and Page the information Steele hadraised on the Skype call, provided context about his relationship with Steele, and explained his
wife's connection to Fusion GPS. 6060 The Committee was unable to obtain any further
information about the Deripaska-related discussion.
(U) At some point after his initial meeting with Steele in July 2016-0hr did not recall
when-Ohr told a limited number of colleagues at DOJ who were responsible for international
crime and fraud about his discussions with Steele and Simpson, the meeting with McCabe, andthat he had passed the information to the FBI. However, he did not inform anyone in the DOJ
front office or DOJ leadership. 6061

(U) Ohr said he continued to pass information back to ·FBI from Steele as it came in. On
November 21, 2016, Ohr met with several members of the Crossfire Hurricane team, along withFBI Supervisory Special A g e n t - - to discuss Steele. This interview was memorialized
62
in an FBI memorandum called ~Ohr was in contact with the FBI about Steele's
allegations beginning in late July or early August 2016, but the FBI did not take steps toformalize the intake of that information until mid-November, after FBI had terminated its direct
relationship with Steele. 6063 The Committee is aware of 13 FBI FD-302s total regarding
interviews with Ohr; Ohr estimated those reflected somewhere between 15 and 20 interviews. 6064
(U) In December, Ohr met Simpson again. At that meeting Simpson passed Ohr a thumbdrive. Ohr told the Committee: "My guess at that time was that had the dossier on it, but I don't
remember specific-he didn't say and I didn't ask." 6065 Ohr did not look at it and passed it to theFBI. 6066(U) On December 20, Bruce Ohr also gave DOJ6067 a thumb drive from Nellie Ohr. He
never saw the contents, but he told the Committee he was generally aware of them. 6068 He told
the Committee that it was different from the contents of Glenn Simpson's thumb drives and

6059(U) McCabe Tr., p. 93.
(U) B. Ohr Tr., p. 53. Ohr said he considered the information about his wife's affiliation to be "an important
disclosure to make."
6061(U) Ibid., pp. 57-59. For more information on the knowledge ofOhr's activities within DOI, see DOJ OIG·, FISA Report.
6062(U) B. Ohr Tr., pp. 63-64.
6063(U) B. Ohr Tr., p. 88-90.
6064(U) Ibid., p. 93.
6065(U) Ibid., p. 118.
6066
(U) Ibid., p. 118.
.
6067
(U) The Committee notes that Ohr's testimony suggests he gave the Simpson thumb drive to FBI but the Nellie
Ohr thumb drive to DOJ; It is not clear ifby "DOI" Ohr meant FBI.
6068
(U) Ibid., p. 142.
6060

912

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
included Nellie Ohr's work on the 2016 election for Fusion. "I believe it was on some of thesame characters," Ohr said. 6069
(U) Steele in early 2017 seemed to use Ohr as a venue for expressing concerns about
investigations into Russian interference and for insight into the U.S. Govemrnent, judging fromdocumentation provided to the Committee.

•(U) In March 2017, Steele expressed concern about the U.S. Senate, saying he hadreceived a letter from Senator Charles Grassley, then Chairman of the Judiciary
Committee, and expressed concern about "its possible implications for us, ouroperations and our sources. We need some reassurance." 6070 After a phone call with
Ohr, Steele said, "Thanks for that, old friend. Please do fight our cause and keep intouch. Really fundamental issues at stake here." 6071•

(U) Also in late March 2017, Steele texted Ohr that "we understand an approachfrom the Senate Intelligence Committee to us is imminent. I would like to discuss
this and our response with you in the next couple of days if possible."6072 They
agreed to speak on Sunday, March 26. 6073 On the 30th, Steele expressed further
reservations about engaging with the Committee and asked for an update. 6074 Ohr
said he had none.6075(U) FBI continued to capitalize on Ohr's discussions with Steele through 2017. In May,
the agent assigned as Ohr' s primary point of contact6076 asked Ohr to ask Steele whether hewould consider a meeting with FBI. Ohr told the Committee:

I asked Chris Steele whether he would be willing to talk to the FBI . .. I recall
putting a caveat on that, saying: They just want to talk; it 's not going tonecessarily be resuming a relationship; they j ust want to talk; would y ou beinterested in that? And his response was: Yes; I need to check with my business
partner and my f ormer employer, but yes.6077

6069(U) Ibid., p. 144.
(U) Text message, Steele to B. Ohr, March 7, 2017 (HPSCI (3-23-18) DOJ-000025). Although these
documents are labeled for distribution to the HPSCI, DOJ and FBI provided them to this Committee.
6071 (U) Text message, Steele to B. Ohr, March 7, 2017 (HPSCI (3-23-18) DOJ-000026).
6072 (U) Text message, Steele to B. Ohr, March 24, 2017 (HPSCI (3-23-18) DOJ-000026).
6073(U) Text messages, Steele and B. Ohr, March 24, 2017 (HPSCI (3-23-18) DOJ-000026).
6074(U) Text message, Steele to 8 . Ohr, March 30, 2017 (HP SCI (3-23-18) DOJ-000027).
6075(U) Text message, B. Ohr to Steele, March 30, 2017 (HPSCI (3-23-18) DOJ-000027).
6076 (U) At this point in time, the primary agent serving as Ohr' s point of contact had changed. DOJ OIG FISA
Report, p. 287.
6077(U) B. Ohr Tr., p. 157.
6070

913

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY((U) On May 15, 2017, Steele texted Ohr, telling him that "having now consulted mywife and business partner about the question we discussed on Saturday I'm pleased to say yes,
we should go ahead with it. " 6078 As of August 2017, the reengagement between FBI and Steele
had not happened, and Steele was frustrated by the delay. 6079 Steele eventually met with FBI
representatives assigned to the SCO in September 2017. 6080 ,(U) Ohr and Steele stayed in contact through at least November 2017. 6081
(U) In response to a Committee question on whether Ohr being interviewed by the FBI
was a normal arrangement, particularly for a lawyer at DOJ, Ohr said he was not surprised that
FBI memorialized the conversations, but he thought the information flow in general was "anunusual situation."6082 Ohr said, "I thought that as long as he's calling me and there isinformation that might be important I should pass it to the FBI, whether or not they had arelationship with him. So I can't really say whether they were using me as a cutout or not." 6083
Ohr said he had never handled an asset or confidential human source before, and reiterated that
he would have preferred if FBI had talked to Steele directly. 6084 He also said he viewed his
engagements with FBI regarding Steele as in his official capacity. 6085 Ohr explained how heunderstood his ongoing reporting to the FBI: "I don't think they ever said 'You must call us·
every time you hear from him.' But they gave me a point of contact to give information to. So I
continued to do that. " 6086
(U) McCabe clearly conveyed to the Committee that he did not realize the Ohr-Steele
discussions would be an ongoing interaction. McCabe said, "I had one meeting with Bruce ... I
was not aware that we were continuing to interview Bruce until recently." He also said that "Myguess is that Bruce continued to [interact] with Steele in the same way that he had for many
years, and presumably before we were even in touch with him. And if Bruce was so inclined tobring that information to our attention, we would document it."6087

6078(U) Text message, Steele to B. Ohr, May 15, 2017 (HPSCI{3-23-18) DOJ-000027).
(U) Text message, Steele to B. Ohr, August 6, 2017 (HPSCI (3-23-18) DOJ-000028) ("Hi Bruce, hope you're
well and getting some holiday with the family. Whenever convenient I would like a chat, there's a lot going on and
we are frustrated with how long this reengagement with the Bureau and Mueller is taking. Anything you could do toaccelerate the process would be much appreciated. There are some new, perishable, operational opportunities which
we do not want to miss out on:Best to All, Chris.").
6080(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 288.
6081
(U) Text message, B. Ohr to Steele, November 27, 2017 (HPSCI (3-23-18) DOJ-000030).
6082(U) B. Ohr Tr., p. 64.
6083(U) Ibid., p. 85.
6084(U) Ibid., p. 85.
6085(U) Ibid., p. 18.
6086(U) Ibid., p. 86.
6087(U) McCabe Tr., pp. 92-99.
6079

914

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY\,(U) The DOJ OIG interviewed leadership at FBI and supervisory-level agents about theirinteractions with Ohr. Those conversations reflect a divergence of understandings of Ohr's role.
For example, one of the four agents who served as Ohr's official point of contact with FBI on
Steele material said that Ohr was "just some [person] you [had] to talk tb when [he] call[ed]."6088
That agent had concerns about the arrangement, and the DOJ OIG wrote that tJ;ie agent "did nottask Ohr because of the appearance of using Ohr to obtain information from a closed source,
calling that 'out of the norm."' 6089 Similarly, another of the agents assigned to be Ohr's point ofcontact told the DOJ OIG that he discussed with a colleague who also served as one of Ohr' s
points of contact "it being a 'bad idea' to continue engaging with Ohr regarding his contacts with
Steele. " 6090
(U) FBI Lea,dership, conversely, seemed to regard the relationship as informal. For
example, Bill Priestap told the DOJ OIG that he was surprised to learn that the FBI treated Ohr
more like a witness or a source. He further said that, had he known the extent ofOhr's activities,
it would have raised "red flags" for him. 6091 James Baker told the DOJ OIG that he viewed thearrangement as "imprudent" and "a bit of a mess" but that he believed McCabe, [Executive
Assistant Director Mike] Steinbach, and Priestap were "on top of it. " 6092 The Committee foundthat somewhere between the agent level and the leadership level, communication broke down
regarding the formality and nature of FBI' s relationship with Ohr.·ii. (U) Department of State(U) In September 2016,-after- Ohr, and ·s~ress became aware of the dossier.
memos but before the October 3 FBI debrief of Steele in--Steele also shared theallegations in the dossier with a small number of Department of State officials, apparently
motivated by a concern that the FBI was not moving quickly enough to investigate. Steele firstshared his information, in summary form, with Jonathan Winer (then-Special Envoy to Libya),
who shared the summary with Victoria Nuland (then-Assistant Secretary for European Affairs),
Jonathan Finer (then-Chief of Staff to the Secretary and Director of Policy Planning), and Anne
Patterson (then-Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs). Finer likely briefed then-Secretaryof State John Kerry at some point on the Steele allegations. Steele also met with Winer andthen-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec in September and October to discuss
his findings.
·
·

6088
6089

(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 292 .. Brackets in original.
(U) Ibid.

6090(U) Ibid, p. 292.
(U) Ibid, p. 293-294.
6092(U) Ibid, p. 294. The Committee notes that Baker told the Committee during his interview that he was notaware of the extent ofOhr's involvement with Steele. Baker Tr., pp. 149-153.
6091

I

915

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Steele had established ties to Department of State officials, through his relationshipwith Winer. Winer described his early relationship with Steele as:

In 2009, after I had moved to APCO Worldwide and was still engaged in various
types ofRussian representation all over the map-some might be pro-Putin, somemight be anti-Putin; it was any work that was consistent with their needs and myvalues-I met Christopher Steele, who had just left [British Government-. ,Service}. 6093
(U) Winer said that he and Steele never formally worked together. According to Winer:· [SteeleJ never paid me anything. I never paid him anything. Our decision to try
and work with one another and to stay in touch was based on mutual affinity inlight of mutual knowledge and interest in ... this esoteric topic {Russianorganized crime}. 6094
(U) Starting in 2013, Steele offered Winer, who was then at Department of State, reports
he had written for clients on Russian-Ukrainian political leadership, economic issues, andpolitical security. 6095 Winer showed them to Nuland, who asked Winer to share them with her
Principal Deputy, Paul Jones. 6096 Winer recounted Nuland's reaction: "She said, these are goodreports; they're valuable; keep them coming."6097 Winer further said that State officials thought
the reports were "shockingly real-time." 6098 Nuland, who said that she never met Steele, told theCommittee, "I found his stuff to be 70, 75 percent accurate, credible ... when he was off base, it
generally looked to me, felt to me, like he had been paying human sources who were
exaggerating or getting extra money by pumping up what they knew or extrapolating."6099 The
Department of State did not pay Steele for the reports, 6100 and the Committee does not know who
Steele's private clients were.

saw no need for any contact report, for ot t ose reasons." Wmer Tr. II, p. 25.
(U) Winer Tr., p.13.
6095(U) Ibid, pp. 19, 24, 28.
6096(U) Ibid, pp. 19-20. For example, see Email, Winer to [Sr. Admin. Associate to Amb. Brett McGurk], March
5, 2015 (CDP-2017-000llE-001810-1811).
6097(U) Winer Tr., pp. 19-20.
6098(U) Ibid, p. 22.
6099(U) Nuland Tr., pp. 41--42.
6100(U) Ibid., p. 45.
6094

916

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYl

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Between late 2013 and,January of 2016, 6101 Steele provided at least 110 reports toWiner. 6102 Winer reported that he and his colleagues at State attempted to conceal the origin of
the information to protect Steele and his sources. "We would denature it. It wouldn't say'Orbis' any more. It would say 'O Report,' for example." 6103 Winer would also transfer thereports from State's unclassified systems to State's classified.systems.6104 Winer also said that:

None of these related to Trump, Manafort, or any other name that has emerged on
the American side. None of this related to any American, period, or to any
political person in the United States, period. It related to Ukrainians andRussians, nobody else. It was about their deal, about Crimea, Ukraine issues,
Russia 's undermining of Ukraine, the various stratagems of Ukrainian officials,
various stratagems of Russian officials, Russia's economic problems as oil prices
decreased, the strength or weaknesses ofparticular banks ~n terms ofwhat they1were facing, that kind of thing. 6105
(U) The frequency of these reports ebbed, then nearly stopped early in 2016. Winer told
the Committee that Steele was no longer producing reports because his client stopped paying
him, and that the client's "needs had been answered."6106
a. (U) The Dossier at Department of State(U) As with previous Steele reports, Winer served as the main conduit for the dossiermaterials into the Department of State. Winer met Steele in D.C. in September 2016, and Steele
conveyed the core of his election-related findings in an oral briefing. 6107 Winer told theCommittee: "He was extraordinarily distressed about it. He also said he was as certain, if not
more certain, about the information that he had acquired as anything he'd ever acquired in his
career." When asked why Steele was so certain, Winer said "the amount of sourcing is myguess, but I don't know. 6108
(U) Shortly thereafter, still in September, Winer asked the heads of Fusion GPS if hecould read the actual documents. Fritsch and Simpson showed him the memos and let him take

6101
6102
6103

(U) Winer Tr., p. 24.
(U) Ibid, pp. 21-22.

Ibid. 21-22.

(U) Winer Tr., p. 27.
(U) Ibid, p. 27, 29-30.
6107(U) Ibid, p. 48.
6108(U) Ibid, p. 37.
6106

917

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYnotes. Winer said "I created a two-page document of the highlights from it for sharing with key
people at the Department of State I thought would need to know." 6109

(U) Winer shared his summary with Nuland, who directed Winer to share it with Finer,
under the instruction that it not be shared with anyone other than Kerry. 6110 Winer told theCommittee that he also shared it with Patterson, who was Winer's boss. 6111 In addition,
Kavalec's notes from a September 27, 2016, meeting include references to "Orbis," "Winer,""20-30 reports," "Trump+ Rs," "feeding Kremlin kompromat on R oligarchs," "wanted·realestate," "prostitutes" and "Ritz Carlton."6112(U) Nuland told the Committee that she was concerned about the information andsuggested that in addition to it being shared with Finer, as Kerry's Chief of Staff, that Winer ask
Steele whether Steele would be willing to be interviewed by CIA or FBI. 6113 In Winer's
recollection, Nuland immediately asked him whether FBI also had the information; Winer
responded that he didn't know. Winer relayed to the Committee that:[Nuland] had some conversation with the FBI and became convinced their wires
were not fully integrated, tha( there were different people in the Bureau who
didn 't have access to the same information, and that they needed to be brought
together so they could deal with it as an institution. 6114

(U) Related to these inquiries, Steele told Winer about the upcoming meeting i n - inarl October 2016 with FBI personnel and said he was in contact with the FBI Legal Attache in

ii

6115

.

(U) Finer told the Committee that he got a roughly four- or five-page summary of thedossier's contents from Winer, perhaps in August, but his memory of the date was unclear. 6116
Winer remembered Finer briefing Kerry in September. 6117 Finer said he treated it as extremely
sensitive:

6109(U) Ibid, p. 49. Other witnesses, in particular Victoria Nuland and Jonathan Finer, remembered a four-page
summary document. Nuland Tr., p. 44; Finer Tr., p. 32.
6110(U) Nuland Tr., p. 44.
6111(U) Winer Tr., p. 50.
6112(U) Kavalec, handwritten notes (CDP-2017-0001 lF-000160).
6113 (U) Nuland Tr., pp. 44--50.
.
,
6114(U) Winer Tr., p. 52.
6115(U) Ibid., pp. 52-53.
6116(U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jonathan Finer, July 11, 2017, p. 32.
6117(U) Winer Tr., pp. 51-52.

918

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

I Locked it up in my safe every night. I don 't think I brief ed anyone at the State
Department on it at all other than Secretary Kerry. And I didn 't even tell him
right away . . . I wasn 't honestly sure what to make of it, because Jonathan[Winer] I think had a relationship with Steele or knew Steele or trusted him. I
didn 't [have a relationship with Steele] and some of the stuff in there . . . is pretty
salacious and shocking. So what I didn 't want was to get the Secretary ofStaleall spun up about something that I didn 't know how to vouch jor or validate. But
at a certain point, when I got the sense that lots of other people in Washington
had this, I didn 't also want lo leave him in the dark. 6 118(U) When Finer told Secretary Kerry about the allegations, he contextualized his briefing
as " l don't have any way to know what in here is true or not true; 1 don't know that this requires
or suggests any action on our part." He told the Committee, "my advice was, let' s just leave thiswith [FBI] and see what happens." 6119 Secretary Kerry told the Committee that he rememberedhearing rumors, but he did not recall being briefed or otherwise learning about the existence ofthe dossier prior to its publication, a discrepancy the Committee was unable to resolve. 6120

b. (U) October Meeting at State(U) On October 11 , 2016, Steele met with Winer and Kavalec at the Department ofState.6121 It is unclear how the meeting was initiated. Winer likely set up the meetings, judging
from his long-time role as an interlocutor between Steele and the Department of State, hissigning Steele into the building,6122 his name appearing in Kavalec' s notes from the meeting,6123
and Steele' s assertion that Winer invited him to the Department of State to brief. 61 24 Steele
indicated in his written answers to the Committee that he thought he would meet Nuland, but she
intentionally avoided the meeting.6125 Nuland told the Committee she "made a conscious
decision to have a cut-out relationship with [Steele] , again because I' m worried about any
perception that I'm involved in something that could come back to be a Hatch Act violation."6 126

6118 (U)Finer Tr., p. 33.

6119(U) Ibid., p. 34.
6120(U) SSCI Memorandum, Staff interview with Former Secretary Kerry, October 27, 2017.
6121(U) State, Virtual Reading Room Documents "Notes from Meeting with Chris Steele and Tatyana Duran ofOrbis Security," Ocotber 11 , 2016.
Visitor log entry from Department of State, October 11 , 2016 (CDP-2017-000 I IF-000530) (indicating that
Winer signed for Steele's entry to the Department of State; Winer Tr. II, p. 27.
6123 (U) State, Virtual Reading Room Documents "Notes from Meeting with Chris Steele and Tatyana Duran ofOrbis Security," October 11 , 20 16; Kavalec, handwritten notes (CDP-2017-000I IF-000162).
6124(U) Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.
612s (U) Ibid
6126
(U) Nuland Tr., p. 45.
6122 (U)919

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In his first interview with the Committee, Winer discussed how he shared a summaryof Steele's reports within the Department of State and his other activities in September or
October of 2016, 6127 but he omitted facilitating meetings between Steele and U.S. Government
officials during September and October 2016. However, in his second interview, when shown
visitor logs froin the Department of State listing Steele as his visitor, Winer said he rememberedbringing Steele to the Department of State but did not recall when. 6128 Winer recalled that:
Steele "wanted to meet someone in the Russia territory of the Department of State, in light of theinformation he had." 6129 As a result, Winer said he "touched base with [Nuland] and she wasout, and-so Kathy agreed to take the meeting."6130 Winer recalled that at the meeting between
Steele and Kavalec:

I think [Steele] provided a summary of what he'd already provided me earlier
relating to the dossier. But] don't remember any of the details at this point at all.
I remember where the meeting took place. The only meeting I recollect him
having was with Kathy Kavalec. I remember it being in her office, and . .. I
escorted him to her office. And it was about the Russia intrusion into our election
system and the question ofwhether there'd been Russian compromise. 6131
(U) Steele stated in his written responses to the Committee that he met with Kavalec andWiner for about an hour. 6132 According to Steele, they talked about the substance of the dossier
but Steele did not show Kavalec the memos nor did he bring them to the meeting. 6133 Kavalec's
notes from the meeting reflect that substance. They also mention that a "Tatyana Duran" from
"Orbis Security" attended the meeting. 6134 Winer understood that Duran worked for Steele.as a
researcher. 6135
(U) Kavalec's notes outline many of the dossier's major themes and allegations.
example, a typed version of her notes shows, "the Russians have not needed,to use that

6127

For

(U) Winer Tr., pp. 50-51.
(U) State, visitor logs, October 11, 2016 (CDP-2017-0011F000530); Winer Tr. II, p. 27. Before he saw thelogs, Winer answered the question "Did you help facilitate any meetings with Mr. Steele and,U.S. Government
officials during September and October 2016?" by saying "I don't think so." Ibid., p. 8. In addition to the October
2016 meeting, Winer believed he may have facilitated a meeting at the Department of State between Steele and Paul
Jones, although Winer was uncertain if such a meeting had occurred. Winer stated that if it had, it was prior to any
work Steele had done related to Trump. Winer Tr. II, pp. 27-28.
6129(U) Winer Tr. II, p. 37.
6130(U) Ibid, p. 37.
6131(U) Winer Tr. II, pp. 30-31.
6132(U) Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.
6133 (U) Ibid.
6134(U) State, Virtual Reading Room Documents "Notes from Meeting with Chris Steele and Tatyana Duran ofOrbis Security," Ocotber 11, 2016.
6135(U) Winer Tr. II, p. 38.
6128

920

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
'kompromat' on [Trump] as he was already interested in cooperation," and "Manafort has been
the go-between with the campaign," and "Ivanov persuaded Putin it was possible to use thehacked information and run an operation without being detected, while others argued against it."Further, Kavalec's notes reflect some sourcing information, such as, "Steele also mentioned anemigre Amcit by the name of Serge Millian who may be involved in some day [sic]. Steele
noted Millian had leRthe U.S. and seemed to have disappeared." 6136
(U) Department of State officials did not specify to the Committee any particular actions
they took on the substance of the dossier, other than to ask FBI if they were engaging with Steele
and investigating the allegations about Alfa Bank's relationship with Putin. Nuland told theCommittee that she found those allegations, as outlined in the dossier, unlikely to be true. 6137
Nuland said, regarding Alfa Bank in particular: "[the FBI said] we've looked atit; we don't think
there's·anything. And we said: Okay. This is not ourjob. Our job is working with Russia. So
as long as the right people are talking to the right people, fine._" 6138
(U) After Steele's memos were published in the press in January 2017, Steele asked
Winer to make note of having them, then either destroy all the earli~r reports Steele had sent the
Department of State or return them to Steele, out of concern that someone would be able toreconstruct his source network. Winer told the Committee, "So I destroyed them, and I basicallydestroyed all the correspondence I had with him" on Winer's personal devices. 6139 Departmentof State was able to produce for the Committee, from their archives, many Steele memos from2015 and some from 2016, but most of his reports from 2014 are missing.

iii. (U) McCain and Kramer

6136(U) State, Virtual Reading Room Documents "Notes from Meeting with Chris Steele and Tatyana Duran ofOrbis Security," October 11, 2016. For complete handwritten notes, see Kavalec, handwritten notes (CDP-2017000llF-000162-172). Another typed version ofKavalec' s notes also lists information that appeared in the dossier,see Kavalec, handwritten notes (CDP-2017-0001 lF-000389-390).
6137(U) Nuland Tr., p.42.
6138(U) Ibid., p. 51.
6139(U) Winer Tr., p. 62; Winer noted, "I also in the same period of time, by the way, in accordance with State
Department strictures, destroyed essentially every email I had from the State Department during my tenure, because
I'm not supposed to retain anything relating to my State Department work. That's owned by the government; it's not
owned b me." Ibid.
. 62-63.
6140

921

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) After FBI had cut ties with Steele, and Trump won the election, Ste.ele sought
another audience to help ensure that FBI was pursuing his information: Senator John McCain.
Simpson told the ·Committee that Steele approached him around Tfoinksgiving and raised theidea of talking to David Kramer, a longtime aid to McCain, as an intermediary with the Senator.
6141
Simpson also knew Kramer, who had once given Simpson some information on Deripaska:"I had to deal with him when I broke a story [in 2007] about Deripaska being excluded from theUnited States, the fact that he couldn't get a visa, and that he was lobbying to get his visa
restrictions lifted."6142 Simpson told Steele that Kramer was "on the right side of the. Russia
issue" and that they could trust him. 6143
(U) Sir Andrew Wood, former British Ambassador to Russia and Yugoslavia and an
associate ofOrbis,6144 approached Kramer, who introduced him to Senator McCain on November
19, 2016, in Halifax, at an annual conference there, to describe Steele's research. 6145 Kramer
told the Committee that he had known Wood for a few years, and that he has "enormous respect"for him. 6146 At Senator McCain's direction, Kramer traveled to London on November 28,
2016. 6147 Kramer told the Committee that Wood "arranged for Steele to meet me at Heathrow
airport." 6148 Kramer continued:

The whole purpose was for me to convey [the memosJ to Senator McCain ...
[SteeleJ was very concerned with what he had discovered and felt that having
Senator McCain do whatever it was that Senator McCain might decide to dowould be a necessary push to get this taken more seriously. 6149
(U) .Kramer read the memos and reviewed Steele's source list sitting at Steele's dining, room table. 6150 Kramer did not take any documents with him. 6151 Kramer said that he-was
informed by Steele that Steele had given the memos to the FBI through a contact, but that
communication with th~ FBI had "abruptly ended a month or ~o" before Kramer flew to London

6141(U) Simpson Tr., pp. 146-147.
Ibid
6143
(U) Ibid, p. 147.
6144
(U) Defence, Aleksej Gubarev, et al, and Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd, et al., Claim No HQl 7D00413 (High
Court of Justice April 4 2017).
6145(U) Written Responses, Kramer, August 25, 2017.
6146(U) Kramer Tr., p. 6.
6147(U) Written Responses, Kramer, August 25, 2017; Kramer Tr., p. 5.
6148(U) Kramer Tr., p. 6.
6149(U) Ibid, p. 8.
6150(U) Ibid, p. 26
6151(U) Ibid, p. ~66142 (U)922

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

to meet with him. 6152 Kramer did not indicate ifhe knew why Steele's affiliation with FBI had
ended.
(U) The next day, when Kramer arrived back in the United States, he met with Simpson
at Steele's request. 6153 Simpson gave Kramer two copies of the dossier--one redacted and one
not. 6154 Kramer recalled that the redacted version had on,ly 20 pages, while the unredacted
version, which he had first read in London, consisted of 33 pages. 6155 Simpson told theCommittee that "I walked [Kramer] through this and told him we didn't know whether a lot of
stuff was true, but that we knew a lot of stuff-I remember talking to him about my suspicion
that the Russians were also helping Trump in the primaries." 6156 Simpson refused to provide
additional information about Kramer, again citing First Amendment privilege. 6157

(U) On November 30, 2016, Kramer gave unredacted copies of the memos to
McCain. 6158 According to Kramer, McCain directed him to share the information with Celeste
Wallander, who was then Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National
Security Council. 6159 Kramer recalled that he at first just discussed the dossier with Wallander,
but that later she received a copy. 6160 McCain gave a copy to FBI Director Corney on December
9, 2016, and mentioned the contents of the dossier to Chairman Richard Burr, who in tum spoke
to Corney to confirm FBI's awareness of the allegations. 6161
(U) Kramer discussed and, in some cases, eventually passed copies of the dossier toseveral other individuals, some of whom were joumalists.6162 Kramer recalled that Steele hadrequested. he speak with two other individuals who were not in government and who had
previously contacted Steele. Kramer said that Steele "had reached a point where he didn't want

6152

(U) Written Responses, Kramer, August 25, 2017.
(U) Kramer Tr., p. 4.
6154 (U) Written Responses, Kramer, August'25, 2017.
6155 (U) Ibid.
6156
(U) Simpson Tr., pp. 148.
6157
(U) Ibid., p. 153.
6158
(U) Kramer Tr., p. 4--5.
6159(U) Ibid, p. 13; Crime in Progress, p. 141.
6160
(U) Kramer Tr., p. 13.
6161(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 180. The DOJ OIG cites Corney's email to his staff, which reads in part: "Iadded [to DNI Clapper] that I believed that the material, in some form or fashion, had been widely circulated in
Washington and that Senator McCain had delivered to me a copy of the reports and Senator Burr had mentioned tome the part about Russian knowledge of sexual activity by the President-Elect while in Russia."
6162(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 178. According to Steele's written responses to the Committee, he also gave
information from the dossier to a British national security official and to Strobe Talbott, who was then at the
Brookings Institution, with the intent that Talbott would share the memos with senior U.S. Government officials.
See Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018. The Committee does not know how Talbott received the
documents or if Talbott further shared them.
6153

923

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

to talk to other people about it. So he requested that I do so."6163 In his written answers, Kramer
put his communications regarding the dossier in the context of news outlets already having theinformation. 6164
(U) According to Kramer, several news outlets, including Mother Jones, The Guardian,
The Washington Post, and ABC News, contacted Kramer. His interpretation was that theseoutlets had already either seen or had copies of the memos; 6165 According to Kramer, the outlets
had also heard, "not from me, that I had given the memos to Sen. McCain. I confirmed th;itindeed I had." 6166 Kramer also knew that Steele and Simpson had given "a version of the memos
to the New York Times but were frustrated that the paper had not done, in their view, anythingwith them." 6167 In response to subsequent foreign litigation, Kramer has stated that Steelerequested that Kramer meet with BuzzFeed, and that Steele had neither asked nor prohibited
Kramer from sharing a copy of the dossier with BuzzFeed. 6168 As part of the same litigation,
Kramer stated that Steele was aware that Kramer was also sharing the dossier with The
Washington Post. 6169

(U) In mid-December 2016, Simpson gave Kramer the final two pages of the dossier,which are dated December 13.6170 In total, Kramer had a series of 17 memos totaling 35 pages,
dated from June 20, 2016 and ending with December 13, 2016. 6171
(U) Kramer says he spoke with Steele a total of eight to ten times, almost entirely byphone. Their last contact was in late February or early March of 2017. 6172

iv. (U) Simpson's and Steele's Efforts to Briefthe Press(U) Over the late summer and into the fall of 2016, as Steele was sharing his findings
with the FBI, DOJ, and Department of State, Glenn Simpson was briefing members of the press
corps on Steele's research, sometimes with Steele present. Marc Elias, Simpson's client for thework, represented to the Committee through counsel that he had not authorized Fusion GPS toshare research in the dossier withjoumalists. 6173 The conversations with the press eventually

6163(U) Kramer Tr., p. 27.
(U) Written Responses, Kramer, August 25, 2017.
616s (U) Ibid
6166
(U) Ibid
6167 (U) Ibid
6168
(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 178.
6169
(U) Ibid
6170(U) Kramer Tr., p. 4; Written Responses, Kramer, August 25, 2017.
6171(U) Written Responses, Kramer, August 25, 2017.
6172(U) Ibid
6173(U) Attorney Proffer, Elias, May 21, 2018.
6164

924

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYculminated in a Mother Jones /article on October 31 summarizing the allegations and in BuzzFeed
publishing most of the contents of the dossier on January 11, 2017.

a. (U) Initial Briefings for the Press(U) In early August, Simpson and Fritsch traveled to New York to meet with New
Yorker editor David Remnick and features editor Daniel Zalewski. Later that day they gave thesame briefing to two editors at Reuters. 6174 In September and October 2016, Simpson and Steelegave two off the record briefings to small groups of reporters from major media outlets atgatherings in Washington, D.C. 6175 Neither Simpson nor Steele would identify for theCommittee which outlets. 6176 Steele and Simpson both stated that contacting the press was
Simpson's initiative. 6177 Simpson told the Committee that he did not provide the actual memos
to reporters, because "if you thought that this information might be genuine, you wouldn't bepassing it to a bunch of different journalists, because people could get killed." 6178
(U) According to Simpson, he and Steele intended to provide leads, not for news outlets
to report on the dossier itself. Simpson's goal was for reporters to "do their own journalism"and "to ask the government whether the government's doing its job."6179 According to Simpson:[T]he general reaction was: "You 're not expecting me to write a story about this,are you? Because you've got this anonymous [person] telling me a bunch ofwild
stufffor which you have no documentation, and you're not willing to go on therecord, and I don't even know who's paying. "6180(U) Simpson continued the briefings, despite those reactions, because he wanted to"educate" the media and he "figured it was going to be a big issue later and that no one wasgoing to say boo about this in the final weeks of a presidential election."6181
b. (U) Renewed Press Briefings: Mother Jones and The New York Times(U) FBI Director Corney's decision to publicly reopen the investigation into Hillary
Clinton's emails affected Simpson's and Steele's calculus as well as their sense of urgency. On
Friday, October 28, 2016, Director Corney sent a letter to Congress disclosing that the FBI had

·

6174

(U) Crime in Progress, pp. 98-99.
(U) Simpson Tr., pp. 126-127; Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.
6176(U) Simpson Tr., pp. 126-127; Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.
6177(U) Simpson Tr., p. 130; Written Responses, Steele, August 16, 2018.
6178(U) Simpson Tr., p. 139.
6179
(U) Ibid., p. 128.
6180 (U) Ibid., p. 131.
6181 (U) Ibid.
6175

925

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE- RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

possibly found additional emails that "appear to be pertinent" to the Clinton email
investigation. 6182 The following Monday, October 31, David Com published an article in Mother
Jones entitled "A Veteran Spy has Given the FBI Information ~ n g a Russian Operation to
Cultivate Donald Trump."6183 As described above, Steele told- that he had gone to Mother
Jones because he was upset about Director Corney's October 28 letter and about the FBI's
reopening of the Clinton investigation. 6184
(U) Winer told the Committee that he thought Steele "got increasingly personallyconcerned about the Russia relationship" because Steele "believed what was in [the dossier]." 6185
According to Winer, "In October [Steele] got to the point where he wanted people to know aboutit."6186 Simpson told the Committee that "I'm sure more than half of America will never believethis, but it really wasn't a thing where we were trying to use this information to win the election,
because we thought-we already thought we were going to win the election. 6187 However,according to Bruce Ohr, it was Simpson who asked Steele to speak with a reporter from Mother
Jones. 6188 Ohr understood that having Steele speak with the reporter was Simpson's "Hail Mary
attempt" to stop Trump from being elected. 6189 Simpson and Fritsch said in their book that theybriefed additional reporters in mid-December. 6190
c. (U) BuuFeed Publishes the Dossier on January 10, 2017(U) On Tuesday, ,J:anuary 10, 2017, Ken Bensinger published an article in BuzzFeed
entitled "These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties to Russia," which included a link toimages of most of Steele's memos. 6191

6182

(U) Letter, Corney to Chairmen and Ranking Members, October 28, 2016 ("Due to recent developments, I am
writing to supplement my previous testimony. In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of theexistence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative
team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed toallow investigators to review these emails.").
6183(U) David Corn, "A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate
ponaldMother Jones, October 31, 2016.
6184(U) Tr., pp. 82-83.
6185(U) Winer Tr., p. 69.
6186(U) Ibid, p. 69.
6187(U) Simpson Tr., pp. p. 129.
6188
(U) DOJ OIG FISA Report, p. 287.
6189(U) Ibid
6190(U) Crime in Progress, p. 139-141.
.
6191(U) Ken Bensinger, et al., "These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties to Russia," BuzzFeed News, January
10, 2017.

'=r,"

926

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) Kramer described Steele's reaction to the BuzzFeed article as "shocked," and told
the Committee that Steel~ "knew he was probably going to have to go into hiding."61' 92 Winer
similarly characterized Steele as "beside himself' and very concerned for h1s sources. 6193 As· noted above, Steele asked Winer to return or destroy any copies of the· dossier material that
Winer had in his possession; Winer said he destroyed the material a:nd all correspondence he hadwith Steele .on Winer' s personal device, as he did with all Department of State communications
on that device when he left the'Department. 6194

.d. (U) The Wall Street Journal Publishes Steele's Identity.

.

(U) On January 11, 2017, the day after the BuzzFeed article; Kramer contacted The WallStreet Journal, because he had "received a tip froin a friend at the Journal" that the paper wasplanning to publish Steele's name. 6195 Kramer told the Committee that he spoke with two editorsin an attempt to prevent them from publishing Stede_'sname, and "tried to stress that putting his
name out there would put him. in grave danger, but they didn't seem to care."6196 Later that'day,
The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled, "Christopher St~ele, Ex-Brit~sh Inteiligence
Officer, Said to Have Prepared Dossier on Trump."6197 The article identified Steele as "theauthor of the dossier of unverified allegations about President-elect Donald Trump," a "director ·of London-based Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd;" and "a former British Intelligence
officer." 6198
v. A Summary of the Dossier is Attached as an Annex to theCompartmented Version of the Intelligence Community Assessment(U) In late December 2016, when the IC wrote a comprehensive assessment on "Russian
Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections," FBI insisted that the authors include asummary of the dossier. FBI leaders believed the information was responsive to the President"stasking, even though FBI had officially broken ties with Steele and had corroborated very littleof the information. The IC did not use the dossier to reach the conclusions 'in the assessment.
I

6192(U) Kramer Tr., p. 30.
(U) Winer Tr., p. 61. ·6194(U) Ibid., p. 62.-63
195~(U) Kramer Tr., p. 30.
6196 (U) Ibid.
6197(U) Bradley Hope, et al., "Christopher Steele, Ex-British Intelligence Officer, Said to Have Prepared dossier on
Trump," The Wall Street Journal, January 11, 2017.
6198 (U) Ibid.
6193

927

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYAs previously mentioned, the dossiermaterial was not used in the ICA and did not contribute to its findings.

vi.

(U) Dan Jones(U) Dan Jones, a former FBI analyst and former SSCI staffer, worked with Steele andFusion GPS in 2017. 6200 Jones, as head of the Penn Quarter Group, and then as head of The
Democracy Integrity Project (TDIP), appears to have contacted Steele in 2017 regarding Russianinterference in the 2016 election. 6201 As of March 26, 2018, Steele appeared to be a contractor
for Jones's TDIP projects. 6202•

(U) Jones said.that he was first introduced to Steele in 2017, after Orbis began
contracting for TDIP, but declined to answer any questions about how that introduction

6199(U) For an in-depth discussion of the negotiation over and creation of the annex, see irifra Vol. 4.
(U) HPSCI, Report on Russian Active Measures, March 22, 2018, pg. 113. fu. 5. Due to Jones' s priorrelationship with some Committee staff conducting the investigation on behalf of the Chairman and Vice Chairman,
a limited subset ofCommittee staff who had no prior relationship with Jones conducted Jones's interview, to avoid
any conflicts of interest.
6201(U) Ibid
6202(U) Jones Tr., p. 17-20.
6200

928

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

took place, 6203 whether he knew of any of Steele's subsources,6204 whether he had spoken
with the FBI about Steele, 6205 or whether he had ever given the FBI a thumb drive of theresearch he himself had conducted. 6206 Simpson refused to answer any questions about
any contractual work with Jones. 6207•

(U) Jones told the Committee that he "wasn't aware of any work that Steele did outsideof what was publicly known at the time in 2016" and that he had "no special access orinformation on Steele's activities" prior to 2017.6208•(U) Jones told the Committee he had met Winer once, in January 2017, to discuss aproject unrelated to Jones's work, and that they had been introduced by Steele, who Jones
referred to as a "professional associate."6209- D u r i n g an FBI interview on March 28, 2017, Jones said his Penn Quarter
Group ~ t e d with Steele, Burrows, and Fusion GPS to expose Russian interference inthe 2016 U.S. presidential election. 6210 Jones further indicated to the FBI that "he had possible
access to a witness that could share direct knowledge of information in support of Chris Steele's
published Trump/Russia manifesto."6211 Jones did not share this fact with the Committee during
his interview, and the Committee has no further information on who the "witness" might be.
(U) Jones indicated that, separate from Steele's work for him on TDIP matters,
he attempted to serve as an intermediary between the Committee and Steele in responseto the Committee's attempts to interview Steele. 6212 Winer was also under the impressionthat Jones was communicating to the Committee on Steele's behalf. 6213 To further thoseliaison efforts, Steele introduced Jones to Waldman in March of 2017; Jones recounted
his and Waldman's conversation: "[Waldman] spoke with me about his relationship withVice Chairman Warner at great lengt~." Jones added, "Waldman told me he was going to6203 (U)Ibid., p. 17-20. Jones declined to respond to these questions, among others, on advice of his counsel, who
asserted that Jones would not be answering questions that would jeopardize the "confidentiality" ofTDIP's work.
See, e.g., ibid., pp. 21-22.
6204(U) Ibid., p. 17-20.
6205(U) Ibid., p. 22.
6206(U) Ibid., p. 24.
6207(U) 'Simpson Tr., pp. pp. 183-184. Simpson's attorneys stated: "[I]nsofar as Mr. Jones and any entity affiliatedwith Jones and Fusion GPS have a contractual relationship, it's a confidential client matter and he's going to decline
to answer questions."
6208(U) Jones Tr., p. 23.
6209
U Ibid., . 17-20.
6210
Jones refused to discuss this contract with the Committee.
6211 (U) I i .
6212(U) Jones Tr., pp. 26-32.
6213(U) Winer Tr., p. 70.

929

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYa hockey game in Washington, D.C., that night with the Vice Chairman; and he would
mention to the Vice Chairman [arranging] a meeting between the Committee and Steeleor providing information from Steele to the Committee." 6214
(U) Following the meeting, Jones "did not think it wise to continue the relationship" with
Waldman. He implied, but did not state outright, that he was concerned about Waldman's link to
Deripaska, and he also said that he thought Waldman lacked credibility and was unsure if
Waldman actually represented Steele. 6215
(U) Jones declined to discuss with the Committee any other instances during which he
may have negotiated or been authorized to negotiate on Steele's behalf. 6216 Steele's counsel
made very clear to the Committee that only Steele's counsel was authorized to enter into any
agreements with the Committee on Steele's behalf. 6217

(U) The exceedingly limited amount of useful information Jones provided during his
interview about TDIP's structure, operations, and funding renders the Committee's complete andaccurate portrayal of the organization and its work an impossibility. 6218 However, an abundanceof detail concerning the inner workings of TDIP appears to have been furnished in support of
Simpson and Fritsch's Crime in Progress. 6219

6214(U) Jones Tr., pp. 45--48(U) Ibid, pp. 47--49, 54-57.
6216(U) Ibid, pp. 26--32.
6217(U) Email, [Steele's counsel] to SSCI, October 13, 2017.
6218(U) Jones shared some limited information about the makeup ofTDIP's board, its mission, and the generalcharacteristics of its donors. Jones identified himself, Adam Kaufman, and Michael Belasio as TDIP's board· members, described TDIP's mission as being "to investigate foreign interference in elections around the world," andcharacterized TDIP as a nonprofit organization funded by nonpartisan donors. Jones Tr., pp. 8-11.
6219(U) Crime in Progress.
6215

930

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYV.

(U) RECOMMENDATIONS(U) The Committee's inquiry highlighted several ways in which hostile actors were able
to capitalize on gaps in laws or norms and exert influence. Those areas included unclear laws
regarding foreign aqvocacy, flawed assumptions about what intelligence activity looks like, anda campaign's status as a private entity intertwined with the structures of democracy. Further, thefreedom of expression at the root of our democratic society became an opportunity for Russian
influence to hide in plain sight.
(U) The Committee's recommendations, outlined below, present a variety of paths
through which Congress, the executive branch, and private entities and individuals can andshould begin to respond to these threats, both jointly and independently. These
recommendations, however, do not mark the end of the Committee's work in this space, which
requires ongoing vigilance by the United States government and further consideration oflegislative and policy responses. To that end, the Committee will continue to evaluate andconsider the results of this investigation as part of its ongoing oversight and legislative
responsibilities and its efforts to understand and address malign foreign interference targeting
U.S. democratic processes.
1. (U) Review, Update, and Enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Related
Statutes(U) The Committee recommends that Congress update the Foreign Agents Registration
Act (FARA), and that the Department of Justice (DOJ) clarify the statute's requirements by
issuing public guidance on enforcement and more stringently enforcing the existing statute.
FARA was enacted over 80 years ago, in large part to target Nazi propaganda. FARA seeks to
aid the U.S. Government and the American people in understanding and evaluating the activities,
statements, and motives of individuals and entities functioning as agents of foreign principals in
the United States. Since that time, Congress has made some modifications to the statute toincrease transparency with respect to lawyers a,nd lobbyists who also engage in political activity
on behalf of foreign powers inside the United States. However, loopholes still exist, and foreign. actors exploited those loopholes in 2016. The Committee'.s investigation revealed a number oflawyers, public relations experts, businesses, political consultants, and campaign operatives
working in the United States in qoordination with,. or at the request of, foreign principals. Manyof these individuals and businesses did not register under FARA,•(U) DOJ should increase enforcement of FARA. For years, DOJ failed to pursue
criminal penalties for even the most flagrant violations of the statute. While recent
enforcement efforts have resulted in several successful criminal prosecutions, theCommittee found numerous incidents where FARA registrations were excessively
delayed, retroactive, incomplete, inaccurate, or otherwise insufficient to accomplish theobjectives of the law.
931

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY•(U) DOJ should publish comprehensive public guidance on FARA. In part as a result oflimited enforcement, the public has insufficient information about the statute's scope andapplication. DOJ' s interpretation of the statute is largely untested and undefined. While
DOJ has made efforts to publish more information about its interpretation of the statute,
including through the publication of advisory opinions, these are overly redacted andincomplete. Comprehensive public guidance has been beneficial for other similarlysituated statutes, and those publications, such as DOJ's Resource Guide to the US.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, may serve as a helpful model in issuing useful andpractical guidance on FARA.

•(U) Congress should update FARA to more clearly define the activities covered by thestatute. This may include narrowing or redefining the breadth of some provisions, suchas ·those that may apply to purely foreign consulting, while strengthening otherprovisions, such as activities targeting the U.S. Government or the American people. ,•(U) Congress should remove the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) exemption to FARA
registration. Currently, FARA registrants for foreign principals who are not themselves
foreign governments or political parties may register under the LDA regime rather thanthe more comprehensive registration regime under FARA. The Committee found that
individuals not formally affiliated with a foreign government may nonethelesssufficiently represent that government's interest, even if that government is not the
principal beneficiary, to merit the application ofFARA's heightened requirements.

(U) Congress should also examine whether other foreign agent laws and the Espionage
Act need to be updated to more effectively address the reality of modem intelligence operations
targeting the United States.
•(U) For example, 18 U.S.C. § 951 makes it a crime to operate as an agent ofa foreign
government, to include an agent with respect to non-political activity, without first
notifying the Attorney General. While DOJ has generally reserved prosecutions under
this statute for behavior that resembles espionage, the statute's overlap with FARA andits general scope may need refined and updated. 18 U.S.C. § 219 provides criminal
penalties for a public official of the United States to be or act as an agent of a foreign
principal required to register under FARA. Together, these and other interrelated law
make up a patchwork of overlapping and ill-defined prohibitions that are overdue for amore thoro,ugh review.

(U) Although DOJ makes FARA registration filings publicly available on its website,
there is no obligation on registrants to disclose this information when they are engaged incovered political activities. As a result, the registration materials do little to further the statute's
goal of transparency for the American public. This lack of transparency is especially acute in the
932

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY
media space, where messaging by a single FARA registrant has the potential to reach millions ofAmericans.
•(U) Congress should amend FARA to mandate, or the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) and other relevant authorities should impose a requirement, that
FARA-registered news agencies operating in the United States provide clear, prominent,
and regular notifications to audiences regarding the outlet's FARA-registered status.
Transparency should be affirmatively provided to audiences on a regular basis so that theAmerican public is able to make informed decisions about information consumption.

•(U) In addition, all U.S. media outlets should clearly label or otherwise identify content
that appears in connection with FARA-registered work, even if it comes in the form of an
opinion column. It is the ultimate responsibility of the editorial staff at U.S. media
outlets to understand the origins of the information that their journalists and outsidecontributors are promoting, and to inform their audiences when that information is ,insome way sponsored or influenced by a foreign agent.

•(U) More broadly, all U.S. media outlets should clearly label opinion content as such, inparticular when opinion content, in tone or in format, could be mistaken for journalistic
reporting.

2. (U) Recognize Russia's Use of Non-Traditional Intelligence Actors for Influence(U) The Russian government treats oligarchs, organized crime, and associated businesses
as tools of the state, rather than independent, private entities. The Kremlin uses these entities topursue- Kremlin priorities, including money laundering, sanctions evasion, and influence,operations. This is a fundamentally different model than in the United States.

•(U) While U.S. companies can and should conduct business as they see fit within thebounds of the law, they should proceed with maximum caution when doing business in
Russia. Business exchanges can be a vehicle for compromise of electronic devices,collection of compromising information for influence efforts, theft of proprietarybusiness information, and recruitment by intelligence services. Such efforts can be overt
or covert, and can target national security information and hamper the competitiveness of
U.S. companies. American business leaders need to understand that they, too, are a target
and take precautions.
1•(U) Politically-active U.S. organizations, including non-profits and advocacy groups,
should likewise recognize that they can also be, and likely are, targeted by foreign
intelligence services. Although the known targeting in 2016 was directed toward
conservative organizations, organizations of all political and ideological stripes should be
prepared for it. Hostile foreign governments may seek to influence U.S. policy in foreign
933

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

affairs, energy and environmental policy, military conflict, and others matters involving
international relations, through indirect channels like these. Leadership in suchorganizations should consider conducting due diligence, as appropriate, when dealing
with counterparts from adversarial countries, and adopting sound cyber security practices
to protect their networks and sensitive information.
•- J u s t as business leaders need to recognize their counterparts may be e~tensionsof the Russian state, the U.S. Government should similarly treat non-governmental
entities close to the Kremlin as legitimate targets for intelligence collection andsurveillance. The U.S. Government needs the tools and authorities in place to determine
whether a non-governmental entity is operating on behalf of the Russian state andmitigate the counterintelligence threat, particularly if that entity seeks to operate in the
United States or allied countries. These tools and authorities should augment the entire
spectrum of U.S. Government activities, including to the ability to deny visas, the ability
to conduct surveillance akin to that used against suspected intelligence officers, and theability to target financial operations, such as the ability to deny transactions or seize
assets.

3. (U) Protect Campaigns from Foreign Influence Efforts(U) As part of its counterintelligence mission, FBI should offer defensive briefings to allpresidential campaigns, including during the primaries, for both candidates and staff. FBI should
provide detailed briefings as specific issues arise. When nominees are official, FBI should
undertake a renewed effort to educate campaigns-from leadership to schedulers-about theavenues of influence adversaries use. These briefings should include specific, if hypothetical,
examples and clear defensive steps campaigns can take. FBI has traditionally delivered thesebriefings as brief conversations; given the aggressive efforts Russia undertook in 2016 and thelikelihood of similar future efforts by Russia and others, these conversations should covercybersecurity best practices and how to recognize approaches that are outside ordinary
relationship building.
(U) Future presidential campaigns should perform thorough vetting of staff, particularly
those staff who have responsibilities that entail interacting with foreign governments. Diligence,experience, and caution are all the more critical when interacting with representatives ofadversaries' governments.
(U) Campaigns should recognize that campaign staff are attractive targets for foreign
intelligence services, and that staff who have not previously been sensitized tocounterintelligence threats are especially vulnerable to targeting . and exploitation. Presidential
campaigns should require staff who interact with foreign governments to receive
counterintelligence training from the FBI. Further, that staff should report to designatedcampaign leadership any foreign contacts, including any offers of foreign assistance, so that the934

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY

campaign can recognize patterns in foreign outreach. Campaigns should institute a centralized
reporting structure to ensure that suspicious contacts with foreign governments or their proxies
are documented and can be shared with law enforcement when appropriate, in a timely andaccurate manner. This information would assist U.S. counterintelligence efforts to more quickly
ideptify patterns and a clearer picture of nation-level threats. FBI and law enforcement should
treat the information passed by campaigns as extremely sensitive, and protect the informationfrom inadvertent disclosure, such as by limiting the number of personnel with access. In
addition, a full understanding of the problem will encourage law enforcement agencies to passdefensive information back to campaigns~(U) To facilitate these activities, campaigns should designate specific individuals to be ·responsible for counterintelligence and· for cybersecurity issues. These individuals should beclearly identified within the campaign as a point of contact for security-related questions orconcerns, but will also serve as an accountable entry point for the FBI' s interaction andinformation sharing with the campaign.
(U) Campaigns should notify FBI of all foreign offers of assistance, ·and all staff should
be made aware of this expectation. In order to not encourage, or amplify, foreign influence
efforts, campaigns should reject the use of foreign origin material, especially if it has potentiallybeen obtained though the violation of U.S. law.
(U) The Russian Government has so:ught to understand, and. potentially exploit,
v_ulnerabilities in the U.S. campaign finance system in furtherance of Russia's election influence
activities. Russia's interest in this tactic· is longstanding'. The Committee is not aware of specificsuccessful efforts in this regard related to the 2016 U.S. election, however the Committee's .
insight is limited, and· in other countries Russia has gone to great lengths to launder money
intended for election influence. The DOJ, the Intelligence Community, regulators ~nd legislators
should work together to identify and address any loopholes that coµld be abused, by Russia or
any other foreign actor, in malign influence operations targeting U.S. elections.
4. Protect Government Employees from Foreign Influence Efforts(U) Congressional leadership should work with the IC and federal law enforcement toassess the counterintelligence and foreign influence risk associated with foreign governmentfunded travel by congressional staff, in particular the Mutual Educational and Cultural ExchangeAct. Congress does not allow registered lobbyists to pay for the travel or the meals ofcongressional staff due to concerns about undue influence. This same logic should apply toforeign governments. Congressional leadership should explore increasing the budget for staff
travel, so that it is funded and managed by Congress and not by foreign governments.

935

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYJCOMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) In addition to enhanced cybersecurity training for all U.S. Government personnel, allfederal government employees who travel internationally, regardless of agency or department,
should be required to receive counterintelligence training.

5. (U) Bolster Resources for IC Elements to Uncover Influence Campaigns and Focus
the.NIPF on Foreign Government Influence

These terms are vague and vast,and do not acknowledge the growing threat of disruption by foreign actors conducting maligninfluence activities targeting the United States.
•(U) The Committee recommends, therefore, that all future iterations of the NIPF, which
is an exercise and tool used to distribute finite IC resources across a wide variety of
threats, specify and prioritize foreign malign influence activities.

(U) FBI should empower its analysts to check assumptions underpinning FBI operations,
to apply the rigor of intelligence analysis to assessments and confidential human sources, and tocreate a culture where questioning previously held assumptions is acceptable and encouraged. ·6. (U) Improve Victim Notification and Information Sharing

936

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY(U) While the Committee understands FBI's reluctance to force solutions on hacked
victims, FBI should develop a clear policy to address how to escalate victim notifications withina hacked entity, particularly for those involved in an election, when it appears that entity has not
successfully remediated a cyber breach.
(U) In addition, the FBI' s Cyber Division should have an escalation policy for how toengage a victim entity when the victim is not responsive to the FBI's investigative needs. The
policy should include how to communicate with the victim entity about escalation, and, innarrow situations where the security of the election is at risk, the potential use of compulsory
process. Channels of communication, both within the FBI and with political organizations,should be established early in a campaign cycle.

(U) The FBI should seek to downgrade and share classified information for defense
against cyber intrusions whenever possible. If downgrading the information is not feasible, theFBI should work to find a cleared individual at the victim entity and brief that individual at thehighest possible level about the incident, prior to or contemporaneous with engaging with theentity' s IT staff.
(U) The FBI should develop clear best practices for dealing with cybersecurity vendors
in incident response. Congress should consider legislation that mandates third-party
cybersecurity vendors to report indicators of nation-state compromise to the U.S. Government,
be it through FBI or other entities, which may include sharing malware, network traffic, forensic
images, and other appropriate data to enable the U.S. Government to protect against nation-statecyber adversaries. Any sharing mandate should also include suitable protections for personallyidentifiable information or other sensitive or privileged material.

7. (U) Strengthen Congressional Authority to Challenge Executive Privilege(U) Congress should consider amending the Senate's subpoena enforcement statute toremove or otherwise limit the carve out in 28 U.S .C. § 1365(a) that precludes enforcement
against government officials asserting a "governmental privilege or objection." This exception,
the Committee's investigation showed, allows for the potential abuse of executive privilege
claims. Such an amendment should include a process to expedite judicial review of disputes
between Congress and the executive branch over subpoena compliance, and clarify that agovernment official 's mere assertion of a government privilege does not strip a federal court ofjurisdiction.

937

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938

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939

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940

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLYADDITIONAL VIEWS OF SENATORS RISCH, RUBIO, BLUNT,
COTTON, CORNYN, AND SASSE(U) Volume 5 of the report on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference isthe last body of work relating to the Committee's investigation into Russian meddling in the2016 U.S. presidential election. This final volume brings an end to more than three years ofinvestigative work. Bipartisan professional staff reviewed more than one million documents andinterviewed more than 200 witnesses to produce over 1,000 pages of analysis. Volume 5exhaustively reviews the counterintelligence threats and vulnerabilities to the 2016 election, butnever explicitly states the critical fact: the Committee found no evidence that then-candidate
Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government in its efforts to meddle
in the election.

(U) The Trump campaign publicly and repeatedly promoted a policy of improving
relations with Moscow which, in some ways, was a view not much different than the effort by
the Obama administration to "reset" relations between the two countries. Such a policy does notitself constitute collusion or a counterintelligence threat. Volume 5 includes sections that
address foreign policy actions taken by the Trump transition team in line with this policy, notbecause the Committee found any evidence that these foreign policy actions were the result of
collaboration with the Russian Government, but to show that after an exhaustive investigation
allegations of cooperation can be put to rest. Decisions taken were the result of a foreign policy
viewpoint, not illicit Russian influence. We feel Volume 5 should have explicitly stated this.
(U) More than three and a half years later, the Trump administration's record on Russia
shows a consistent attempt to cooperate with Russia where possible, while responding firmly to
Russia's nefarious activity worldwide. For instance, under the leadership of President Trump, theadministration effectuated the largest expulsion of Russian spies in U.S. history after Russian
operatives poisoned Sergei Skripal in London, provided Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine todeter Russian aggression, and led the U.S. withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty andIntermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty-international agreements that the Russians
have been violating for years and wish to preserve.
(U) While this Volume did not find evidence of collusion between President Trump andthe Russians, it does detail a stunning accounting of the FBl's sloppy work and poor judgment.
In 2016, the Democratic Party, using a series of arm's length transactions, hired a foreign citizen
to seek out dirt on a political opponent, provided by foreign sources. This Volume confirms that
Christopher Steele used information gained from sources in Russia-some with direct ties to theRussian Government. That unverified, uncorroborated, foreign information was then actively
circulated with the press to disparage a U.S. political candidate.

(U) Meanwhile, the FBI should have followed the advice of other intelligence agencies toview Steele's reports skeptically, and the Bureau should have verified the methodology and theinformation before using it. Instead, the Bureau used the material in PISA applications andinsisted on its inclusion in the Intelligence Community Assessment. Other IC agencies wanted
to exclude the Dossier from the ICA because they had not verified its sources or its data. All

941

Americans should be deeply troubled that the FBI was willing to accept and use Steele's
information without verifying its sourcing or methodology.
(U) Volume 5 is an important contribution to the historical record from which historians
will someday draw. As is evident to those who read all five volumes of the Committee's report,
the Russian government inappropriately meddled in our 2016 general election in many ways but
then-Candidate Trump was not complicit. After more than three years of investigation by

this Committee, we can now say with no doubt, there was no collusion.

942

~()~fmmE~;t}'.N·SljDP~~
ADDITIONAL VIEWS OF SENATORS HEINRICH, FEINSTEIN,WYDEN, HARRIS, AND BENNET . .
(U) Almost four years after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Committee has now
published the bipartisan results of its investigation of the Russian government's election
interference and efforts- to aid Donald Trump's candidacy. The Committee's work product isvoluminous, fact-oriented, and essential reading for all Americans. But the Committee has not.
sought to dra:w overarching conclusions about its investigation, opting instead to let the reader
determine the significance of these events. These additional views provide necessary context for
the reader regarding (1) the Trump Campaign's cooperation with Russia; (2) investigative
limitations; and (3) significant ongoing concerns.

(U) The Trump Campaign's Cooperation with Russia(U) The Committee's bipartisan Report unambiguously shows that members of the
Trump Campaign cooperated _with Russian efforts to get Trump elected. It recounts efforts by
Trump and his team to obtain dirt on their opponent from operatives acting on behalf of theRussian government. It reveals the extraordinary lengths by which Trump and his associates
actively_sought to enable the Russian interference operation by amplifying its electoral impact
and rewarding its perpetrators - even after being warned of its Russian origins. And it presents,
for the first time, concerning evidence that the head of the Trump Campaign was directly
connected to the Russian meddling through his communications with an individual found to be a
Russian intelligence officer.
(U) These are stubborn facts that cannot be ignored. They build on the Committee's
bipartisan findings in Volume 2 and Volume 4 that show an extensive Kremlin-directed effort tocovertly help candidate Trump in 2016, and they speak to a willingness by a major party
candidate and his associates, in the face of a foreign adversary's assault on the political integrityof the United States, to welcome that foreign threat in exchange for advancing their own selfinterest.
(U) The Committee's bipartisan Report found that Paul Manafort, while he was
Chairman of the Trump Campaign, was secretly communicating with a Russian intelligence
officer with whom he discussed Campaign strategy and repeatedly shared internal Campaign
polling data. This took place while the Russian intelligence operation to assist Trump was
ongoing. Further, Manafort took steps to hide these communications and repeatedly lied tofederal investigators, and his deputy on the Campa~gn destroyed evidence of communications
with the Russian intelligence officer. The Committee obtained some information suggesting that
the Russian intelligence officer, with whom Manafort had a longstanding relationship, may havebeen connected to the GRU's hack-and-leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election. This iswhat collusion looks like.
(U) The Committee's bipartisan Report found that a member of the Trump Campaign's
foreign policy advisory team was provided with advance notice of the Russian plot toanonymously release hacked emails that would damage Trump's oppone:qt, and the Report found943

that it is implausible that this information was. not passed to the Campaign. The advance noticeof a forthcoming covert Russian intervention on Trump's behalf came from an individual linked
to the Russian government, and took place in April 2016, prior to any public awareness of theRussian meddling effort. No authorities were notified.
(U) The Committee's bipartisan Report found that Russia's goal in its unprecedented
hack-and-leak operation against the United States in 2016, among other motives, was to assist
the Trump Campaign. Candidate Trump and his Campaign responded to that threat byembracing, encouraging, and exploiting the Russian effort. Trump solicited inside informationin advance of WikiLeaks's· expected releases of stolen information, even after public reports
widely attributed the activity to Russia, so as to maximi:~;e his electoral benefit. The Campaign
crafted a strategy around these anticipated releases to amplify the dissemination and promotionof the stolen documents. Even after the US. governmentfornially announced the hack-and-leakcampaign as a Russian government effort, Trump's embrace of the stolen documents and his
efforts to minimize the attribution to Russia only continued. The Committee's Report clearlyshows that Trump and his Campaign were not mere bystanders in this attack - they were active
participants. They coordinated their activities with the releases of the hacked Russian data,magnified the effects of a known Russian campaign, and welcomed the mutual benefit from theRussian activity.

(U) Additionally, the Committee's bipartisan Report shows that, at the June 9, 2016
meeting in Trump Tower, senior members of the Campaign sought, explicitly, to receive
derogatory information for electoral benefit from a Russian lawyer known to have ties to theRussian government, with the understanding that the information was part of "Russia and its
government's support for Mr. Trump." Prior to and during that meeting, members ofthe Trump
Campaign's leadership clearly stated their desire to receive the promised derogatory Russian
information, and ultimately they also clearly expressed their displeasure that the Russian
information that was presented was not sufficiently damaging. That the Campaign leadership's
desire to coordinate with Russia failed in this particular instance is hardly exculpatory; instead, it
is emblematic of the leadership's mindset, intent and willingness. to work with Russia in hopes ofinfluencing the U.S. election to their benefit. The Committee's investigation found that theRussian lawyer that the Campaign leadership met with in Trump Tower, and one of hercolleagues who also participated in the meeting, both have significant and concerning ties to
Russian intelligence.
(U) Trump's Russia-friendly statements and policies during the Campaign did not occur
in isolation. The Committee's bipartisan Report shows that, during the campaign, Donald 'Trump and the Trump Organization were pursuing a business deal in Russia. This is a topic
about which the Campaign and its associates misled the public and Congress. The Committee's
Report shows that Trump's outreach to the Kremlin began early and that during the Republican
primary campaign, around the time that Trump authorized pursuit of the Russia deal, Trump
asked for an in-person meeting with Putin. That request was relayed to the Kremlin. The
Committee's Report shows that, during the campaign; Trump was kept up-to-date on the.progress of the Russia deal and made positive public comments about Putin, in connection withthe campaign, while deal negotiations were ongoing. During the campaign individuals working
. 944
'

'

for or with the Trump Organization were in contact with the Kremlin regarding the deal andsought to leverage Trump's positive comments about Putin to advance the deal. A U.S.
intelligence assessment indicates that Putin, who ordered the Russian operation that assisted
Trump in the 2016 election, had a preference for leaders whose business interests made themmore likely to deal with Russia. This made Trump uniquely appealing in Moscow, and theCommittee's investigation found that Kremlin-directed influence efforts worked to undermine
Republican candidates who ran against Trump in the U.S. presidential primary.

(U) There may be some who attempt to minimize the seriousness of Trump's actions, orthe actions of his associates, by arguing that thes.e individuals were motivated simply by selfinterest or self-promotion. This argument overlooks thatwhen self-interest is intertwined withthe goals of a malign Russian influence operation, and when self-foterest promotes the known
Russian effort while also being promote~ by that same Russian effort, then self-interest andRussia's interest become one and the same. Moreover, this argument misunderstands the deepcounterintelligence vulnerability that is created when those who seek positions of great power, or
proximity to that power, are willing to trade away national security for personal gain. There isgood reason that such individuals are Putin's preferred interlocutors, and there is good reason
why the U.S. security clearance application asks extensively about vulnerabilities that could be
used as leverage, including foreign financial interests.
(U) Candidate Trump's pursuit of private business in Russia during the campaign, and hisCampaign Chairman Paul Manafort's deep financial ties to a Kremlin-aligned Russian.oligarchduring the campaign, are not the only sources of leverage to which Trump and his Campaign
were vulnerable. The Committee's bipartisan Report shows that dt1ring the campaign Trump
maintained personal correspondence with a Russian oligarch and his adult son on topics
including the upcoming U.S. election. The Moscow-based oJigarch and his son, who wereinvolved in offering the Trump Campaign derogatory information related to the election and who
gave Trump a sizable gift during the Campaign, maintain significant and concerning connections'not only to Kremlin leadership but also to Russian organized crime. Trump had previously done
business with the oligarch in Moscow. The Committee's Report also shows that prior to andduring the campaign, Trump was informed of alleged compromising tapes of him in Moscow.
These allegations are separate from Christopher Steele's reports, which were not used to support
the Committee's work. The Committee found that the Russian intelligence services clearly
engage in the collection of compromising information for lev~rage, and that there may besubstance to some of the allegations regarding Trump, which leaves open an ongoing concern
about Russian influence operations.
(U) Finally, the Committee's bipartisan Report shows that almost immediately following
Election Day in 2016, the Trump transition responded to Russia's election-'interference not by
supporting punitive action, but rather by holding a series of secretive meetings andcommunications with Russian representatives that served to undercut the outgoingadministration's efforts to hold Russia accountable. The transition's openness to this private
Russian outreach prior to taking office, so soon after Russia's interference on Trump's behalf,combined with Trump publicly questioning Russia's involvement, signaled that there was little
945\

intention by the incoming administration to punish Russia for the assistance it had just provided
in its unprecedented attack on American democracy.
(U) Investigative Context(U) There is also important additional context that should be provided to the reader
regarding what the Committee's Report is, and what itis not. The Committee's Report does not
duplicate the Special Counsel's investigation. The Special Counsel's work was criminal innature, not a counterintelligence investigation. Counterintelligence investigations address
intelligence questions pertaining to national security threats, not merely statutorily prohibited
crimes. That is why the Committee pursued its investigation from a counterintelligence,
perspective. And it is why the Special!Counsel's inability to "establish" a criminal conspiracy
between the Trump Ca~paign and Russia does not convey the breadth and complexity of thethreat presented by their actions.

(U) In its Report, the Committee described the events of 2016 in as much relevant detailas it could. Even so, the Committee's power to investigate-which does not include search
warrants or wiretaps-falls short of the FBI' s. So too do its staffing, resources, and technicalcapabilities. The result is that the American people still do not, and may never, have all the facts
necessary to determine the full extent of the cooperation between Russia and the Trump
Campaign in 2016.
(U) In addition, the Committee did not cover all areas of concern. For example, theCommittee's investigation, for a variety of reasons, did not seek, and was not able to review,records regarding Donald Trump's finance's and the numerous areas where those financial
interests appear to have overlapped with Russia. In tum, the reader should not interpret theReport's absence of information on this topic to indicate that nothing of interest was found.
Rather, it should be acknowledged that this was a potentially meaningful area that the Committee
did not probe.
(U) Nevertheless, the facts above, which are further examined in the Committee's
bipartisan Report, clearly show that what did happen between Russia and the Trump Campaign
in 2016 is far worse than has been publicly revealed thus far. Furthermore, in nearly 1,000 pages_ of text, we are not aware of a single case where the information that is redacted makes the
conduct of Trump or his associates less concerning. To the contrary, across the Report's mostcritical sections, the redacted information makes the already alarming public findings even moregranular, explicit, and concerning.

(U) Significant Ongoing Concerns(U) The value of the Committee's investigation is not purely historical. The
counterintelligence lessons contained in this report regarding what happened to the United Statesin 2016 should be an alarm bell for the nation, and for those preparing to defend the nation
against current and evolving threats targeting the upcoming U.S. elections. Indeed, Russia is
actively interfering again in the 2020 U.S. election to assist Donald Trump, and some of the946

President's associates are amplifying those efforts. It is vitally important that the country be
ready.

947

(U) It is our conclusion, based on the facts detailed in the Committee's Report, that theRussian intelligence services' assault on the integrity of the 2016 U.S. electoral process andTrump and his associates' participation in and enabling of this Russian activity, represents one of
the single most grave counterintelligence threats to American national security in the modem era.

948

ADDITIONAL VIEWS OF SENATOR WYDEN(U) The fifth and final volume of the Committee's report_ includes a wealth of extremely.troubling new revelations about the counterintelligence threat posed by Donald Trump and his
campaign. Much of the new information in this report, however, remains needlessly classified.
That is unfortunate, not only because the counterintelligence concerns that surround Donald
Trump constitute an ongoing threat to national security, but because this report includes redacted
information that is directly relevant to Russia's interference in the 2020 election.
(U) As the report details, the Committee was hindere.d in numerous ways by the subjectsof its investigation. In other respects, however, the impediments to the investigation were selfinflicted. First, while the Committee investigated interactions between Donald Trump andparticular Russians and identified deeply concerning financial links, it did not seek to answer key
questions about Donald Trump's finances that relate directly to counterintelligence. In short, theCommittee did not follow the money.
(U) Second, the Committee's arbitrary limits on staff access undermined members'
ability to engage fully in the investigation. As a result, my support for the report as well as someof the directions the Committee did and did not take must be qualified.

(U) Excessive redactions(U) The report includes new revelations directly related to the Trump campaign's
cooperation with Russian efforts to get Donald Trump elected. Yet significant information
remains redacted. One example among many is the report's findings with regard to therelationship between Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Russian intelligence officer
Konstantin Kilimnik.

(U) The report includes significant information.demonstrating that Paul Manafort's
support for Russia and pro-Russian factions in Ukraine was deeper than previously known. The
report also details extremely troubling information about the extent and nature ofManafort's
connection with Kilimnik and Manafort's passage of campaign polling data to Kilimnik. Most
troubling of all are indications that Kilimnik, and Manafort himself, were connected to Russia's
hack-and-leak operations.
(U) Unfortunately, significant aspects of this story remain hidden from the American
public. Information related to Manafort's interactions with Kilimnik, particularly in April 2016,
are the subject of extensive redactions. Evidence connecting Kilimnik to the GRU's hack-andleak operations are likewise redacted, as are indications ofManafort's own connections to those
operations. There are redactions to important new information with regard to Manafort's
meeting in Madrid with a representative of Oleg Deripaska. The report also includes extensive
information on Deripaska, a proxy for Russian intelligence and an associate of Manafort.
Unfortunately, much of that information is redacted as well.
.

.

(U) The report is of urgent concern to the American people, in part due to its relevance tothe 2020 election and Russia's ongoing influence activities. The public version of the report949

details how Kilimnik disseminated propaganda claiming Ukrainian interference in the 2016
election, beginning even before that election and continuing into late 2019.
And the report
includes information on the role of other Russian government proxies and personas in spreading
false narratives about Ukrainian interference in the U.S. election. This propaganda, pushed by a
Russian intel'ligence officer and other Russian proxies, was the basis'on which Donald Trumpsought to extort the current government ofUkraine into providing assistance to his reelection
efforts and was at the center of Trump's impeachment and Senate trial. That is one of thereasons why the extensive redactions in this section of the report are so deeply problematic.
Only when the American people are informed about the role of an adversary in concocting anddisseminating disinformation can they make democratic choices free of foreign interference.
(U) As the Committee stressed .in Volume 3 of its investigation, the public must be
informed as soon as possible about ongoing foreign influence campaigns. The American people
are not served by aggressive redactions to a narrative describing the continuity of Russianinterference before and after the 2016 election. The American people also deserve better than adouble standard in which information related to Russian interference in U.S. elections remains
heavily redacted while information that might cast doubton investigations into that interference
is released wholesale.
(U) Follow the money(U) From day one, I said that the Committee must follow the money - that is, scrutinize
Donald Trump's extensive financial entanglements with foreign adversaries. Following themoney is, after all, Counterintelligence 101. The way to compromise people is through money.
Donald Trump, had he been an applicant for a national' security position in the U.S. government,
would never have obtained even the lowest level security clearance. What's more, no review of
his suitability for a clearance would have ignored his finances. It is therefore derelict that theCommittee, having set out to conduct an investigation of counterintelligence threats andvulnerabilities, would have failed to scrutinize so much information that would be relevant toany application for a security clearance. This must be the last time that the Committee gives
short shrift to this issue.

(U) The Committee investigated specific counterintelligence threats and did uncoverconcerning new financial connections. The section on Donald Trump's pursuit of a Trump
Tower Moscow, while he was publicly praising Vladimir Putin, is deeply troubling, particularly
given the revelation that Putin was almost certainly aware of the 'deal by January 2016. The
report also describes important new information about the Agalarovs, with whom Donald Trump
had a long-standing financial relationship, noting that Aras Agalatov has significant ties to theRussian government, including to individuals involved in influence operations targeting the 2016
election. Unfortunately, this section also suffers from extensive redactions.

(U) These and other revelations in the report suffice to establish that Donald Trump posesa counterintelligence threat to the United States, no less because he is President of the UnitedStates and not a government employee with a low level security clearance. But the report falls
far short of telling the full story. As has been extensively reported in the media, Donald Trump950

has spent decades developing, maintaining, and relying on financial relationships with Russia.
The details of these relationships would almost certainly lead investigators to specificcounterintelligence concerns. But the sheer volume of Trump's financial entanglements with
Russia also point toward the inescapable conclusion that Donald Trump has been, as Donald Jr.
acknowledged publicly, financially dependent on Russia and that, in itself, is acounterintelligence threat.
(U) A thorough investigation into this threat would have required a review of Donald
Trump's finances. In the House of Representatives, three committees issued subpoenas forfinancial records, including the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence which did sofor the express purpose of conducting an investigation into foreign influence. In the Mazars
case, the U.S. Supreme Court considered these subpoenas and upheld the principle that Congress
may subpoena information, including the president's personal information, if it is related to andin furtherance of a legitimate task of the Congress. Given that the Committee has undertaken
this counterintelligence investigation as a legitimate task of Congress and thatcounterintelligence investigations indisputably encompass financial entanglements, I regret that
the Committee did not pursue the records sought by the House.
·(U) By remanding the cases, the Supreme Court effectively delayed the House's access tothese documents until after the 2020 election, thereby preventing Congress and the voting publicfrom fully considering the counterintelligence threat posed by the incumbent. On a matter ofsuch urgency, one that implicates the national security of the United States and the defense of its
democracy, this delay js unacceptable. Congress must therefore pursue additional means to
obtain and release financial information, including S. 20, the Presidential Tax Return Bill, which
codifies the long-standing practice of presidents and presidential candidates releasing theirfinances to the public. Congress should also pass legislation that would reveal foreign influence
efforts behind financial transactions, such as S.1978, the Corporate Transparency Act, which
prevents the use of anonymous shell companies for illicit activities.
(U) Concerns about access(U) As I have noted, publicly and privately since the beginning, the Committee's
arbitrary limits on staff access to documents and witness interviews have impeded members'
J ability to fully engage in and help shape this investigation. Some limitations were at the behestof Executive Branch agencies, although the extent to which the Committee could have negotiatedon behalf of broader staff access is unclear. Other limitations, including with regard to bothclassified and unclassified information, were imposed by the Committee itself.

(U) The Committee's actions run counter to the intent of the U.S. Senate and theCommittee's previous practices. In 2004, the Senate amended the resolution establishing theCommittee to require that each member have staff to serve as his or her "designatedrepresentative" on the Committee. This amendment has allowed individual members of theCommittee to engage fully in the Committee's previous investigations. The exclusion of those
designated representatives from this investigation represents both a departure from previous
practice as well as an extremely unfortunate precedent. It is my fervent hope that the Committee
will recognize that its investigations, as well as its oversight more generally, are strengthened951

when each of its members is granted access to the staff resources required to fully andindependently engage in those investigations.

952