US

FBI Puts Mueller Target On ‘Most Wanted’ List, Offers $250K Reward

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The FBI is offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a Russian-Ukrainian political consultant who was charged during the special counsel’s investigation alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Konstantin Kilimnik was indicted on June 8, 2018, on obstruction charges as part of the special counsel’s probe, led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Prosecutors alleged that Kilimnik and Manafort pressured two former business associates to provide false testimony in a case that was already pending against Manafort.

Kilimnik worked closely for years with Manafort in Ukraine, where they consulted for former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. They continued working together after Yanukovych was deposed in 2014, meeting multiple times during the presidential campaign in 2016.

Kilimnik’s ties to Russia have been a source of mystery for years.

The special counsel’s report said that Kilimnik had ties to Russia’s intelligence services. A Senate Intelligence Committee report released last year went further, saying that Kilimnik was a Russian intelligence officer.

The FBI’s bulletin says that Kilimnik “is assessed by the FBI to have ties to Russian Intelligence.”

The report said that Kilimnik served as an intermediary between Manafort and Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Additionally, Konstantin Viktorovich Kilimnik is also wanted by the #FBI for obstruction of justice & engaging in a conspiracy to obstruct justice btwn Feb 2018 & April 2018. https://t.co/Akip5hlcjC pic.twitter.com/yBSOGa7U6E

— FBI Washington Field (@FBIWFO) February 25, 2021

In July 2016, while on the Trump campaign, Manafort emailed Kilimnik to say he could provide “private briefings” to Deripaska. Manafort owed millions of dollars to Deripaska at the time over a failed business venture in Ukraine.

During a meeting in New York City in August 2016, Manafort and his longtime business partner, Rick Gates, provided Kilimnik with internal Trump campaign polling data.

Manafort was convicted on money laundering, tax and bank fraud charges related to income he received from his business dealings in Ukraine. Manafort was also indicted on charges that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent of Ukraine. He was not charged with anything related to Russia, or with conspiring with the Russian government to help the Trump campaign.

Trump fired Manafort in mid-August 2016 following reports about alleged payments he received under the table for his Ukraine work. Trump pardoned Manafort in December.