Immediate Post-Election Activity

Immediate Post-Election Activity

As soon as news broke that Trnmp had been elected President, Russian government officials and prominent Russian businessmen began hy ing to make imoads into the new Adminish'ation. They appeai·ed not to have preexisting contacts an d snuggled to connect with senior officials ai·ound the President-Elect. As explained below, those efforts entailed both official contact through the Russian Embassy in the United States an d outreaches- sanctioned at high levels of the Russian government- through business rather than political contacts.

Manafort (D.D.C.) Gov't Opp. to Mot. to Modify, at 2; Sup erseding Indictm ent ,i,i 48-51, United States v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., 1:l7-cr-201 (D.D.C. June 8, 2018), Doc. 318.

2/12/18 Email, Fabrizio to Manafo1t & Ward; 2/ 16/18 Email, Fabrizio to Manafo1t ; 2/ 19/ 18 Email, Fabrizio to Ward; 2/21/ 18 Email, Manafo1t to Ward & Fab1izio.

¶2/21/ 18 Email, Manafo1t to Ward & Fabrizio (7:16:49 a.m.) (attachment).

¶w•---~~ffi~,ei

¶962 (b)( )(E)- 3/9/ 18 Email, Ward to Manafo1t & Fabrizio (attachment).

¶
• 7 — 2

¶,w,u1

Outreach from the Russian Government

¶At approximately 3 a.m. on election night, Trump Campaign press secretary Hope Hicks received a telephone call on her personal cell phone from a person who sounded foreign but was calling from a number with a DC area code.⁹⁶⁴⁹⁶⁴ Hicks 12/8/17 302, at 3. Although Hicks had a hard time understanding the person, she could make out the words "Putin call."⁹⁶⁵⁹⁶⁵ Hicks 12/8/17 302, at 3. Hicks told the caller to send her an email.⁹⁶⁶⁹⁶⁶ Hicks 12/8/17 302, at 3.

¶The following morning, on November 9, 2016, Sergey Kuznetsov, an official at the Russian Embassy to the United States, emailed Hicks from his Gmail address with the subject line, "Message from Putin."⁹⁶⁷⁹⁶⁷ NOSC00044381 (11/9/16 Email, Kuznetsov to Hicks (5:27 a.m.)). Attached to the email was a message from Putin, in both English and Russian, which Kuznetsov asked Hicks to convey to the President-Elect.⁹⁶⁸⁹⁶⁸ NOSC00044381-82 (11/9/16 Email, Kuznetsov to Hicks (5:27 a.m.)). In the message, Putin offered his congratulations to Trump for his electoral victory, stating he "look[ed] forward to working with [Trump] on leading Russian-American relations out of crisis."⁹⁶⁹⁹⁶⁹ NOSC00044382 (11/9/16 Letter from Putin to President-Elect Trump (Nov. 9, 2016) (translation)).

¶Hicks forwarded the email to Kushner, asking, "Can you look into this? Don't want to get duped but don't want to blow off Putin!"⁹⁷⁰⁹⁷⁰ NOSC00044381 (11/9/16 Email, Hicks to Kushner (10:26 a.m.)). Kushner stated in Congressional testimony that he believed that it would be possible to verify the authenticity of the forwarded email through the Russian Ambassador, whom Kushner had previously met in April 2016.⁹⁷¹⁹⁷¹ Statement of Jared C. Kushner to Congressional Committees, at 4 (Jul. 24, 2017). Unable to recall the Russian Ambassador's name, Kushner emailed Dimitri Simes of CNI, whom he had consulted previously about Russia, see Volume I, Section IV.A.4, supra, and asked, "What is the name of Russian ambassador?"⁹⁷²⁹⁷² NOSC00000058 (11/9/16 Email, Kushner to Simes (10:28 a.m.)); Statement of Jared Kushner to Congressional Committees, at 4 (Jul. 24, 2017). Kushner forwarded Simes's response—which identified Kislyak by name—to Hicks.⁹⁷³⁹⁷³ NOSC00000058 (11/9/16 Email, Kushner to Hicks (11:05:44 a.m.)). After checking with Kushner to see what he had learned, Hicks conveyed Putin's letter to transition officials.⁹⁷⁴⁹⁷⁴ Hicks 12/8/17 302, at 3-4. Five days later, on November 14, 2016, Trump and Putin spoke by phone in the presence of Transition Team members, including incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.⁹⁷⁵⁹⁷⁵ Flynn 11/16/17 302, at 8-10; see Doug G. Ware, Trump, Russia's Putin Talk about Syria, Icy Relations in Phone Call, UPI (Nov. 14, 2016).

High-Level Encouragement of Contacts through Alternative Channels

¶As Russian officials in the United States reached out to the President-Elect and his team, a number of Russian individuals working in the private sector began their own efforts to make contact. Petr Aven, a Russian national who heads Alfa-Bank, Russia's largest commercial bank, described to the Office interactions with Putin during this time period that might account for the flurry of Russian activity.976

¶Aven told the Office that he is one of approximately 50 wealthy Russian businessmen who regularly meet with Putin in the Kremlin; these 50 men are often referred to as "oligarchs."977 Aven told the Office that he met on a quarterly basis with Putin, including in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2016, shortly after the U.S. presidential election.⁹⁷⁸⁹⁷⁸ Aven provided information to the Office in an interview and through an attorney proffer, Aven 8/2/18 302, at 7. [Redacted: (b) (3)] - Aven said that he took these meetings seriously and understood that any suggestions or critiques that Putin made during these meetings were implicit directives, and that there would be consequences for Aven if he did not follow through.⁹⁷⁹⁹⁷⁹ Aven 8/2/18 302, at 2-3. As was typical, the 2016 Q4 meeting with Putin was preceded by a preparatory meeting with Putin's chief of staff, Anton Vaino.⁹⁸⁰⁹⁸⁰ [Redacted: (b) (3)] and interview with the Office, Aven referred to the high-ranking Russian government officials using numbers (e.g., Official 1, Official 2). Aven separately confirmed through an attorney proffer that Official 1 was Putin and Official 2 was Putin's chief of staff, Vaino. See Affidavit of Ryan Junck (Aug. 2, 2018) (hard copy on file).

¶According to Aven, at his Q4 2016 one-on-one meeting with Putin,⁹⁸¹⁹⁸¹ At the time of his Q4 2016 meeting with Putin, Aven was generally aware of the press coverage about Russian interference in the U.S. election. According to Aven, he did not discuss that topic with Putin at any point, and Putin did not mention the rationale behind the threat of new sanctions. Aven 8/2/18 302, at 5-7. Putin raised the prospect that the United States would impose additional sanctions on Russian interests, including sanctions against Aven and/or Alfa-Bank.⁹⁸²⁹⁸² [Redacted: (b) (3)] Putin suggested that Aven needed to take steps to protect himself and Alfa-Bank.⁹⁸³⁹⁸³ [Redacted: (b) (3)] Aven also testified that Putin spoke of the difficulty faced by the Russian government in getting in touch with the incoming Trump Administration.⁹⁸⁴⁹⁸⁴ [Redacted: (b) (3)] According to Aven, Putin indicated that he did not know with whom formally to speak and generally did not know the people around the President-Elect.⁹⁸⁵⁹⁸⁵ [Redacted: (b) (3)]

¶[Redacted: (b) (3)]

¶Aven [Redacted: (b) (3)] told Putin he would take steps to protect himself and the Alfa-Bank shareholders from potential sanctions, and one of those steps would be to tiy to reach out to the incoming Administi·ation to establish a line of communication .⁹⁸⁶⁹⁸⁶ [Redacted: (b) (3)] Aven described Putin responding with skepticism about Aven 's prospect for success.⁹⁸⁷⁹⁸⁷ [Redacted: (b) (3)] Aven 8/2/18 302, at 6. According to Aven, although Putin did not expressly direct him to reach out to the Tnunp Transition Team, Aven understood th at Putin expected him to tiy to respond to th e concerns he had raised.⁹⁸⁸⁹⁸⁸ Aven 8/2/18 302, at4-8; [Redacted: (b) (3)] Aven 's effo1is are described in Volume I, Section IV.B .5, infra.