MYSTERY TRIP

Report: Congress Looking Into Manafort Associate’s Jet Flight

Just hours before Paul Manafort and his fixer met in NYC, a Russian oligarch landed in the U.S.

Congress is looking into an August 2016 private jet flight from Moscow to New Jersey in connection to a meeting between former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Manafort’s Ukrainian “fixer” Konstantin Kilimnik, VICE News reported Friday. The jet, which has been connected to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, landed in the U.S. just hours before Manafort and Kilimnik had a meeting in Manhattan. Weeks prior, Manafort reportedly reached out to Kilimnik and told him to “extend an offer of ‘private briefings’ to Deripaska.” Deripaska is known to have ties to the Kremlin, and Kilimnik has been reported as the unnamed individual with “ties to Russian intelligence” in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of Rick Gates–prompting Congress to look at the connections between Manafort, Kilimnik, and Deripaska. A spokesperson for Deripaska does not deny the flight, but said that Deripaska’s family took the plane and that he did not receive Manafort’s offer of briefings.