The story broke with the suddenness of a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.
Tuesday morning, The Guardian reported that former Trump 2016 campaign chairman met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London on multiple occasions, including while he was working for the Trump campaign:
“A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers.”
Just hours earlier, on Monday evening, it was revealed that Manafort had been caught lying to Special Counsel Robert Mueller and was on the verge of being sentenced to anywhere from 14 to 17 years in federal prison.
Clearly, these two reports are connected. Manafort likely said he had never met with Assange and Mueller found out he had done so at least three times. That invalidated Manafort’s plea deal and placed the special counsel inside the Oval Office. How? Take a look:
If Manafort was meeting with Assange shortly before WikiLeaks began releasing the DNC emails and near the same time Trump was calling for Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s emails, then a line can be drawn which tracks the conspiracy from Manafort to Assange to Trump, and then back again. That’s the very definition of the “collusion,” which Trump swears never took place.
Trump and the White House will no doubt try to say that if Manafort met with Assange in London, they had no idea such a thing was taking place. But who actually believes the chairman of Trump’s campaign didn’t talk the whole plan over with the candidate both prior to and after the meetings?
Oh, and if indeed Manafort did meet with Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy, there’s a high likelihood that American intelligence has proof the meeting took place. They may even have recordings of that supposedly secret rendezvous.
Manafort, Assange, Trump. And let’s not forget Russia, which has served has a sponsor and protector of Assange over the years. The conspiracy is now complete: Trump and Russia working together to assure Trump won the election.
Robert Mueller’s case against Trump is now a slam dunk. He has all the evidence he needs.