FBI was warned Manafort 'evidence' probably fake - 

Posting notice: John Solomon is a particularly thorough and accurate source. MIL-ED has not evaluated this article. However, it is likely that the allegation made are correct and that the FBI, particularly Andrew Wisemann was aware that many FBI  "  findings" which were used to obtain permission for surveillance and/or oth,er warrants were false at the time they were utilized as justification.

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The Democratic-funded dossier of Russian propaganda that was largely debunked by the Mueller special counsel investigation apparently wasn’t the only bogus document fueling the “Russia collusion” allegations.

Another document, known as the “black cash ledger,” forced forced Paul Manafort to resign as Trump’s campaign chairman in the summer of 2016 and eventually face indictment.
But investigative journalist John Solomon has found through documents and more than a dozen interviews with knowledgeable sources that the FBI used the document to advance the case against Manafort even though it was repeatedly warned that it was not reliable and likely was a fake.

Solomon, writing for The Hill, noted that in search warrant affidavits, the FBI portrayed the ledger as one reason it resurrected a criminal case against Manafort that was dropped in 2014.

The ledger supposedly contained a list of off-the-book payments from Ukraine’s Party of Regions to Manafort.

Significantly, Mueller’s special counsel team and the FBI were given copies of a warning by Manafort’s Ukrainian business partner Konstantin Kilimnik that the document likely was bogus, according to three sources familiar with the documents.

Further, Ukraine’s top anticorruption prosecutor, Nazar Kholodnytsky, told Solomon he warned the State Department’s law enforcement liaison and multiple FBI agents in late summer 2016 that Ukrainian authorities who recovered the ledger believed it likely was a fraud.

“It was not to be considered a document of Manafort. It was not authenticated. And at that time it should not be used in any way to bring accusations against anybody,” Kholodnytsky said, recalling what he told FBI agents.

Kilimnik, a regular informer for the State Department, wrote in an email to a senior U.S. official in August 2016 that Manafort “could not have possibly taken large amounts of cash across three borders. It was always a different arrangement — payments were in wire transfers to his companies, which is not a violation.”

Solomon pointed out that according to the FBI operating manual, submitting knowingly false or suspect evidence in a federal court proceeding violates FBI rules and can be a crime under certain circumstances.

While the FBI and Mueller’s office did not cite the actual ledger, it cited media reports about it. And it turned out that the feds assisted on one of those stories as sources.
Agents mentioned the ledger in an affidavit supporting a July 2017 search warrant for Manafort’s house. And three months later, the FBI — seeking a search warrant for Manafort’s bank records — cited a specific article about the ledger as evidence Manafort was paid to perform U.S. lobbying work for the Ukrainians.

In the affidavit arguing probable cause to obtain the search warrant, an FBI agent cited an Associated Press article reporting Manafort’s company records showed it received at least two payments that corresponded to payments in the “black ledger.”

But Solomon reports the agent failed to disclose that both FBI officials and Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who later became Mueller’s deputy, met with the AP reporters one day before the story was published and assisted their reporting.
“So, essentially, the FBI cited a leak that the government had facilitated and then used it to support the black ledger evidence, even though it had been clearly warned about the document,” Solomon writes.

He further points out that the FBI was told the ledger claimed to show cash payments to Manafort. But agents had been told since 2014 that Manafort received money only by bank wires.

During the 2014 investigation, Manafort and his partner Richard Gates voluntarily identified for FBI agents tens of millions of dollars they received from Ukrainian and Russian sources and the shell companies and banks that wired the money. “Gates stated that the amounts they received would match the amounts they invoiced for services. Gates added they were always paid late, and in tranches,” FBI memos I obtained show.

Solomon observes that the best proof that the FBI knew the black ledger was a sham is that prosecutors never introduced it to jurors in Manafort’s trial.

Rep. Mark Meadows, a senior Republican on the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, told Solomon Wednesday night he is asking the Justice Department inspector general to investigate the FBI and prosecutors’ handling of the Manafort warrants.