Special counsel Robert Mueller may not have found any evidence that President Trump or any of his associates conspired to collude or cooperated with the Russian government's attempts to interfere with our 2016 election. But for all intents and purposes, former Trump campaign chairman and current convicted felon Paul Manafort acted on behalf of the Russian government.

It's a good thing for Manafort, who will remain in prison until Christmas Day of 2024, that collusion itself isn't a crime. If it were, he ought to be locked up for life.

The Mueller report states:



Separately, on August 2, 2016, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met in New York City with his long-time business associate Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI assesses to have ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik requested the meeting to deliver in person a peace plan for Ukraine that Manafort acknowledged to the Special Counsel's Office was a 'backdoor' way for Russia to control part of eastern Ukraine; both men believed the plan would require candidate Trump's assent to succeed (were he to be elected President) ... Months before that meeting, Manafort had caused internal polling data to be shared with Kilimnik, and the sharing continued for some period of time after their August meeting.



Manafort has already been found guilty on multiple unrelated counts. But the Mueller report further makes clear that he intended to influence American foreign policy on behalf of the Russian government with assistance of a literal Russian agent. Last summer, Mueller indicted Kilimnik himself on obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice charges due to attempted witness tampering he had done on Manafort's behalf.

But Mueller found evidence that Kilimnik served as a back channel between Manafort and Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukranian President, who was found guilty of treason by the nation for crushing 2014 demonstrations and asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.

Mueller writes:



Kilimnik requested the [August 2, 2016] meeting [with Manafort] to deliver in person a message from former Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was then living in Russia. The message was about a peace plan for Ukraine that Manafort has since acknowledged was a 'backdoor' means for Russia to control eastern Ukrain. Several months later, after the presidential election, Kilimnik wrote an email to Manafort expressing the view--which Manafort later said he shared--that the plan's success would require U.S. support to succeed: 'all that is required to start the process is a very minor 'wink' (or slight push) from [Donald Trump].' The email also stated that if Manafort were designated as the U.S. representative and started the process, Yanukovych would ensure his reception in Russia 'at the very top level.'



Mueller also found that Manafort instructed Rick Gates to send Kilimnik polling data specifically so Kilimnik "could share it with Ukranian oligarchs." Around the time of Trump's inauguration, Manafort, who was still in contact with members of the Trump camp, met with Kilimnik again and "sought to qualify his engagement on and support for the plan," and around a year later, Manafort "retained his longtime polling firm" to test out the popularity of the Kilimnik plan.

In case you were keeping track of the timeline, yes, Manafort was still working on behalf of Russian interests even after he and Gates were indicted by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for — you guessed it — their consulting work on behalf of Yanukovych from years prior.

Fortunately for Trump, Mueller does assert that his team "did not uncover evidence of Manafort's passing along information about Ukranian peace plans to the candidate or anyone else in the Campaign or Administration."

But that's about the only silver lining.

The pair responsible for bringing Manafort into the campaign were Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Based on this judgment call alone, Trump ought to oust them from the White House and thank his lucky stars that he got rid of Manafort when he did.

If Manafort actually had attained a position within his government, he would have been an American putting Russian interests over our own. He actively attempted to advance Russian interests, repeatedly and without remorse. He deserves every day in prison he gets

In a strange way, Trump should thank his lucky stars that the Mueller investigation began in the first place. It took the obstruction of justice charges to literally lock Manafort up and cease his efforts to enact the Kilimnik plan. Given Manafort's ruthlessness and shamelessness, there's little question that he would've continued to pursue the plan if he never came under legal scrutiny, and if he had succeeded in convincing Trump, even unwittingly, to enact it, his presidency would be in far worse trouble than ever seemed possible.