Something very strange has happened to Lindsey Graham. He embarrassingly sucks up to a “very stable genius” and now he betrays his country by openly trying to obstruct an investigation on an attack on our democracy. What’s going on here? The more we look at Graham the more we find some strange, albeit still somewhat distant, connections with the Mueller investigation into the Trump/Russia connection.

jamess explores the transition Graham has undergone over the past year, including the Russian hack of Graham’s emails.

But now we’re learning of the connection between Lindsey Graham’s 2016 campaign manager and Paul Manafort, who’s spider web of connections between Russia and the Russian mafia has drawn an indictment from the Mueller investigation.

Here’s a tweet thread that talks about the Ferry/Graham relationship. Keep in mind, none of this is incriminating and the MSM has not jumped on this, but it is a rather strange connection to Graham.

x Given the news today that Graham and Grassley Are now Going After Christopher Steel, this is a Thread that I hope you all will read in its entirety and RETWEET as it may be quite a bombshell in understanding why Graham is Now Trying to delegitimize the Mueller Investigation (1) Ã¢ÂÂ Brian KrassensteinÃ°ÂÂÂ¬ (@krassenstein) January 6, 2018

Up until recently Lindsey Graham was one of Trump's harshest critics and one of Mueller's biggest supporters. Something has happened over the last 2 months or so which has suddenly cause @LindseyGrahamSC to make an abrupt turn. That something I believe may be related to.. (2) his 2016 campaign manager named Christian Ferry @christianwferry. Ferry was and still is very close to Graham. In 2008 Ferry became the Deputy Campaign Manager for the McCain-Palin campaign. In order to take that position he apparently left his previous job... (3) as a strategic consultant at Davis Manafort, Inc. Yes that's right, he was an influential part of Paul Manafort's firm. Not only that but he also worked with Manafort, Gates, and several Russians on a major deal in Ukraine (4) Recall that on July 26th of this year, Paul Manafort's home was raided. In the raid Mueller's team was said to have obtained thousands of emails, many related to a business deal which went sour between the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, Manafort, Ferry and others. (5) Deripaska basically felt he was conned out of $18 million by Manafort and his team. In a court filing in the Caymen island, where Deripaska decided to wind down his relationship with Manafort's company, which included Perry... (6) his attorneys name the Manafort men "involved in furthering the Partnership's investment program included Rick Davis, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, Alexander Balanutsa, ---Christian Ferry--- Philip Griffin, and Konstantin Kilimnik". (7) One email recovered by Mueller's team, which Manafort sent to Kilimnik in April, read:“I assume you have shown our friends my media coverage, right?” “Absolutely,” Kilimnik responds,“Every article.” “How do we use to get whole” Manafort asks.“Has OVD operation seen?” (8) OVD stands for 'Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska'.Then on July 7, 2016 Reportedly using a Trump campaign account, Manafort continues to send emails to Kilimnik. Referring to the possibility of briefing Oleg Deripaska about the presidential campaign (9) So now lets Return to Christian Ferry. He was seemingly a very key figure in one of the main deals that Mueller is currently investigating related to Manafort and Deripaska. Ferry also happens to be incredibly close to Graham and was his campaign manager only 2 years ago. (10) This almost HAS TO be the connection which ties it all together. Ferry likely found out that he was under investigation, which either led Graham to figure out that he too may be under investigation.Graham then abruptly turned against Mueller & the Russia Investigation. (11) END (BONUS 2) In Ukraine, Ferry was part of a Davis Manafort team that advised Yanukovich, the country’s then-prime minister, whose pro-Russian party made gains in the 2006 parliamentary elections. So Ferry was lobbying for the guy the American government opposed. ... I want to provide a bit of an update. @EdKrassen and I reached out to @christianwferry and he has stated that he is not currently under investigation. Ferry also states that he stopped his work for Davis Manafort in 2006 and does not know why his name was listed on the document Also want to add that Ferry was very open with me and very willing to answer my questions. Just want to be fair here.

What grabbed my attention about this tweet thread, is it’s relationship to a book I’m currently reading, “collusion”. The author, Luke Harding, goes into a lot of detail about the background of Paul Manafort and especially his relationship with Ukrainian thug Yanukovich and Russians like Deripaska and Kilimnic. Any connection with Manafort has to send up flares for the Mueller investigation

Here’s just a very brief excerpt from the book:

According to the Associated Press, Manafort signed a $10 million annual contract with Deripaska. In return, the American proposed a wide-ranging political plan to undermine Putin’s opponents in Europe and United States… In a 2005 memo Manafort told Deripaska “We are now of the belief that this model can geatly benefit the Putin government...”

Any connection whatsoever to Manafort should be a point of extreme shame, but apparently it doesn’t seem to bother Ferry. From his current company's web page:

In 2015, Mr. Ferry served as Campaign Manager for Lindsey Graham’s 2016 presidential campaign. In 2014, he served as the Senior Strategist for Juan Carlos Varela’s successful campaign for President of Panama ... Before joining McCain 2008, Mr. Ferry worked as a strategic consultant at Davis Manafort, Inc, managing government relations projects, domestic and international business development, and elective politics. Mr. Ferry represented clients before the federal government on issues including transportation and telecommunications and managed successful political and business campaigns in the United States, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

So Ferry doesn’t try to hide his connection with Manafort and the unbelievable connection to the disaster in Ukraine. But see that 2008 connection with John McCain’s campaign? Here’s what Mother Jones had to say about it in 2008:

Starting as a driver for Davis, Ferry worked his way up and was assigned key responsibilities for some of the firm’s foreign clients. They included a political party in Montenegro and a political leader in Ukraine, both backed by wealthy businessmen and oligarchs who sought to sway the outcome of elections in 2006 in those two nations… In Ukraine, Ferry was part of a Davis Manafort team that advised Victor Yanukovich, the country’s then-prime minister, whose pro-Russian party made gains in the 2006 parliamentary elections. (In 2004, Yanukovich lost to the U.S.-backed candidate, Victor Yushchenko, in a hotly contested presidential race.)

My first question would be, why the hell would Lindsey Graham want anything to do with anyone who was associated with Manafort in any way?! Keep in mind, this is Graham’s 2016 campaign. In the spring and summer of 2016 the press was digging up so much mud over Manafort’s connection with the Ukrainian Putin puppet and the Russian mafia, in the mid 2000’s, that Manafort was forced to resign as Trump’s campaign manager! Did this send up any red flags for Graham that his own campaign manager was connected to Manafort during that time frame and it could be a problem? I guess not, no problem for Graham.

Maybe there’s absolutely nothing to this connection. Maybe Republicans simply don’t have a problem with people who have a connection with authoritarians around the world. Then again, maybe that’s exactly what Republicans have been seeking for some time, authoritarianism over democracy.

RESIST!

UPDATE: This diary was getting long in the tooth so I just wanted to add some additional info and sources concerning the subject.

x This is a jaw dropping must read thread https://t.co/nbYEJdJ1Gc Ã¢ÂÂ Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) January 7, 2018

And here is a link to the contract that Mr. Krassenstein references in his Bonus tweet