Paul Manafort, an American lawyer and former campaign chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, was found in a deep situation when Robert S. Mueller revealed charges against him and two other former Trump campaign officials.
Manafort and his long-standing business partner Rick Gates were charged with a 12-count indictment with making false statements and violating lobbying, tax, and banking laws in an attempt to launder more than $75 million from Ukrainian politics.
Mr. Manafort, Mr. Gates and others have earned great sums from working for politically consulting clients tainted by corruption or authoritarianism or clients with opposing interests to those of the United States.
So far, for most of this decade, Mr. Manafort has focused on Ukraine with political figures such as Viktor F. Yanukovych and later consulted a Russia-friendly party called Opposition Bloc. He then allegedly used that money gained to take out loans on properties. He now seems to have used at least some of that money to try to save real estate investments by his son-in-law Jeffrey Yohai.
Mr. Manafort then promised to work for Trump for free, as he promised in a memo delivered by Mr. Barrack. He used his international work to his advantage and used his twenty-year absence from American politics as proof that he won’t bring “Washington baggage” to his campaign.
He was included in Trump’s campaign by the end of March and was promoted to campaign chairman and strategist in May. Once promoted, he brought in some former associates to take over senior roles, some of them having experience working in Ukraine or other former Soviet states. Under Manafort’s management, Trump had rallied much of the Republican party and mapped out a strategy to get to the White House.
Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017
When The New York Times revealed an exposé about a ledger from Yanoukovych’s party listing payments of $12.7 million off-books reserved for Manafort’s company. Later, Stephen K. Bannon, who was recently brought on as campaign’s chief executive officer, told Trump “that guy has to go.” Manafort was later forced out of the Trump campaign merely a few days after the article and other exposés by numerous news outlets, though he continued talking strategy with top campaign officials.
Days before Trump’s inauguration, he called Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, to deny a report of memos by former British intelligence which alleged that Manafort managed “a well-developed conspiracy of cooperation” between Trump’s campaign and Russian leaders and that Yanukovych told President Vladimir V. Putin that he ordered “substantial kickback payments” to Manafort.
And although investigation of his actions intensified, he continued his international business. In the past months, he has traveled to Ecuador, Dubai, and Iraqi Kurdistan along with other places. But after the word spread that Robert S. Mueller, the Justice Department’s special counsel, had agents execute a raid on Mr. Manafort’s home, potential clients avoided Manafort’s business to avoid destroying their image in the United States and the rest of the world.
Manafort, and Gates, pleaded innocence in an appearance in D.C. federal court Monday afternoon. A federal judge put them in home confinement and placed a $10 million unsecured bond for Manafort and a $5 unsecured bond for Gates, meaning they will be indebted to the U.S. government if they do not show up to court, but they do not need to leave any money. They were forced to turn in their passports to the FBI.
Donald Trump has declared that there has been no collusion or illegal conspiracy.
….Also, there is NO COLLUSION!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017
