- Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager, worked for the Russians. A secret ledger found in the Ukraine by government investigators lists $12.7 million in cash payments for Manafort from Manafort’s main client, Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party, which was a corrupt network used to loot Ukrainian assets and influence elections from 2007 to 2012. In addition to other transactions these companies engaged in was an $18 million deal to sell Ukrainian cable television assets to a partnership of Manafort and Oleg Deripaska, a Russian and close ally of Putin. Manafort’s other business ties were also scrutinized.
In 2008, according to court records, senior Trump aide Paul Manafort’s firm was involved with a Ukrainian oligarch named Dmytro Firtash in a plan to redevelop a famous New York hotel, the Drake. The total value of the project was $850 million. Firtash’s company planned to invest over $100 million, the records say. That same year, Firtash acknowledged to the U.S. ambassador in Ukraine that he got his start in business with the permission of a notorious Russian crime lord, according to a classified State Department cable. Other cables say Firtash made part of his fortune through sweetheart natural gas deals between Russia and the Ukraine.
Around the same time, companies controlled by another Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, paid $7.35 million toward management fees for Manafort and his partners in connection with an investment fund, according to a court filing in the Cayman Islands. Deripaska once was denied entry to the United States because of alleged mafia ties, current and former officials told NBC News. Deripaska is considered by U.S. officials to be among Putin’s inner circle.
In August, as tension mounted over Russia’s role in the US presidential race, Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, sat down to dinner with a business associate from Ukraine who once served in the Russian army. Konstantin Kilimnik, who learned English at a military school that some experts consider a training ground for Russian spies, had helped run the Ukraine office for Manafort’s international political consulting practice for 10 years. At the Grand Havana Room (666 Fifth Avenue, owned by the Kushners), one of New York City’s most exclusive cigar bars, the longtime acquaintances “talked about bills unpaid by our clients, about [the] overall situation in Ukraine . . . and about the current news,” including the presidential campaign, according to a statement provided by Kilimnik, offering his most detailed account of his interactions with the former Trump adviser. Kilimnik, who provided a written statement to The Washington Post through Manafort’s attorney, said the previously unreported dinner was one of two meetings he had with Manafort on visits to the United States during Manafort’s five months working for Trump. The first encounter was in early May 2016, about two weeks before the Trump adviser was elevated to campaign chairman.
Then, August 19th 2016, Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort resigned from the campaign. After that came new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon. After leaving Trump’s campaign it has been reported that Manafort registered as a foreign agent with FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) but as reported by Rachel Maddow Manafort actually still had not done that. But, finally, on June 27th 2017 the Washington Post reported that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort filed as foreign agent for Ukraine work. A consulting firm led by Paul Manafort, who chaired Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for several months last year, retroactively filed forms June 27th showing that his firm received $17.1 million over two years from a political party that dominated Ukraine before its leader fled to Russia in 2014. Manafort disclosed the total payments his firm received between 2012 and 2014 in a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing late June 27th that was submitted to the US Justice Department. The report makes Manafort the second former senior Trump adviser to acknowledge the need to disclose work for foreign interests. Manafort is one of a number of Trump associates whose campaign activities are being scrutinized by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of a probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller’s team has been consolidating inquiries into matters unrelated to the election. On The Rachel Maddow Show Rachel Maddow relays reports that former Donald Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort has filed retroactively as an agent of a foreign government, the second top Trump aide to do so.
Federal investigators have requested the banking records of Paul Manafort as part of an ongoing investigation into Russia’s interference in the Presidential election. And Federal investigators have subpoenaed records related to a $3.5 million mortgage that Manafort took out on his Hamptons home just after leaving the campaign. NBC estimates that Manafort should owe $36,750 in taxes on the property. Manafort took out a loan for the home under the shell company Summerbreeze LLC, which he registered Aug. 19, 2016, the same day he resigned from the Trump campaign following allegations that he received millions of dollars from a pro-Russia group in Ukraine.
- Even after leaving the Trump campaign Manafort gave Trump’s people advise on starting a fake investigation to distract from the real investigations. Manafort discussed with Trump allies the possibility of launching a countervailing investigation into efforts by Ukrainian government officials who allegedly worked in conjunction with allies of Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to damage Trump’s campaign, according to an operative. The operative added that Manafort saw such an investigation as a way to distract attention from the parallel FBI and congressional Russia probes.
American spies collected information last summer (2016) revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Trump through his advisers. The conversations focused on both Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. Both Flynn and Manafort are key figures in the Russia investigations.
- July 25th 2017 as reported in The New York Times: Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, met with Senate Intelligence Committee investigators on Tuesday (July 25th 2017) to discuss the June 2016 meeting between a Russian lawyer and Mr. Trump’s inner circle that was set up for the campaign to receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton, according to a spokesman for Mr. Manafort. “Paul Manafort met this morning, by previous agreement, with the bipartisan staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee and answered their questions fully,” said the spokesman, Jason Maloni. Mr. Manafort gave the investigators notes he had taken during the meeting, according to one person familiar with Tuesday’s discussion with congressional investigators at a Washington law firm.
The meeting came as another panel, the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that it issued a subpoena for Mr. Manafort to appear at a hearing on Wednesday (July 26th 2017). But the committee later rescinded the subpoena and canceled his appearance. Mr. Manafort’s lawyers are now working out how and when he will be interviewed by the committee. The panel is conducting its own investigation into possible ties between Mr. Trump’s campaign and the Russian government. Mr. Manafort has been at the center of inquiries into whether Mr. Trump’s senior advisers coordinated with Kremlin efforts to disrupt last year’s election.
- August 9th 2017 as reported in The Washington Post: FBI agents raided the home in Alexandria, Virginia, of Trump’s former campaign chairman, arriving in the pre-dawn hours late last month and seizing documents and other materials related to the special counsel investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The raid, which occurred without warning on July 26, signaled an aggressive new approach by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team in dealing with a key figure in the Russia inquiry. Manafort has been under increasing pressure as the Mueller team looked into his personal finances and his professional career as a highly paid foreign political consultant.
Using a search warrant, agents appeared the day Manafort was scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and a day after he met voluntarily with Senate Intelligence Committee staff members. The search warrant requested documents related to tax, banking and other matters. People familiar with the search said agents departed the Manafort residence with a trove of material, including binders prepared ahead of Manafort’s congressional testimony. Investigators in the Russia inquiry have previously sought documents with subpoenas, which are less intrusive and confrontational than a search warrant. With a warrant, agents can inspect a physical location and seize any useful information. To get a judge to sign off on a search warrant, prosecutors must show that there is probable cause that a crime has been committed.
“I think it adds a shock and awe enforcement component to what until now has followed a natural path for a white-collar investigation,” said Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor. “More so than anything else we’ve seen so far, it really does send a powerful law enforcement message when the search warrant is used. . . . That message is that the special counsel team will use all criminal investigative tools available to advance the investigation as quickly and as comprehensively as possible.”
On All In with Chris Hayes It’s not a great sign when a dozen FBI agents wielding a search warrant execute a pre-dawn raid at your house.
On The Rachel Maddow Show Carol Leonnig, reporter for The Washington Post, talks with Rachel Maddow about a pre-dawn FBI raid on the house of former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
On The Rachel Maddow Show Joyce Vance, former US attorney, talks with Rachel Maddow about what can be inferred from the details and the timing of the FBI raid on the home of former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
On The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Lawrence O’Donnell explains why Paul Manafort is not the only one who should be very, very worried that the FBI, working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, raided his house in the middle of the night in search of evidence of a crime.
On The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Retired ATF Special Agent Jim Cavanaugh, who worked with Robert Mueller when he was FBI Director, gives a riveting look at the raid on Paul Manafort’s home and the likely state of the special counsel’s legal case. John Heilemann & Mieke Eoyang join Lawrence O’Donnell.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams The Russia investigation reached a new level after news broke the FBI raided the home of former Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort. Our panel of reporters & legal experts react.
On The Rachel Maddow Show Rachel Maddow reports on former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort changing his legal team and adding a lawyer whose areas of specialty paint a stark picture of Manafort’s legal concerns.
