Paul Manafort

Paul Manafort is a longtime Republican consultant. In mid-2016 Manafort served for a time as the campaign chairman for presidential candidate Donald Trump.

During the Republican National Convention in 2016 Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post writes a “Trump presidency could destabilize Europe.” The issue, she explained, was Trump’s positive attitude toward Putin. “The extent of the Trump-Russia business connection has already been laid out, by Franklin Foer at Slate,” wrote Applebaum. She named Carter Page and his “long-standing connections to Russian companies.” Applebaum repeats the kenard that the “Trump’s campaign team helped alter the Republican party platform to remove support for Ukraine” from the Republican National Committee’s platform. Maybe, she hints, that was because of Trump aide Manafort’s ties to Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich. The Manafort-Yanukovich relationship is an important part of the Steele dossier. So is the claim that in exchange for Russia releasing the DNC emails, “the TRUMP team had agreed to sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue.” For Applebaum, it was hard to understand why Trump would express skepticism about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, except to appease Putin. She referred to a recent interview in which Trump “cast doubt on the fundamental basis of transatlantic stability, NATO’s Article 5 guarantee: If Russia invades, he said, he’d have to think first before defending U.S. allies.” The talking points come directly from Hillary Clinton's opposition research, FusionGPS and the Steele dossier.

In 2017 Manafort was indicted by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller in the Trump-Russia scam. Manafort was indicted for FARA violations and influence peddling in conjunction with the Podesta Group. The activities took place primarily during Hillary Clinton’s State Department years. Nothing in the indictments related to President Trump.

On October 27, 2017, a grand jury indicted Manafort and his associate, fellow lobbyist and deputy Trump campaign manager Rick Gates, for various financial crimes, as well as making false statements. All of the alleged financial crimes took place prior to Manafort serving as Trump campaign manager, and nothing in the indictment relates to any potential collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

On February 22, 2018, a grand jury issued a superseding indictment for Manafort and Rick Gates, which included addiional allegations of financial crimes, indudSfmilar to the October 27, 2017, indictment, the superseding Indictment does not include any reference to the Trump campaign, including no mention of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.