Political Wire

Putin Ally Wanted Immunity to Testify

May 27, 2017 at 8:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch once close to President Trump’s former campaign manager, has offered to cooperate with congressional committees investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but lawmakers are unwilling to accept his conditions,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Deripaska’s offer comes amid increased attention to his ties to Paul Manafort, who is one of several Trump associates under F.B.I. scrutiny for possible collusion with Russia during the presidential campaign.”

“Mr. Deripaska, an aluminum magnate who is a member of the inner circle of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, recently offered to cooperate with congressional intelligence committees in exchange for a grant of full immunity… But the Senate and House panels turned him down because of concerns that immunity agreements create complications for federal criminal investigators.”

Top Russians Discussed How to Influence Trump Aides

May 24, 2017 at 5:46 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald Trump through his advisers,” the New York Times reports.

“The conversations focused on Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman at the time, and Michael Flynn, a retired general who was advising Mr. Trump.”

“Details of the conversations, some of which have not been previously reported, add to an increasing understanding of the alarm inside the American government last year about the Russian disruption campaign.”

Feds Subpoena Records for Manafort Home

May 17, 2017 at 7:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Federal investigators have subpoenaed records related to a $3.5 million mortgage that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort took out on his Hamptons home just after leaving the campaign,” NBC News reports.

“The mortgage document that explains how Manafort would pay back the loan was never filed with Suffolk County, New York — and Manafort’s company never paid up to $36,000 in taxes that would be due on the loan.”

Manafort Got $3.5 Million Mystery Mortgage

May 16, 2017 at 9:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort “took out a $3.5 million mortgage through a shell company just after leaving the campaign, but the mortgage document that explains how he would pay it back was never filed — and Manafort’s company never paid $36,000 in taxes that would be due on the loan,” NBC News reports.

“In addition, despite telling NBC News previously that all his real estate transactions are transparent and include his name and signature, Manafort’s name and signature do not appear on any of the loan documents that are publicly available. A Manafort spokesperson said the $3.5 million loan was repaid in December, but also said paperwork showing the repayment was not filed until he was asked about the loan by NBC News.”

Manafort’s Bank Records Sought In Probe

May 12, 2017 at 10:52 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Justice Department last month requested banking records of Paul Manafort as part of a widening of probes related to President Trump’s former campaign associates and whether they colluded with Russia in interfering with the 2016 election,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Separately, investigators for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as well as Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. also have been examining real-estate transactions by Mr. Manafort, who has spent and borrowed tens of millions of dollars in connection with property across the U.S. over the past decade.”

Manafort Ukraine Payments Confirmed

April 12, 2017 at 6:28 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Last August, a handwritten ledger surfaced in Ukraine with dollar amounts and dates next to the name of Paul Manafort, who was then Donald Trump’s campaign chairman.”

“Now, financial records newly obtained by the Associated Press confirm that at least $1.2 million in payments listed in the ledger next to Manafort’s name were actually received by his consulting firm in the United States. They include payments in 2007 and 2009, providing the first evidence that Manafort’s firm received at least some money listed in the so-called Black Ledger.”

Mike Allen: “Manafort and his spokesman, Jason Maloni, have maintained the ledger was fabricated and said no public evidence existed that Manafort or others received payments recorded in it.”

Manafort Wanted for Questioning in U.S. and Ukraine

April 2, 2017 at 7:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“American and Ukrainian officials are pushing to question President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort in separate investigations related to his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine once headed by that country’s disgraced former president Viktor Yanukovych,” Politico reports.

Manafort-Linked Accounts on Cyprus Raised Red Flag

March 28, 2017 at 6:35 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A bank in Cyprus investigated accounts associated with President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, for possible money-laundering,” two banking sources with direct knowledge of his businesses here told NBC News.

“Manafort — whose ties to a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin are under scrutiny — was associated with at least 15 bank accounts and 10 companies on Cyprus, dating back to 2007, the sources said. At least one of those companies was used to receive millions of dollars from a billionaire Putin ally, according to court documents.”

Manafort’s Real Estate Transactions Raise Questions

March 28, 2017 at 9:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager facing multiple investigations for his political and financial ties to Russia, has engaged in a series of puzzling real estate deals in New York City over the past 11 years,” WNYC reports.

“Real estate and law enforcement experts say some of these transactions fit a pattern used in money laundering; together, they raise questions about Manafort’s activities in the New York City property market while he also was consulting for business and political leaders in the former Soviet Union.”

U.S. Probes Manafort’s Offshore Transaction Records

March 23, 2017 at 6:53 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“U.S. Treasury Department agents have recently obtained information about offshore financial transactions involving President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, as part of a federal anti-corruption probe into his work in Eastern Europe,” the AP reports.

Manafort Secretly Created Plan to Benefit Putin

March 22, 2017 at 6:49 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort “secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics,” the AP reports.

“The work appears to contradict assertions by the Trump administration and Manafort himself that he never worked for Russian interests.”

“Manafort pitched the plans to Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally with whom Manafort eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006… Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work.”

Manafort Wanted for Questioning In Ukraine

March 19, 2017 at 2:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Ukrainian prosecutors want to question Paul Manafort in connection with a corruption investigation and have made repeated requests for assistance from US authorities,” CNN reports.

“Prosecutors in Kiev said they have made seven separate appeals over the past two years for help in questioning President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, including letters to FBI Director James Comey and US Justice Department officials. Ukrainian officials said the US has not responded to those requests.”

Authorities Looked Into Manafort Protege

March 8, 2017 at 9:45 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“U.S. and Ukrainian authorities have expressed interest in the activities of a Kiev-based operative with suspected ties to Russian intelligence who consulted regularly with Paul Manafort last year while Manafort was running Donald Trump’s presidential campaign,” Politico reports.

“The operative, Konstantin Kilimnik, came under scrutiny from officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department partly because of at least two trips he took to the U.S. during the presidential campaign.”

Manafort Faced Blackmail Attempt

February 23, 2017 at 7:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A purported cyber hack of the daughter of political consultant Paul Manafort suggests that he was the victim of a blackmail attempt while he was serving as Donald Trump’s presidential campaign chairman last summer,” Politico reports.

“The undated communications, which are allegedly from the iPhone of Manafort’s daughter, include a text that appears to come from a Ukrainian parliamentarian named Serhiy Leshchenko, seeking to reach her father, in which he claims to have politically damaging information about both Manafort and Trump.”

Manafort Quits Trump Campaign

August 19, 2016 at 10:26 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Trump campaign chairman and chief strategist Paul Manafort has resigned from the campaign, the Washington Post reports.

Donald Trump confirmed the news in a statement: “This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign. I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success.”

Secret Ledger In Ukraine Shows Cash for Manafort

August 14, 2016 at 11:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012… Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.”

“Mr. Manafort’s involvement with moneyed interests in Russia and Ukraine had previously come to light. But as American relationships there become a rising issue in the presidential campaign — from Mr. Trump’s favorable statements about Mr. Putin and his annexation of Crimea to the suspected Russian hacking of Democrats’ emails — an examination of Mr. Manafort’s activities offers new details of how he mixed politics and business out of public view and benefited from powerful interests now under scrutiny by the new government in Kiev.”

A Deliberate Remix of the Southern Strategy

August 14, 2016 at 8:28 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Atlantic: “But, particularly over the past two months, Trump’s campaign seems less like a haphazard effort, and more like a deliberate and conscious attempt to resurrect these discarded GOP tactics, recasting them for the current moment.”

“One glaring, underreported clue about the method behind the post-primary Trump madness is his selection of Paul Manafort as chair of his national campaign. Manafort’s appointment, followed by the ousting of Corey Lewandowski in June, was widely seen as a move to professionalize Trump’s disorganized campaign staff just ahead of the convention. But along with credentials earned from working with top GOP politicians… Manafort also brought decades of experience as an overseer of the Southern Strategy. Since the 1980s, Manafort’s business partners have included Charles Black, who helped launch the Senate career of outspoken segregationist Jessie Helms, and Lee Atwater, who was behind the infamously racist Willie Horton ads run by the George H. W. Bush campaign.”

“And it was Manafort who arranged for Ronald Reagan to kick off his post-convention presidential campaign at the Neshoba County Fair just outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three young civil rights workers were brutally murdered in 1964.”

Manafort Says Trump Could Win Connecticut and Oregon

July 30, 2016 at 2:07 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Trump adviser Paul Manafort told the Washington Post that Pennsylvania is “wide open,” and that if Trump wins its 20 electoral votes, his path to victory would become “a lot more varied and hers more limited.”

He added: “We can carry Michigan, we can compete in Wisconsin and win. Iowa is in play. If they think they’ve got Colorado, they’re smoking something.”

Manafort went on to describe Connecticut and Oregon — two reliably blue states — as within reach for Trump: “Those are not states that are on my front burner, but she’s going to have to put resources into those states in order to carry them.”