Paul Manafort was an adviser during the presidential campaigns of Republicans Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bob Dole. In 1980, he became one of the founders of the lobbying firm Black, Manafort & Stone, established in Washington. He is best known for his work on former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and current President of the United States Donald Trump. The trial of Paul Manafort is one of the hottest topics in the American media in recent months.
Young years
The hero of this article was born on April 1, 1949. Biography of Paul Manafort began in the city of New Britain, Connecticut. The parents of the future lobbyist are Antoinette Mary Manafort (née Cifalu, 1921-2003) and Paul John Manafort (1923-2013). His grandfather immigrated to the United States from Italy at the beginning of the 20th century, and settled in Connecticut. He founded the New Writing Company in New Britain in 1919 (later renamed Manafort Brothers Inc.). His father served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was mayor of New Britain from 1965-1971. His father was charged with a corruption scandal in 1981, but was never convicted. Unfortunately, even skilled journalists from American opposition television channels cannot find Paul Manafort’s baby photo.
In 1967, Manafort graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School - a private Catholic high school in his hometown. After school, he entered Georgetown University, where he received the title of Master of Business Administration in 1971. The personal life of Paul Manafort is not particularly advertised - for sure it is only known that he is married.
Political strategist career
In 1976, Manafort was the coordinating delegate of eight states for the Committee of President Ford. Ford's campaign itself was led by James A. Baker III. Between 1978 and 1980, Manafort was the Southern Campaign Coordinator for President Ronald Reagan and Deputy Political Director of the Republican National Committee. After the Reagan election in November 1980, he was appointed deputy director of the presidential staff for the White House. In 1981, he was appointed to the board of directors of a private investment corporation abroad.
Manafort was an adviser to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush in 1988 and Bob Dole in 1996.
Lobbyist career
In 1980, Manafort was one of the founders of the Washington-based lobbying firm Black, Manafort & Stone. After Peter Kelly joined the firm, its name was changed to Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly (BMSK).
Manafort left BMSC in 1996 to join Richard H. Davis and Matthew K. Friedman in creating a common lobbying firm.
Working with Zhonash Savimbi
In 1985, BMSK signed a $ 600,000 contract with UNITA Angolan rebel group leader Jonas Savimbi to restore Savimbi's image in Washington and secure financial support based on his anti-communist stance. BMSK organized for Savimbi participation in the activities of the American Enterprise Institute (where Gene Kirkpatrick gave him a laudatory performance) The Heritage Foundation and Freedom House. After such a successful campaign, Congress approved hundreds of millions of dollars as a secret American aid to the Savimbi group. According to some journalists, Manafort’s ongoing lobbying efforts helped keep Savimbi’s pocket in his pocket even a few years after the Soviet Union ended its involvement in the Angolan conflict.
Work with other dictators
In the period from June 1984 to June 1986, Manafort was a lobbyist for Saudi Arabia interests registered in FARA. Manafort stepped down as director of OPIC in May 1986. The investigation by the Department of Justice revealed 18 lobbying activities that were not reported in the FARA documents, including lobbying on behalf of the Bahamas and St. Lucia.
Manafort's BMSK took $ 950,000 annually to lobby the interests of then-Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. He also participated in lobbying for Zaire dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, securing an annual $ 1 million contract in 1989 and trying to hire Somali autocrat Siad Barre as a client. His firm also lobbied for the governments of the Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya (earning between $ 660,000 and $ 750,000 each year from 1991 to 1993) and Nigeria ($ 1 million in 1991). These events led to the fact that Paul Manafort's firm was included in the top five leading lobbying firms that receive money from regimes that systematically violate human rights.
The New York Times reported that Manafort accepted a payment from the Kurdistan regional government to facilitate Western recognition of the referendum on Kurdistan’s independence from Iraq in 2017.
Ukrainian adventure of Paul Manafort
Manafort’s involvement in Ukrainian politics can be traced back to 2003, when Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska hired Bob Dole, a former presidential candidate from Manafort’s track record, for his personal lobbying interests. Then, in early 2004, Deripaska met with Manafort’s partner Rick Davis, also an adviser to Bob Dole, after which a long discussion took place on hiring Manafort and Davis with the goal of returning former Georgian Minister of State Security Igor Giorgadze to Georgian politics. However, by December 2004, Deripaska postponed his plans in Georgia and sent Manafort to meet with Rinat Akhmetov in Ukraine to help Akhmetov and his holding company System Capital Management withstand the political crisis caused by the Orange Revolution. Akhmetov ultimately flees to Monaco after being charged with murder. Meanwhile, the Orange Revolution prompted Deripaska to hire Davis and Manafort, this time for Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions. Photo of Paul Manafort of that period with might and main walk on the Web.
Work for Viktor Yanukovych
Manafort also served as adviser to the presidential campaign of Viktor Yanukovych from December 2004 until the presidential election in February 2010, even when the US government (and US Senator John McCain) openly opposed Yanukovych because of his ties to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Manafort was hired to advise Yanukovych a few months after the massive street demonstrations known as the Orange Revolution that canceled Yanukovych’s victory in the 2004 presidential race. Boris Kolesnikov, Yanukovych’s campaign leader, said the party hired Manafort after identifying organizational and other problems in the 2004 elections that were missed by previous “Soviet” consultants. Manafort besieged US Ambassador William Taylor when he complained that a cunning lobbyist was undermining US interests in Ukraine.
According to the annual report of the Ministry of Justice for 2008, Manafort received $ 63,750 from the Party of Regions and Yanukovych for the six-month period ending March 31, 2008, for numerous consulting services. In 2010, under the leadership of Manafort, the opposition leader successfully condemned the Orange Revolution by conducting a brilliant campaign against the Orange leadership. Participation in the presidential election gave Yanukovych a victory over Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the leaders of the 2004 demonstrations. Yanukovych owed his victory in the presidential election in Ukraine to a decisive rethinking of his political personality, and people in his party say that the new image was partially developed by his American consultant Manafort.
In 2007 and 2008, Manafort participated in joint investment projects with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska (acquisition of a Ukrainian telecommunications company) and Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash (redevelopment of the premises of the former Drake Hotel in New York). The Associated Press reported that Manafort’s firm has entered into a $ 10 million contract with Deripaska to advance Russian interests in politics, business and the media in Europe and the United States since 2005. A witness in the 2018 Manafort trial for fraud and tax evasion revealed that Deripaska provided Manafort with a $ 10 million loan in 2010 that was never repaid.
At the trial of Paul Manafort, federal prosecutors claimed that over $ 60 million was paid to him from Ukrainian sponsors between 2010 and 2014. Among the sponsors was Rinat Akhmetov, considered the richest man in Ukraine.
In 2013, Yanukovych became the main target of the Euromaidan protests. After the revolution in 2014, Yanukovych fled to Russia. March 17, 2014, the day after the referendum on the status of the Crimea, Yanukovych became one of the first eleven people who were placed under executive sanctions. A procedure was held to freeze his assets in the United States, as well as a ban on the entry of Yanukovych to the United States.
Manafort returned to Ukraine in September 2014 to become an adviser to the former head of the presidential administration of Ukraine, Yanukovych, Sergei Levochkin. In this role, he was asked to contribute to the rebranding of the Party of Regions. Instead, he claimed to help stabilize Ukraine. Manafort played an important role in creating a new political party called the Opposition Bloc. According to Ukrainian political scientist Mikhail Pogrebinsky, he was thinking of gathering the largest number of people opposed to the current government in order to avoid something specific and simply become a symbol of opposition to the new government. According to Manafort, he did not work in Ukraine after the parliamentary elections in October 2014. However, according to data on entry from the border control of Ukraine, Manafort traveled to Ukraine several times after these elections, until the end of 2015. According to The New York Times, its local branch in Ukraine was closed in May 2016. According to Politico magazine, by then the Opposition Bloc had already stopped paying Manafort’s fees.
In an April April 2016 interview with ABC News, Manafort said that his goal in Ukraine was to bring the country closer to Europe.
Work for Donald Trump
Paul Manafort gained world fame due to the fact that in 2016 he stood for some time at the head of the election headquarters of US presidential candidate Donald Trump. Some argue that it was the strategy developed by Manafort that helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.
Paul Manafort convicted
On October 30, 2017, Manafort was arrested by the FBI after he was charged with fraud while participating in the Trump campaign. The arrest of Paul Manafort became a real sensation in the media.
The indictment against Manafort and Rick Gates was published on October 27, 2017. In conclusion, they were charged with conspiracy against the United States to launder money. According to prosecutors, Manafort’s company laundered more than $ 18 million.
Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty. The US government appealed to the court for the release of Manafort on bail in the amount of $ 10 million, and Gates - $ 5 million. If the legal facts during the investigation confirm this corruption scandal, Paul Manafort can wait for whole decades spent in prison.
After the hearing, Manafort’s lawyer Kevin M. Downing made a public statement in the press declaring the innocence of his client and describing federal charges arising from the indictment as “ridiculous”. Downing defended Manafort’s decade-long lobbying efforts for pro-Russian, former Ukrainian Prime Minister and President Viktor Yanukovych, describing their lucrative partnership as an attempt to spread democracy and strengthen relations between the United States and Ukraine.
On November 30, 2017, Manafort’s lawyers said that Manafort had entered into a bail agreement with prosecutors, which would free him from the house arrest he had been under since his accusation. He offered a mortgage of $ 11.65 million in real estate. At the same time, Paul Manafort worked with a “Russian who has ties to the Russian intelligence service,” prosecutors said in a statement in the court, which said that the judge in the case would cancel the cooperation agreement with Manafort.
On January 3, 2018, Manafort filed a lawsuit challenging Müller’s broad authority and argued that the Department of Justice had violated the law when Müller was appointed. The representative of the department replied that "the lawsuit is frivolous, but the accused has the right to submit whatever he wants." On January 12, Muller asked U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to set the trial date to May 14, 2018. On January 16, 2018, Jackson refused to provide this exact date for the trial, indicating that the criminal process is likely to begin in September or as early as possible. Jackson testified that a letter from Manafort’s doctor had been submitted to the court requesting a change in detention conditions. “While he is being held at home, he is not limited to his couch, and I believe that he has many opportunities for various activities,” Jackson said.
On February 2, 2018, the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss Manafort’s civil lawsuit brought against Mueller. Judge Jackson dismissed the lawsuit on April 27, 2018, citing a precedent that the court should not use civil authority to intervene in an ongoing criminal case. However, they did not make any judgments about the merits of the arguments presented.
On February 22, 2018, both Manafort and Gates were additionally charged with crimes using a tax evasion scheme and bank fraud in Virginia. The allegations were filed with the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia and not in the District of Columbia because the alleged tax fraud was committed in Virginia and not in the county. The new indictment alleged that Manafort, with the assistance of Gates, laundered more than $ 30 million through offshore bank accounts between 2006 and 2015. Manafort allegedly used the funds in these offshore accounts to buy real estate in the United States, in addition to personal goods and services.
On February 23, 2018, Gates pleaded guilty to a federal court, confirmed his lie and involvement in a conspiracy to deceive the United States. Through his representative, Manafort expressed disappointment with Gates' decision to plead guilty and said that he had no such plans. “I continue to insist on my innocence,” he said.
On February 28, 2018, Manafort pleaded not guilty to the District of Columbia District Court. Judge Jackson subsequently set the date for the trial on September 17, 2018 and reprimanded Manafort and his lawyer for violating the trial. On March 8, 2018, Manafort also pleaded not guilty to bankruptcy and tax collection in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. Judge T. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia has instituted legal proceedings on these charges since July 10, 2018. He later summed up the trial by July 24, citing a medical procedure involving a member of the Ellis family. Ellis also expressed concern that the special lawyer and Mueller were only interested in accusing Manafort of concealing information that could affect Trump's reputation or lead to his impeachment.
Manafort's friends announced the creation of a legal protection fund on May 30, 2018 to help pay his legal bills. Meanwhile, the Paul Manafort affair continued to gain momentum.
On June 8, 2018, Manafort was charged with punishing justice and falsifying evidence, along with long-time assistant Konstantin Kilimnik. In particular, allegations were made that Manafort tried to convince others to lie about undisclosed lobbying activities on behalf of the former pro-Russian government of Ukraine. Since this allegedly took place while Manafort was under house arrest, Judge Jackson canceled Manafort's house arrest on June 15 and ordered him to be in prison pending trial. Manafort was sent to the Northern District Regional Prison in Warsaw, Virginia at 8:22 p.m. June 15, 2018, where he was in the VIP section and was held in solitary confinement for his own safety. On June 22, Manafort’s efforts to drop money-laundering charges were annulled by the court. On July 10, Judge T. Ellis ordered Manafort to be returned back to the Alexandria Appeal Center. His trial began on July 31, 2018.
The situation is heating up
The sentence to Paul Manafort seems to be handed down quite soon. On July 17, 2018, Mueller’s investigation demanded that Judge Ellis force five witnesses who had not previously been publicly involved in the Manafort case to testify in exchange for immunity, and Ellis rejected the defendant’s request to transfer the trial to Roanoke, Virginia. It seems that no matter how Paul Manafort tries to justify himself, the scandal around him is only growing.