Manafort's plan to 'greatly benefit the Putin Government'

[demmiblue]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump's former 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 Associated Press has learned. The work appears to contradict assertions by the Trump administration and Manafort himself that he never worked for Russian interests.

Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and the former Soviet republics to benefit the Putin government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse. 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, according to interviews with several people familiar with payments to Manafort and business records obtained by the AP. Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work.

"We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success," Manafort wrote in the 2005 memo to Deripaska. The effort, Manafort wrote, "will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government."

Manafort's plans were laid out in documents obtained by the AP that included strategy memoranda and records showing international wire transfers for millions of dollars. How much work Manafort performed under the contract was unclear.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_RUSSIA_MANAFORT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-22-06-09-06

[OnDoutside]

1. Treason is as Treason does.

[sarcasmo]

18. Ukraine will get Manafort before the United States.

[OnDoutside]

19. No Sessions run Justice Dept will ever sanction his extradition.

[sarcasmo]

20. Exactly.

[dalton99a]

2. This is a must read.

[wishstar]

3. ABC News this morning is covering this $10 million pro-Putin deal

Jonathan Karl said since Manafort was Trump campaign chairman from March through August 2016, Spicer was dishonest in downplaying Manafort's role

[dalton99a]

5. That was a blatant lie

Manafort was leader of the Trump campaign.

[wishstar]

11. Trump also lied when he said Manafort had no deals with Russians

Manafort failed to report to Justice Dept his lobbying efforts. MSNBC covering this right now with AP writer Jeff Horwitz who broke this story. Explaining that one of Putin's closest associate was Russian tycoon Deripaska who paid Manafort

This morning WH says it would be inappropriate for them to comment on someone who was not an employee of WH

[SunSeeker]

16. LOL The WH won't comment on "someone who was not an employee of the WH"?!

I had no idea Snoop Dogg was an employee!

[BadgerMom]

25. I'm LOL-ing!

Thanks! Good one.

[yardwork]

4. No wonder the Bushes hate Trump.

[Cosmocat]

10. Say what you will about them

and they are truly horrible, but Jeb is pretty much the only candidate during the primary who has not bent the knee to DJT.

[yardwork]

12. The Bushes are just as bad as Trump. They have opposing business interests.

[Orrex]

6. Even now, Trump's supporters reject all of this

Just yesterday on FB I was cursed out by a Trump chump when I told him that his own healthcare is at risk. After loosing a torrent of unimaginative profanity, he called me a snowflake and told me that I need to wake up.

Godspeed, enlightened citizen. Godspeed.

[titaniumsalute]

7. There are still people who believe Iraq had WMD

Of course there are also flat earthers out there as well. We ain't gonna win them all over. Some may need to feel pain...health...economic, etc. Some will never see the light. Just move on from them.

[dalton99a]

8. They see the light only when they feel the heat personally

[Left-over]

9. EXPOSED

Just like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle things are coming into focus one piece at a time. Their evil scheme is being shown for the power grab it was.

[wishstar]

13. Even Tom Brokaw is skewering Trump & Co. for lies about Manafort and Russian ties

Brokaw just said Repubs would be on fire speaking out against what's going on with all the lies, if it were Obama or Clinton in WH

[demmiblue]

14. Flashback to July 2016 (video tweet):

Link to tweet

[workinclasszero]

15. Gomer is shocked!

[DeminPennswoods]

17. The vice is starting to tighten

Let's see money laundering, plan to help Putin... I think Manafort is going to need a lot more than the PR image firm he recently hired.

[snooper2]

21. And Manafort stole 19 million from Putins Billionaire buddy

Manafort's work with Deripaska continued for years, though they had a falling out laid bare in 2014 in a Cayman Islands bankruptcy court. The billionaire gave Manafort nearly $19 million to invest in a Ukrainian TV company called Black Sea Cable, according to legal filings by Deripaska's representatives. It said that after taking the money, Manafort and his associates stopped responding to Deripaska's queries about how the funds had been used.

Early in the 2016 presidential campaign, Deripaska's representatives openly accused Manafort of fraud and pledged to recover the money from him. After Trump earned the nomination, Deripaska's representatives said they would no longer discuss the case.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. And he was Trump's campaign chairman when the Republican platform policy on Ukraine was changed

in July 2016 - chairman from April to August.

[Generic Other]

23. Is this the circumstantial evidence or the direct evidence?

One of the pundits on CNN explained the difference by saying circumstantial evidence is when you go outside and there is snow on the ground. You can assume it snowed. Direct evidence is going outside and it's snowing. What will the rightwing snowflakes do now that there's enough snow to make a Russian snowman?

[DeminPennswoods]

24. Direct evidence

AP has copies of the documents and Manafort himself put out a statement that he did work for the Russian oligarch.

[colorado_ufo]

26. Manafort had better have all his meetings

in boardrooms on the ground floor.