- Joined
- Apr 18, 2013
- Messages
- 94,136
- Reaction score
- 82,407
- Location
- Barsoom
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
Paul Manafort Once Worked to ‘Benefit the Putin Government’: Report
Trumps former campaign manager was apparently paid handsomely by a Putin oligarch to promote the Kremlin's interests in Washington. Manafort never registered as an agent for a foreign government. The Trump campaign/administration has consistently denied Manafort's Russian ties.March 22, 2017
by ERIK ORTIZ
The White House distanced itself from a new report Wednesday that alleges Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, worked for a Russian billionaire more than a decade ago in order to advance the agenda of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The explosive report by The Associated Press appears to undermine assertions by the Trump administration and Manafort that he had never worked to promote Russia's global influence. "It would be inappropriate for us to comment on a person who is not a White House employee," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told NBC News.
Manafort, working as a consultant, signed a $10 million annual contract with Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska in 2006 after pitching plans to help Russian interests around the world, the AP reported. Deripaska was a known ally of Putin.
"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 purportedly wrote in a confidential 2005 memo to Deripaska obtained by the AP. Manafort had worked as Trump's campaign chairman last year before he resigned in August. He had been plagued with media coverage surrounding questions about his ties to the pro-Russian government in Ukraine.
