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AP: Paul Manafort secretly worked for Russian billionaire to "benefit Putin gov."

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C

chadskin

Member
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 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.
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https://apnews.com/122ae0b5848345fa...plan-to-'greatly-benefit-the-Putin-Government'
 
C

Chumley

Banned
giphy.gif
 
I

Ishan

Junior Member
Btw without his direct involvement are ppl looking at if they can pin this on trump or affect his power ? or is it going to be a sequence of others resigning or already resigned ppl and trump and his team distancing and avoiding the fallout Flynn etc
 
C

Chumley

Banned
Hard evidence of Manafort working for Putin

Hard evidence of Flynn working for Putin

Roger Stone

Carter Page

Donald Trump has never said a single negative word about Putin or Russia.

This. Is. Not. All. A. Coincidence.
 
S

Saya

Member
Chumley said:
Hard evidence of Manafort working for Putin

Hard evidence of Flynn working for Putin

Roger Stone

Carter Page

Donald Trump has never said a single negative word about Putin or Russia.

This. Is. Not. All. A. Coincidence.
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Not to mention all the Russian mentioned in the Steele dossier suddenly dropping dead all over the world.
 
N

neurosisxeno

Member
FyreWulff said:
a lot of smoke billowing out
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The White House now looks like Snoop Dogg's car.

Muffin1611 said:
Like, I don't even know anymore. This is huge, isn't it? Impeachment just got way more likely, right?
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It makes it harder to justify not investigating things more. The reasons to investigate the Trump Campaigns Russia-Ties are just becoming so numerous it's only a matter of time until we get large scale investigations from Congress.
 
C

chadskin

Member
I guess the Trump admin knew this story was coming since they tried to downplay Manafort's involvement in the campaign just days ago:
Spicer added: “There has been discussion of Paul Manafort, who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time.”

Manafort ran Trump’s campaign for several months last year before he resigned in August, while he was facing scrutiny for his ties to pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/paul-manafort-role-in-trump-campaign-236269
 
S

Saya

Member
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.
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And they have the receipts? Damn...
 
E

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
Now to put the pressure on Manafort, and get him to rat out some higher ups. I wonder how life in prison sounds right now...

actually.. wait, did he cross any legal grounds here, or not?
 
C

Chumley

Banned
GlamFM said:
As long as nobody can link Trump directly to all of this probably not.
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Point being that the more smoke there is, the more likely the direct link can be made.

How loyal are Manafort and Flynn, or Stone? All it takes is one of them to sing like a bird.
 
T

TarpitCarnivore

Member
There is still nothing that directly links Trump with this. Manafort was a chairman on the campaign, but as far as this is written there doesn't seem to be much there in the way of Trump beyond that relationship.
 
J

jellies_two

Member
It refers to old stuff, not good but I think he is in bigger trouble for taking tons of money for Ukraine disguised as computer shipments or something.
 
X

Xe4

Banned
GlamFM said:
As long as nobody can link Trump directly to all of this probably not.
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Yep. Trumps entire inner circle up to and including Mike Pence (just to clarify, this is an example, I don't think Pence has any ties to Russia) could end up being dirty, and Trump wouldn't be impeachable. That would take direct evidence of Trump being involved with Russia, or evidence of Trump trying to cover up working with Russia.

That is the "fire" or "smoking gun" everyone keeps talking about. As of right now, there's a lot of smoke, but no one can yet seem to find the fire.
 
M

Muffin1611

Banned
neurosisxeno said:
It makes it harder to justify not investigating things more. The reasons to investigate the Trump Campaigns Russia-Ties are just becoming so numerous it's only a matter of time until we get large scale investigations from Congress.
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Yeah, that's what I meant. There are more and more things the investigation will cover, and with each new link the investigation shifts to being more dangerous to Trump than before.
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Xe4 said:
Yep. Trumps entire inner circle up to and including Mike Pence (just to clarify, this is an example, I don't think Pence has any ties to Russia) could end up being dirty, and Trump wouldn't be impeachable. That would take direct evidence of Trump being involved with Russia, or evidence of Trump trying to cover up working with Russia.

That is the "fire" or "smoking gun" everyone keeps talking about. As of right now, there's a lot of smoke, but no one can yet seem to find the fire.
Click to expand...
Hopefully all the smoke surrounding Trump makes him kick the bucket from asphyxiation
 
N

neurosisxeno

Member
jellies_two said:
It refers to old stuff, not good but I think he is in bigger trouble for taking tons of money for Ukraine disguised as computer shipments or something.
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Paul Manafort was Campaign Manager for the Trump Campaign during the Republican National Convention when the only thing they changed about the party platform was being neutral on Ukraine. If he spent a decade working with the Pro-Russian wing of the Ukrainian Government it's hard to say he didn't influence things. Not to mention, how does he get to be the Campaign Manager for a Presidential Campaign without somebody digging this stuff up?
 
C

Chained Prometheus

Member
Xe4 said:
Yep. Trumps entire inner circle up to and including Mike Pence (just to clarify, this is an example, I don't think Pence has any ties to Russia) could end up being dirty, and Trump wouldn't be impeachable. That would take direct evidence of Trump being involved with Russia, or evidence of Trump trying to cover up working with Russia.

That is the "fire" or "smoking gun" everyone keeps talking about. As of right now, there's a lot of smoke, but no one can yet seem to find the fire.
Click to expand...

As far as we the public know, at least. Might be that Comey and the FBI are hot on the trail for the smoking gun and we just don't know about it yet.

Now, for the record, I'm not trying to let myself get too excited or too depressed on the chances of Trump being impeached, as this is going to take time to sort out.
 
P

pigeon

Banned
Xe4 said:
Yep. Trumps entire inner circle up to and including Mike Pence (just to clarify, this is an example, I don't think Pence has any ties to Russia) could end up being dirty, and Trump wouldn't be impeachable. That would take direct evidence of Trump being involved with Russia, or evidence of Trump trying to cover up working with Russia.

That is the "fire" or "smoking gun" everyone keeps talking about. As of right now, there's a lot of smoke, but no one can yet seem to find the fire.
Click to expand...

We already have this. Yates told Trump that Flynn had lied to Pence and the FBI and discussed the sanctions with Kislyak. Trump covered it up until it was leaked.

If Flynn's discussion with Kislyak was part of an ongoing conspiracy then Trump obstructed justice. So if Flynn is dirty Trump is on the hook.
 
X

Xando

Member
neurosisxeno said:
Paul Manafort was Campaign Manager for the Trump Campaign during the Republican National Convention when the only thing they changed about the party platform was being neutral on Ukraine. If he spent a decade working with the Pro-Russian wing of the Ukrainian Government it's hard to say he didn't influence things. Not to mention, how does he get to be the Campaign Manager for a Presidential Campaign without somebody digging this stuff up?
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Probably came up during vetting but comrade Trump said fuck it.
 
C

chadskin

Member
Manafort did not disclose details about the lobbying work to the Justice Department during the period the contract was in place.

Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, people who lobby in the U.S. on behalf of foreign political leaders or political parties must provide detailed reports about their actions to the department. Willfully failing to register is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, though the government rarely files criminal charges.
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Oops.
 
S

Squire

Banned
Xe4 said:
Yep. Trumps entire inner circle up to and including Mike Pence (just to clarify, this is an example, I don't think Pence has any ties to Russia) could end up being dirty, and Trump wouldn't be impeachable. That would take direct evidence of Trump being involved with Russia, or evidence of Trump trying to cover up working with Russia.

That is the "fire" or "smoking gun" everyone keeps talking about. As of right now, there's a lot of smoke, but no one can yet seem to find the fire.
Click to expand...

Trump is impeachable right now. He doesn't need to be linked to anything. Congress needs to be convinced to act. The two aren't mutually exclusive.
 
X

Xe4

Banned
Chained Prometheus said:
As far as we the public know, at least. Might be that Comey and the FBI are hot on the trail for the smoking gun and we just don't know about it yet.

Now, for the record, I'm not trying to let myself get too excited or too depressed on the chances of Trump being impeached, as this is going to take time to sort out.
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True. I think I'll roll with the allegations and stuff as they happen. In general, if the FBI doesn't have enough evidence for criminal charges, I'll probably let it go as not enough evidence.

pigeon said:
We already have this. Yates told Trump that Flynn had lied to Pence and the FBI and discussed the sanctions with Kislyak. Trump covered it up until it was leaked.

If Flynn's discussion with Kislyak was part of an ongoing conspiracy then Trump obstructed justice. So if Flynn is dirty Trump is on the hook.
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Well, that relies on Flynn being part of a provable conspiracy, and assumes that obstruction of justice is a big enough crime to take down a president, and I'm not sure if it is.

In the case of Nixon deleting tapes it was, but that was obstruction in a case directly related to a crime perpetrated by him.

Squire said:
Trump is impeachable right now. He doesn't need to be linked to anything. Congress needs to be convinced to act. The two aren't mutually exclusive.
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Well, impeachment has only been done for a crime, even if that's only the official reason for doing it. For -this- congress to impeach, and for any senate in the next 4 years to go through with proceedings would require a pretty hefty crime to have been committed.
NiiloPielinen said:
And how exactly did Manafort influence US politics? Any connection to Fox or Breitbart?
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He was Trump's campaign manager for a while.
 
E

ErasureAcer

Banned
GlamFM said:
As long as nobody can link Trump directly to all of this probably not.
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Something that is not widely said on the news...think I read it on one of twitter feeds from Khan or 20committee is Manafort lives in Trump tower. For how long...I dunno. The place is little Moscow. Trump is done. The key is blocking Gorsuch from being seated with this active investigation. Taking over the house and electing a speaker to become President.
 
K

King Tubby

Member
This seems like the most damning thing yet to link his campaign to Russia.

Let this sink in.

Trump's former campaign chairman "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...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"
 
X

Xe4

Banned
NiiloPielinen said:
Obviously that. I'm just wondering what he did before that. Connection to media would be huge.
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No connection to the media. He did a bunch of lobbying in the US and abroad, including a bunch of shady ass shit in ex-Soviet countries.

Aside from Stone, he's the fucker I'd say is most likely to be proven dirty.
 
GlamFM

GlamFM

Banned
ErasureAcer said:
Something that is not widely said on the news...think I read it on one of twitter feeds from Khan or 20committee is Manafort lives in Trump tower. For how long...I dunno. The place is little Moscow. Trump is done. The key is blocking Gorsuch from being seated with this active investigation. Taking over the house and electing a speaker to become President.
Click to expand...

Interesting.
 
C

Chained Prometheus

Member
ErasureAcer said:
Something that is not widely said on the news...think I read it on one of twitter feeds from Khan or 20committee is Manafort lives in Trump tower. For how long...I dunno. The place is little Moscow. Trump is done. The key is blocking Gorsuch from being seated with this active investigation. Taking over the house and electing a speaker to become President.
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I'm well aware that it's going to take time to possibly kick Trump out of office (or at the very least massively defang him until the 2020 election), but it seems like an insanely tall order to me for the DNC to successfully obstruct Gorsuch from being seated long enough to take back the House and elect a new Speaker in the case that Trump (and Pence) gets thrown out.

That said, can you guys imagine what the fallout would be if Gorsuch somehow winds up being involved in all of this too? I find the chances of that to be unlikely personally, but it'd be nuts if it did happen.
 
C

Chumley

Banned
ErasureAcer said:
Something that is not widely said on the news...think I read it on one of twitter feeds from Khan or 20committee is Manafort lives in Trump tower. For how long...I dunno. The place is little Moscow. Trump is done. The key is blocking Gorsuch from being seated with this active investigation. Taking over the house and electing a speaker to become President.
Click to expand...

Yep. Manafort took an apartment in Trump Tower in 2006.
 
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