GOP nominee Donald Trump’s freshly demoted campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, helped a former Ukrainian government allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin lobby USA lawmakers without disclosing the conflict of interest – a possible felony. The project was structured in ways that obscured the foreign party’s efforts to influence US policy. The new disclosures about their work come as Trump faces criticism for his friendly overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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The Republican presidential nominee is bringing in Stephen Bannon of Breitbart News as chief executive officer and promoting pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager. It was unclear what impact the shakeup would have on Manafort, but he retains his title as campaign chairman.
Paul Manafort may not be running Donald Trump’s presidential campaign anymore, but he’s still finding ways to make headlines. “While I was in Crimea, I constantly saw evidence suggesting that Paul Manafort considered autonomy [from Ukraine] as a tool to enhance the reputation of Yanukovych and win over the local electorate”.
“That said, if it can be conclusively proven that Manafort was on the take with Yanukovych, that will serve to discredit Trump even more among the Republican elite, who are increasingly unenthusiastic about him as it is”, Alexander J. Motyl, a political science professor at Rutgers University in the United States, told the Kyiv Post.
An anonymous former employee of the Podesta Group alleged that Gates himself had explained in April 2012 that the nonprofit was a means of dispersing money in lobbying efforts for the Yanukovych government without accountability. Manafort did not directly respond to AP’s requests to discuss the work, but he was copied on the AP’s questions and Gates said he spoke to Manafort before providing answers to them.
Manafort and an associate, Rick Gates, who also advises the Trump campaign, helped direct funding to the Podesta Group and another lobbying firm, Mercury LLC., from a group called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine.
“If counsel had determined FARA was the way to go, we would have gladly registered under FARA”, the firm told AP and The Hill.
Under federal law, USA lobbyists must tell the Justice Department if they represent foreign leaders or their political parties.
Even if Ukraine starts a criminal case against Manafort, his extradition from the United States would be nearly impossible, Mykola Gnatovsky, an worldwide law professior at Kyiv National University, said by phone.
“I was never given any reason to believe Rick was a Party of Regions consultant”, said John Ward Anderson, a current Podesta employee who attended the meeting, in a statement provided by his firm.
The Podesta Group received $1.13 million of the European Centre’s $2.2 million outlay.
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Gates told the AP that his actions were lawful and did not violate any American laws or procedures. To avoid the stringent disclosures required by FARA, foreign governments and political leaders sometimes use seemingly unconnected groups that can hire lobbyists in their stead. In stories published today by the Associated Press and the Times of London, Manafort’s work for the Moscow-friendly government of Ukraine in the years before it was overthrown is shown to have been more extensive than was originally known, and possibly counter to USA interests.
