The FBI and U.S. Justice Department are investigating possible U.S. ties to alleged corruption involving the former president of Ukraine, including the work of firms headed by political operatives Paul Manafort and Tony Podesta, CNN reported on Friday, citing multiple U.S. law enforcement officials.
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The Podesta Group was hired by Manafort’s deputy Rick Gates to do lobbying for the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a group connected with the political party of Ukraine’s former president. The firm also tried to undermine American sympathy for opposition politician and democracy advocate Yulia Tymoshenko who was imprisoned by Yanukovych’s government.
Leshchenko also said Manafort continued to work in Ukraine after Yanukovych fled and a new pro-European government stepped in and that Manafort consulted the Party of Regions for the 2014 parliamentary election and visited Ukraine a year ago.
The probe is also examining the work of other firms linked to the former Ukrainian government, including that of the Podesta Group, the lobbying and public relations company run by Tony Podesta, brother of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
The emails illustrate how Gates worked with Mercury and the Podesta Group on behalf of Ukrainian political leaders. The foreign minister, according to the emails, did not want to use his own embassy in the US for any coordination of meetings. Gates was also assigned the task of undermining support for Yulia Tymoshenko, even as the USA pressured the Ukraine government to free her.
Then in a speech on Thursday night, Trump said he’ll ask senior officials in his administration not to accept speaking fees from corporations that lobby “or from any entity tied to a foreign government” for five years after leaving office. But now it is clear that two of Trump’s own campaign advisers failed to report their activities as foreign agents, as they are required to by federal law.
A violation is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $US250,000.
Exactly what role Manafort played in the lobbying operations is not clear, other than being the boss of Gates at DMP International.
Mr Gates personally directed the work of two prominent Washington lobbying firms in the matter, the emails show. This brings a lot of questions to the surface and coincides with criticism of Trump’s relationship to Russian Federation. Neither commented when reached by the AP on Thursday.
Yanukovych was ousted after a public uprising in Ukraine in 2014 and fled to Russian Federation.
Manafort and Gates have previously said they were not doing work that required them to notify the Justice Department. Gates previously told the AP, “At no time did our firm or members provide any direct lobbying support”. He said in a statement that he hasn’t “ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russian Federation”, and that his work in Ukraine ended after parliamentary elections there in October 2014.
According to the Daily Caller, Uranium One “paid the Podesta Group $40,000 to lobby the State Department, the Senate, the National Park Service, and the National Security Council for ‘international mining projects, ‘ according to a July 20, 2012 filing”.
“There is no question that Gates and Manafort should have registered along with the lobbying firms”, said Joseph Sandler of Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, a Democratic-leaning Washington law firm that advises Republican and Democratic lobbyists.
The emails appear to contradict the assertion that the nonprofit’s lobbying campaign operated independently from Manafort’s firm.
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Investigators in Ukraine have said Yanukovych and his party engaged in widespread corruption.
