Reports of the Ukrainian investigation into possible illegal payments to Manafort or reports that he was somehow involved in the annexation of Crimea from the Ukraine all put the Trump campaign’s possible relationship with Russian Federation under an even stronger microscope.
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Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort reportedly helped route more than $1 million in secret from a pro-Russian group in Ukraine to a Washington D.C. lobbying firm co-founded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.
Under federal law, US lobbyists must declare publicly if they represent foreign leaders or their political parties and provide detailed reports about their actions to the Justice Department. His work in Ukraine over the past decade has been well-known, especially how he helped Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian politician, engineer a turnabout in his fortunes to become Ukraine’s president, until he fled office in the face of mass demonstrations in 2014, triggering Russian President Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea and instigation of a violent insurrection in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Under FARA, American lobbyists must report to the Justice Department if they are employed by foreign governments, and provide detailed disclosures.
Among other things, the two firms were paid to lobby against legislation in the U.S. Congress calling for the release of one of Yanukovych’s political rivals from prison.
Between 2012 and 2014, Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates steered at least $1.13 million in lobbying fees to the Podesta Group Inc. and another $1.07 million to Mercury LLC, AP reported on Thursday.
Leonid Kozhara, a former foreign minister for Yanukovych’s government, was one of the Centre’s first leaders, according to The Daily Beast.
The nonprofit, the newly created European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, was governed by a board that initially included parliament members from Yanukovych’s party.
Lobbyists in the United States who represent private entities – such as companies and non-profits – that are based overseas do not have to file under FARA, unless those entities receive financial support or influence from foreign leaders or governments.
Gates told the AP that his actions were lawful and did not violate any American laws or procedures.
Podesta Group confirmed the authenticity of the legal opinion, which was drafted jointly with its in-house counsel and Mercury’s in-house and outside counsel. That determination was based on the nonprofit’s assurances that none of its activities was directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed or subsidized by Ukraine’s government or any of the country’s political parties. A violation carries criminal penalties, although the law is not often enforced. If a firm or individual has not properly disclosed, in other words, simply correcting the disclosures can be sufficient in some cases.
“We were not aware that Rick Gates was a Party of Regions consultant at the time he introduced us to the Centre”, Fritts told The Hill in the emailed statement. “Our assumption was that he was working for the Centre, as we were hired to do”.
In the AP report, Podesta principal John Ward Anderson issued a similar statement.
Several “current and former employees of the Podesta Group” spoke to AP about the work Manafort and Gates did with the Ukrainian nonprofit.
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A series of new revelations about Paul Manafort, the chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, may shed some light on why the Republican nominee decided he had to bring in some new blood.
