Paul Manafort
There was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. There was, however, collusion between the Clinton campaign and foreign governments. Paul Manafort in his memoir, Political Prisoner
Paul Manafort served as the campaign chairman and chief strategist for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign from May to August 2016. His tenure was marked by controversy and legal challenges stemming from his business dealings and ties to Russia. Manafort was ultimately prosecuted in two federal courts on charges including bank fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort was sentenced to 7.5 years in jail, but after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election he pardoned Manafort in December 2020. The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee found that Manafort’s connections to pro-Russian figures “represented a grave counterintelligence threat” by creating opportunities for “Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump campaign.”
Manafort first joined Donald Trump’s campaign in March 2016 as the campaign’s convention manager ahead of the July 2016 RNC convention. Financial records filed in Cyprus certified that only three months prior to his new role, Manafort was $17 million in debt to interests favorable to Vladimir Putin. In May, Manafort was promoted to campaign chairman and chief strategist. In the coming months, reporting started about Manafort and the campaign’s ties to Russia. On August 14, The New York Times reported that Manafort received $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments from the pro-Russian, former President of Ukraine Viktor F. Yanukovych. Manafort denied these allegations, but by August 18, the Associated Press reported that Manafort’s firm lobbied the U.S. on behalf of Ukrainian interests, with a plan to “greatly benefit the Putin government.” The next day, Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign.
The following year, in July 2017, a federal judge found probable cause to search Manafort’s home. In October 2017, Manafort and his business assistant Rick Gates were indicted and arrested on charges including conspiracy against the United States, making false statements, money laundering, and failing to register as foreign agents for Ukraine.
In July 2018, Manafort was tried on eighteen charges including tax evasion, bank fraud, and hiding foreign bank accounts, financial crimes uncovered during Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election. Manafort was found guilty on eight of the eighteen felony counts—five counts of tax fraud, one of the four counts of failing to disclose his foreign bank accounts, and two counts of bank fraud.
In August 2018, Manafort was indicted with separate charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering, failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, making false statements to investigators, and witness tampering. Manafort reached a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and witness tampering charges, and agreed to cooperate. As part of this agreement, Manafort also admitted guilt to the unresolved ten counts from the first trial, related primarily to bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy. However, this plea deal collapsed in February 2019, when Manafort was found to have breached the terms of the agreement by repeatedly lying to prosecutors.
In March 2019, Manafort was sentenced to a total of 7.5 years in federal prison. However, his time in physical prison was cut short first by COVID-19, and ultimately, in December 2020, by Donald Trump granted him a presidential pardon, asserting his prosecution was “premised on the Russian collusion hoax.”
In 2022, Manafort was removed from a plane set to take off to Dubai for carrying a revoked passport. Shortly thereafter, the DOJ sued Manafort for failing to report foreign bank accounts, a case settled in 2023 with Manafort agreeing to pay $3.15 million. In 2022, Manafort released his memoir, “Political Prisoner,” in which he defends Trump, denies culpability for his crimes, and echoed Trump’s lies about election fraud.
In early 2024, Manafort was in discussions with the Trump campaign regarding the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, but in May, Manafort said he was going to “stick to the sidelines.” His decision came one day after the Washington Post reported that he had re-engaged in international consulting and was working closely on the launch of a streaming platform, a potentially lucrative venture that had support from the Chinese government.
Scott Reed, a Republican political strategist who hired Manafort to work on Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, has said “A new Trump administration would be a bonanza for Paul. Trump is the Manafort model: access at the highest levels for his clients and friends.”