Category Archives: Paul Manafort

Republican convention featured felons despite party’s ‘law and order’ pledge

Posted on by

Trump and Peter Navarro – fresh out of Florida jail – both addressed convention with Paul Manafort in attendance

The Republican party that promised in its 2024 policy platform to restore “law and order” as a “pillar” of “American civilisation” packed up and left Milwaukee on Friday after a convention featuring numerous felons.

The most prominent was the keynote speaker: Donald Trump, the former president turned nominee who in May was convicted in New York on 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records arising from hush-money payments to an adult film star.

Continue reading...

Paul Manafort can’t be prosecuted in New York due to double jeopardy, court rules

Posted on by

Former Trump campaign chairman had faced mortgage fraud charges similar to federal case that put him in jail

Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, will not face mortgage fraud charges in New York, after the state’s highest court declined to revisit lower court decisions that barred prosecuting Manafort on double jeopardy grounds.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump’s latest wave of pardons includes Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner

Posted on by

President also gives clemency to Roger Stone in second round of pardons since Tuesday

Donald Trump has pardoned another 26 people in his second big wave of clemency actions since Tuesday, marking yet another audacious application of presidential power to reward loyalists.

The US president pardoned his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his longtime adviser Roger Stone, and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.

Continue reading...

Leak reveals $2tn of possibly corrupt US financial activity

Posted on by

Among those named in reports is Paul Manafort, former political strategist for Donald Trump

Thousands of documents detailing $2 trillion (£1.55tn) of potentially corrupt transactions that were washed through the US financial system have been leaked to an international group of investigative journalists.

The leak focuses on more than 2,000 suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed with the US government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Continue reading...

‘Conmen, grifters and criminals’: why is Trump’s circle so at odds with the law?

Posted on by

Apart from legal trouble, what Bannon, Manafort, Flynn, Cohen, Stone, Gates and Papadopoulos have in common is the president

To live outside the law, Bob Dylan sang, you must be honest. It also helps, apparently, to stay as clear as possible from Donald Trump, whose inner circle of advisers has suffered steady attrition since 2017, through a series of encounters with the criminal justice system.

Related: Steve Bannon pleads not guilty to fraud after arrest on luxury yacht

Continue reading...

US Senate report goes beyond Mueller to lay bare Trump campaign’s Russia links

Posted on by

Bipartisan intelligence panel says that Russian who worked on Trump’s 2016 bid was career spy, amid a stunning range of contacts

A report by the Senate intelligence committee provides a treasure trove of new details about Donald Trump’s relationship with Moscow, and says that a Russian national who worked closely with Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 was a career intelligence officer.

The bipartisan report runs to nearly 1,000 pages and goes further than last year’s investigation into Russian election interference by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. It lays out a stunning web of contacts between Trump, his top election aides and Russian government officials, in the months leading up to the 2016 election.

Continue reading...

Texts between Manafort and ally who appears to be Hannity released

Posted on by

Messages, which were previously filed as a secret attachment to a sentencing memo, were unsealed in Manafort’s federal court case

Hundreds of text messages between Paul Manafort and an ally who appeared to be Fox News host Sean Hannity were released by US authorities on Friday.

A friend calling himself Sean, who referred to working for Fox and presenting a radio show, told Manafort: “Please know you are in my prayers.”

Continue reading...

Former White House counsel for Obama charged in Mueller-related case

Posted on by

Gregory Craig was charged with lying to US authorities about his work alongside Paul Manafort

Gregory Craig, a former White House counsel to Barack Obama, has been charged with lying to US authorities about his work alongside Paul Manafort for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.

Related: William Barr says 'spying did occur' on Trump campaign during Obama era

Continue reading...

Paul Manafort given seven-year prison term and severe rebuke from judge

Posted on by

Paul Manafort, the former Donald Trump campaign chairman, was told by a judge on Wednesday that he is a liar and fraud who will spend a total of seven and a half years in prison.

Related: Paul Manafort charged by New York prosecutors with 16 further crimes

Continue reading...

Paul Manafort: Trump’s ex-campaign chief sentenced to 47 months

Posted on by

Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s campaign, has been jailed for nearly four years for bank and tax fraud uncovered during the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference.

Wearing a green prison jumpsuit, Manafort sat still in a wheelchair and betrayed little emotion as the US district judge TS Ellis of the eastern district of Virginia pronounced the sentence, which will be partially offset by nine months already served.

Continue reading...

John Kelly says working for Trump was his ‘least enjoyable job’ – live

Posted on by

Here’s our man! Trump offers a stout defense of his repeated payments to Michael Cohen, made after the latter paid two women “hush” money to not talk about alleged affairs with Trump.

Cohen has already been convicted of violating campaign finance laws by paying off actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

It was not a campaign contribution, and there were no violations of the campaign finance laws by me. Fake News!

So Michael Cohen could have talked himself into trouble with that very definite “no pardon” statement to the House oversight committee last week.

During the hearing Cohen was asked if he had requested a pardon from Donald Trump.

I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr Trump.

During that time period, he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump.

Continue reading...

Paul Manafort seeks leniency from judge as he faces life in prison

Posted on by

Lawyers for former Trump campaign chair suggest he is victim of circumstance whose crimes were ‘garden variety’

Paul Manafort, the longtime political consultant who once led Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, asked a federal judge for leniency Monday as he faces the potential of spending the rest of his life in prison in criminal cases stemming from the Russia investigation.

In a new court filing, Manafort’s attorneys painted the 69-year-old as a victim of circumstance, prosecuted by special counsel Robert Mueller only because the government could not make the case that he colluded with the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. They also dismissed the prosecutors’ characterization of Manafort as a hardened criminal, saying he was merely a wealthy consultant who committed “garden variety” crimes by illegally lobbying for Ukrainian interests and hiding millions from the IRS.

Continue reading...

Mueller: Paul Manafort is hardened criminal who ‘repeatedly’ broke law

Posted on by

Special counsel’s team say Trump campaign chairman deserves second prison sentence which could total 10 years

Paul Manafort is a hardened criminal who “repeatedly and brazenly” broke the law even while serving as Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, special counsel Robert Mueller has said.

Related: 'Even Nixon wasn’t like him': Trump's bid to upend Russia inquiry unprecedented, experts say

Continue reading...

Paul Manafort should be sentenced to up to 24 years in prison, Mueller says

Posted on by

Trump’s former campaign manager found guilty in August on eight counts of tax fraud, bank fraud and a foreign bank account

Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, should be sentenced to up to 24 years in prison, the special counsel Robert Mueller said on Friday.

Mueller’s team said in a court filing that Manafort should face a prison term of 235 to 292 months, or between 19 and a half and 24 and a half years, for “serious, longstanding, and bold” financial crimes.

Continue reading...

Federal judge finds Manafort lied to Mueller

Posted on by

Former Trump aide breached plea deal by making false statements about dealings with alleged Russian operative

Paul Manafort lied about his interactions with an alleged Russian intelligence operative even after agreeing to cooperate with Robert Mueller’s inquiry, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

Manafort, Donald Trump’s former presidential campaign chairman, was found to have breached his plea deal by making false statements to the special counsel’s team, the FBI and a grand jury about his dealings with Konstantin Kilimnik.

Continue reading...