ROUNDS ONE & TWO GO TO ROBERT MUELLER

 

…Manafort bought three of these in his spending spree

 

Paul Manafort and his buddy, Rick Gates are both now under house arrest

 

As history has shown over the decades, when individuals gain income illegally, they many times tend to screw it all up by going on some sort of a spending spree.  That is exactly what the Robert Mueller indictment of Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort and his partner Rick Gates observed as per the Mueller investigation paperwork.

 

Here is what is meant by a Manafort “spending spree”:

 

·       Acquiring a $1.5 million dollar Brownstone home in a trendy New York neighborhood.

·       Buying 3 high-end Range Rover SUV’s and one Mercedes Benz sedan for cash.

·       Spending $600,000 in new landscaping at his Hampton’s getaway home

·       Thousands of dollars of improvements being made to his Palm Beach, Florida house.

 

This is all part of Manafort’s efforts to deal with the $75 million that had been tracked through Manafort’s off-shore accounts, and more than $18 million that was “laundered” through Cyprus banks. (You know, just like where the Russians launder their illegal money!)  The indictment says this was all offered as an example of Paul Manafort’s continuing “lavish lifestyle”.

 

All of this occurred not long before Manafort became Donald Trump’s campaign chairman. 

 

This latest indictment of the highly refined and impeccably dressed former campaign chairman is detailed as an alleged scheme in which foreign clients paid millions in exchange for Manafort’s consulting services. Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, rebutted the charges, saying Manafort was not seeking to launder funds.  Whether he was seeking to or not, the feds have the proof of the laundering in their documents.  You will recall that attorneys cannot interview a document, nor can they challenge what’s stated in an e-mail.  It is what it is!

 

Manafort had been a confidant of presidents dating back to George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.  He is also the biggest name so far charged in the federal investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is examining possible collusion by Trump’s campaign with Russia.  Manafort’s indictment, along with charges against his former business partner Rick Gates, who also worked for the Trump campaign, brought Mueller close to the inner circle that guided Trump’s 2016 victory.  Of course, Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty and did not speak to reporters.   There is a $10 million bail on Manafort, and $5 million bail on Rick Gates.  They are also under house arrest as the Judge thinks they both are a travel risk.  (Hey, anyone that has 3 passports and a history of traveling to Russia like Manafort and Gates, they are both a big travel risk.)

 

“This indictment is tragic for Paul and his family,” said Manafort’s former business partner Charles Black, who hasn’t worked with Manafort for two decades. “For him and Rick Gates, I just pray that they are innocent.”  But it appears that this is just the first rounds in what could be dozens of future rounds for the highly experienced prosecutor Mueller.

 

Another member of Trump’s adviser team, George Papadopoulos, was arrested in July and in early October pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents.  This was pleading to a lesser charge, and the FBI hasn’t stated what the more severe charges were.  It is also a standard trick used to get those low-level individuals that were charged, to turn-in others, and there was a warning in the indictments to others that they may want to talk to the feds before they get ordered to testify.

 

With the latest announcement that the former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn and his son, are going to be indicted by the Grand Jury, the former US General Flynn may be under severe pressure to cooperate with Mueller, just to protect his son.

 

The court papers show how Trump, in tapping into Manafort, brought aboard a senior strategist with deep, ongoing and potentially problematic foreign entanglements.  For decades, Manafort has been known for his dealings with foreign leaders, including some with less-than-savory reputations.  In recent years, in addition to his work for Trump and for a Ukrainian presidential candidate, Manafort has made deals with foreign business titans that have resulted in controversy.  That includes one with a Russian oligarch who charged that Manafort and Gates “disappeared” without paying money they allegedly owed him. Manafort and Gates have denied that allegation.

 

Manafort’s rise in Washington politics reached new heights when he became a founding partner in 1980 of the lobbying firm Black, Manafort & Stone, with Black and Roger Stone, the latter a longtime Trump confidant.  During Manafort’s 16 years at the firm, his clients included two dictators, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now the Congo) and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, who allegedly stole billions of dollars from their countries.

 

Back in 1989, Manafort testified before Congress about a deal in which he lobbied to obtain $43 million in federal housing subsidies for a New Jersey project while his firm held an option to buy a stake in the property. The firm invested in the New Jersey project before the subsidies were awarded, but Manafort testified that he had a “high degree of expectation” that they would win subsidy approval.  However, Manafort also stated: “The technical term for what we do and what law firms, associations and professional groups do is ‘lobbying.’ ” But for the purposes of today, I will admit that, in a narrow sense, some people might term it ‘influence peddling.’ ”  Sounds like he may have had a spurt of honesty in that comment.

 

Manafort’s globe-trotting and lavish lifestyle has led his friends to refer to him as “The Count”.

 

During their work in Ukraine, starting in 2008, Manafort and Gates allegedly devised a scheme to “defraud” banks and other institutions by wiring money to accounts in a way that laundered the funds without paying taxes”.  Details of Manafort’s luxurious lifestyle and income have been spread on social media and hackers exposed a cache of more than 285,000 personal messages purportedly stolen from the iPhone of Manafort’s daughter, Andrea.

 

Manafort’s spokesman previously confirmed that the daughter’s phone was hacked and that some of the texts placed on-line were authentic, but he has declined to authenticate them all.

 

In one of the posted text messages, Andrea Manafort wrote to her sister, “Don’t fool yourself. The family money we have is blood money.”

 

It is appearing that what has been released so far on Manafort is just the classic, “tip of the iceberg”.

 

Stay tuned to this station.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017