Tag: Paul Manafort

With New Evidence, Congress Unmasks a Multi-Year Government Plot to Protect Biden, Sully Trump

Just the News

by John Solomon   When the Justice Department discovered from journalists a storage locker containing evidence against ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a search was executed immediately. But when IRS agents found a similar storage area containing evidence in the Hunter Biden criminal tax probe, they were denied the right to search despite meeting the probable cause standard, then Biden’s lawyers were tipped off, according to new congressional testimony. Likewise, when federal prosecutors believed there was evidence of crimes at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, they launched an unprecedented and full scale-raid on the former president. But when agents wanted to execute a search warrant at Joe Biden’s Delaware home because they had probable cause to believe evidence of Hunter Biden tax crimes, they were turned down for a warrant to raid the guest house in which the first son was living. And when FBI agents believed former Trump adviser Michael Flynn had committed no crime in the Russia collusion case, they nonetheless conducted an interview with him in what a supervisor concluded smacked of an effort to lure him into a lying charge. But when IRS and FBI agents wanted to interview witnesses in the Biden case, they were told most were…

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Commentary: Election Overseer Found Democratic National Committee, Chalupa Broke Rules over Ukraine, Then Reversed Its Finding After January 6

RealClearWire

Though ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was never charged with conspiring with Russia, he did go to jail for, among other things, failing to register as a foreign agent for Ukraine. The Democratic National Committee operative who helped get him booted from the campaign should be investigated for the same violation, Republican Senators say.

Former DNC contractor and opposition researcher Alexandra “Ali” Chalupa not only worked closely with the Ukrainian Embassy and Clinton campaign, trading dirt on Manafort and Trump, but also Congress and the Obama White House, State Department and even the FBI. “At the center of the [Ukraine foreign influence] plan was Alexandra Chalupa,” GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee has asserted.

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Commentary: Christopher Steele Is a Product of Corrupt FBI

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Just as the special counsel’s investigation into the origins of Crossfire Hurricane—the FBI counterintelligence probe launched in the summer of 2016 to sabotage Donald Trump’s presidential campaign—is showing signs of life, one of the central figures in the hoax is attempting to burnish his sullied image.

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos has produced a documentary featuring Christopher Steele, the man responsible for the so-called dossier bearing his name. “Out of the Shadows: The Man Behind the Steele Dossier,” streamed on Hulu Monday night; promotional clips hinted that, far from a hard-hitting interview exposing Steele for the charlatan he is, Stephanopoulos gave Steele a chance to spin his story ahead of possible new indictments related to John Durham’s inquiry into the Trump-Russia election collusion hoax.

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Investigation: Biden Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Tied to Alleged 2016 Clinton Scheme to Co-Opt the CIA and FBI to Tar Trump

RealClearWire

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan figures prominently in a grand jury investigation run by Special Counsel John Durham into an alleged 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign scheme to use both the FBI and CIA to tar Donald Trump as a colluder with Russia, according to people familiar with the criminal probe, which they say has broadened into a conspiracy case.

Sullivan is facing scrutiny, sources say, over potentially false statements he made about his involvement in the effort, which continued after the election and into 2017. As a senior foreign policy adviser to Clinton, Sullivan spearheaded what was known inside her campaign as a “confidential project” to link Trump to the Kremlin through dubious email-server records provided to the agencies, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Former Treasury Official Sentenced to Prison for Leaking Russia, Manafort Docs

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Paul Manafort

A former senior Treasury Department official was sentenced to six months in prison for leaking thousands of confidential reports on financial transactions related to people tied to former President Donald Trump and Russia, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, 42, pleaded guilty last year to a conspiracy charge. According to federal prosecutors, Edwards leaked the confidential documents to  BuzzFeed News reporter Jason Leopold. Leopold then shared thousands of suspicious activity reports with publications worldwide.

Court documents reveal that beginning in 2017, she leaked banking reports related to people being investigated in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of foreign interference in U.S. elections. The material included reports concerning Manafort, his business associate Rick Gates, the Russian Embassy and Maria Butina, among others.

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EXCLUSIVE: The Treasury Department Spied on Flynn, Manafort, and the Trump Family, Says Whistleblower

Neil W. McCabe

President Barack Obama’s Treasury Department regularly surveilled retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn’s financial records and transactions beginning in December 2015 and well into 2017, before, during and after when he served at the White House as President Donald Trump’s National Security Director, a former senior Treasury Department official, and veteran of the intelligence community, told the Star Newspapers.

“I started seeing things that were not correct, so I did my own little investigation, because I wanted to make sure what I was seeing was correct” she said. “You never want to draw attention to something if there is not anything there.”

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Judge Orders Paul Manafort Released from Prison to Home Confinement

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A federal judge on Wednesday ordered former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to be released from prison to home confinement amid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

Manafort, 71, is serving a seven-year prison sentence on fraud and money-laundering charges. He was convicted in August 2018, sentenced to jail in March 2019 and scheduled to be released on Nov. 4, 2024.

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Commentary: The FBI’s Darkest Hour

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by Adam Mill   One can imagine the unspoken question hanging in the darkness during the January 2017 ride back to the airport. A small gaggle1 of FBI agents had just concluded their long-overdue interview with Christopher Steele’s primary sub-source. The silence must have been deafening. Steele had tried to conceal2 his source from the FBI. But the FBI knew his identity and set up an interview behind Steele’s back, and the interview contradicted several Steele assertions. The downcast agents waited for somebody to ask the question on all of their minds: “Now what?” The right answer would have been to admit to the court that Steele was an unreliable source who exaggerates and lies and put an end to spying on Americans in pursuit of the mirage of Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia. When presented one last opportunity to do the right thing, the FBI instead pushed harder for their now-discredited hypothesis justifying the investigation. Peter Strzok had promised his lover, Lisa Page, he would “save” the country from Donald Trump. Given a choice between bringing the FBI back into the light of the Constitution or the darkness of blind hatred of Donald Trump, the conspirators choose darkness. It was at…

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Manafort to Avoid Time at Rikers Following Letter from Top DOJ Official

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by Evie Fordham   Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was reportedly headed for Rikers Island to await trial on the state level in New York, but he will be held in a federal facility following a letter from a Department of Justice higher-up. Federal prison officials said Monday that Manafort, 70, will not be held at notorious Rikers Island after Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen took an interest in where Manafort was held, reported The New York Times. New York prosecutors did not object to Manafort’s attorneys’ proposal that he remain in federal custody and be made available to the state when necessary for health and safety reasons, a senior DOJ official told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Manafort is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan ahead of his arraignment later in June, federal prison officials told Manhattan prosecutors Monday, according to a source cited by The NYT. A senior DOJ official confirmed to TheDCNF that Manafort had been transported to New York since serving his sentence in Pennsylvania. Manafort could stay at the Manhattan facility or go back to the Loretto, Pennsylvania, prison where he is doing a seven-and-a-half-year sentence, people with knowledge of…

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Commentary: Attorney General Barr’s Intelligence Review Should Include the DNC Servers

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by Robert Romano   The Hill’s John Solomon made big news on June 6 when he reported that Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Kilimnik, said in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report to be a Russian agent, was an intelligence source for the U.S. State Department. “In a key finding of the Mueller report, Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked for Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is tied to Russian intelligence… What it doesn’t state is that Kilimnik was a ‘sensitive’ intelligence source for State going back to at least 2013 while he was still working for Manafort, according to FBI and State Department memos I reviewed.” This is as startling revelation as any that has been discovered, since it calls into question whether somebody purported to be a Russian intelligence officer by the Justice Department really was. It also calls into question other contacts Trump campaign officials were said to have had with supposed Russian agents, and other actions said to have been perpetrated by supposed Russian agents. Kilimnik was practically the entre basis for saying that Paul Manafort had at least been in touch with somebody connected with Russian intelligence. The Mueller report stated, “[O]n August 2, 2016, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met…

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Paul Manafort Will Serve a Total of 7.5 Years in Prison

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by Chuck Ross   A federal judge in Washington, D.C., sentenced Paul Manafort to 73 months in prison Wednesday, days after the former Trump campaign chairman received a 47-month sentence in a separate case in Virginia. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that Manafort will serve some of his sentence concurrently with his sentence in Virginia. In all, Manafort will spend around seven-and-a-half years in jail for a variety of crimes related to consulting work he did in Ukraine prior to joining the Trump campaign. During Wednesday’s hearing, Jackson noted that prosecutors with the special counsel’s office did not present evidence of collusion between Manafort, the Trump campaign and Russians to influence the 2016 election. “The question of whether there was any collusion with Russia…was not presented in this case, period, therefore it was not resolved by this case,” said Jackson. Manafort, 69, apologized during brief remarks before Jackson handed down the sentence. “I am sorry for what I have done and for all the activities that have gotten us here today,” said Manafort, who has already spent nine months in jail as his cases have unfolded. With time off for good behavior, Manafort could end up spending…

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Commentary: A Tight and Tangled ‘Collusion’ Web

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by Roger Kimball   Most people reading this will know Sir Walter Scott’s famous couplet (from the narrative poem Marmion): Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive! Less well known, but undeservedly so, is the excellent completing couplet by J. R. Pope, published under the sly title “A Word of Encouragement”: But when we’ve practiced for a while, How vastly we improve our style! Indeed. You really have to give it to the suits in Barack Obama’s intelligence services and Department of Justice (many of whom, of course, are still strutting about in Donald Trump’s administration). It was quite a web they wove, and tangled with complexity. Yet their prodigious practice also made it nearly impenetrable to anyone not inside their charmed circle. That adamantine carapace of impenetrability is a sign of their high style, their assiduity, the reason that a “word of encouragement” did not come amiss. Put your hand on your heart. Can you really tell me what happened and who all the major players are in the Get Trump farce that has been occupying the nation for more than two years now? There have been various worthy efforts to unpack the drama—I’ve made a…

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Paul Manafort Sentenced to 47 Months in Prison in Fraud Case

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by Chuck Ross   A federal judge in Virginia sentenced Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison on Thursday on tax and bank fraud charges, a term much lighter than the sentence that the former Trump campaign chairman faced under federal sentencing guidelines. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III said that guidelines calling for 19-24.5 years in prison for Manafort were “excessive.” Manafort, 69, said in remarks before the sentence was handed down that his life is in “shambles.” He will be sentenced next week in a separate case in Washington, D.C. where the judge in that case, Amy Berman Jackson, will determine if Manafort can serve a sentence in that case concurrently with his Virginia sentence. Manafort was convicted on eight fraud-related charges on Aug. 21, 2018. He pleaded guilty on Sept. 14 to conspiracy charges related to his consulting work for the Ukrainian government. Manafort worked as a press relations guru from 2004 through 2014 for Viktor Yanukovych, who served as Ukraine’s president from Feb. 25, 2010 to Feb. 22, 2014. None of the charges against Manafort involved allegations of collusion with the Russian government, as Ellis noted during Thursday’s hearing. “He is not before the court…

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Court Filing Shows Manafort Faces More Than 19 Years in Prison

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Paul Manafort, the one-time chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, could spend more than 19 years in prison on tax and bank fraud charges, according to court papers filed Friday. Documents filed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office reveal that Manafort faces the lengthiest prison term imposed in the Russia investigation if a federal judge agrees to it. It would also place the 69-year-old Manafort at serious risk of spending the rest of his life in prison. The potential sentence stems from Manafort’s conviction last year on eight felony charges that accused him of carrying out an elaborate scheme to conceal from tax authorities the millions of dollars he earned overseas from Ukrainian political consulting. It is one of two criminal cases pending against Manafort in which he faces prison time. Though Mueller’s office did not recommend a precise sentence for Manafort, prosecutors said they agreed with a calculation by federal probation officials that his crimes deserve a punishment of between 19 and 24 years. They also lay out in great detail for U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III how they say Manafort’s greed drove him to disregard American law. “In the end, Manafort acted for more than a decade…

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Mueller and Manafort Have a Lot Riding on a Supreme Court Double Jeopardy Case

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by Kevin Daley   The Supreme Court appeared skeptical Thursday of overturning an exception to the Constitution’s double jeopardy prohibition, which allows state and federal prosecutors to bring successive prosecutions for the same offense. The case is carefully followed in Washington because of its potential ramifications for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “The notion that the federal government would step in and prosecute a defendant after a state jury acquitted him of the same offense would have shocked the founding generation,” one of the briefs at the high court reads. Thursday’s case arose in Alabama, when Terence Gamble was arrested during a 2015 traffic stop after police recovered two baggies of marijuana and a 9mm handgun from his car. State prosecutors charged Gamble, a convicted felon, for illegal possession of a firearm. A federal charge for the same crime followed. The so-called separate-sovereigns doctrine allows state and federal courts to prosecute individuals for the same offense, double jeopardy notwithstanding. The question in Thursday’s case was whether that rule should be overturned. That move could hinder the Mueller probe, should President Donald Trump choose to pardon aides and associates who the special counsel has since indicted. Since the president can only issue…

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Rep. Steve Cohen Says President Donald Trump is a ‘Criminal Enterprise’

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), the same man who said he wants U.S. Sen.-elect Marsha Blackburn to jump off a bridge, has concluded that President Donald Trump is a “criminal enterprise.” On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” Steve Cohen spoke about the sentencing memos on former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. He said, “Donald Trump is a criminal enterprise.” Host Lawrence O’Donnell said, “Only three presidents of the United States have been accused of federal crimes by … a prosecutor, a federal prosecutor of any kind while in office, and Donald Trump is now one of them.” O’Donnell pointed out that any impeachment proceedings would start in the House Judiciary Committee, where Cohen is a member. Steve Cohen said, “I think that what we’ve learned today is what we — many of us have known for at least two years, and some for maybe 10 or 15, that Donald Trump is a criminal enterprise. The Trump family is a criminal enterprise, and that most of the people he’s involved with, like Michael Cohen and Manafort, are shady folks.” The representative said many committees would investigate “Trump activities” but they would not start out with impeachment. Steve Cohen added, “proof…

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Manafort’s Judge Is Under Federal Protection After Wave Of Threats

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Paul Manafort

by Kevin Daley   Judge T.S. Ellis III revealed in open court Friday that he has received death threats relating to his presiding over Paul Manafort’s trial for bank and tax fraud at a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. The judge has since retained the protection of the U.S. Marshals Service. “I have the marshal’s protection,” Ellis said. “I don’t even go to the hotel alone. I won’t even reveal the name of the hotel.” “I had no idea this case excited this emotion in the public,” he added. BREAKING: #Manaforttrial judge won’t release names of jurors citing safety reasons. Says he is under 24/7 US Marshals protection after threats and said “I had no idea this case excited this emotion in the public.” — Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCNN) August 17, 2018 Ellis made the comments after a coalition of news organizations — including The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Associated Press, CNN, NBC, Politico and BuzzFeed — requested the names and addresses of jurors seated for Manafort’s case. [ RELATED: News Outlets Ask Manafort Judge To Release Jurors Names, Addresses ] “There is no reason to believe that extraordinary circumstances exist that would justify keeping jurors’ names sealed —…

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Manafort Accountant Admits Possible Wrongdoing During Trial

Tennessee Star Staff

by Evie Fordham Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s accountant admitted she filed tax returns that she was aware may have been criminally fraudulent, at Manafort’s tax fraud trial in Alexandria, Virginia, Friday. “I prepared the tax returns and communicated with banks based on information that Mr. [Rick] Gates and Mr. Manafort provided to me that I didn’t believe,” Cindy Laporta said, reported Politico. Laporta is “the first witness at the trial to testify under a grant of immunity,” according to Politico. Her testimony is also the first instance of a witness conceding involvement in possible wrongdoing in the trial. Lobbyist Manafort is defending himself from charges of tax illegalities brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller wants to grant immunity to four people besides LaPorta who could testify, reported Politico. Laporta classified $2.4 million from offshore businesses as loans on 2014 and 2015 tax documents to Manafort’s consultant business. She works for Kositzka Wicks & Company in Alexandria. – – – Evie Fordham is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Evie on Twitter @eviefordham.                      Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide…

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Commentary: Paul Manafort Is a Political Prisoner

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Paul Manafort

By Printus LeBlanc   Paul Manafort is in a fight for his life, literally. He is currently facing up to 305 years in prison if he is convicted of all the crimes he is alleged to have committed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Manafort is currently in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day now as terrorists at GITMO are live better than he does. For what? Did this man murder, rape, or commit an act of violence? No. Surely, he is a mastermind behind a criminal organization spanning the globe? No. Paul Manafort is in jail for one reason and one reason only, he worked for President Trump during his election campaign. The trial of Paul Manafort makes participation in the political process illegal. The Mueller investigation has been tainted from the beginning. Robert Mueller staffed the investigation with over a dozen partisan lawyers and investigators. Many of the investigators also have disturbing conflicts of interests while others have horrendous records at the DOJ. It is easy to call the investigation phony because Mueller’s team hasn’t investigated anything to do with Russia collusion. The team has not taken control of the DNC server to prove Russia hacked the server. The Russian lawyer…

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller Will NOT Present ‘Collusion’ Evidence at Manafort Trial

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Paul Manafort

by Chuck Ross   Special counsel Robert Mueller said in a court filing Friday that his prosecutors will not present evidence regarding Trump campaign collusion with Russia at an upcoming trial for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. “The government does not intend to present at trial evidence or argument concerning collusion with the Russian government,” reads a filing submitted by Mueller’s team in federal court in Virginia on Friday. The filing sheds light on one of the largest questions looming over the Manafort case. Mueller’s prosecutors have indicted Manafort in federal court in Virginia and Washington, D.C., on a slew of charges related to his consulting work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort ended the work in 2014, and it has been unclear whether Mueller’s team planned to reveal evidence about Trump or the campaign. Manafort is accused in the unverified Steele dossier of directing the Trump campaign’s efforts to coordinate with the Kremlin to help Trump in the 2016 election. The dossier, which was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC, claims that Manafort worked with former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page on the effort. Both Page and Manafort have said they have never met each other. Manafort has…

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Paul Manafort and Former Aide Face Multiple Charges in Mueller Probe

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WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, has been indicted on 12 charges of money-laundering and conspiracy, the first charges filed in the investigation of possible connections between the Trump campaign and a Russian effort to influence last year’s presidential election. Manafort, 68, turned himself in at FBI headquarters early Monday for his…

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