Who is Paul Manafort?

Paul Manafort was born in Connecticut and studied at Georgetown University eventually getting his law degree from their law school. Manafort is an expert political adviser who advised the presidential campaigns of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, and most recently, Donald Trump. Manafort joined Trump’s campaign in March of 2016, and became Trump’s campaign manager from June 2016 to August 2016 after Trump fired his original campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.

Paul Manafort

He has recently become a person of interest as the FBI investigates Russia’s involvement in the most recent election.

Previous to the election, Manafort was known as a political lobbyist. He helped found a lobbying firm called Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly. The firm is known for influence peddling which is defined as “the use of position or political influence on someone's behalf in exchange for money or favours.” Manafort’s firm lobbied for numerous controversial dictators and world leaders such as Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Jonas Savimbi or Angola, and Mobutu Seko of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  

This last client—Mobutu Seko of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then called Zaire)—is of particular interest to me as Congo is where I lived most of my childhood. Mobutu paid Manafort one million annually to lobby for him in the U.S. This is disgusting considering Mobutu is known as one of Africa’s worst dictators and is responsible for the total collapse and bankruptcy of the country's infrastructure.

Mobutu Seko

For example, he was known to kill political opponents in broad daylight and used Congo’s vast natural resources to build himself mansions in the jungle. His administration was known to torture, rape, and kill with frequency. It is disturbing to think that Manafort was willing to lobby for a man that did so much harm to the country I grew up in although this ultimately should not be surprising considering Manafort’s firm is well known to receive money from regimes which abuse human rights.

More recently, Manafort’s tie to Russia comes by way of former Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort advised him for six years from 2004 to 2010. Yanukovych is known to have ties to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and was even endorsed by Putin. Yanukovych belonged to the Party of Regions, a pro-Russian political party. Yanukovych became president of Ukraine in 2010. However, in February 2014, due to protests, Yanukovych fled to Russia.

Viktor Yanukovyc

These connections came to light in connection with Trump’s friendliness with Putin. Paul Manafort resigned in April of 2016 from campaign manager due to the fact that he was being actively investigated by the FBI. Just recently, on October 30th, Manafort unexpectedly surrendered to the FBI and is being charged with money laundering. How this will end up affecting Trump is still unknown but will become apparent as the case progresses.

For more information on Paul Manafort consider checking out the video below.