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(But it's totally fine because he only did it for the money)
Paul Manafort told Insider he gave Trump data to Russians to lay the groundwork for future business deals
Camila DeChalus
- Paul Manafort denies that he shared polling data with Russians to help Trump win in 2016.
- Manafort says that he shared the information to lay the groundwork for future business deals.
- Manafort has previously failed to recall certain details about him sharing data with his associate.
Donald Trump's 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort told Insider in an exclusive interview that he shared campaign polling data with a suspected Russian intelligence officer to lay out the groundwork for future business dealings for himself and not to help Trump get elected.
"It was meant to show how Clinton was vulnerable," he told Insider.
He was trying to leverage his connections with Trump to get more money from "pro-Russia oligarchs," Manafort added.
Manafort acknowledged he was aware that he shared confidential polling data from the Trump campaign with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate with suspected ties to Russian intelligence. In 2021, the Treasury Department found that Kilimnik then shared data deemed as "sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy" with Russian spies. The Department then sanctioned Kilimnik for this transaction.
Manafort pushed back on the claim that the information was sensitive and told Insider that the data he shared with the business associate "was a combination of public information."
Manafort previously denied that he shared information with Kilimnik during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections. He told Insider that he failed to recall sharing data with Kilimnik during Mueller's investigation because his memory began to deteriorate due to the conditions of his detainment.
Manafort's interview with Insider comes after he spent nearly two years in prison on various charges, including tax fraud and witness tampering, a result of Mueller's investigation.
Trump pardoned Manafort in 2020.
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Current events
REPUBLICAN PARTY OPERATIVES CHARGED with ARRANGING ILLEGAL TRUMP CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION
By Jan Wolfe
WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Monday unsealed criminal charges against two longtime Republican Party operatives, accusing them of illegally funneling a foreign campaign contribution to former President Donald Trump in 2016.According to an indictment unsealed in federal court in the District of Columbia, Jesse Benton and Doug Wead "conspired to illegally funnel thousands of dollars of foreign money from a Russian foreign national into an election for the Office of President of the United States of America."U.S. law bans foreign nationals from donating money to presidential campaigns.According to the indictment, Benton and Wead helped a Russian national get a ticket to a fundraiser with Trump in Pennsylvania in September 2016.The Russian, who was not identified in the indictment, donated $25,000 to political action committees associated with Trump in order to attend the event, according to prosecutors.But the true source of the donation was concealed from the Trump campaign, the indictment said, because the payment was secretly funneled through Benton, who acted as a "straw donor."Benton, 43, previously managed campaigns for Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky before he was convicted for his role in a political endorsement scheme. Benton avoided jail time and received a presidential pardon in December 2020 from Trump.Wead, 75, worked as a senior adviser on multiple presidential campaigns and ran for Congress as a Republican in 1992.It was not yet clear if the two had engaged legal counsel.Bachmann had narrowly defeated Paul to win the Ames Straw Poll in August 2011, an early measure of support in the state.A top aide in the 2008 Ron Paul presidential bid, Dennis Fusaro, provided several emails to OpenSecrets.org. According to the address fields in the emails, Fusaro was copied on the messages, which all date from late 2011.Five days before the caucus, in late 2011, Sorenson abruptly switched his support from Bachmann to Paul, and the Bachmann campaign at the time charged that he had done so for money.
- Benton is married to Ron Paul's granddaughter, Rand Paul is Benton's uncle -in-law. Benton lived in Rand Paul's house for a number of years.
- Benton ran Rand's run for Senate in 2010 and Grandpa Paul's 2012 Presidential Bid.
- In an Oct. 29, 2011 email, a representative of Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, a Republican, asks the Paul campaign to provide Sorenson with $8,000 per month in salary for him, $5,000 per month in salary for a Sorenson ally, as well as $100,000 in contributions for a newly created PAC that Sorenson planned to use to support conservative candidates for Iowa state office.
- In exchange, the email, which was allegedly written by Aaron Dorr, executive director of Iowa Gun Owners, says Sorenson would abandon his support for Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s campaign, endorse Paul, campaign for him and provide access to an email list of Iowans who support homeschooling.
- That is, the director of Iowa Gun Owners is so deep inside the pockets of the Pauls that he can offer six-figure bribes on the Pauls' behalf.
- Benton was convicted of bribing Sorenson to throw his support to Ron Paul and given two years probation. Just two days after his conviction, Benton was setting up the illegal meeting for payment scheme on Roman Vasilenko's behalf.
- This sort of open corruption and graft was so appealing to Mitch McConnell that he hired Benton to run his 2014 Senatorial bid. Benton was forced to step down after many reporters questioned such open corruption but to this day, Benton still serves as the primary channel between McConnell and the Pauls.
- Trump pardoned Benton in January of this year, explicitly as a favor to Rand Paul.
- Benton is accused setting up a meeting between Trump and Vasilenko in Sept 2016 at a Philadelphia Fundraiser. Since the price of admission was a $25,000 donation to the Trump campaign and no foreign national should therefore be able to attend, Vasilensko mingled with his translator and had his picture taken with many top GOP officials without batting an eye. It just wasn't that strange to have Russians openly loitering in the belly of the GOP in 2016, apparently.
- Wead is a longtime GOP operative and consultant, whose ties to the Russian business magnate go back decades.
- Wead is credited with authoring the Bush campaign phrase "Compassionate Conservative."
- Wead has given lectures in Russia bolstering Vasilenko's self-help seminars and in 2009, Wead appointed Vasilenko to the board of directors for a Christian boarding school where Wead was president.
- Although the price of dinner with Trump was minimum $25,000, Wead and Benton's consulting firm took a check for $100,000 from Vasilenko.
- Benton tried to tell the Trump campaign that he had already made his donation (that is tried to hold on to all of the money himself) until Trump's fundraisers insisted. Benton paid the $25,000 minimum and we can assume Benton and Wead split the $75,000 remainder. Whether Trump, the Pauls, and McConnell also all get a taste of that money is unclear but that's the way it works in Russia and other mob organizations. Certainly, nobody in the GOP has bothered to condemn such fairly straightforward bribery by one of America's principle enemies. I wonder what Vasilenko asked Trump for and whether that request came straight from Putin? From what little we can tell of Trump's presidency we should probably assume he got whatever he asked for.
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Current events
King David of this fine establishment wants you all to know that there is no rule and he wants a MEEP.
An enforcable rule on using comments sections as well as general assistance and coaching of debaters during a debate both in general but especially in the Comments Section of that debate with live tips.
Should it be introduced?
I say yes and it should have punishment proportional to how extensive and precise the assistance was, not simply on how intentional it appears to be.
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DebateArt.com