am 1st rick bak

zombied by manafort gates ?<div>
</div><div>see parscale on am 1st
<div>
</div><div>=</div><div>= no lnx What Did Thomas Barrack Know, and When Did He Know It?by Martin Longman October 31, 2017 POLITICAL ANIMALTrump and Putin at G20 in Hamburg??????? ?/FlickrMost of the media focus so far has been on the arrest of Paul Manafort and George Papadopoulos, with Rick Gates’s arrest getting much less attention. Within the administration, however, things are a bit different.
Some White House advisers are unhappy with Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Trump’s longtime friend and chair of his inauguration, whom they hold responsible for keeping Gates in the Trump orbit long after Manafort resigned as campaign chairman in August 2016, according to people familiar with the situation. Barrack has been Gates’s patron of late, steering political work to him and, until Monday, employing him as director of the Washington office of his real estate investment company.
Thomas J. Barrack Jr. is a key, and yet perhaps unwitting, character in the Trump-Russia story. To understand why, we’ll need to go back in time.
Forty years ago, in Beirut, Lebanon, Mr. Barrack became an acquaintance of Paul Manafort. It’s interesting to know how each of these men found their way there. For Barrack, it was a kind of homecoming. His grandparents had immigrated to the United States from a part of Syria that is now located in Lebanon. After getting undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Southern California, Barrack landed a job with President Nixon’s personal attorney Herbert K. Kalmbach. This was the first of Barrack’s unsavory connections, as Kalmbach would later be convicted and jailed for his work on Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President.
Barrack next landed a job with the Flour Corporation, which sent him to Saudi Arabia. There he had a fortuitous experience that paved the way for his great financial success in life.
Barrack became a lawyer, and his ability to speak Arabic led to an assignment in 1972 to go to Saudi Arabia to work on a gas deal. Barrack played squash with a local Saudi. Soon the Saudi brought his brothers. It turned out they were all sons of the king of Saudi Arabia. Barrack spent many hours listening to the Arabs discuss their world, which he said gave him “great respect for the society and community.”
The princes, in turn, hired him, and he became, as he put it, the American representative of “the boys.”
So, Barrack was in Beirut forty years ago working for the Saudi Royal Family.
Paul Manafort got there by a different route. His grandfather also immigrated to the United States, settling in Connecticut. His father served as the mayor of New Britain from 1965 to 1971. Manafort got his undergraduate and law degrees from Georgetown University. He soon landed a job with the law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease in Washington, D.C., where he was assigned to work with a Saudi construction company.A roommate at Barrack’s Beirut apartment introduced him to Manafort, who represented a firm doing business with a Saudi construction company. They became close friends and, four decades later, Barrack persuaded Trump to hire Manafort for his presidential campaign.
When they met, these two men were both quite a lot more connected than they might have seemed as young Americans living abroad. Barrack had worked for President Nixon’s attorney while Manafort had helped James Baker round up the delegates President Ford needed to fend off a primary challenge from Ronald Reagan.
The relationship they forged would become more important than either of them could have imagined at the time. Barrack went on to become a billionaire real estate developer who would befriend and mentor Donald Trump. When Trump needed to round up the delegates he needed to win the Republican nomination in the winter of 2016, Barrack would recommend the services of his old friend Manafort who had provided the same service to President Ford in 1976.
How precisely this came about could be the most important question that Bob Mueller needs to answer.
Here’s how the Washington Post described it in an October 10th profile of Barrack:
Barrack supported Trump’s campaign, and shortly after Trump lost the Iowa caucuses, he reconnected with his old friend Manafort, a longtime Republican consultant.
“I really need to get to” Trump, Manafort said, according to Barrack. He told Barrack he wanted to work as Trump’s convention manager, helping him navigate what they expected would be a contentious affair.
Barrack, who had long been friendly with Kushner, as well as Trump’s daughter Ivanka, said he wrote them an email urging Trump to hire Manafort.
The timeline there is almost uselessly vague, so let me clear it up. The Iowa caucuses took place on February 1st. A couple of weeks later, Barrack and Manafort had a meeting at the Montage hotel in Beverly Hills where they discussed a packet of memos Manafort had prepared to put forth his credentials to handle the delegate fight. On February 29th, Barrack forwarded the packet to Trump along with “an effusive cover letter” that “described Mr. Manafort in terms that Mr. Trump would like, calling him ‘the most experienced and lethal of managers’ and ‘a killer.’”
This must have seemed like a great idea to Barrack, as he could make two good friends happy at the same time. What he almost definitely didn’t then realize is that Manafort had an ulterior motive and was a desperate man.
It’s been known for some time that Manafort was deeply in debt when he approached Barrack about working for Donald Trump. Specifically, the New York Times reported in July that Manafort owed as much as $19 million to a Russian oligarch with mob connections named Oleg V. Deripaska.
When Barrack and Manafort made their pitch to Trump, Manafort wrote “I am not looking for a paid job,” and Barrack reiterated the point in his cover letter: “[Manafort] would do this in an unpaid capacity.” It wouldn’t become clear until later why a man who owes millions to a mobbed-up Putin connected Russian oligarch would be looking to work for free.
On March 28th, Trump hired Manafort without pay. Soon after, this happened:
On the evening of April 11, 2016, two weeks after Donald Trump hired the political consultant Paul Manafort to lead his campaign’s efforts to wrangle Republican delegates, Manafort emailed his old lieutenant Konstantin Kilimnik, who had worked for him for a decade in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
“I assume you have shown our friends my media coverage, right?” Manafort wrote.
“Absolutely,” Kilimnik responded a few hours later from Kiev. “Every article.”
“How do we use to get whole,” Manafort asks. “Has OVD operation seen?”
The initials OVD obviously stand for Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska. What Manafort was hoping is that by landing his position with Trump, he could somehow free himself from the millions and millions of dollars of debt he owed to Deripaska.
By late summer, it became clear that Manifort was too close to Vladimir Putin and he was fired by the Trump campaign on August 19th. But Manafort’s partner Rick Gates stayed on and gained influence. On Election Night, Gates and Barrack hit it off and Barrack hired Gates to help him organize the inauguration. This is the point at which we have some right to question Barrack’s judgment.He knew why Manafort had been fired and it must have been a source of some embarrassment since he had so enthusiastically recommended him. But he had no obvious reservations about working with Manafort’s partner. And Gates would run into quick problems after the inauguration. At first, he landed a job working for America FirstPolicies, a non-profit set up to help push Trump’s agenda. But he was quickly forced out because of his association with Manafort. Nonetheless, Barrack continued to befriend him, hiring him to work for his real estate business and dragging him to meetings in the White House. By June, the Daily Beast was picking up on the grumbling about Barrack’s decision-making:
After leaving the Trump-boosting nonprofit America First Policies in March—as former FBI Director James Comey officially announced an investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign team and Russian officials—Gates is now working directly for Tom Barrack, according to eight sources in and around the Trump White House…
…And when Barrack stops by to meet Trump in the West Wing, he has brought Gates with him, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting. Late last week, Barrack was again at the White House, with Gates in tow, two White House officials confirmed.
In fact, it wasn’t until Gates was arrested yesterday that Barrack broke his ties with him:
Rick Gates, charged today with multiple counts of money laundering, tax fraud and illegal foreign lobbying, was fired by real estate company Colony NorthStar Inc., where he had been a consultant to Executive Chairman Tom Barrack.
Now, Barrack has been no stranger to scandal. In the Reagan White House, he worked for Interior Secretary James Watt who actually retreated to Barrack’s ranch after he was forced to resign in disgrace. He probably also arranged to have someone buy Edwin Meese’s house at an inflated price which cost him a promised job at the Commerce Department. More recently, he’s been accused in Italy of conducting a $190 million tax avoidance scheme. But it’s his decision to pitch Manafort to Trump that has cast the biggest pall over his career, and his almost inexplicable and unshakeable mentorship of Rick Gates is a close second that casts some suspicion on innocent explanations for his role in Manafort’s hiring.
Was he really an unwitting participant? Has he been as naive as he’d like us to believe? Why did he stick with Gates even after he’d been badly burned by Manafort?
I hope Robert Mueller can provide us the answers to these questions.
And then I want to know why Trump was seething when he saw Gates and Manafort had been arrested. Shouldn’t he have been happy considering all the legal problems they’ve caused him?
Maybe the president wasn’t an innocent victim here, either.
Martin LongmanMartin Longman is the web editor for the Washington Monthly and the main blogger at Booman Tribune.=</div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2018/04/america-first-policies/">https://www.factcheck.org/2018/04/america-first-policies/</a></div><div>
</div><div><div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">leanings: Republican/Pro-President TrumpSpending target: Unknown<a href="https://www.americafirstpolicies.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">America First Policies</a> is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit devoted to promoting the agenda of President Donald Trump. According to its website, the group’s main goals are repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, overhauling the U.S. tax system, securing the border with Mexico, building a strong national defense, rebuilding infrastructure, and providing choice in education.America First Policies is allied with <a href="https://www.a1apac.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">America First Action</a>, a pro-Trump super PAC that plans to spend $100 million in 2018, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/02/trump-super-pac-100-million-244368" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">according to Politico</a>.Six of <a href="https://apnews.com/77133d470c634a458b3198063af4a14b" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Trump’s former campaign aides created</a> America First Policies in January 2017. The group’s founders include: Brad Parscale, Trump’s digital and data director; David Bossie, Trump’s deputy campaign manager; Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff; Marty Obst, who managed Pence’s gubernatorial reelection campaign in Indiana; and Katrina Pierson, Trump’s senior campaign communications adviser.Rick Gates, Trump’s other deputy campaign manager, also helped create the nonprofit. However, Gates was <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/23/politics/rick-gates-manafort-russia-ties/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;">forced to leave the group in March 2017</a> because of his ties to Paul Manafort, a former Trump campaign manager. <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2017/06/timeline-russia-investigation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;">As we have previously reported,</a> both Manafort and Gates <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sco" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;">were indicted</a> on charges of money laundering and tax evasion related to their work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine.America First Policies was mostly inactive during the first months of the Trump administration, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-agenda-america-first-235983" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;">according to</a> Politico. Then, in late October, the organization’s officials <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/23/trump-tax-overhaul-white-house-244095" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;">met with Trump advisers at the White House</a> to plan a multimillion-dollar campaign to sell Trump’s plan to overhaul the U.S. tax system.As part of that effort, the group said it planned to spend <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-03/lewandowski-stars-in-pro-trump-ad-blitz-backing-gop-tax-plan" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;">$1 million on a TV and online ad campaign</a> with former Trump campaign manager Cory Lewandowski calling on “fellow patriots and friends” to get behind Trump’s tax proposal.As of April 20, America First Policies <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cycle=2018&cmte=C90017302" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">has spent more than $1.9 million</a> on ads and other independent expenditures trying to get Republicans elected to Congress. Most of that amount, $1.5 million, was spent opposing Democrat Jon Ossoff, who <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/20/politics/georgia-house-results-ossoff-handel/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">lost to Republican Karen Handel</a> in the race to fill Georgia’s 6th District House seat. The group also spent more than $452,000 supporting former Sen. Luther Strange, who lost to Roy Moore in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/us/politics/roy-moore-alabama-senate.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">special GOP Senate primary runoff in Alabama</a>.America First Policies has not publicly disclosed its donors to the Federal Election Commission because <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/faq.php" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">501(c)(4) organizations</a> are not required to do so.<div class="at-below-post addthis_tool" data-url="https://www.factcheck.org/2018/04/america-first-policies/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><footer class="entry-footer" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="term-listing-footer" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 3rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="categories" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0.25rem 0.25rem; padding: 0px; text-transform: capitalize; font-weight: 600; position: relative;">Categories<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.25rem; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block;"><li class="cat-item cat-item-4835" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0.25rem 0.25rem; padding: 0.125rem 0.25rem; font-weight: 500; position: relative; list-style: none; display: inline-block; background-color: rgb(244, 244, 244);"><a href="https://www.factcheck.org/players-guide/2018/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">Players Guide 2018</a></li></ul></li><li class="post_tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0.25rem 0.25rem; padding: 0px; text-transform: capitalize; font-weight: 600; position: relative;">Tags<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.25rem; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block;"><li class="cat-item cat-item-4952" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0.25rem 0.25rem; padding: 0.125rem 0.25rem; font-weight: 500; position: relative; list-style: none; display: inline-block; background-color: rgb(244, 244, 244);"><a href="https://www.factcheck.org/tag/america-first-policies/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">America First Policies</a></li></ul></li><li class="person" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0.25rem 0.25rem; padding: 0px; text-transform: capitalize; font-weight: 600; position: relative;">People<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.25rem; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block;"><li class="cat-item cat-item-1854" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0.25rem 0.25rem; padding: 0.125rem 0.25rem; font-weight: 500; position: relative; list-style: none; display: inline-block; background-color: rgb(244, 244, 244);"><a href="https://www.factcheck.org/person/donald-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">Donald Trump</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></footer></div><div>
</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ref </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="box-sizing: inherit;">America First, the primary pro-Trump outside organization, raised $30 million in 2017, according to a source familiar with the group’s finances and an FEC report shown to Axios before it is filed tonight. Why it matters: $30 million is an impressive total, ahead of the $26 million Organizing for Action, the pro-Obama group, raised in its first year. America First's goal for 2018 is far more ambitious: $100 million.</div><div id="hidden-449ae7d0-deb8-431f-8912-bc4677761abf" class="" aria-hidden="false" aria-expanded="true" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding-bottom: 65px;">“America First got off to a strong start in 2017, and we are grateful for those supporters who believe in our mission and the team we have assembled. We are working hard every single day to help the president make America great again,” Tommy Hicks Jr. the chairman of America First Action, said in a statement.The breakdown:
America First Policies, a 501(c)(4), raised $26 million and spent $14 million of that total, primarily on ads.America First Action, a Super PAC, raised just shy of $4 million of which it spent about $2 million.<div>
</div><ul style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><li class="StoryBodyitem--1cHYD" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin-bottom: 1rem;">Trump campaign holdovers from America First Action include Corey Lewandowski, Katrina Pierson and Brad Parscale, while David Clarke, the controversial former Milwaukee County Sheriff, serves as a spokesman.</li><li class="StoryBodyitem--1cHYD" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin-bottom: 1rem;">The group's biggest spend of 2017 came during the Alabama special election, on which it spent more than $1 million. That race was ultimately won by Democrat Doug Jones.</li><li class="StoryBodyitem--1cHYD" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin-bottom: 1rem;">Brian Walsh, President of America First Action, said: "This is just the beginning for America First. We expect to be more aggressive in 2018 to ensure that those candidates who embrace President Trump’s agenda have the outside support they need to be successful as we work to grow our majorities in the House and Senate."</li></ul></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> =</div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/trump-will-attend-private-dinner-billionaire-members-super-pac-supporting-his">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/trump-will-attend-private-dinner-billionaire-members-super-pac-supporting-his</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/07/politics/donald-trump-clayland-gray-dinner/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Trump is set to dine tonight with billionaires in a private mansion in Washington D.C.’s ritzy Georgetown neighborhood</a> — many of whom are key members of America First Policies, a pro-Trump super PAC that formerly employed the vice president’s chief of staff.CNN reported Wednesday afternoon that the dinner is being held at the Georgetown residence of Bush 43 White House counsel Boyden Gray, and will be attended by America First Policies’ president Brian Walsh along with billionaire oil tycoon and GOP megadonor Harold Hamm.<div id="TeadsNative" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/01/america-first-policies-dark-money-polling-for-trump.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">America First Policies</a>, CNBC revealed in an investigation last week, is not only a newly-founded political action committee aimed at promoting Trump’s agenda, but also is “conducting a large-scale polling operation that appears designed to benefit the president.” Election law experts told CNBC’s Christina Wilkie, who broke the story, that the tax-exempt non-profit working for an elected official in this way raises legal concerns.“Walsh, the executive director, denied that America First Policies coordinates its work with the White House or the Trump campaign,” Wilkie’s report noted.The PAC was co-founded in January 2017 by now-inducted Trump deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/chief-staff-dc-vp-mike-pence-swears-nick/story?id=48920086" style="text-decoration-line: none;">formerly employed Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Nick Ayers</a>, the latter of which suggested donors help the White House “purge” the GOP of anti-Trump Republicans. In Novemeber, Fox News reported that special counsel Robert Mueller issued a records request to AFP.“Following the publication of CNBC’s report, the <a href="https://www.commoncause.org/press/press-releases/doj-fec-complaints-urge-investigation-of-illegal-coordination-between-trrump-rnc-and-outside-groups.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">nonprofit watchdog group Common Cause filed complaints</a> with the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice,” Wilkie’s latest report noted, “both alleging that America First Policies had violated campaign finance laws that require groups to disclose any money they spend on elections or campaigns.”AFP maintains that the dinner will have “very clear lines and high walls” to stay within the law, but Stephen Spaulding, a former special counsel with the FEC and Common Cause’s current chief strategist, said the guest list at the Georgetown dinner loudly suggests otherwise.“Any ‘high walls’ that exist between this group and the Trump campaign have gaping holes in them, which Trump is driving a truck through,” Spaulding told CNBC.“Trump is saying, in effect, that America First Policies has the White House’s blessing,” Brendan Fischer, an election law expert at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, told CNBC. “It also sends a signal to deep-pocketed financial interests that they can buy influence with the administration through secret donations to the White House’s preferred dark money group.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div> (AP) — President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics, The Associated Press has learned. The work appears to contradict assertions by the Trump administration and Manafort himself that he never worked for Russian interests.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and the former Soviet republics to benefit the Putin government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Manafort pitched the plans to Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally with whom Manafort eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006, according to interviews with several people familiar with payments to Manafort and business records obtained by the AP. Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">"We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success," Manafort wrote in the 2005 memo to Deripaska. The effort, Manafort wrote, "will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government."<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Manafort's plans were laid out in documents obtained by the AP that included strategy memoranda and records showing international wire transfers for millions of dollars. How much work Manafort performed under the contract was unclear.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">The disclosure comes as Trump campaign advisers are the subject of an FBI probe and two congressional investigations. Investigators are reviewing whether the Trump campaign and its associates coordinated with Moscow to meddle in the 2016 campaign. Manafort has dismissed the investigations as politically motivated and misguided. The documents obtained by AP show Manafort's ties to Russia were closer than previously revealed.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">In a statement to the AP, Manafort confirmed that he worked for Deripaska in various countries but said the work was being unfairly cast as "inappropriate or nefarious" as part of a "smear campaign."<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">"I worked with Oleg Deripaska almost a decade ago representing him on business and personal matters in countries where he had investments," Manafort said. "My work for Mr. Deripaska did not involve representing Russia's political interests."Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of Trump's critics in the Senate, called the disclosures about payments to Manafort from the Russian billionaire "very disturbing if true.""That's basically taking money to stop the spread of democracy, and that would be very disturbing to me," he said Wednesday on Capitol Hill.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Democrats on the House intelligence committee said the new revelations will feature in the congressional investigations. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said on MSNBC on Wednesday that Manafort should appear before the committee, and he raised the specter of a subpoena should Manafort not appear on his own.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Another member of the intelligence committee, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said the disclosure "undermines the groundless assertions that the administration has been making that there are no ties between President Trump and Russia. This is not a drip, drip, drip" situation, she said. "This is now dam-breaking with water flushing out with all kinds of entanglements."<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Deripaska became one of Russia's wealthiest men under Putin, buying assets abroad in ways widely perceived to benefit the Kremlin's interests. U.S. diplomatic cables from 2006 described Deripaska as "among the 2-3 oligarchs Putin turns to on a regular basis" and "a more-or-less permanent fixture on Putin's trips abroad." In response to questions about Manafort's consulting firm, a spokesman for Deripaska in 2008 — at least three years after they began working together — said Deripaska had never hired the firm. Another Deripaska spokesman in Moscow last week declined to answer AP's questions.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">When asked Wednesday about Manafort's work for Deripaska, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "We do not feel it's appropriate to comment on someone who is not an employee at the White House," although Press Secretary Sean Spicer discussed Manafort earlier this week during a televised news briefing.Manafort worked as Trump's unpaid campaign chairman last year from March until August, a period that included the Republican National Convention that nominated Trump in July. Trump asked Manafort to resign after AP revealed that Manafort had orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation until 2014 on behalf of Ukraine's ruling pro-Russian political party.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">The newly obtained business records link Manafort more directly to Putin's interests in the region. According to those records and people with direct knowledge of Manafort's work for Deripaska, Manafort made plans to open an office in Moscow, and at least some of his work in Ukraine was directed by Deripaska, not local political interests there. The Moscow office never opened.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Manafort has been a leading focus of the U.S. intelligence investigation of Trump's associates and Russia, according to a U.S. official. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the investigation are confidential. Meanwhile, federal criminal prosecutors became interested in Manafort's activities years ago as part of a broad investigation to recover stolen Ukraine assets after the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych there in early 2014. No U.S. criminal charges have ever been filed in the case.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">FBI Director James Comey, in confirming to Congress the federal intelligence investigation this week, declined to say whether Manafort was a target. Manafort's name was mentioned 28 times during the hearing of the House intelligence committee, mostly about his work in Ukraine. No one mentioned Deripaska.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">On Monday, Spicer had singled out Manafort when asked about possible campaign contacts with Russia. He said Manafort "played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time" in the campaign, even though as Trump's presidential campaign chairman he led it during the crucial run-up to the Republican National Convention.Manafort and his associates remain in Trump's orbit. Manafort told a colleague this year that he continues to speak with Trump by telephone. Manafort's former business partner in eastern Europe, Rick Gates, has been seen inside the White House on a number of occasions. Gates has since helped plan Trump's inauguration and now runs a nonprofit organization, America First Policies, to back the White House agenda.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Gates, whose name does not appear in the documents, told the AP that he joined Manafort's firm in 2006 and was aware Manafort had a relationship with Deripaska but was not aware of the work described in the memos. Gates said his work was focused on domestic U.S. lobbying and political consulting in Ukraine at the time. He said he stopped working for Manafort's firm in March 2016 when he joined Trump's presidential campaign.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Manafort told Deripaska in 2005 that he was pushing policies as part of his work in Ukraine "at the highest levels of the U.S. government — the White House, Capitol Hill and the State Department," according to the documents. He also said he had hired a "leading international law firm with close ties to President Bush to support our client's interests," but he did not identify the firm. Manafort also said he was employing unidentified legal experts for the effort at leading universities and think tanks, including Duke University, New York University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Manafort did not disclose details about the lobbying work to the Justice Department during the period the contract was in place.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, people who lobby in the U.S. on behalf of foreign political leaders or political parties must provide detailed reports about their actions to the department. Willfully failing to register is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, though the government rarely files criminal charges.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Deripaska owns Basic Element Co., which employs 200,000 people worldwide in the agriculture, aviation, construction, energy, financial services, insurance and manufacturing industries, and he runs one of the world's largest aluminum companies. Forbes estimated his net worth at $5.2 billion. How much Deripaska paid Manafort in total is not clear, but people familiar with the relationship said money transfers to Manafort amounted to tens of millions of dollars and continued through at least 2009. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the secret payments publicly.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">In strategy memos, Manafort proposed that Deripaska and Putin would benefit from lobbying Western governments, especially the U.S., to allow oligarchs to keep possession of formerly state-owned assets in Ukraine. He proposed building "long term relationships" with Western journalists and a variety of measures to improve recruitment, communications and financial planning by pro-Russian parties in the region.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Manafort proposed extending his existing work in eastern Europe to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Georgia, where he pledged to bolster the legitimacy of governments friendly to Putin and undercut anti-Russian figures through political campaigns, nonprofit front groups and media operations.For the $10 million annual contract, Manafort did not use his public-facing consulting firm, Davis Manafort. Instead, he used a company, LOAV Ltd., that he had registered in Delaware in 1992. He listed LOAV as having the same address as his lobbying and consulting firms in Alexandria, Virginia. In other records, LOAV's address was listed as Manafort's home, also in Alexandria. Manafort sold the home in July 2015 for $1.4 million. He now owns an apartment in Trump Tower in New York, as well as other properties in Florida and New York.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">One strategy memo to Deripaska was written by Manafort and Rick Davis, his business partner at the time. In written responses to the AP, Davis said he did not know that his firm had proposed a plan to covertly promote the interests of the Russian government.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Davis said he believes Manafort used his name without his permission on the strategy memo. "My name was on every piece of stationery used by the company and in every memo prior to 2006. It does not mean I had anything to do with the memo described," Davis said. He took a leave of absence from the firm in late 2006 to work on John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Manafort's work with Deripaska continued for years, though they had a falling out laid bare in 2014 in a Cayman Islands bankruptcy court. The billionaire gave Manafort nearly $19 million to invest in a Ukrainian TV company called Black Sea Cable, according to legal filings by Deripaska's representatives. It said that after taking the money, Manafort and his associates stopped responding to Deripaska's queries about how the funds had been used.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Early in the 2016 presidential campaign, Deripaska's representatives openly accused Manafort of fraud and pledged to recover the money from him. After Trump earned the nomination, Deripaska's representatives said they would no longer discuss the case.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">_<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">http://origin-nyi.thehill.com/homenews/campaign/316927-trump-campaign-veterans-start-outside-group?amp=1<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">President Trump's political allies on Monday launched a nonprofit that looks to capitalize on the grassroots support that led him to the Oval Office and to support his agenda from outside the White House.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">
America First Policies includes a handful of prominent Trump campaign veterans. Brad Parscale, Trump's former digital director, will help lead the effort with two former aides to Vice President Mike Pence - Nick Ayers and Marty Obst.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Rick Gates, a close confidant of Trump's second campaign manager, Paul Manafort, rounds out the leadership team.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Former Trump deputy campaign manager David Bossie and spokeswoman Katrina Pierson will also be part of the new organization.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">"President Trump campaigned on a bold but basic concept: America First. This is a concept the American people both understand and support, but few in the media recognize and many politicians beholden to special interests will oppose. We will provide the counter balance," the group said in a statement.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">"And while our funding will be significant - the most powerful thing this organization can do is harness the power and energy from everyday ordinary Americans, and give them a voice in this process. If their voices are heard, 'America First' policies championed by The White House will prevail."<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">The effort is similar Organizing for America's work during President Obama's time in office, when the project played a major role in pushing forward key Obama agenda issues such as healthcare reform and brought on a handful of top Obama campaign staff.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">The Trump group is expected to chart a similar route.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">Like OFA, America First Policies will almost certainly have access to some of the data gleaned from Trump's election victory, which could provide a huge fundraising boon. But officials with the organization did not respond to requests to comment about what data they will be able to use.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;"><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">The gr<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; word-wrap: break-word;"></div></div></div><div></div></div></div></div>