Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from {former Ukraine President Viktor F.} Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.
In addition, criminal prosecutors are investigating a group of offshore shell companies that helped members of Mr. Yanukovych’s inner circle finance their lavish lifestyles, including a palatial presidential residence with a private zoo, golf course and tennis court. Among the hundreds of murky transactions these companies engaged in was an $18 million deal to sell Ukrainian cable television assets to a partnership put together by Mr. Manafort and a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin.
lots of complaints, of course, from Trumpologists about the evil NYT (FORGERIES is the most popular assertion), but one can likely infer from this story that they have their facts pretty well buttoned down. as the story reveals, Manafort ran a business out of some digs in Kiev, in which he still kept a bunch of his own personal property, up until at least May of this year.
I looked here, but couldn’t find any reference to this, so apologies if it’s already got a thread, but this could be a yuuuge story, especially since it seems that Lewandowski is turning on Manafort.
he was on CNN, his new home, earlier this morning, and was very gently confronted with his tweet, during which he tried to defend posting it, claiming it was to show how biased the NYT is, because they don’t go after Hillary like that. I was happy not to be slurping away at my morning vodka when he said that. t
Chris Cuomo just let his ‘’‘explanation’’ rest, not choosing to delve at ALL into the real reason he did it, which has to be fascinating. his answer made no sense, btw, to any sentient news consumer.
here’s his twitfeed, in which outraged trumpaloons really go after CL for his apostasy. some of the most schadenfreudelicious tidbits upon which any trump connoisseur could hope to indulge:
this is the roger stone feed, in which he suffers the most gladdening contumely imaginable…I can’t find the lewandowski one that goes after the referenced tweet…his site has apparently taken them down…what a surprise:
This is becoming the most fascinating dumpster fire in American history. I can’t wait for the books. I hope the HBO movie is a 12-parter so they capture every juicy behind-the-scenes detail.
the only thing that is keeping me from going mad with pleasure is the possibility that he might win. what if he’s spending all his money on rigging the election, via massive voter suppression/vote machine hacking, etc., instead of TV spending. could be some really bad ‘terror’ attacks could scare the feeble minded back into his cesspool, too, but that’s about it…I don’t think even whatever putin/assange have up their sleeves is going to matter now.
or is he just grifting, and trying to figure out a way to put all that $$$$ in his own pockets.
lots of people think he’s broke, outside of his NYC property holdings. that’s why he’s into it with the Russian oligarchs…only place he can get any money.
here’s a fun read, and not the best example, but I can’t find the one I wanted to put up:
tim Obrien was sued by trump for maliciously underestimating trump’s wealth. the suit was dismissed, and here’s OBrien’s comment…
“Donald Trump lost his lawsuit and it didn’t cost me any money to litigate it. The central tenets of his complaint – that the book inaccurately or maliciously described his troubled business history and his exaggerations or misrepresentations around his wealth and success as a dealmaker – didn’t hold up in court. These continue to be important issues in this presidential campaign, even if Mr. Trump wants to dismiss or diminish them.”
doesn’t get much better than this…when confronted in court, according to the link I can’t find (but is quoted in the CBS link), he admitted that he lied over A HUNDRED times…that’s how many times he had to swallow it when questioned under OATH.
“I have never received a single ‘off-the-books cash payment’ as falsely ‘reported’ by The New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia,” Manafort wrote in a statement.
lots of wiggle room there, yes? no cash, no government work…lots of room there to keep your statement ‘honest,’ which would be a first. remember how stridently, obnoxiously, truculently, you denied the plagiarism fiasco, then did a very abrupt
180, refusing to ever discuss it again, to which refusal the liberal media meekly assented. what if they’d gone after that the way they won’t let the email “scandal” die, even after profuse apology?
who DID you work for, then, and are you not including Yanukovych as one of your clients, or was it just that he wasn’t part of the ‘government’ when you worked for him. was that pad in Kiev just a pied a terre, a stabbing cabin, or what? have you ever revealed who you did your slimy PR tricks for over there? uneducated, lazy slob that I am, I’ll wait for the trump apologist to come, screaming to defend the indefensible.
let’s see if he sticks his head out in the near future, and if the liberal media once again swallows his mendacious assertions without so much as a peep.
Yes indeed. Also, the NYT never reported that he received the payment. He’s lying about that in his statement above.
Also, I would also ask him: “Did you receive any payments not in cash form? Did you receive multiple payments rather than a single payment? Did you do work for agents representing the governments of Ukraine or Russia?”
excellent points, and msnbc just referred to his “carefully worded response”
of course, they have rarely, if ever, bothered to parse anything he says, going back as far as I can remember. the most they ever seem to do is repeat the same question over and over when he doesn’t answer it…can’t remember when they just come out and call him the liar he demonstrates himself to be.
have you seen the roger stone twitfeed? can’t remember if I linked that one…they really take him apart on that one, including NatInq pictures from the sexcapade story, in which he advertised his appetites. seen those?
they’re interviewing one of the NYT reporters as I type: Andrew Kramer
they’re going into manafort’s denial of receiving any money, quoting his statement.
Kramer is citing the Ukrainian investigative agency, and what the investigators have inferred about how the money manafort claimed was for the usual campaign expenses, as expressed in the ledger, were NOT used for what was claimed, and the amounts were WAY out of line for the supposed expenses, much of said money leaving the country
Well, this is already a known thing. Trump is openly using the campaign to divert campaign money to Trump properties. The one thing we know he’s got are properties - gold courses, resorts, that sort of thing. He spends campaign money renting those properties for campaign events.
several republican tweetsters, who opine that things are looking very bad for manafort, one of whom says he should resign ASAP. even GWB apologist (called him a HERO) David Frum is wondering to whom manafort answers…hahahaha
bestest word in the dictionary: schadenfreude, nein?