Paul Manafort is going down in flames
It is a bit surprising that Paul Manafort is sticking with his not guilty plea, considering the amount of evidence mounting against him. They have a handwritten ledger listing payments made by Manafort’s pro-Kremlin client, and they also have his business partner in Ukraine, Rick Gates, who has flipped on Manafort.
Paul Manafort faces thirty-two counts in his upcoming trial, which is starting Tuesday, July 31st. Sixteen counts are related to filing false individual tax returns, along with seven counts regarding failure to report foreign transactions, five counts of bank fraud conspiracy and lastly, four counts of bank fraud. While this trial in Northern Virginia is focused on financial fraud, Manafort will face another trial starting September 17th for criminal charges, in Washington, DC.
So, what’s the big deal with Manafort working in Ukraine? In layman’s terms, two candidates competed to become President of Ukraine. One was a puppet installed by Russia, and the other was a liberal favored by the West. Guess which one was Manafort’s client? The guy who was being propped up by Russia. During the first election between the two candidates, the Western favorite was poisoned with dioxin and almost died. There’s nothing suggesting Manafort was involved with this, but his future client was the guy who stood to gain from getting rid of his opponent. And of course, poisoning is known to be a favorite method of killing amongst murderous wives and Vladimir Putin.
Manafort has worked on some famous Republican campaigns over the years, but he didn’t get much work in the U.S. after he gained a reputation for being linked with Russia. John McCain, for instance, turned him down as a campaign manager. Yet Trump, who prefers people who don’t get caught, was the first to pick up Paul Manafort again as a campaign manager.
Paul Manafort is not known to be a generous man and he likes to get paid handsomely, hence the ultra-expensive clothing, multiple houses and cars and so forth. Part of his amassed wealth came because he didn’t pay taxes on some $30 million dollars earned in Ukraine. Now, he must defend the fact he hid income from the Kremlin. His assets, including expensive watches, are being listed as we speak. Manafort is expected to do a lot of time in jail, he’ll just be tracking it with a much less dashing timepiece.
