Rachel Maddow Incredibly Ties Together Manafort, The Trump Campaign, and Financial Crimes

Rachel Maddow put it all together and showed how Paul Manafort’s money problems vanished after he joined the Trump campaign.

Read: Kristi Noem Is Banned From 20% of South Dakota.

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Maddow said:

For some reason times were tough and this stuff all happens in very close succession, all at once, late 2015 early 2016. These guys are doing backflips allegedly flagrantly illegal backflips to try to get cash for Manafort and increasingly it was not working. But then it all turned around. For some reason manafort himself to the trump campaign as a full-time volunteer “I don’t need to get paid, I don’t have money problems.” Then his money problems turn around.

And, again, look at the timing here, look at the timing. Between approximately 2016 and January 2017 manafort with the assistance of Gates sought and secured approximately $16 million. $16 million in two loans from lender D. Finally, great relief. Money coming in. Let’s put late 2015 and early 2016 behind them. Thank god for lender D. I mean, they were still apparently ripping off lender D. There was another doctored profit-and-loss statement where Gates took the real profit-and-loss statement and converted it from a PDF file to a word file, edited it, added $3.5 million. Then turned it back into a PDF. They learned not to use the bookkeeper anymore. They even concocted a note that the over $300,000 that was overdue on Manafort’s American Express card, that was a big misunderstanding. They concocted a story that Gates borrowed the card, he was good for it, pay no attention to how the quote delinquency on that American Express card significantly affected Paul Manafort’s credit score. So they still hand to scam lender D but it worked. Look at the timeline. That scrambling in late 2015 and early 2016 and it’s not working out. But starting July, 2016, Gates and Manafort, jackpot.

Rachel Maddow put it together

This is why Paul Manafort’s financial crimes are important to the Russia scandal. Manafort wasn’t some rich guy with Russia connections. He was a broke scammer who needed cash with Russia connections. This was the guy that Trump put in charge of his campaign. After Manafort joined the campaign, Russia’s efforts to help Trump hit another gear. Paul Manafort has a lot of information that he could give to Mueller. Manafort could fill in some gaps. Trump’s campaign needed help. Paul Manafort needed cash. Manafort also had the Russia connections.

It isn’t difficult to see the intersection of needs, and Rachel Maddow revealed a key motive that connects Manafort’s financial crimes to the Trump campaign.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association