- Paul Manafort Indicted Co-Conspirator
- Rick Gates Trump campaign deputy chairman indicted cooperating witness
- Roger Stone Longtime Business Partner/Associate
- Konstantin Kilimnik Russian Intelligence, Longtime Manafort employee
- Bob Dole
- Oleg Deripaska-2003 Lobbying-Dole, Davis & Manafort
- Rick Davis Davis/Manafort 1996 Dole Deputy Campaign Manager
- Scott Reed, Dole Campaign Managerwho managed Robert J. Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, with Davis as a deputy, said Davis deserves credit for “being the manager of the most amazing political comeback in modern political history.”
- Roger Stone–UNPAID DOLE ADVISER RESIGNS: September 12, 1996 CHICAGO TRIBUNE “An unpaid consultant to Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole was forced to resign Thursday after two supermarket tabloids reported he and his wife had advertised for group sex. Consultant Roger Stone was a member of Dole’s “Clinton accountability team,” whose job was to point out inconsistencies in the president’s record…The National Enquirer and the Star said Stone used the Internet and a “swingers’ magazine” called Swing Fever to find couples or single men to join him and his wife for group sex. Clinton’s top political strategist, Dick Morris, resigned from the president’s campaign two weeks ago when the Star reported he had a year-long liaison with a prostitute with whom he had shared confidential White House information.”
- Dmytro Firtash
- Rinat Akhmetov
- Trump Campaign
- Russiagate
October 27, 2017 Paul Manafort Jr. and Richard Gates III Indictment
USA v Paul J. Manafort Jr. and Richard Gates III Superseding Indictment February 2018. CRIMINAL NO. 1:18 Cr. 83 (TSE)(S-1) COUNTS 1–5: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 * Subscribing to False United States PAUL J. MANAFORT, JR., * (Counts 1 through 5, 11 through 14, and * 24 through 32) * and * RICHARD W. GATES III, *(Counts 6 through 10 and 15 through 32) *; Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual IncomeTax Returns COUNTS 6–10: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2); 18 * U.S.C. § 3551 et seq.;COUNTS 11–14: 31 U.S.C. §§ 5314 and * 5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank; COUNTS 15–19: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); * 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq. Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns; COUNT 20: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq. Subscribing to a False Amended United States Individual Income Tax Return; COUNTS 21–23: 31 U.S.C. §§ 5314 and 5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq. Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts; COUNT 24: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNT 25: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud; COUNT 26: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and 3551 Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNTS 27: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud; COUNT 28–29: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNT 30: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud; COUNT 31: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and 3551 * et seq. Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNT 32: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud *FORFEITURE NOTICE
Mueller to send Rick Gates case to US attorney in DC Washington Examiner by Melissa Quinn March 23, 2019
Donald Trump’s advisers waged covert influence campaign – Associated Press – Friday, August 19, 2016 “WASHINGTON (AP) — A firm run by Donald Trump’s campaign chairman directly orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine’s then-ruling political party, attempting to sway American public opinion in favor of the country’s pro-Russian government, emails obtained by The Associated Press show. Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, never disclosed their work as foreign agents as required under federal law.
The lobbying included attempts to gain positive press coverage of Ukrainian officials in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press. Another goal: undercutting American public sympathy for the imprisoned rival of Ukraine’s then-president. At the time, European and American leaders were pressuring Ukraine to free her.
Gates personally directed the work of two prominent Washington lobbying firms in the matter, the emails show. He worked for Manafort’s political consulting firm at the time.
Manafort’s and Gates‘ activities carry outsized importance, since they have steered Trump’s campaign since April. The pair also played a formative role building out Trump’s campaign operation after pushing out an early rival. Trump shook up his campaign’s organization again this week, but Manafort and Gates retain their titles and much of their influence. The new disclosures about their work come as Trump faces criticism for his friendly overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump said Thursday night that, if elected, he will ask senior officials in his administration not to accept speaking fees, for five years after leaving office, from corporations that lobby “or from any entity tied to a foreign government.” He said it was among his efforts to “restore honor to government.”
Manafort and Gates have previously said they were not doing work that required them to register as foreign agents. Neither commented when reached by the AP on Thursday.
The emails show Gates personally directed two Washington lobbying firms, Mercury LLC and the Podesta Group Inc., between 2012 and 2014 to set up meetings between a top Ukrainian official and senators and congressmen on influential committees involving Ukrainian interests. Gates noted in the emails that the official, Ukraine’s foreign minister, did not want to use his own embassy in the United States to help coordinate the visits.
Gates also directed the firms to gather information in the U.S. on a rival lobbying operation, including a review of its public lobbying disclosures, to determine who was behind that effort, the emails show.
And Gates directed efforts to undercut sympathy for Yulia Tymoshenko, an imprisoned rival of then-President Viktor Yanukovych. The Ukrainian leader eventually fled the country in February 2014 during a popular revolt prompted in part by his government’s crackdown on protesters and close ties to Russia.
The emails do not describe details about the role of Manafort, who was Gates‘ boss at the firm, DMP International LLC. Current and former employees at Mercury and the Podesta Group, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they are subject to non-disclosure agreements, told the AP that Manafort oversaw the lobbying efforts and spoke by phone about them. Gates was directing actions and seeking information during the project using an email address at DMP International, which he still uses.
Ukraine’s anti-corruption body, meantime, has released entries from once-secret accounting documents that purport to show payments from the pro-Russian political party earmarked for Manafort. The documents now released show Manafort’s name listed as a recipient of funds totaling $12.7 million in 22 line-item entries. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau said, however, that it cannot prove that Manafort actually received the money because other people including a prominent Party of the Regions deputy signed for him in those entries.
Manafort did not return phone and email messages Thursday from the AP to discuss the project. After the AP reported earlier this week that Manafort helped the Ukrainian political party secretly route at least $2.2 million to the two Washington lobbying firms, Manafort told Yahoo News that the AP’s account was wrong. “I was not involved in any payment plans,” Manafort said.
Gates said Thursday he was busy with Trump campaign focus groups and promised to review the AP’s questions in writing, then did not respond.
Manafort also said in a statement earlier this week that he never performed work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia. Gates previously told the AP, “At no time did our firm or members provide any direct lobbying support.”
Under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, people who lobby on behalf of foreign political leaders or political parties must provide detailed reports about their actions to the Justice Department. A violation is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
The emails illustrate how Gates worked with Mercury and the Podesta Group on behalf of Ukrainian political leaders. None of the firms, nor Manafort or Gates, disclosed their work to the Justice Department counterespionage division responsible for tracking the lobbying of foreign governments.
“There is no question that Gates and Manafort should have registered along with the lobbying firms,” said Joseph Sandler of Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, a Democratic-leaning Washington law firm that advises Republican and Democratic lobbyists.
Manafort and Gates have said that they did not disclose their activities to the Justice Department because they did not oversee lobbying efforts and merely introduced the Washington firms to a Brussels-based nonprofit, the European Center for a Modern Ukraine, which they said ran the project. The center paid Mercury and the Podesta Group a combined $2.2 million over roughly two years.
The emails appear to contradict the assertion that the nonprofit’s lobbying campaign operated independently from Manafort’s firm. In papers filed in the U.S. Senate, Mercury and the Podesta Group listed the European nonprofit as an independent, nonpolitical client. The firms said the center stated in writing that it was not aligned with any foreign political entity. The 1938 U.S. foreign agents law is intended to track efforts of foreign government’s unofficial operatives in the United States.
Political consultants are generally leery of registering under it, because their reputations can suffer once they are on record as accepting money to advocate the interests of foreign governments — especially if those interests conflict with America’s. Moreover, registering under the law would have required Gates, Manafort or the lobbying firms to disclose the specifics of their lobbying work and their efforts to sway public opinion through media outreach.
Ina Kirsch, who runs the European nonprofit, has said the group’s work was independent and its goal was to bring Ukraine into the fold of Europe. The center has declined for years to reveal specific sources of its funding. Gates confirmed to the AP previously that he was working for Ukraine’s ruling party, the Party of Regions, at the time.
The chairman of the Podesta Group, Tony Podesta — the brother of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta — said his firm believed Gates was working for the nonprofit. Podesta said he was unaware of the firm’s work for the Ukraine’s Party of Regions, led by Yanukovych. On Thursday, his firm said it had nothing new to add.
Mercury’s founder, Vin Weber, an influential Republican and former congressman, told the AP that his firm was aware of Manafort’s and Gates‘ affiliation with Ukraine’s political party and said Gates never participated in Mercury’s lobbying work. Weber did not respond to questions after the AP said it had obtained emails contradicting this.”Associated Press writers Maria Danilova, Desmond Butler, Bradley Klapper and researcher Monika Mathur contributed to this report. Washington TImes”
Paul Manafort’s protege has followed him around for years. “Election campaigns in Eastern Europe and Africa. Business ventures with a Russian tycoon. The upper ranks of Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign.
Mr. Gates survived Mr. Manafort’s purge last summer amid allegations that his mentor had taken millions of dollars from Kremlin allies, retaining a central role on Mr. Trump’s campaign and transition team. But Mr. Gates, 45, soon followed in Mr. Manafort’s footsteps once again: In April, amid new questions about Russian interference in the 2016 election, he was abruptly forced out of a lobbying group formed to advance President Trump’s agenda.
Now, Mr. Gates has been drawn into the burgeoning federal investigations into diplomatic and financial dealings between Russian interests and the president’s inner circle. In a newly disclosed memo, a lawyer for the Trump campaign ordered members of the president’s transition team to preserve records relating to five Trump associates, among them Mr. Manafort — already known to be a subject of the investigation — and Mr. Gates. The memo indicates that transition lawyers believe Mr. Gates’s actions are under scrutiny by the Justice Department or the House or Senate Intelligence Committees — or soon will be.
As investigators examine Mr. Manafort’s financial and political dealings at home and abroad, they are likely to run into Mr. Gates wherever they look. During the pair’s heady days in Ukraine, it was Mr. Gates who flew to Moscow for meetings with associates of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch. His name appears on documents linked to shell companies that Mr. Manafort’s firm set up in Cyprus to receive payments from politicians and businesspeople in Eastern Europe, records reviewed by The New York Times show.
Following an inquiry from the Department of Justice, Mr. Gates and Mr. Manafort are also now weighing whether to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act in connection with an effort in Washington several years ago to burnish the image of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.” NY Times June 16, 2017
