Manafort's consulting firm under FBI investigation

CNN is reporting that the FBI is investigating the consulting firm of Paul Manafort (until Friday, the chair of Donald Trump's political campaign).  They are looking into "whether US companies and the financial system were used to aid alleged corruption by the party of former president Viktor Yanukovych" of the Ukraine."

Paul Manafort himself has not been the focus of the investigation, according to officials, although the probe is ongoing and they are not ruling anything out   Allegations are that Yanukovych led a corrupt regime as Ukraine's president, before he was overthrown by a people's revolution and fled to Russia in 2014.

Manafort was an adviser to Yanukovych from 2004 to 2010, helping him remake his public image that arguably resulted in his election victory in 2010.    This was in spite of the fact that the United States government opposed Yanukovych because of his ties to Putin, and despite an appeal from the U.S. ambassador telling Manafort that he was undermining the interests of the United States.  Yanukovich reportedly now resides in Russia under the protection of Vladimir Putin.

Other reports, not confirmed to my knowledge, have alleged that Manafort and associate Rick Gates continued to advise the political party that supported Yanukovych as recently as late 2015.

So Manacort definitely was in the pro-Russian/pro-Putin axis -- and may still have ties.   He has also worked for at least two Russian oligarchs.  See yesterday's post concerning Manafort and the Trump campaign.    Trump has either a naive or a subserversive tilt toward Putin -- and that's just one more reason he should not be president of the U.S.

Ralph