There Was No Reason To Hire Manafort Except to Collude with Russia
by David Atkins
October 29, 2017
As the political world waits anxiously for the seal to be broken on special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictments, the smart money is on Paul Manafort as the principal target. Manafort is clearly corrupt, having made millions under the table selling his services to pro-Putin forces in Ukraine. He’s the target of an FBI probe focused on at least 13 suspicious wire transfers related to his dealing overseas.
Beyond pathetically attempting to redirect attention to Hillary Clinton and attack the integrity of the Steele dossier, the conservative line is that while Manafort may have been involved in shady dealings, and while Trump’s family and campaign may have met with Russians promising to deliver dirt on his opponent, Trump himself was not complicit with Russia to interfere in the election.
This is almost assuredly untrue, because there was no reason to hire Manafort in the first place except to collude with Russia.
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Manafort was a terrible choice for campaign manager, both in terms of competence and optics. It was neither a pick designed to buoy his populist credentials, nor was it a sop to the GOP establishment that Trump desperately needed at the time. The only thing Manafort had in his favor was his close ties to Putin, and there is no conceivable reason to have hired him except to leverage those ties.
If Manafort is indeed the primary target of Mueller’s probe, it’s a guarantee that the Trump campaign absolutely intended to collude closely with Russia as a longshot path to a difficult election.
MORE:
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/10/29/there-was-no-reason-to-hire-manafort-except-to-collude-with-russia/
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They wanted access to the Russian cash trough!
