I worked for Paul Manafort. He always lacked a moral compass.
Early in my career, I worked for Paul Manafort. He was strategic, canny and demanding, and, it will surprise no one to learn after his 12-count indictment Monday, he played by his own rules, in an industry where you usually got away with it. I was young and wanted to do right by the world, but my boss lacked a moral compass. Working for him nearly broke my spirit.
A few years out of college, in 1987, I landed a job as an international field operative for BMS&K — Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, the capital’s first bipartisan lobbying firm. Manafort himself hired me after I promised that “there is no place in the world I will not go.” And I got what I signed up for: In more than a decade working for him, there was no place that Manafort would not send me.
According to a Newsweek cover story in 1985, BMS&K was “the hottest shop in town.” The service it provided to clients was part politics, part public policy and part commerce, a curious mix of self-interest, selflessness and opportunism that could exist only in Washington. BMS&K got paid to change policy and alter opinions. It could be for something as narrow as a modified export regulation or as all-encompassing as building strategic alliances against America’s enemies, real or perceived.
The late ’80s was a time of global upheaval. After Ronald Reagan’s presidency, we were in an era of proxy wars and “freedom fighters.” The Soviet Union was beginning to teeter. So foreign governments and other political interests were willing to pay us millions to ensure that they were properly allied with the United States. And we did it all: We organized congressional delegations and advocacy trips to lawmakers’ districts, coordinated head-of-state visits to Washington, handled front-page media placements, prepared white papers. Whatever it took.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/11/01/i-worked-for-paul-manafort-he-always-lacked-a-moral-compass
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