The special counsel’s Friday superseding information against Paul Manafort is packed with new specifics about his lucrative work as an unregistered foreign lobbyist for Ukraine.
In damning, painstaking detail, the document lays out how Manafort worked to conceal and cover up the work he did on behalf of pro-Russian former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych.
Manafort is due in D.C. federal court at 11 a.m. ET for an arraignment and plea agreement hearing.
Here are some of the most striking details from the new information:
- In commissioning white-shoe U.S. law firm Skadden Arps to write a report evaluating the trial of Yakuovych’s political opponent Yulia Tymoshenko, Manafort helped the government of Ukraine conceal the tremendous sum paid to the firm for this work.
- Manafort directed his lobbyists to “plant some stink” on Tyomoshenko by alleging in U.S. news stories that she paid for the murder of a Ukrainian official. He urged them to take pains to cover their tracks.
- In another attempt to smear Tymoshenko’s reputation in the U.S., Manafort launched a scheme to portray her as anti-Semitic because one of her Cabinet officials was allied with a Ukrainian political party that “espoused anti-Semitic views.” The Trump campaign chair said he would enlist what he termed “[O]bama jews” to help spread this story.
