Paul Manafort: Bank Fraud, Tax Fraud, Ukraine Lobbying — Convicted and Pardoned

Overview

Paul Manafort spent a decade selling his skills to the highest bidder in the global autocracy market. His primary client was Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Ukrainian president who fled to Moscow after a popular uprising in 2014. The money Manafort was paid — tens of millions — he hid, spent on luxury goods, and fraudulently used as collateral for bank loans when the Ukrainian revenue stopped.

He became Trump's campaign chairman in June 2016. He shared the campaign's internal polling data with a person the U.S. Senate assessed had ties to Russian intelligence. He was convicted, then pardoned.

The Kilimnik Data Sharing

The Senate Intelligence Committee's bipartisan report — issued in August 2020 — identified the Manafort-Kilimnik data sharing as one of the most significant national security concerns in its investigation. Manafort provided detailed internal polling data and strategic information about battleground states to Kilimnik during the same period Russia was running its interference operation targeting those same states.

The Mueller report had described the data sharing as one of the investigation's most significant unresolved threads. The Senate report provided more specificity.

The Pardon Pattern

Manafort did not cooperate with prosecutors. He lied to investigators after agreeing to cooperate, voiding the plea deal. He did not receive credit for cooperation because he provided none.

He was pardoned anyway. The pardon extended to the D.C. conviction, which included the FARA conspiracy charges related to his undisclosed Ukrainian lobbying work. Trump described him as a "brave man."