1. As jury selection in case of Trump’s former campaign manager begins today, launching the first trial of Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference. Manafort has been charged w/tax & bank fraud, laundering $30M in offshore bank accounts:
ft.com/content/67674b…
ft.com/content/67674b…
2. @SarahKendzior and I discuss Manafort's long history with Donald Trump and serving Putin's interests in Ukraine in the first two episodes of @GaslitNation which look back on the 2016 election to understand how we got here: damemagazine.com/tag/gaslit-nat…
3. For years, Manafort earned "blood money" working for "dictators, guerilla groups, and despots with no regard for human rights—including one man responsible for mass amputations, and another who oversaw state-sanctioned rape."
thedailybeast.com/top-trump-aide…
thedailybeast.com/top-trump-aide…
4. For several years, Manafort worked for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president of Ukraine he helped get elected who then used the country's resources to enrich his family and inner circle, known as The Family.
slate.com/articles/news_…
slate.com/articles/news_…
5. Here's how Manafort's close client Yanukovych lived, on money stolen from Ukrainian taxpayers. This is where Yanukovych and Manafort played tennis: telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews…
6. During the popular uprising to overthrow Yanukovych, government snipers fired on protesters. Dozens of protesters were killed. Ukraine claimed Russia was involved: npr.org/sections/thetw…
7. Manafort was still advising Yanukovych at the time his government brutally tried to stop the revolution, which included illegally passing sweeping restrictions on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly known as the "dictator laws" thedailybeast.com/did-trump-ex-a…
8. After the revolution, the FBI began helping Ukraine search for the tens of billions stolen by the Yanukovych regime, as reported back in early 2014. So Trump should have known Manafort's connection to the FBI investigation given his work for Yanukovych: voanews.com/a/washington-r…
9. Former Trump Campaign Chief Reportedly Under Intermittent FBI Surveillance From 2014 Until This Year:
slate.com/blogs/the_slat…
slate.com/blogs/the_slat…
10. Here's the "Secret Ledger" story exposed by Ukrainian investigative journalist and a leading reformer in Ukraine active in the revolution, @Leshchenkos, which led to Manafort resigning nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/…
11. But Manafort never really went away. His friendship with Donald Trump goes back decades. Manafort worked closely with the Trump transition team, overseen by Pence who he made Trump pick as his VP. thedailybeast.com/paul-manafort-…
