Thread by @christinawilkie

NEW: My investigation into the $125,000 paid to Manafort's lawyers that Manafort allegedly lied about. Until now, source of $$ had been identified only as Firm A.

We report Firm A is Va. based Multi Media Services Corp, owned by GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio cnbc.com/2019/03/10/pau…

Fabrizio's ad buying firm, MMSC, was paid $19 million plus by the top Trump Super PAC, Rebuilding America Now. Look at this unredacted account name on the transfer record of the $125,000 payment. "MMSC Secondary - 7107 - Checking." That MMSC would be Multi Media Services Corp.

Tony Fabrizio's dual role as: a) the owner of MMSC, which was the biggest vendor by far to the top pro-Trump super PAC, Rebuilding America Now, and b) his job as the Trump campaign's lead pollster, has not been reported until now.

According to court transcripts and Mueller case filings, Fabrizio appears to have told Mueller that in order to get his firm, MMSC hired as the ad buyer for Rebuilding America Now, he had to agree to secretly split the commission with Laurance Gay, a longtime Manafort associate.

Rebuilding America Now paid Fabrizio's firm MMSC unusually high commission rates on ad buys, so high that PAC donors actually questioned them in 2016. Now we know why: Fabrizio and Laurance Gay had a secret commission split arrangement: 6% rate was paid to MMSC, and Gay got 3%.

Another strange set of events. In May 2017, long after the election, MMSC, Fabrizio's firm, made three large cash transfers to Rebuilding America Now.
May 27 for $150,000
June 15 for $625,000
June 16 for $25,000
And then 10 days later, MMSC paid Manafort's lawyers $125,000.

The cash transfers were reported to the FEC as reimbursements for ad money not spent. But political ad buyers told me this is not what reimbursements look like. Typically they're very precise amounts, paid out right after an election. Not a flat sum of $800K paid 6 months later.

Another strange confluence: After the 2016 election, Rebuilding America Now essentially went dormant. But Laurance Gay continued to collect $35K a month plus huge travel expenses for another year and a half.

Gay's total fees and expenses AFTER the election total $924,164.03.

Gay's total, $924,164 is very close to the $925,000 combined total that Fabrizio's firm MMSC transferred to Rebuilding America Now and Manafort's lawyers in May and June 2017. ($800,000 in "reimbursements" to the PAC plus $125,000 to Manafort's lawyers = $925K). Very close.

Rebuilding America Now all but disappeared last fall. Its last Tweet was posted on Oct 10 2018. This was 10 days after Manafort told his 2nd alleged lie about the $125,000. Its website was removed sometime last fall. A Facebook page still links to the nonexistent website. /END