As News of Raid Breaks, National Enquirer Discovers Manafort’s Long-Reported Mistress
I was just asking why the news of the search on Paul Manafort’s home was breaking now. Only to discover that Trump buddy David Pecker’s National Enquirer is breaking “an investigation” about Manafort’s mistress, including this quote from a “White House insider.”
President Trump has been focused on draining the swamp in Washington D.C., … Meanwhile, one of his trusted advisers was bedding another woman behind his wife’s back, betraying her and his country.
Mind you, the affair is not news. Krypt3ia first reported it, based of hack and leaked texts, back in March.
I found conversations between Manaforts daughter and someone about how her father was having an affair with a girl younger than one of his daughters.
What is even more interesting is that the allegation here is that not only was Manafort having this affair but that girl (who is named in the chats and I have backstopped and was in fact in Ukraine at the time mentioned while Manafort was there) but that of all things Paul seems to have said that she was some “Russian friends” daughter. Though the text below states they don’t really think that the girl is Russian there are more down stream that talk about her father and her family and ties to Russia (maybe) but the sick burn here is if she is, well, that is a pretty direct tie to the country that might, ya know, use that as kompromat on Pauly eh?
Even the idea that Paul may have had a young trophy mistress is enough for blackmail but the texts go on to describe her travel with him all over the world including to Ukraine while he was working there. So, if the Russians did not have access to her or had placed her in the proximity of Paul this certainly would have been information they would not have passed up on to use. So, once more, if the sql database is legit and the information presented here is on the mark, it is quite possible that Manafort was at least in this instance easily vulnerable to compromise by the Russians.
As the chats went on though, it seems that the new girl was also straining Manafort’s money because he was being extravagant with her. As you can see from above, he allegedly rented her a house in the Hamptons by his own for a summer and bought a NYC apartment for her to be in. All of this money being spent also as it happens, was concurrent with his daughters wedding coming and Ukraine not paying him for his services.
As I noted in a comment on the raid thread, this mistress is one way Manafort’s money laundering could implicate his involvement with Trump’s campaign — which is interesting why an “insider” from the White House of a serial divorcé and philanderer deems an affair to be tantamount to betraying your country, especially given that nothing in the Enquirer supports that claim. And the Enquirer, which never met privacy violations it couldn’t profit off of, is guarding the mistress’ ID.
There is, however, one detail in the Enquirer’s short screed of interest, though not precisely in the marriage-saving context in which it presents it. It reveals that as all of this was breaking, Manafort reached out to the mistress again.
“But when he was warned about the messages being leaked on the dark web, he went into damage control mode — yet foolishly reached out to his mistress again!”
Reaching out to a mistress that may or may not have ties to his Russian friends during the middle of an investigation into any coordination with Russia’s tampering in the election Manafort briefly ran sound sounds stupid, but for entirely different reasons than his marriage.
If Mueller can’t make him sing with this stuff and the fruits of the raid he’s kind of hopeless.
Now, since I see on the prior thread that there were no warrants reported, let’s try this on for size after adjusting the tinfoil….
What if Sessions’ DOJ ordered this FBI raid with the idea of tainting anything found at Manafort’s house away from the available evidence pool in future prosecution? This is why I do not think the delay and eventual release is Mueller’s doing. Mueller wouldn’t advertise, but I seriously doubt he would release anything before going to court. Also supporting this idea is the report that previously supplied Manafort documents were also rolled up in this raid, which might then render them unable to be used by Mueller later.
Very interesting angle, been seeing that there was a warrant on Politico ang Guardian though, so we’ll just need some time to see how this plays out. Wouldn’t put it past Sessions though. After all, ‘tinfoil’ is THE fashion statement these days.
No, that is patently absurd.
I am laughing my buns off. A former fed prosecutor tweets it is “shocking” that a no-knock warrant was used for the raid on Manafort’s home. ABC News reported that FBI woke up Manafort knocking on his bedroom door.
Here’s my guess: Mrs. Manafort is FURIOUS about her husband’s too-young-too-grasping mistress and the massive hassle her jackass husband is putting her through. She lets in the FBI when they show up pre-dawn and doesn’t wake her snake of a spouse first.
Want to bet she contacted them the previous day when Manafort starts destroying stuff after his Senate Intelligence Committee closed door session?
I want to emphasis this is speculation on my part. Explains the timing of raid after the committee session, the surprise of it, and why they were looking for such a broad range of content. Cherchez la femme!
That detail was not in the original version I read. Was added later apparently. And, yeah, if somebody else did not let them in, and it truly was a no knock, then it really is beyond shocking.
It may be far out of the norm for white collar crime, but I am not surprised by a no-knock warrant. We’re dealing with thugs; the things Manafort’s kids have said about him don’t make him out to be a typical white collar criminal.
Also wonder if he’s been increasingly a flight risk.
No, it is absolutely fucking stunning if true.
It does seem to be a rather emphatic way to execute a warrant. It begs the question regarding what the Feebs thought Manafort could destroy during the time the agents showed up and canvassed the house. I’ve never been there but I doubt it’s big enough to hide everything. Stuff hidden in a secret place would I think be detected eventually, since the Feebs would know to be thorough and bring extra detection equipment.
We will see when Mueller files his case / plea deal.
Now as to the mistress, there is the adage that there is no fool like an old fool. Nonetheless, it is a time honored Kompromat method (the swallows) and there is also the problem for Manafort that he did not have an official salary during the campaign IIRC. So, where did the money come from to maintain the lifestyle, enough to decline to be paid by Caesar Disgustus? Given the grifting that swamps everything else associated with C.D., this exception from someone not known for altruistic action really stands out as weird.
A no-knock warrant for Mr. Manafort? Oh, my. If true, why would it merit comment? People alleged to have committed non-violent crimes across the country daily suffer service of warrants by SWAT teams – not standard beat cops – who’ve forgotten their kid gloves and the time limits required between knock and forced entry.
One would think that serial adultery is common among power players in the DC- NYC corridor. It seems newsworthy only when secrets are being spilt and scores threaten to be settled.
What might motivate Trump in going to such lengths to hide his Russian connections and the finances behind his hundreds of companies and thousands of deals?
My money is on the possibility that the core of the Trump empire is built on dirty money and accounting and tax positions so aggressive they could easily be interpreted as tax fraud. If so and if revealed, no amount of narcissistic salesmanship could keep the empire afloat. It would look like India in 1947.
That would be the end of the Trump family, its empire and much of its wealth. Donald would commit seppuku before allowing that to happen. Nor is Donald built to, say, resign from the presidency in order to keep his empire intact, if that becomes the sort of Nixonian deal on offer. That’s a recipe for mad behavior that would generate considerable collateral damage.
Remember the guest posts on Trump taxes by my tax attorney friend Bob Lord:
Post One
Post Two
Worth reviewing given your thoughts. Frankly, I think unconnected to today’s fun, but as to the ultimate question as to why Trump freaks out, maybe germane.
From Politico, about an hour ago:
(more at the link)
It sure looks like they’re trying to get into Manafort’s head, which goes back to my Option #2 on the previous thread.
Maybe this is implied in the post and everyone else gets it, so I’m stating the obvious.
But isn’t the Enquirer article likely to be a warning to Manafort from Trump. “We’re leaking the silly stuff now, but if you talk, we’re blowing you up.”
Why is it Team Trump squeezing Manafort and not the other way around? Assume Manafort was helping Russian interests — why would Trump’s buddy at the NatEnq leak on Manafort?
(Not to mention the mistress stuff leaked months ago.)
Is there some other purpose to this NatEnq report? Are they building plausible deniability for Manafort? “I wasn’t there, I was with my side piece…it wasn’t my money, it was my side piece’s cash…” and so on.
Mine is just a theory. I may well be wrong.
But I’m not really following your theories. Is Manafort squeezing Team Trump? That’s possible. Maybe likely. But how does this story serve that end? This has to be embarrassing to Manafort. And to his wife, which has to cause him some distress, even if they’re estranged. What message would this send from Manafort to Trump?
Is someone building deniability for Manafort? I’m sure there are those who would like to. But an Enquirer story isn’t evidence. And it isn’t prominent enough to enter the national consciousness in a way that will matter to public opinion about whether Manafort might be guilty. (At least that’s my take. But maybe you think this does stick in the minds of a significant number of people.)
So I’m not seeing how either of these would explain the Enquirer story.
The simplest explanation for a story embarrassing to Manafort is that someone is trying to embarrass Manafort. The likeliest source for an Enquirer story is Trump or someone close to him. So my first line of inquiry is why would Trump or an ally want to embarrass Manafort. My answer – to remind him they have dirt, and they’ll sacrifice him if he doesn’t keep the faith.
There may be other, better answers. Or better questions. But I’d be interested to see exactly how they provide the motive for this story.
I would just read it as a distraction.
But who is distracting whom is not obvious.
ICYMI, here’s why Manafort got hammered by the Enquirer: he alerted the authorities to the June 9 meeting. Otherwise it makes no sense to alienate the guy with potentially the keys to the kingdom.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/08/paul-manafort-squealed-now-hes-in-the-hot-seat/
(Crossposted on a later thread)
Keep mind though that Kushner finally disclosed it on one of his many updates to his SF-86. So, Manafort is a little superfluous.
Any legal insight on Trump’s lawyer’s email to WaPo?
It looks bad.
Ugh! Tried to delete my comment when I saw the post about the email! Sorry!
No worries. It happens. :-)