It can be traced back to Republican Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential run and was used with great success by the Nixon campaign in 1968. In that capacity he served as Southern coordinator for Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, in which he exploited the GOP’s “Southern Strategy” - an effort to build political support for the Republican Party among white Democratic voters in the South through dog-whistle appeals to racism against African Americans. Much of it he spent lobbying for notorious human rights abusers such as Angolan anti-communist rebel leader Jonas Savimbi and dictators Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Mohammed Siad Barre of Somalia and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo).īut before he was advocating for human rights abusers on the world stage, Manafort was helping the Republican Party gain advantage by embracing the politics of racism at home.Īfter launching his political career in 1976 as a delegate-hunt coordinator for the President Ford Committee, Manafort went on to co-found a political consulting firm. The charges against Manafort - a Connecticut native with business and law degrees from Georgetown University - cap off a controversial career in politics. If convicted, the 68-year-old faces up to 80 years in prison. Manafort surrendered to the FBI, pleaded not guilty and was placed under house arrest. The charges relate to his laundering through foreign shell companies millions of dollars made lobbying for a pro-Russia party in Ukraine - work he failed to properly disclose - and using it to buy luxury goods and property while avoiding taxes. In a 12-count indictment that also named his business partner, Manafort was charged with conspiracy to launder money, serving as an unregistered agent of a foreign power, making false statements and other crimes. As part of the ongoing probe into Russian efforts to help Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election, Special Counsel Robert Mueller last week handed down criminal indictments of three Trump campaign associates, among them former campaign chair Paul Manafort of Virginia.
0 kommentar(er)
