Former Trump campaign manager will register as a foreign agent,
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort will register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for lobbying work he did on behalf of political interests in Ukraine, led at the time by a pro-Russian political party, his spokesman said Wednesday.
Mr. Manafort is the second Trump campaign adviser to have to register as a foreign agent since the election, and the anticipated move is seen as adding a new embarrassment to an administration dealing with investigations into possible collaboration with Russia during last year’s campaign. The confirmation that he intends to register comes as the Trump administration has been facing heavy scrutiny over the foreign ties of former campaign advisers and other Trump associates.
By registering retroactively, Mr. Manafort will be acknowledging that he failed to properly disclose his work to the Justice Department as required by federal law.
The Justice Department rarely prosecutes such violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act, but Mr. Manafort will now have to publicly and specifically detail his foreign agent work. That includes which American government agencies and officials he sought to influence, how he was paid and the details of contracts he signed as part of the work. Before, Mr. Manafort had been able to keep much of that information out of public view.
Mr. Manafort began discussions with the government about his lobbying activities after Mr. Trump hired him in March 2016, Mr. Manafort’s spokesman Jason Maloni said, although it was unclear whether those conversations occurred before or after Mr. Trump forced Mr. Manafort to resign in August. Asked by The Associated Press on Wednesday whether Mr. Manafort intends to register as a foreign agent, Mr. Maloni said: “Yes, he is registering.” Mr. Manafort’s resignation from the campaign came immediately after the AP had reported that Mr. Manafort’s consulting firm between 2012 and 2014 orchestrated a covert Washington, D.C., lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine’s ruling political party without disclosing that it was working as a foreign agent.
Also on Wednesday, The New York Times published a report saying that a shell company created by Mr. Manafort the day he resigned as the Trump campaign manager received $13 million in loans from two businesses with ties to Mr. Trump, which appear to be part of an effort by Mr. Manafort to stave off a personal financial crisis.
Federal officials investigating Russian meddling in the American presidential election are known to have examined aspects of Mr. Manafort’s finances, including bank accounts he had in the secretive tax haven of Cyprus; there is no indication his recent loans are part of the inquiry.
Mr. Manafort’s decision to register as a foreign agent comes about one month after former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn registered with the Justice Department for work he did that could have benefited the Turkish government.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about whether Mr. Trump was aware that Mr. Manafort needed to register as a foreign agent.
Earlier Wednesday, one of the Washington lobbying firms that worked on the influence campaign under the direction of Mr. Manafort and his former deputy, Rick Gates, itself registered after the fact with the Justice Department as a foreign agent. The Podesta Group acknowledged its work could have principally benefited Ukraine’s government. The other firm involved, Mercury LLC, later said it also would register soon as a foreign agent for its work.
Mr. Gates did not respond to text messages left by the AP on Wednesday.
The Podesta Group and Mercury had previously disclosed their lobbying work to Congress under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, but neither firm had registered with the Justice Department. A foreign agent registration requires lobbying firms to disclose more details about their work than is required under the congressional registration. The Podesta Group disclosed details of $1.2 million worth of lobbying it did from 2012 through 2014 on behalf of a Brussels-based nonprofit, the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine.