Ex-Trump campaign chairman aided Chinese media deal
After pardon, Manafort deep in foreign consulting
after pleading guilty to money laundering and obstruction of justice, Paul manafort, the globe-trotting political consultant and former campaign chairman for Donald Trump, asked for leniency in his sentencing, telling a federal judge five years ago that he was nearly 70 years old, struggling with health concerns, and remorseful for his actions.
The judge rejected his entreaties in the spring of 2019, ordering manafort to remain behind bars for more than seven years. Less than two years later, however, manafort’s criminal record was wiped clean when Trump pardoned him. he was among the dozens of allies, extended family members, and former campaign staffers allowed to walk free.
With his freedom, manafort hardly retired to a quiet home life. Instead, the longtime power broker — briefly brought low by the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election — reengaged in international consulting, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and people familiar with his activities who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
manafort has been assisting an effort to launch a Netflix-like mobile streaming and entertainment platform in China that, according to corporate documents, has the endorsement of the Chinese government. In an email to the Post, manafort said he was “not involved with China” and has “had nothing to do with China, including Chinese businesses, government, individuals, or anything else,” but acknowledged that he “was asked to make introductions to Us studios and potential Us partners in the venture.”
manafort, now 75, also sought to advise political figures in Japan and south Korea, according to a person who was approached by party officials in those countries checking on the consultant’s reputation. manafort has roamed widely, traveling to guatemala last year on the invitation of a migrant advocacy group called Proyecto guatemala migrante. The group’s leader, verónica Pimentel, said she and a colleague discussed Latin american politics and the Latino vote with manafort and introduced him to a guatemalan presidential candidate, Ricardo sagastume, who confirmed the meeting.
Emails, documents, and interviews fill in details of manafort’s life and work between 2020, when he swapped prison for home confinement owing to the coronavirus pandemic and then landed a pardon from Trump, and this election cycle, as he prepares to reenter Trump’s orbit. advisers say Trump is determined to hire manafort, likely handing him a substantial role at the Republican National Convention in milwaukee because he appreciates that his onetime campaign chairman has remained loyal to him even while serving in prison.
as in 2016, manafort has offered to work for free. he has met with Republicans in recent weeks about his role at the convention, though Trump advisers have not yet vetted any foreign activities and said last week that they were not aware of his consulting work and would want to review it before the convention, according to people familiar with the planning.
manafort’s support for the Chinese media venture, which has not been previously reported, may test Trump’s willingness to rely on figures with foreign entanglements and potential financial conflicts of interest. In 2020, a bipartisan senate panel described manafort’s connections to proRussian figures as a “grave counterintelligence threat.” Now, he has made introductions for individuals seeking to do business with an increasingly assertive China, at the very moment that Trump’s goP is presenting itself as a foe of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
manafort denied that his support for the venture mattered for broader geopolitics. “There is nothing about my limited role of introductions to Us business people that involves anything to do with the politics of Us-China relations,” he wrote.