Key Conn. connections in Trump saga

2019-10-08 - By Dan Freedman

When the history of President Donald Trump’s tumultuous first term is written, there will be plenty of characters with Connecticut connections. Here are some main players:

MARIE YOVANOVITCH

A Russianspeaking daughter of immigrants who landed in Connecticut, Yovanovitch attended the Kent School and Princeton and rose in the U.S. foreign service to become a career ambassador. Trump, in his now infamous call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelinskiy, said she was “bad news” when she was U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has blocked efforts to persuade Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son. Yovanovitch is scheduled to testify Friday before a joint session of three House committees.

JOHN DURHAM

The Groton resident, currently the

U.S. attorney for Connecticut, was tagged by Attorney General William Barr to head up a probe of the origins of the Mueller investigation — which Democrats see as a thinlyveiled Trump effort to prove Robert Mueller’s RussiaTrump probe was a “setup.” Barr and Durham recently traveled to Rome in pursuit of evidence about Joseph Mifsud, the mysterious source of the allegation that Russia had a stash of Hillary Clinton emails — an allegation that eventually found its way to the FBI. Critics see it as a thoroughly political effort to whitewash Trump and possibly smear the Bidens. Mifsud is in hiding.

PAUL MANAFORT

Sits in a federal jail cell serving a 71⁄2yearsentence for tax fraud, money laundering and failure to register as a foreign agent. The case against the scion of a powerful Republican family in New Britain hinged on his work for the proRussia political party in Ukraine that got chased from power in 2014. The Trump team is trying to prove Ukrainians cooperating with Democrats leaked documents in order to embarrass Trump at a time when Manafort was the president’s 2016 campaign manager.

ROGER STONE

Norwalk native and longtime Republican operative and Trump pal, Stone brought Manafort into the Trump camp. Stone was the closest thing Trump had to an emissary to WikiLeaks, which blasted Russianhacked emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee out on the Internet. Mueller’s team indicted Stone on charges of lying to Congress and investigators about his WikiLeaks connections.

HOPE HICKS

Greenwich High School lacrosse cocaptain and former model, Hicks parlayed a position with Ivanka Trump’s fashion line into a job as Trump spokeswoman, confidante, strategist and interpreter. Hicks served as Trump spokeswoman during the campaign and followed him to the White House, where she seemed to walk gracefully on water as everyone else around her seemed panicstricken. She told the House Judiciary Committee she knew nothing of the Stormy Daniels payoff when, in fact, an FBI affidavit shows her intimately involved — even patching through a call from Trump to lawyerfixer Michael Cohen. Hicks left the White House in 2018 to take a job in Los Angeles with Fox corporate communications.

RAJ SHAH

Norwalk native served on the Trump campaign and as a Trump White House spokesman until he departed, like Hicks, for a corporate job at Fox this past July. He also latched on to Trump during the campaign and rode with him into the White House. He helped marshal the media strategy for Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings last year. But his first turn at the White House podium turned into a food fight as angry reporters wrangled with him over contradictory statements on Rob Porter, a nowdeparted White House official (and onetime boyfriend of Hicks) accused of abuse by two exwives.

LINDA McMAHON

WWE cofounder who contributed $7 million plus in 2016 along with husband Vince to Trumprelated SuperPACs. Now she heads one herself, the America First Action PAC. Between those bookends, she served as Trump’s first Small Business Administration chief.

LARRY KUDLOW

A Redding resident, his conservative views on CNBC prompted Trump to appoint him chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He’s been Trump’s leading economic cheerleader, ready to cite helpful statistics on job and business growth to show the president is getting results. But he was all thumbs on reporter questions about China trade talks and Trump’s demand that China investigate the Bidens.

CHRIS MURPHY

The U.S. senator’s trip to Ukraine in late August proved prophetic. Murphy suggested to Ukrainian President Zelinskiy that on diplomatic matters, he should forget about Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and just deal with the U.S. embassy. But he’s also negotiating with Trump over new gun legislation.

RICHARD BLUMENTHAL

Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted against confirmation of two Trump Supreme Court picks as well as William Barr for attorney general. Pursuing lawsuit based on Constitution’s emoluments clause, charging Trump D.C. hotel income from foreign leaders, delegations, is illegal without Congressional approval. Trump has targeted Blumenthal for misstatements about serving in Vietnam as a Marine.

JIM HIMES

Member of the House Intelligence Committee, which is taking the lead on Ukrainerelated matters as part of the House impeachment inquiry.