Donald Trump’s top presidential campaign advisor is a world-class thug.
Paul Manafort, who Trump brought on in March as his Republican Convention strategist and recently elevated to campaign chairman, has worked for notorious arms dealers, warlords, dictators and international tycoons who have left trails of unrest, mayhem and death or looted their country’s treasuries, according to a new report by the American Bridge 21st Century PAC [3], which is primarily funded by a who’s who of Democratic donors [4]
“In 1981, the Trump Organization had employed Manafort’s lobbying firm Black, Manafort, and Stone—which included Trump accolyteRoger Stone [5]—making it one of the firm’s very first clients,” said the PAC’s research summary. “There and on his own, Manafort was responsible for representing some of the world’s most unsavory clients on behalf of what the press called the ‘Torturers’ Lobby.’
The PAC gives more than a dozen examples from the past three decades of Manafort’s career as a lobbyist, influence peddler and deal-maker, starting with being an international arms dealer to pocketing millions from Eastern Bloc clients who sought to park their assets in the West.