It sounds like a war is underway between Donald Trump and his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.
There's a report that Manafort, under investigation by Robert Meuller's task force including a dawn search of one of his residences, spilled the story of Trump Jr's meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya and her Russian posse.
Now, in what appears like retaliation, Trumps tabloid, The Enquirer, has exposed the married, 68-year old Manafort's affair with a 33-year old woman.
Confidante and on-again, off-again adviser to President Donald Trump Roger Stone bashed supermarket tabloid The National Enquirer for publishing a splashy “sex scandal” exposé about former Trump 2016 chairman Paul Manafort on the day the story went public about an FBI raid on Manafort’s home.
The Daily Beast spoke to Stone, who said, “It’s very disturbing. I felt very badly for him last night. And of course, I’m trying to figure out the source.”
The Enquirer — owned by Trump booster and longtime friend David Pecker — blared on Wednesday, “Trump Advisor Sex Scandal — Paul Manafort’s Sick Affair” and detailed an alleged “sick affair” between married Manafort, 68, and a 33-year-old woman.
“Desperate to save his 39-year marriage to Kathleen, 64,” the Enquirer breathlessly recounted, “the cheating cad splashed out $18,000 on therapy to avoid airing his dirty laundry in a public divorce, sources said. ‘President Trump has been focused on draining the swamp in Washington, D.C.,’ a White House insider said. ‘Meanwhile, one of his trusted advisers was bedding another woman behind his wife’s back, betraying her and his country!'”
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The Enquirer published “hacked” texts purportedly from Manafort’s 32-year-old daughter Andrea, who was outraged that her father was carrying on behind her mother’s back.
“He’s been taking this WH*RE on trips instead of my mom,” the messages said. “He has taken heron his playlist of places… As in like the restaurant he celebrates my mom’s bday every year w(sic) her. The place they went on their honeymoon too. All their restaurants they go to when they go to Paris for decades.”Manafort has come under heavy scrutiny in recent months as investigations have swirled around the Trump White House. The longtime lobbyist belatedly registered as a foreign agent earlier this year after investigators began to question his ties to a pro-Putin faction in Ukraine that allegedly paid Manafort millions of dollars.
Manafort hasn't been a cooperating witness and the FBI has been leaning on his son-in-law and business partner, Jeffrey Yohai, to increase pressure on him. In fact, if Manafort had been cooperating, I can't think of any situation where the FBI would have sought and a judge would have granted a warrant authorizing a night raid on his place.
ReplyDeleteSo leaking the dirt on Manafort's affair to the Enquirer seems premature at this time and a sign of panic in the WH. Bloomberg claims it was in retaliation for Manafort disclosing Don Jr's 2016 meeting with the Russians to the Senate Intelligence Committee. But Manafort may not have had much choice if he was under subpoena. Bottom line, if Manafort's not helping Mueller, why give him reason to do so?
Here's another interesting coincidence: Trump's tweet banning transgendered military personnel went out on the morning of the raid on Manafort's place. Naturally, the media followed that red herring for the next few days and we didn't hear about the raid until weeks later.
Cap
The early search was a No-Knock Warrant. Justice in itself. Ever since his daughter called his dealings "Blood Money" in a text to her sister, I knew he was going down. He and Stone go back a long way.
ReplyDeleteMoney Laundering = RICO, and I await the trials.