From
2005 to 2014, Donald Trump's Campaign Director Paul Manafort was a political
advisor to Ukrainian President Viktor F. Yanukovych who
was staunchly pro-Russian. In 2014, Yanukovych was driven from office. Hand-written ledgers in the
offices of Yanukovych's political party
contain entries of $12.7 million in previously
undisclosed cash disbursements to Manafort.
When
asked for comment about these entries Mr. Manafort stated that:
“The suggestion that I accepted cash payments
is unfounded, silly and nonsensical,” Manafort said, adding that he never
worked for the governments of Ukraine
or Russia and that he
stopped working in Ukraine
Mr.
Manafort's response is an adroit non-denial denial. There is no indication in
the ledger as to what the cash disbursements were for. The issue is whether
cash was disbursed at his direction and, if so, for what purpose. Roger Stone is
a longtime political operative and partner of Manafort.
There
is an incident in 1980 in which Stone was involved that illustrates just how
evasive Manafort's non-denial may be. The basic facts of the incident were
reported by Matt Labash in The Weekly
Standard in a profile of Roger Stone.[i]
Some underlying facts which fill in gaps of the story I can fill in from
confidential sources in the Liberal Party which was the supposed object of a
$125,000 cash bribe. It was gathered by Roy Cohn and delivered in an unopened
valise to an attorney associated with the Liberal Party by Stone. The intent
was to purchase the endorsement of the Liberal Party for John Anderson as an
independent candidate for President.
The
Liberal Party did in fact endorse Anderson and
the Anderson vote on the Liberal line allowed Reagan
to carry New York
It
is fairly clear that the attorney who received the bribe money was the late Ray
Harding. In 2009, he
pleaded guilty to charges that he had taken $800,000 for doing favors
for Mr. Hevesi. He had acted as a sham intermediary for associates of the
comptroller who were awarded lucrative contracts to manage the state’s $141 billion pension
fund. He also had schemed to secure a State Assembly seat for Mr. Hevesi’s son.
According
to one source what Cohn and Stone were paying for was "garbage." The leadership
of the Party was totally uniformed of the bribe. The vote occurred within two
days of delivery of the cash to Harding.
The
reason the purported bribe was garbage was that the leadership had already decided
to endorse Anderson New York
City Anderson
I
have noted on occasion, that in my opinion the first and greatest politician of
all time was Chanticleer, the rooster
who crows so that the sun may rise.
Here's
what this tale has to do with Paul Manafort and his non-denial denial: Did Roy
Cohn receive a cash payment? Did Roger Stone receive a cash payment? They may
have conspired to bribe the Liberal Party, but they both could argue they were
only conduits for cash payments, not the recipients.
The
bottom line is this: Manafort's carefully worded denial tells us nothing and
may be technically true. The issue might be to whom did he either deliver or direct
the payments to? That might be something that keepers of the register would
have wanted to keep secret.
Hear
the laughter? It's Roy Cohn's ghost.
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