The work of Paul Manafort before Trump
Paul Manafort is a seasoned political consultant who was key to Donald Trump’s 2016 Election success. Building from years of experience, Manafort, as campaign manager, allowed Trump to take full advantage of media opportunities whilst running a more disciplined operation behind the scenes. His work in the political backstage over 40 years has earned him an impressive, if not controversial, resume.
From working in early Republican campaigns during the late 1970s, followed by lobbying on behalf of African warlords and authoritarian ‘strongmen’ leaders, his career path highlights the murky world of political lobbying. In October 2017, he was arrested in connection with a Ukrainian former President under Special Investigator Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged links to Russia. It is difficult to comprehend the scale of Manafort’s involvement, if any, given the rapid pace of revelations. However, by shining a light on Manafort’s past work, maybe we can attain a greater understanding of his influence on the political lobbying scene.
Born in Connecticut in 1949, Paul Manafort would later go on obtain a law degree from the prestigious Georgetown University. He would then go on to work for the successful presidential campaigns of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. By 1980, he was a founding partner of Black, Manafort & Stone, a half lobbying — half political consulting firm.
Throughout the 1980s, it lobbied the United States Congress on behalf of multiple foreign leaders by helping restore the tarnished US perception of these leaders, as well as advising these governments on public relations. TIME Magazine called it ‘the ultimate supermarket of influence peddling.’ To name just three, clients included feared rulers such as the rebel leader Jonas Savimbi of Angola, the kleptocratic Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and the despot Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).
After it was renamed to Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly in 1984 the firm would profit from one of the Cold War’s bloodiest proxy wars. In 1985 as the Angolan Civil War raged, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), headed by Jonas Savimbi, sought further support from Western backers. The firm was hired on a $600,000 contract after Manafort travelled deep into the Angolan bush to meet Savimbi. Savimbi, formerly trained by the Chinese, was originally a Maoist revolutionary who fought against Portuguese colonial rule. Manafort’s idea was to totally recreate Savimbi’s image, similar to Trump’s businessman-to-politician persona in the 2016 election. With support from the Heritage Foundation, an influential US conservative think-tank, Savimbi would prove to be the White House’s main man in the fight against Soviet-trained militias and Cuban forces in Southern Africa. His brutal character was even used in the Call of Duty franchise. When he came to the U.S, Black Manafort introduced him to Washington’s intelligentsia, organised an appearance on 60 Minutes and was chauffeured in a stretch limousine, the full red-carpet treatment. Essentially, Black Manafort acted as an important bridging point for US foreign policy in the region.
President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, a self-invented war hero, hired Black Manafort on a $950,000 per year contract in 1985. This was an attempt by the Philippines government to give the impression to American onlookers that democratic reforms were underway. Marcos had ruled the nation with frequent use of martial law since 1972 with a sophisticated torture network being set up under him in which hundreds would suffer. Marcos himself would pocket between $5 and $10bn during his stay in power. The regime is recognised as being one of the most institutionally corrupt in history.
Black Manafort would serve as a key advisor to Marcos’s electoral strategy in the 1986 election. ‘What we’ve tried to do is make it more of a Chicago-style election and not Mexico’s,’ Manafort explained to TIME Magazine in 1986. It was widely believed to be illegitimate with widespread vote-rigging occurring on Election Day. The U.S. State Department reported to the White House that Marcos’s affiliates had been responsible for the voting discrepancies on the day. But Black Manafort stepped in to create a façade that there was actually fraud on both sides.
The firm’s work proved to be ineffectual as Marcos’s rule suddenly came to an end when the army revolted in the election’s aftermath. This resulted in he and his wife fleeing to exile to Hawaii. 67 clothes racks, an ivory statue of the baby Jesus with a diamond necklace and 24 gold bricks, each inscribed “To my husband on our 24th anniversary,” would follow them on board their two C-130 Hercules cargo planes. The Reagan administration conveniently gave Black Manafort advanced warning to cancel its contract with Marcos, two hours before U.S. support was pulled.
Despite it being involved in a US housing department scandal at the same time, this had no effect on Black Manafort’s international image. On the contrary, the incident unintentionally grabbed the attention of future clients. An aide to Mobutu Sese Seko, ruler of Zaire, told the journalist Art Levine, ‘That only shows how important they are!’ The leopard hat wearing despot signed a $1m annual contract with the firm in 1989. Mobutu ruled Zaire (later the Democratic Republic of Congo) with an iron grip from 1965 to 1997 during which he authorized torture, detainment, and rape of anyone who opposed him. He also hosted ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’ boxing match featuring Muhammad Ali. This contractual relationship would mend Mobutu’s standing with U.S. Congressmen and allow him to later come to Capital Hill and state ‘I am here to see 200 members of Congress — I have a good record.’
Mobutu had already received hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S. in economic and military aid. Democrats would repeatedly attempt to cut off US aid to Zaire, as much of it had been spent by Mobutu to enrich himself. Mobutu kept ‘coming back to Washington with his hand out’ and Congress kept filling it in the fight against communism. Black Manafort would attempt to prolong this. This was despite multiple human rights abuses in the nation and the fact that while Mobutu lived in a $100m palace, many of his people were starving. When it was reported that he had a fortune estimated at $2.5 billion and when evidence of student massacres surfaced, coinciding with the end of the Cold War, the funding finally came to an end in November 1990.
Some of Manafort’s past actions in this conspicuous field have now caught up with him. On October 30th 2017, Manafort was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as part of Mueller’s investigation. Manafort was indicted for his work involving a past client, Viktor Yanukovych, a former pro-Russian President of Ukraine. Allegations put forward have suggested that Manafort is implicated in a vast tax fraud and money laundering scheme. It is unlikely he would have ever envisaged this when he worked as a junior coordinator in his first Republican campaigns. The charges appear to relate to an intertwining web of connecting events before working for Trump. The saga strangely involves expensive rugs, mansions and wiretaps as well as overseas money transfers — something resembling the script from Casino Royale — a theme concurrent throughout Manafort’s career.
Manafort’s lobbying activities have clearly reached their legal limits. The coming months will determine whether this once essential Donald Trump associate is guilty of criminal activities. If so, it will show that the lobbying lifestyle of glitzy hotels, manicuring speeches, rehabbing images of people and mixing the essential ingredient of ‘influence peddling’ into the political arena, is one that carries significant risk in an industry which has up to this point, been overly complacent.
Edited by Maryam Elahi
