He left the Campaign Amid some startling news reports that he had secretly been paid millions of dollars off the books by the Ukrainian Government. Now Paul Manafort insisted that there was nothing wrong with the way he had been paid in that country for his totally normal Political Consulting work, but it was awkward for a u. S. President ial candidate to have his Campaign Chairman turn out to be secretly on the payroll of a prorussian Foreign Government that had recently been deposed in a popular uprising. So Paul Manafort left the Campaign Amid those reports. And actually, he left the campaign under circumstances that are still not particularly clear, especially on the financial front. But if you widen the aperture on that moment in american political history, that moment in american president ial campaign history, it seems clear that that moment was not just awkward for Paul Manafort and for the Trump Campaign, it was also if you wind it out just a little bit, you can see that that was also a very awkward moment for the country that had apparently secretly been paying Paul Manafort off the books. Paul manaforts client in ukraine was a proputin dictator who he basically remade in his own image. The picture on the left here is yanukovych before Paul Manafort. The picture in the middle is yanukovych after Paul Manafort like loaned him all his suits and his haircut. But come 2014, Paul Manaforts extreme makeover grecian formula magic was no longer enough to keep yanukovych in power, and ukrainians revolted against him. They overthrow his government, and he fled, naturally, to make where he remains today under the protection of Vladimir Putins government. So yanukovych got ousted. The new government that took over thereafter came to power in these really dramatic circumstances, right . Amid these massive protests in the streets and the shifting and uncertain loyalties of the police and the military and the new government ended up taking over the running of that country in dramatic circumstances. Its no small matter to take overrunning a country when it had previously been run by a putinsupporting dictator and youre a country that has a very big, long border with russia. The new government in fact also took over what would soon be a war with russia. But at the same time, amid all of that, the new government also decided that it was a priority for them to come to terms with what had happened under the previous regime, with what had happened under the dictator who they deposed. They decided that one of their priorities as a new government would be to understand, to grapple with the looting, the corruption, the wholesale cheating and theft of state assets which it all happened under manaforts guide. And of course you remember the sort of scary and amazing footage of the long uprising that ultimately ousted manaforts guy. But the images from that time that i have found even more indelible since that all happened is the footage not just from the uprising, but the footage we got from the aftermath. After manaforts guy, after yanukovych fled to russia, because the aftermath footage was very moving i think in a civicminded sense. We ended up with this footage of ukrainians, regular people by the thousands streaming into the properties and the palaces that vict vic Viktor Yanukovych had kept locked up so the people couldnt see what he was stealing. After he was gone, after he fled to russia, the ukrainian people opened up the gates and went in to see for themselves. And they were not there to loot the place, which you might expect in those circumstances. They went in instead to find out and document what this guy had done with their countrys wealth. And thats how we learned about his private zoo and his antique car museum and his goldplated golf clubs. Does that even make for good golfing . Thats how we learned he had a fake spanish galleon floating restaurant just for himself. And there is something amazing about the footage of regular people trying to figure out what all this stuff is and what to make of the fact that, yeah, he really did have a gold toilet. Look at the creepy gold toilet feet. Look at that. Why does a toilet need feet at all . Why do they have to be gold . Its sort of fascinating to see regular people just taking this in, realizing wow, this is what he had been stealing all of our money for was to build himself a place like this with stuff like this. And the ukrainian people did not tear the place apart. They didnt loot it. They opened it up to show everyone and invited in news crews so the world could see what this guy had done. And then they took it further. They dove into his private lake that he had dug for his private floating restaurant. And they pulled out the papers that had been sunk there. They poked through the fireplaces and ash piles to collect the scraps that manaforts guy had tried to destroy before he fled in the dead of night back to russia. They salvaged all the documents they could to try to piece them all back together. Look at the torn and burnt shreds of documents. Theyre laying them out to dry to try to piece them back together so they can tell the truth about this corrupt proputin kleptocracy that they had just risen up as a people against. And end it. And, you know, things in ukraine have not worked out perfectly. They have not necessarily worked out great. Change is hard. But in that moment, that human endeavor to try to make sure the truth did not get disappeared, that moment where they decided you know what . People need to know, this needs to be preserved for historical accuracy. There has to be accountability for what happened here. We cant just let this all go. It was movinging right . Just as a sober, constructive practical of how to love your country in difficult times, it was moving. Well, as part of that effort, the new government that took over in ukraine after this guy was run out of the country and fled back to moscow, they established a new job in the new government. They established a special prosecutor to make use of all that salvaged documentation. To piece it all together. To make sure that the people who did what they did didnt get away with it. They established a special prosecutor to investigate and pursue criminal charges against anybody who was part of the corruption and the selling out of that country under manaforts guide, under yanukovych. Well, amid the 3,000 or so cases that were eventually opened by that anticorruption prosecutor, four of those cases were about trump Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort and his work in ukraine. Paul manafort, who had resigned from trumps Campaign Amid scandalous reporting here about the secret payments of millions of dollars that he got out of ukraine. Paul manafort of course has since been charged in this country with multiple felonies, mostly related to allegedly to him allegedly laundering millions of dollars that he got out of that country, and him allegedly cooking up more or less elaborate schemes involving offshore banks and Shell Companies to try to evade paying taxes on that income. So, for example, ukrainian documents from the old regime he worked for, those documents show big payments for who knows what to a Company Called global highway limited. And again, thats of concern to the ukrainians in this new government who are trying to figure out what happened to all the money that was looted from their country . Because who knows what that payment was supposedly for. But it was to global highway limited. Well, that company name turns up, again, in the special counsels indictment of Paul Manafort. Because the ukrainians can see money going into that country, but what the special counsels office was able to document was where the money from that company went. That same company, global highway limited turned up in the indictment against Paul Manafort here because it was used to pay some of Paul Manaforts own luxurious lifestyle bills. It paid manaforts bills at businesses where he bought lots of fancy suits and also antiques. Money laundering is often more complex than this. But in this case it looks pretty simple. Ukraine paid company. Company buys suits and ties and clocks or whatever for Paul Manafort. Fbi raids Paul Manaforts house. They take the suits and ties and clocks or whatever, because they figured out where the money came from to pay for those things. And according to that indictment, that money turns up nowhere as Paul Manaforts taxable income from his legitimate overseas consulting company. So as moneylaundering cases go, its not that complicated. As tax evasion cases go, its not that complicated. And it all leads back to ukraine. And manaforts ukraine stuff is embarrassing and awkward enough for him that when it was first revealed in the american press, it got him fired off the Trump Campaign. But it remains of interest to prosecutors here in this country because of moneylaundering and tax evasion, and it remains of interest to prosecutors in ukraine because ukraine as a country and as a new post yanukovych government is trying to figure out what happened to all that money, what happened to their countrys wealth when manaforts guy was in charge and stealing all the money. Sure, a lot of it went to buy ostriches and toilets with gold feet. But a lot of it went to Paul Manafort too. So ukraine has been trying to track that down. And this is the point in the story where the music changes and gets all menacing and dark. Because the New York Times has just broken a really important story on this subject today. Andrew cramer in the New York Times today reports that the four investigations into Paul Manafort that had been opened by prosecutors in ukraine over manaforts alleged involvement in the handoverfist corruption of the government he worked for there, those four open investigations into Paul Manafort, which apparently were quite neatly do ll lly dovetail the special counsels work in this country and the spountss prosecution of Paul Manafort in this country, those four cases in the ukraine have just been spiked. Theyre dead. On orders. Quote, in the United States paul j. Manafort is facing prosecution on charges of moneylaundering and financial fraud stemming from his decade of work for a prorussian Political Party in ukraine. But in ukraine, four cases involving mr. Manafort have been effectively frozen by ukraines chief prosecutor. Quote, keenly aware of President Trumps distaste for the investigation by the special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between russia and his campaign, some lawmakers say the manafort cases now are, quote, just too sensitive. The decision to halt the investigations by an anticorruption prosecutor was handed down at a delicate moment for ukraine as the Trump Administration was finalizing plans to sell that country sophisticated antitank missiles called javelins. The state department issued an export license for the javelin missiles on december 22nd. On march 1, the pentagon announced the final approval for the sale of the javelins and their launching units. The order to halt investigations into mr. Manafort came very soon thereafter, in early april. A ukrainian member of parliament readily acknowledged to the times that the intention behind blocking the manafort investigations, quote, is obvious. In every possible way, we will avoid irritating the top american officials, he said. Quote, the order issued in april isolated the four manafort investigations. Cases were not technically closed, according to a statement from the prosecutor generals office, but the order does block the anticorruption prosecutor who was pursuing the cases for issuing subpoenas for any evidence or from interviewing any witnesses. The anticorruption prosecutor said in an interview with the times, kwoes, we have no authority to continue our investigation. Before the order came down to freeze the case, the anticorruption prosecutor investigating manafort says that he had reached out to the special counsels office in the u. S. To try to formalize cooperation between muellers team and the ukrainians running their investigations into manafort. That anticorruption prosecutor now says since he has lost the authority to investigate manafo manafort, that offer to cooperate is now, quote, moot. So bottom line for us here in this country, does Robert Mueller, does the special counsels Office Actually need these prosecutors in ukraine in order to nail Paul Manafort to the wall . Judging from their progress, in their cases against him and two federal jurisdictions so far, probably not. Probably not. It looks like theyre doing fine. But we now know flatout based on this remarkable new report from Andrew Cramer in the New York Times today that the government in this other country spiked those active investigations and effectively spiked the offer for their prosecutors to cooperate with mueller specifically to curry favor with donald trump and the u. S. Government. Because they wouldnt want to help mueller. That might make trump mad. We also know that when they made that decision to drop those prosecutions in ukraine, the president and the u. S. Government changed their longstanding position on whether or not to sell that country antitank weapons. They decide oh, you know what . Actually, despite our previous opposition, were going to go ahead and sell you those weapons. So did the u. S. Government, did the Trump White House ask for that particular favor from ukraine . Did the Trump White House, did President Trump, did the Trump Administration say hey, ukraine, stop helping mueller. Maybe youll get your missiles . I dont know. That seems nuts, right . But everything does seem nuts now. And so its probably at least time to ask so we can at least get an answer on the record now to compare with whatever the later answer will be down the road once we get further reporting that explains the situation. Spiking the cooperation with mueller. Thats one thing there is a bigger revelation, though, in this new reporting today that has even bigger implications for what the president here is about to face here in this country next, and thats our next story. Stay with us. S, bipolar i disorder can make you feel unstoppable. 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At this point, Paul Manafort was still the president Trump Campaign chair. But ken vogel got this incredible scoop about manaforts man in kiev. It was essentially a profile of the guy who ran manaforts business with him in ukraine. And there is a ton thats interesting in this story. It has stood up remarkably well over time. But the big revelation in the piece, man in kiev, his righthand man in his ukraine business, his closest associate for all that political work in ukraine that ultimately brought him so much trouble, the big reveal in that piece was that that guy had been Russian Military intelligence. Quote, manaforts protege Konstan