How D.C. Lobbyists Helped Paul Manafort Prop Up a Putin Puppet
For years, the influence-peddlers’ work for a pro-Kremlin party flew under the radar. Then Bob Mueller’s Trump-Russia probe got rolling.
BETSY WOODRUFF
08.28.17 1:00 AM ET
Taking a Putin ally to meet political heavyweights on Capitol Hill. Using other pals of Vlad to “prove” to the world that a suspect election was totally kosher. Working side-by-side with Paul Manafort, the famously dictator-friendly operative who once sat atop Donald Trump’s political campaign.
Those are just some of the moves that two of Washington’s most powerful lobbying firms made on behalf of a pro-Putin political party. For years, those efforts went largely ignored—just another instance of influence-peddling in a Washington full of it. But now, they’re being dragged into the light by Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia probe.
These firms, staffed with ultra-connected power brokers, are now facing questions from the special counsel because of work they did on behalf of that Kremlin-philic political party—work they didn’t disclose to the Justice Department for years.
According to NBC and The Washington Post, Mueller has subpoenaed at least two Washington lobbying firms—the Podesta Group and Mercury LLC—regarding work they did with one-time Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort that was paid for by Putin allies.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/how-dc-lobbyists-helped-paul-manafort-prop-up-a-putin-puppet
