A quick TL;DR: Paul Manafort had been a Republican politician for a long time before becoming Donald Trump’s campaign chairman. Last Monday, Manafort was indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 counts, including conspiracy and money laundering. According to The New York Times, the dude “funneled millions of dollars through overseas shell companies and used the money to buy luxury cars, real estate, antiques and expensive suits.” He did this all while evading taxes. He also pleaded not guilty.
Essentially, Paul Manafort is a villain in the most cliche sense. Then there’s the good guy: special counsel Robert Mueller, whose job it is to investigate whether or not Manafort or any other member of Trump’s goon squad had colluded with Russia this past election.
There are a lot of other players in this story, both “good” and “bad”— whatever that might mean in politics— but I’m just here to break down Paul Manafort’s steep tumble from grace, as pertaining to the Trump administration.
March 29, 2016: Manafort drinks the Trump Koolaid: “Paul Manafort, and the team I am building, bring the needed skill sets to ensure that the will of the Republican voters, not the Washington political establishment, determines who will be the nominee for the Republican Party,” Trump says in a statement.
May 19, 2016: Manafort becomes campaign chairman and chief strategist: Trump fires Corey Lewandowski and our boy Manny is in full command at this point. His promotion is believed to be a direct result of a fundraising agreement which deposited really fat checks into the pockets of the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign.
June 9, 2016: Manafort meets the Russians: Well, one Russian and one Jared Kushner. Manafort and Kushner meet Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who promises to deliver damaging information about Hillary Clinton. You probably remember hearing about the meeting when beautiful animal murderer hunting-aficionado Donald Trump Jr. just…tweeted it out.
I chased this story for a year and he just…tweeted it out.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 11, 2017
August 14, 2016: The (failing!) New York Times blows up Manafort’s spot: The Times uncovered a bunch of receipts from former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych to Manafort amounting to $12.7 million between 2007-2012. Payments he never disclosed. This was for helping the former president “win” a bunch of elections. S H A D Y.
In other words, the campaign chairman of the Trump administration helped rig multiple presidential elections in Ukraine and then received a ton of money he never paid taxes on. Sad!
August 19, 2016: Manafort resigns: Manaford steps down as campaign manager, citing professional differences with the president. Some of these “professional differences” included telling Trump things he didn’t want to hear, like “lay off grieving army widows” and “stop tweeting about blowing up North Korea.”
TRUMP: Manafort resigns pic.twitter.com/phMT8YsKyK
— NTA by Mic (@NavigatingTrump) August 19, 2016
May 17, 2017: Our boy Mueller steps in: The Justice Department assigns special prosecutor Robert Mueller to check out the Russia/election mess, since FBI director James Comey couldn’t look into it on account of being fired.
June 27, 2017: Manafort comes clean about taking tons of money: Manafort discloses $17 million in payments from Ukraine, which wouldn’t even have been half as illegal if he hadn’t been working in the United States at the time.
July 25, 2017: Manafort testifies before Senate Intelligence Committee: He hands over all his notes from that Russian meeting. Things begin to get spicy…
July 26, 2017: FBI raids Manafort’s home: The FBI busted through Manafort’s front door at dawn without knocking, collecting tons of tax statements and documents. This could be a sign that the prosecution is putting the heat on Manafort, who has yet to snitch on the other bad boys involved with this Russia thing.
September 19, 2017: They got him on tape: CNN reported that the U.S. government wiretapped Manafort, which could be really bad for everyone involved, including 45 (rejoice!).
October 30, 2017: Ya done, son: Manafort turns himself into the FBI alongside his crony Richard Gates, who has been indicted on the same charges. So far, the charges do not mention Russian collusion or ties to the Trump campaign, but things are looking pretty spicy nonetheless.
So, you know. Our current (sad!) reality will have to do now that House of Cards is cancelled forever.