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COMMENTARY Jeffrey Gillespie: The Manafort conundrum Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Aug. 19, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Aug. 19, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News Just when you thought the Donald Trump campaign couldn’t get any weirder, his campaign chairman, the opaque but charismatic Paul Manafort, has become embroiled in a political intrigue the likes of which is seldom seen outside of a John le Carré novel, let alone in the political processes of a candidate for the U.S. presidency. According to the New York Times, Manafort — a longtime GOP operative who was influential in the campaigns of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, among others — has been actively involved in an advisory role to the former dictator of the Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, a man so corrupt that he has been said to make his Russian sponsors in the kleptocratic government of Vladimir Putin look positively tame by comparison. According to the Times, Manafort’s involvement with the Ukrainian dictator goes back to at least 2004, and was still in force during the “Orange Revolution,” when massive popular uprisings caused the overturn of Yanukovych’s electoral “victory.” Not only that, Manafort has allegedly been involved in numerous personal investments with assorted Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs, up to and including the purchase and redevelopment of commercial property in Manhattan. Now let’s turn to Trump. He won’t release his tax returns. There have been whispers that his financial position is not all that it is cracked up to be, and that he has been involved with the Russians and the Ukrainians in some of his global real estate dealings. He has expressed admiration for Putin on more than one occasion. On Wednesday, he received a national security briefing containing classified information about the United States and its vital security interests abroad. He has suggested that Hillary Clinton be hacked by the Russian Federation so the world can see what the full extent of her communications had been during her tenure as Secretary of State. With all of these accusations floating around, it would not be a stretch to suggest that Trump — as sharp as he might be when it comes to co-opting rent-controlled apartments and turning them into condos (as he attempted to do in 1981 at 100 Central Park South) — may have already become the unwitting patsy to a larger game of geopolitical intrigue that is playing out at the heart of the Kremlin. True to Hillary Clinton’s suggestion that the rogue billionaire would and could be effectively played by the Russian president should Trump ascend to the Oval Office, Manafort’s position in the campaign signals a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States. He supposedly received more than $12 million in black money from representatives of Yanukovych's political party during his tenure as “advisor” to Yanukovych, an amount of money that might easily buy allegiances to be cashed in later as part of a long game in political power. Manafort is a smooth operator, and it is not outside of the realm of possibility that the ascent of Trump could have given him a chance to prove his bona fides to a host of nefarious international clients with varying degrees of contempt for the United States. In Manafort’s world, proximity to power translates into gargantuan consulting fees. As Trump’s campaign undergoes yet another major shakeup, Manafort has been somewhat sidelined, albeit with his original title of chief strategist and campaign chairman intact. Whether or not Trump succeeds in his ambition to become the leader of the free world, it’s clear that America and the West are in grave danger as long as Manafort is privy to the classified information being dumped on Trump in security briefings. The full dangers of that remain to be seen. In the meantime, hawkish members of the Republican power elite might start walking their talk when it comes to national security by removing Manafort from the picture, but quick. Ashland resident Jeffrey Gillespie is a Daily Tidings columnist, arts reviewer and freelance writer. Email him at gillespie.jeffrey @gmail.com. DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Aug. 19, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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