This is the person people have been defending. Stolen from a Reddit comment from a few days ago:

Manafort is the worst person in this entire shitshow.

I present to you an incomplete list of Manafort's bullshite:

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Manafort's past clients include:

- **Ferdinand Marcos** - Authoritarian leader of the Philippines 1965-1986. His regime was famous for its corruption and extreme brutality, and supported by the US government. In 1986 Marcos fled the Philippines with his stolen wealth and was granted asylum by the US government, where he lived the rest of his life in exile.

- **Mobutu Sese Soko** - Military dictator of DRC / Zaire 1965-1997. Seized power through military coup d'etat. *The* classic African dictator - deeply criminal but willing to be a US ally, Mobutu destroyed his country through nepotism and embezzlement. In 1997 Mobutu fled Zaire and lived the rest of his life in exile.

- **Sani Abacha** - De facto President of Nigeria 1993-1998. Seized power through military coup d'etat, for the ~5 years he and his family were in power they stole $5+ billion from the government.

- **Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo** - President of Equatorial Guinea 1979-present. Seized power through military coup d'etat, currently the ~~second~~ longest-serving non-royal leader in the world. His government is effectively a legal dictatorship, and has been marked by corruption.

- **Siad Barre** - President of Somalia 1969-1991. Seized power through coup d'etat. Regime characterized by widespread human rights abuses and authoritarian rule. In 1991 Barre fled Somalia and lived the rest of his life in exile.

- **Daniel arap Moi** - President of Kenya 1978-2002. In 1992 Moi was forced to hold free and open elections; this is the year his party paid $660,000 to Manafort's lobbying firm. Moi's party won. Moi's 24-year rule was maked by corruption (The [Goldenberg scandal](LINK ) alone equalled to theft of 10% of Kenya's GDP), political violence, and [widespread human rights abuses.](LINK )

- **Government of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)** - From 1990-1995, Manafort's firm received $4 million to covertly influence US policy towards Pakistan. [This involved creating a fake US-based nonprofit - The Kashmiri American Council - which under false pretenses lobbied on behalf of Pakistan.](LINK )

- **Viktor Yanukovych** - President of Ukraine 2010-2014. In 2014 Yanukovych fled Ukraine; he is currently living in exile and wanted in Ukraine for treason.

- **Donald Trump** - President of the United States 2017-present.

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Manafort was *so good at his job* that his name is mentioned over 80 times in this 1992 report:

[The Torturer's Lobby: How Human Rights-Abusing Nations Are Represented in Washington](LINK ) [pdf link]

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A mid-2000s Transparency International report [listed the world's top 4 kleptocrats](LINK ). 3 were Manafort clients:

> - Suharto (Indonesia, $15-35 billion)
- Ferdinand Marcos (The Philippines, $5-10 billion) – **Manafort client**
- Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire, $5 billion) – **Manafort client**
- Sani Abacha (Nigeria, $2-5 billion) – **Manafort client**

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In 2013, Manafort admitted to French investigators that he played a middleman role in a botched illegal arms deal that lead to the death of a dozen French engineers.

['The Karachi Affair' is one of France's largest political scandals of the past 2-3 decades.](LINK )

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Manafort's very first international client was Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi. [Using his connections in DC (especially the Heritage Foundation), Manafort helped Savimbi secure hundreds of millions of dollars of US support](LINK /). Including CIA assistance. Manafort helped Savimbi get the support necessary to continue a bloody civil war - which he ultimately lost - for decades.