Manafort Vowed To Trick ‘Obama Jews’ Into Backing Pro-Russian Stooges
Paul Manafort told his pro-Russian clients that he could get “Obama Jews” to support them by accusing Ukrainian government leaders of anti-Semitism, according to his guilty plea in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal case.
President Trump’s disgraced ex-campaign manager in 2012 vowed to undermine the Ukrainian opposition figure Yulia Tymoshenko by convincing key American decision-makers that she was an anti-Semite, according to the filing, which describes Manafort’s illicit lobbying for the nation’s former pro-Russian president.
Manafort wrote in communications cited in the filing that he would orchestrate accusations that an unnamed member of President Obama’s cabinet had supported anti-Semites by criticizing the mistreatment of Tymoshenko, who at the time was in a Ukranian prison.
“Obama Jews” will pressure the administration to bank Manafort’s client, then-president Viktor Yanukovych, Manafort wrote. “The Jewish community will take this out on Obama on election day if he does nothing.”
Manafort’s exploitation of anti-Semitic theories of Jewish power to gain leverage with his Ukrainian clients was previously unknown. He scored millions in illicit contracts from the pro-Russian Ukrainians, deals that eventually attracted scrutiny from federal investigators.
Manafort worked with an Israeli government official to write a statement condemning support for Tymoshenko, and sought to get it placed in American media.
He appeared to boast of his less-than-savory business style by using ‘Sopranos’-style language.
“I have someone pushing it on the (New York) Post,” Manafort wrote, referencing the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid. “Bada bing bada boom.”
Although he never got that story to run, Breitbart News did publish a 2012 headlined “Jewish Leaders Blame Hillary Clinton For ‘Legitimizing’ Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Party.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO