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Paul Manafort Just Got Hit With A Disbarment Investigation

Paul Manafort Just Got Hit With A Disbarment Investigation

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is facing a Connecticut bar investigation for acting as an unregistered agent in service of a foreign state, as well as numerous other dirty deeds in service of his pro-Russia Ukrainian masters.

Massachusetts lawyer J. Whitfield Larrabee submitted a 63-page complaint (embedded below) against Manafort on April 17th. He had this to say about Trump’s campaign manager to ethics officials:

“Mr. Manafort is a lobbyist for dictators and torturers. He has ice running through his veins. His own daughter described the family as living on ‘blood money.’ It is not surprising that Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager at a time when the Russians were working to steal our democracy.”

It actually took longer for the Connecticut authorities letter to arrive by mail than for them to issue this decision.

Next, a panel consisting of two lawyers and one non-lawyer will review the case, and they have the authority to conduct a public hearing.

It’s not easy to get past the initial stage of these sorts of proceedings with the Connecticut bar. They list 10 reasons why complaints will be summarily dismissed in their grievance process.

Larrabee wrote in his initial complaint about Manafort to the bar:

“From at least 2005 to the present, and on other dates, Manafort engaged in unethical and illegal conduct that make him unfit to practice law. He has done damage to the processes of government by illegally concealing his efforts to advance the interests of foreign and autocratic governments. He has engaged in unethical and illegal acts by accepting millions of dollars in payments that he knew or should have known were stolen or illegally obtained from the people of Ukraine or others.

He engaged in unethical and illegal acts by failing to return stolen or misappropriated funds when he knew that they were stolen or illegally obtained and that the government of Ukraine was investigating the theft of those funds. He engaged in deceptive, unethical and illegal acts intended to conceal the origins of funds that were stolen or illegally obtained from the people of Ukraine and others. He engaged in unethical and illegal acts when he made false statements in an effort to cover up these activities.

Manafort’s license to practice law in Connecticut aids him in pursuing unethical and illegal activities by cloaking him with the prestige of the legal profession. In order to maintain the integrity of the legal profession, it is necessary to revoke his license to practice law.”

Now that the Fairfield Grievance Panel has the case, they’ll make a determination if there’s probable cause that Paul Manafort violated the legal profession’s ethical rules or state bar rules while working for Donald Trump.

Even if Manafort avoids prosecution for failure to register as a foreign agent under FARA by filing new paperwork, as the complaint notes, he may have broken significant other financial laws in his international political advisory career.

Paul Manafort’s shady dealings are so obvious that a Congressman recently went all the way to Cyprus to look into the situation.

Now, he’ll have to face the prospect that a state bar association will investigate his business practices and that they could even find more evidence of his Russian ties.

“Trump surrounds himself with corrupt and dishonest individuals like himself,” Larrabee told me in an exclusive interview, “That’s why I have asked that Manafort’s license to practice law be revoked.  He is utterly unfit for a license to practice law.”

Take a look at the Bar’s decision and the complaint against Paul Manafort below:

Manafort Connecticut Judiciary Ethics Complaint & Exhibits by J. Whitfield Larrabee on Scribd

Grant Stern
is the Executive Editor of Occupy Democrats and published author. His new Meet the Candidates 2020 book series is distributed by Simon and Schuster. He's also mortgage broker, community activist and radio personality in Miami, Florida., as well as the producer of the Dworkin Report podcast. Grant is also an occasional contributor to Raw Story, Alternet, and the DC Report, and an unpaid senior advisor to the Democratic Coalition and a Director of Sunshine Agenda Inc. a government transparency nonprofit organization. Get all of his stories sent directly to your inbox here:

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