That Man Manafort

Though, not a household name in the US until his appointment as campaign manager to then presidential hopeful Donald Trump, Paul Manafort has been well known in Kyiv for some time. He has recently skyrocketed to fame because of his arrest by US authorities on 12 counts of a litany of alleged crimes, bringing cheers of joy from those who know what he was responsible for in Ukraine.

Manafort, the man who helped bring twice-convicted Victor Yanukovych to the seat of the presidency in Ukraine, is under house arrest while awaiting trial. The question most concerning him right now appears to be which house he is to be confined to – he owns several (working for the corrupt Yanukovych obviously paid well).

At present, the “political consultant” is confined to colder places in the north of the US – Virginia and New York, but has been trying to get permission to travel to Florida where where the weather is just so much nicer. In an application to a judge listening to hearings on his bail conditions, Manafort’s lawyers asserted that because of certain business necessities, he should be allowed to go to the sunshine state, however, it appears that the grounds for arguing for this move are baseless. Manafort’s lawyer told the court that his client is involved in a company developing a new type of uncrackable mobile phone (handy thing to have, if the FBI are watching you, just sayin’) but the company in question says they broke ties with him months ago.

Looks like no winter tan this year Paul…