But even as Trump officials downplay Manafort’s role, his decade-long business associate Rick Gates remains entrenched in the president’s operation. Gates is one of four people leading a Trump-blessed group that defends the president’s agenda. As recently as last week, he was at the White House to meet with officials as part of that work.
.. Through Manafort, Gates is tied to many of the same business titans from Ukraine and Russia, including Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with strong ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
.. Deripaska’s ties to Putin are so close that Russia’s foreign minister has asked U.S. secretary of states for more than a decade to help Deripaska secure a visa to enter the United States.
.. As recently as 2016, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asked then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry for assistance in getting a visa for the aluminum magnate.
Flynn One of Many With Russian Ties Surrounding Trump
MIKE FLYNN
In December 2015, he visited Moscow to participate in a 10-year anniversary gala for RT, the Russian state-sponsored English-language network. In an interview last year with the Washington Post, Mr. Flynn said the network paid him through a speaking-engagement agent to attend the event.
PAUL MANAFORT
Advised pro-Russia Party of Regions in Ukraine.
CARTER PAGE
.. Mr. Page has stated that he “had the longest close relations with senior Russians amongst known supporters of the Trump campaign.”
RICK GATES
.. Deputy to Paul Manafort in advising pro-Russian Party of Regions in Ukraine.
Inside the fall of Paul Manafort
a string of self-inflicted controversies that were starting to resonate in polls showing him slipping further behind Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, and Manafort warned his boss that things were about to get worse.
.. The stories, Manafort argued to Trump, were being coordinated by Clinton’s allies, and they were going to continue for the remainder of the election cycle as long as Manafort remained at the helm.
.. That’s despite what the associates characterize as Manafort’s growing frustration with Trump’s unwillingness to embrace advice for a more scripted, measured tone and a greater reliance on more traditional campaign tactics.
.. his longtime deputy Rick Gates (who had followed Manafort onto the Trump campaign) had in 2012 secretly steered $2.2 million to a pair of Washington lobbying firms to boost Yanukovych’s pro-Kremlin government in a manner intended to circumvent disclosure requirements.
.. working with a former Russian army linguist allegedly linked to the country’s intelligence service — had continued through late last year to advise the Russia-friendly Ukrainian party that arose from the ashes of Yanukovych’s government.
.. They had pushed to elevate Conway to campaign manager, in part, because Ivanka Trump believed the campaign was too much of an all-boys club to begin with, sources said. Also, she liked the way Conway was able to manage her father.
.. “Kellyanne is not a campaign manager in the traditional sense of the word. She got the title as part of combat pay,” said one source involved with the discussions. “She’s the candidate manager, which considering how tough it is to manage someone like Donald — who has the temperament of a 12-year-old who always gets what he wants — is a far harder job.
.. Family members also were unhappy about changes made to a GOP platform provision that were seen as slighting Ukraine to Russia’s benefit
.. Manafort supporters suggested that they would work to prove that the stories were being fed by Clinton confidant Sid Blumenthal, and allege that the documents released by Ukrainian investigators were fabricated.
.. mainstream Republicans who back Trump’s campaign worry that Manafort’s departure will hurt the nominee with the GOP donor class.
.. Trump has no intention of getting rid of Gates. “Donald accepted Paul’s resignation. He had to. But Donald isn’t stupid. Rick gets shit done,” said the person. “Nobody else gets it done like Rick.”