Once the convention was over, Manafort was dismissed and Bannon and Conway took over.
There isn't much of a window for Manafort to collude with Russians. Why would the Russians want to risk exposure by meddling with a GOP-only delegate fight that was a long-shot Hail Mary at best for the disgruntled GOPe?
-PJ
He’s not even being charged with that (which is a non-existent offense anyway), but with trying to contact a “witness” (I think it was before he even knew the person was a witness, judging by the dates).
In other words, like all the other things, it’s a “process crime,” which is now used by the FBI and the DOJ to get somebody on something just so they can say they did.
I’m no fan of Manafort, but this is ridiculous. As you point out, he was hired for a specific job with no relationship to Russia, foreign policy or anything outside of party politics, but they’re determined to destroy anybody who had anything to do with Trump.
For those that remember, Trump was supposedly in danger of not reaching the necessary 1,237 delegates to secure the nomination. Although he was winning most of the primaries, he was said to be getting outwitted in caucuses by Ted Cruz, who was coming in after the fact and "stealing away" delegates after they were apparently won by Trump. Also, in mid-March, Trump was defeated by John Kasich in the Ohio primary. Although Kasich was otherwise a total non-factor in the race, denying Trump those 66 winner-take-all delegates made the path to 1,237 all the more difficult (at the time).
Following in short order was the Wisconsin primary that Cruz won, earning 36 delegates to Trump's 6. So between Ohio and Wisconsin and the "picking off" of caucus delegates, there was a real fear that Trump would go into the convention without the 1,237, allowing "never-Trumper" Republicans to come up with a compromise candidate in smoke-filled backrooms.
So Manafort was the delegate wrangler. His claim to fame was being the "delegate-hunter" for Jerry Ford in the 1976 campaign - narrowly holding off then upstart Ronald Reagan. Manafort was supposed to know all the inner workings of the labyrinthine nomination process.
And for a while, it worked. After the Wisconsin primary, Trump went on to complete a near sweep of all the remaining delegates and by May 3, Ted Cruz was forced to throw in the towel and then proceeded to throw a succession of hissy fits.
During April, May and June, Manafort could do no wrong. Freepers had a Manafort fan club, constantly posting pictures of him here. I think one picture, they had his head and naked chest mounted on a horse a/la Putin. It was crazy. We really worshipped the guy.
Then during July, the convention itself was somewhat a bust. It lacked the usual punch. The Trump campaign definitely was losing a little momentum. Manafort was giving bad advice and not running the campaign very effectively at all. The culmination was the weekend of August 13. That was the day Trump came to Fairfield, CT on a sweltering hot day to give a rally at the Sacred Heart University. It was 95 degrees outside and no air conditioning inside. The heat inside the auditorium was so tremendous that people started fainting. Poor planning. Not characteristic of Trump at all.
Trump did give a hell of a speech (his very last campaign speech with no teleprompters) but a change needed to get made. Especially when the media started focusing on Manafort's shady Russian dealings (from well before Trump even ran for president). It was that weekend that Trump brought Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway on board.
And the rest is history!
But Manafort...I don't think we know the full story on this guy. It's quite possible he was a bad actor. Trump didn't seek this guy out. He came to the campaign and offered his services for free. Did he join the Trump campaign with nefarious intentions?
The charges lodged against him are pretty serious. Yes, all the allegations were from years ago and have absolutely nothing to do with Trump. But with that baggage, he had no business being on the campaign. And I think Trump would have still won the nomination - and the election - anyway.