Government

Emails Show Paul Manafort's Desperate Efforts To Get Jeff Sessions A Black Friend

Apparently Manafort is Captain Diversity over here.

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Jeff Sessions (Generated by JG JPEG Library)

You know you were a serious criminal when people keep getting busted for your crimes even though you’re already in jail. Today, former Trump campaign manager and ostrich bedazzler Paul Manafort earned more credit in lock-up, thanks to a new indictment for banker Stephen Calk.

Calk, through his Chicago bank, allegedly tried to push through $16 million in loans to a desperate Manafort, in exchange for high-level roles in the Trump administration. From the Department of Justice:

While the Borrower’s loans were pending approval, CALK provided the Borrower with a ranked list of the governmental positions he desired, which started with Secretary of the Treasury, and was followed by Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Commerce, and Secretary of Defense, as well as 19 ambassadorships similarly ranked and starting with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy.

Manafort tried to make good for Calk, with a series of emails to Jared Kushner suggesting Calk and other candidates during the transition.

The focus of the news is on Calk and Manafort’s continued influence with the Trump campaign, transition, and administration. But one of the new emails uncovered relates to Manafort’s suggestion for Deputy Attorney General. NBC News has the document:

From: Paul Manafort
Date: Wednesday, November 30, 2016 at 3:20 PM
To: Jared Kushner
Subject: 3 Recommendations for Major Appointments

Jared

I am attaching resumes of 3 individuals who should be a part of the Trump Administration. All are supporters since before the nomination was secured and have been active in the campaign.

The 3 indivituals are people who I believe advance DT agenda. They will be totally reliable and responsive to the Trump White House…

Vernon Parker
Vernon Parker was one of the higher level black political appointees in the Bush Administration. He has been an active supporter of ours since April and worked to help us in the delegate fights at the state and district levels.

Recommended Position: Deputy AG, Dept of Justice
As a black appointment, Parker would bring administrative skills to the position and would be a visible answer to the bogus racist charges that will be leveled against Jeff Sessions.

Alternative positions:
Assistant AG Civil Rights:

The Assistant Attorney General’s spot for Civil Rights at Justice will be a hotbed, and the Trump administration will be under the microscope with every move. Parker was the first ever Assistant Director of Office of Personnel Management, White House. He served as General Counsel of the Office of Personnel Management under President H.W Bush.

Sponsored

Yes, to deal with the fact that Jeff Sessions is a bigoted Confederate and Klan sympathizer, Manafort suggested hiring Sessions a “black friend.”

This is how Republicans think. They’re not interested in appointing diverse leadership for its own sake. They’re not interested in addressing racial concerns. They’re totally comfortable hiring bigots to key positions. But they’re willing to use black bodies as literal human shields in an attempt to blunt criticism that they’re “racist.”

We see this all the time. This week, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has made news for having absolutely no idea how to do his job. It’s easy to clown on Carson (also because he’s a clown), but why would he know anything about housing or urban development? He’s a surgeon! Probably just has the job because Trump saw “urban” in the job title and thought “any black person can do it.”

We saw it in Congress as well. During the Michael Cohen hearings, Mark Meadows literally made Lynne Patton (a black woman who, I’m sure this is just coincidence, ALSO works at HUD) stand next to him, as if her mere silent presence was enough to dispel any claims that he or Trump were racist.

Republicans thinks diversity is a farce because they use black bodies in a farcical manner. They think it’s all some “game” of political correctness, because they can’t FATHOM taking non-white concerns seriously.

Sponsored

This email shows that Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner KNOW they’re about to nominate a racist attorney general who will be accused of racism, and their idea is not to address those concerns, but to find a token to hide behind.

We don’t know if Parker ever interviewed for the job, but since he’s a black Republican I assume he would have taken the tokenism.

But we do know who got the job. Jeff Sessions’s Deputy Attorney General was Rod Rosenstein. You might have heard of him.

Can you imagine Jeff Sessions recusing his power to a black man? I can’t. Can you imagine Trump not firing a black man who was nominally in charge of an investigation into his alleged crimes? CAN YOU IMAGINE IF THE DEPUTY A.G. GOT THE JOB BECAUSE PAUL MANAFORT NEEDED A BANK LOAN?

Jared Kushner responded to Manafort’s email with “on it.” For once, I’m grateful that a privileged little snot is so ineffectual at carrying out the responsibilities bestowed upon him.

Banker Accused of Arranging $16 Million in Loans to Manafort to Gain High-Level Trump Post [New York Times]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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