Disgraced ex-Trump aide Paul Manafort with links to Russia stopped from boarding flight from Miami to Dubai

Former Trump campaign chairman considered ‘grave counterintelligence threat’ during 2016 race

Disgraced ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has links to Russia, was stopped from taking a flight from Miami to Dubai because of an invalid passport.

Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta said on Wednesday that Mr Manafort was rejected from an Emirates Airline flight on Sunday night.

Manafort, 72, led former President Donald Trump’s campaign for several months during the 2016 presidential race but was ousted in August of that year after revelations about his business dealings in Ukraine.

He was later indicted on a broad array of financial crimes as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. He was convicted by a jury in August 2018 and later pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington.

In May 2020, Manafort was released from a low-security prison where he was serving a more than seven-year federal sentence amid concerns about the coronavirus.

Although Manafort had not served long enough to be eligible for release under the guidelines, the Bureau of Prisons decided to free him because of his age and health vulnerabilities, a person familiar with the matter has said. Mr Trump pardoned Manafort in December 2020.

Manafort’s rejection from the flight was first reported by the website Knewz.com.

A report from the Senate Intelligence Committee published in 2020 revealed that he was considered “a grave counterintelligence threat” during the 2016 campaign when he served as the chairman of the Trump campaign because of his long-standing connections to Russian intelligence services.

“The Committee found that Manafort’s presence on the Campaign and proximity to Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump campaign,” the 966-page report said.

The report states that Manafort’s connections to Russia and Ukraine started around 2004 when he and his consulting firm started working for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who “conducts influence operations” in countries where he has a “significant economic interest”.

The Russian government “coordinates” and “directs” many of these operations, the 2020 report stated.

“From approximately 2004 to 2009, Manafort implemented these influence operations on behalf of Deripaska, including on a broad, multi-million dollar political influence campaign directed at numerous countries of interest to Deripaska and the Russian government,” the report said.

It also stated that Mr Deripaska introduced Manafort to “pro-Russia oligarchs in Ukraine” with “deep economic ties to Russia” and who were “aligned with a pro-Russia political party” that was supported by the Russian government.

“Over the next decade, these oligarchs paid Manafort tens of millions of dollars and formed strong ties with Manafort, independent of Deripaska,” the report said. “Manafort’s work in Ukraine culminated with the 2010 election of Viktor Yanukovych to the presidency, bringing Manafort into the inner circle of Ukrainian politics until Yanukovych’s flight to Russia in 2014.”

Mr Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president of Ukraine, was ousted amid fierce protests prompted by him stepping away from an association agreement with the European Union, choosing instead to form closer ties to Russia. Protesters were then attacked by Ukrainian security, with more than 100 losing their lives.

After his removal from office, Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last month.

The Associated Press contributed to this report