Top Donald Trump aide lobbied for ISI frontal outfit in US: report

Washington, Apr 18: US Republican frontrunner Donald Trump's new top campaign aide Paul Manafort lobbied for a Washington-based group that has been charged for operating as a front for Pakistan's powerful spy agency ISI, a media report said on Tuesday.

The company of Paul Manafort, who was recently hired by Trump campaign as its convention manager allegedly received USD 700,000 from the Kashmiri American Council (KAC) between 1990 and 1995, the Yahoo News reported.

The money was received by Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, which was Manafort's lobbying firm. Ghulam Nabi Fai, the head of Kashmiri American Council, was sentenced by a US court for two years of imprisonment on charges of receiving money from ISI and working on its behalf.

The fund USD 700,000 was part of the USD 4 million given by ISI to Kashmiri American Council, as alleged by federal prosecutors during court proceeding. The ISI has denied the allegations.

The US Government never charged Manafort, who was registered as a lobbyist. Manafort during a trip to Islamabad in 1994 presented plans to influence members of Congress to back Pakistan's case for a plebiscite for Kashmir, the report said.

The report quotes an unnamed former Pakistani official, who was part of that meeting. Internal budget documents obtained by the FBI show plans by the Kashmiri American Council to spend USD 80,000 to USD 100,000 a year on campaign contributions to members of Congress, it said.

"There is no way Manafort didn't know that Pakistan was involved with the KAC," the former official said was quoted as saying by the report. The Trump Campaign did not respond to questions sent on the allegations against Manafort.

PTI