What we know about the 'Hapsburg group' named in Manafort lobbying scheme
https://www.euronews.com/2018/02/24/what-we-know-about-the-hapsburg-group-named-in-manafort-lobbying-scheme
The superseding indictment filed by special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday says Manafort secretly retained the ex-politicians, known as the Hapsburg group, to lobby for Ukraine in 2012 and 2013.
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Why did Manafort want them?
Manafort called the group SUPER VIP in an EYES ONLY memo created around June 2012, in which he explained that he wanted to assemble a group of high-level European highly influencial [sic] champions and politically credible friends who can act informally and without any visible relationship with the Government of Ukraine."
~snip~
What did the group actually do?
In 2013, the former chancellor and other former politicians from the group lobbied US Members of Congress, officials in the Executive Branch and their staff in coordination with Manafort, the indictment says.
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This article is from 2018. I was just poking around, wondering about past world events, such as the sealed train through Habsburg Germany that brought Lenin to power. I mean, that was cooperation of some sort. And they're still going? No reason given here why this lobbying group is called the "Habsburg group". There are many descendants of Kaiser Wilhelm, some in various relatively minor forms of power in Europe.
And all this Manafort stuff in 2013 was lobbying about Ukraine!! WHAT is going on here? I have no idea.