Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was blocked from traveling to Dubai on Sunday, after Customs and Border Protection found that he had an invalid passport.
“I may activate myself somewhat in the next couple months,” he told radio host Frank Morano.
Um, Paul, can I call you Paul? You gonna activate yourself, Paul, it’s gotta be legal. K, Paul?
“Activate”?
Isn’t that what Russia does to sleeper cells?
In my eyes, a felon pardoned by DJT is still a felon. Manafort is an especially despicable and corrupt felon.
Using an invalid passport. Federal offense? Asking for some friends.
ETA. Isn’t Dubai where all the grifting oligarchs are hiding?
Must be new information about to emerge.
Guess he’ll have to reschedule his meeting with his Russian paymaster.
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
Or he’s a Wonder Twin.
There are a couple of questions for me.
First, if this passport was one of the ones he turned in, oh, so long ago and it was revoked at that time, how come he managed to get so far as to get his boarding pass and get through the passport check to actually get on the plane? When you check in online for an international flight, you have to enter your passport number and expiry date as part of the process. There should have been some flagging there – I’m pretty certain that stuff goes to the US border authorities. Since the airline would have to bring you back on their own cost if they don’t check the validity of travel document, I am assuming there’s some real-time checking going on at that point (but I may be wrong).
(Since I have been entering and leaving the US exclusively using my passport, it’s not clear to me whether you can present a driver’s license at TSA before going through security if you are getting onto an international flight.)
If his passport was revoked basically about the time they picked him up (i.e., was valid until they came on board and said, nope, no good any more), then it will be interesting to see what triggered it.
Not being an expert in this stuff, I may be all wet, but it seems odd he could have gotten all the way onto the plane without someone catching before they came and hauled his ass away. Unless they waited for him to board the plane…
I like that explanation. Like when the retailer store “loss prevention” officer lets you go out the door before putting the arm on you…
Yes, I do too. Because why not catch him at the check-in desk? Or at the gate before boarding? Or at the airline lounge? Why would they only just notice as he was boarding??
I think they wanted to make sure he thought he’d gotten away with it. And maybe he had something he could no longer get rid of on the plane…?
Dubai is a “sanctions free” zone, unlike most of the world, so it would be a place Manafort could keep some of his ill-gotten assets. On the other hand, police state lite is not your best bet if you screwed over Putin or his crew. Must be something serious bad like putting Putin’s money in a dynasty trust in South Dakota.
Exactly my question. I doubt he could get a boarding pass, or get past the TSA screening with a driver’s license. And, if his passport was revoked or expired, he would not have ever gotten seated on a plane.
Hell, I couldn’t get out of TSA screening with a bobby pin in my hair! (or my Swiss Army knife in my purse.) Many years ago, I was not allowed to take my knitting needles, either.
I’m positive he couldn’t get a boarding pass, I don’t know about TSA because there will be a lot of folks flying domestic going through too. But for sure the boarding pass requires a passport (I think they even scan it again too)….
Never had my knitting needles taken away but have had a small pair of embroidery scissors taken away.
Like most Manafort-y things there is an odor to it.
Just flew to Europe a couple days ago and we didn’t have to show our boarding passes at all, rather we all got biometric scans before getting on the plane.
So he was removed from the flight but wasn’t detained (arrested), is that right?
Hell, just take a short cruise to Nassau and hop a connecting flight from there. This isn’t going to stop him traveling to Dubai if he has friends there who will let him in.
As I recall, the FBI found 10 different passports when they arrested Pauly. So why didn’t they confiscate said passports?