The two members of Congress who received campaign contributions from convicted Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort have selected charities to receive the funds, their spokespeople tell the Washington Examiner.
Reps. Andy Harris, R-Md., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., are the only current members of Congress to receive contributions from Manafort, who pleaded guilty to foreign lobbying and witness tampering crimes Friday after being convicted of tax and bank fraud last month.
Harris, who received $500 during his first campaign for Congress in 2008, will give the funds to the Pregnancy Center North, campaign coordinator Nicole Beus said. The Baltimore-based center says on its website that it provides “free life-affirming services for women and their families in unexpected pregnancies.”
Harris lost the 2008 election, but won in a second try in 2010 and has been re-elected repeatedly since then.
Rohrabacher received two contributions from Manafort totaling $2,000. The funds were donated to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County Children’s Foundation, Rohrabacher campaign spokesman Dale Neugebauer said.
Rohrabacher received $1,000 in March 2013, three days after the men had dinner at the Capitol Hill Club. Manafort previously contributed $1,000 to the long-serving congressman in 1997.
The late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who died Aug. 25, also received money from Manafort in the past decade, according to the OpenSecrets database of campaign filings, including $2,300 when he sought the presidency in 2007.
Manafort gave a total of $10,000 in 2006 and 2007 to Straight Talk America, a political action committee linked to McCain, who built a “maverick” reputation denouncing the influence of money in politics.
Aside from donations to Trump, the only other Manafort contributions directly to federal candidates in the past decade went to failed Arizona congressional candidate Vernon Parker, the former mayor of Paradise Valley. Manafort donated $2,400 to Parker in 2010 and $2,500 in 2012.
Parker, who could not be reached for comment, is known for successful direct-mail drives. During one election season he reportedly netted nearly $700,000 in donations, more than $200,000 of the haul after he dropped out.
Manafort’s giving to candidates was small compared to his personal spending. A federal indictment said the disgraced former political operative’s spending included $820,000 on landscaping in the Hamptons and $934,350 at a Virginia antique rug store.
