Senior advisor at FBI-raided consulting firm worked for group founded by Paul Manafort and Roger Stone
Thursday the FBI raided the Annapolis offices of a Republican fundraising consultancy run by Kelley Rogers that has ties to the Trump Taj Mahal through Penn National Gaming. However, the Senate Intelligence Committee has been looking into possible money laundering fines issued on the Taj in 2015.
Dennis Whitfield, one of the senior advisors to Rogers’ firm, the Strategic Campaign Group, is also a director in a political consulting firm. Whitfield previously a director at BKSH and Associates, a firm “formed in 1996 when Paul Manafort and Roger Stone left Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly,” according to Bloomberg.
Both Stone and Manafort were top campaign advisors to President Donald Trump during the 2016 election and are reportedly under investigation for their ties to Russia.
Stone and Manafort had left the firm before Whitfield joined.
Kelley Rogers told The Washington Post that his firm Strategic Campaign Group was raided over a campaign dispute from 2013.
Republican Ken Cuccinelli, a Trump supporter, sued the Strategic Campaign Group in 2014. He accused the firm of scamming his supporters during the 2013 Virginia Republican gubernatorial race.
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign also attacked the firm for allegedly raising money without the candidate’s approval last year, according to Bloomberg.
The FBI will not reveal any information about an ongoing investigation. Newsweek also revealed that a majority of Americans believe it was inappropriate for Trump fired former FBI director James Comey.