Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager who resigned amid his alleged links to Russia, is facing a controversy of an entirely different nature. His neighbors are complaining his ill-kempt Caroll Gardens brownstone is making the rest of the street look bad.
Manafort lives in a Trump Tower condo when he’s in New York City, but also owns a four-story brownstone at 377 Union Street in Carroll Gardens, the New York Post reported. Neighbors claim the empty house has become an eyesore, with piles of snow, steel beams and dirty cinder blocks littering the front yard.
“It’s been four years empty or being renovated. The backyard is full of debris. I wish proper people would live here,” local Stephanie Birkmann told the Post.
Another local, Stephen Barnes, said it’s “been a dump for years.’’
Manafort paid $2.9 million for the 22-foot wide townhouse in 2012, and then received permission to convert it into a two-family single unit, according to the Post. The project has not been completed but he told the paper he has hired a new architect and expects to “complete the construction by the end of the year.”
Manafort resigned from the campaign last summer following reports that a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party gave him $12.7 million. He has been named in leaked intelligence reports as a Trump adviser who was in contact with Russian agents during the election.
Late last year, his son-in-law filed for bankruptcy protection for four of his Los Angeles properties. [NYP] — Miriam Hall