Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly


Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly was a lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C. Formed in 1980 by Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Charles Black, it merged with Martin B. Gold's Gold & Liebengood to form BKSH & Associates in 1996.

History

As Black, Manafort & Stone, the firm was one of the first political consulting groups to work for Ronald Reagan's presidential candidacy in 1980, and would later also have extensive connections to the presidential administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
In 1984 it was renamed to Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly & associates, after Peter G. Kelly was recruited.
The firm has represented, and lobbied the US Congress on behalf of, numerous foreign governments and heads of state from both representative democracies and unelected dictatorships including Mohamed Siad Barre of Somalia, dictator Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, and Jonas Savimbi of Angola. According to "The Torturer's Lobby", a report published by The Center for Public Integrity, the firm received $3.3 million in the early 1990s for their work with dictators.
During the 1988 presidential campaign in the United States, it was disclosed that Black, Manafort retained the island nation of the Bahamas as a client at a time its leadership was being attacked for alleged ties to drug traffickers. BMSK officials insisted that they intended only to help the Bahamas obtain more United States aid for efforts to curb drug smugglers.
Domestically the firm represented Bethlehem Steel and Tobacco Institute, helped elect Senators Phil Gramm, Jesse Helms, Charles McCurdy Mathias Jr., Arlen Specter, Paula Hawkins and David F. Durenberger—and worked on legislation that benefitted the firm's clients.
Both Paul Manafort and Roger Stone worked on and held important positions in the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. As of 2019, they are both convicted felons due to their work on the Trump campaign.

Personnel

Principals