Dennis Whitfield, Senior Advisor Of FBI-Raided Strategic Campaign Group, Linked To Paul Manafort, Roger Stone

The headquarters of Strategic Campaign Group Inc. (SCG), a Republican fundraising firm in Maryland, was raided Thursday by the FBI, following which reports surfaced linking its senior advisor Dennis Whitfield to Roger Stone and Paul Manafort.

Stone and Manafort, two of President Donald Trump’s former senior advisors who are now being investigated by the FBI for possible collusions with Russia during the 2016 presidential election campaign, are the co-founders of Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly, the political consulting firm where Whitfield served as a the director in the later part of his career, a Newsweek report said.

However, It has not been confirmed if the FBI raid at the Annapolis, Maryland, office of SCG had anything to do with the ongoing probe into Russia’s involvement in Trump’s campaign or Whitfield’s possible involvement. An FBI spokesperson told the Baltimore Sun that the agency carried out “law enforcement activity” in the Main Street in Annapolis.

Half a dozen plain-clothed FBI agents arrived at the SCG headquarters at 8:30 a.m., and left at around 4 p.m. Thursday with a few documents and computers in their possession.

Kelley Rogers, president of SCG, told the Baltimore Sun that the FBI agents had arrived at the group's office with a court warrant to search and seize. He also mentioned that the investigation was regarding the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial campaign of former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican, whom the firm has represented.

After news of the FBI investigation broke, GOP senators and delegates who had consulted the firm during the 2016 election cycle, expressed concern regarding continuing their relations with SCG in the near future.

"I'm shocked by what has come to light today and we will not be working with them on any new projects until the legal process is completed and they are cleared," House Minority Leader Nic Kipke of Anne Arundel County in Maryland told the Baltimore Sun.

SCG has been accused of various campaign frauds in the past, including raising funds for Trump’s campaign without his knowledge or approval. The firm was later branded by the critics as "Scam PAC", which worked with the Conservative Strikeforce to raise $12 million over a span of seven years, the Hill reported. Out of the raised funds, only a small percentage was handed down to the respective GOP campaigns with SCG’s total earnings reaching $579,000.

Whitfield is also a former associate of Black, Kelly, Scruggs & Healey (BKSH), a lobbying firm in Washington, which went on to become the Prime Policy Group, run by former Ukrainian President Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych. The former leader is currently hiding in Russia and is wanted for high treason by the Ukrainian government, according to another report by the Hill.

Whitfield has had 35 years of experience working with some of the top business, political and government officials in Washington, D.C., according to his bio on the official website of SCG. He was also a part of President Ronald Reagan’s administration and was chief of staff to the United States Trade Representative. He went onto become deputy secretary of labor under Reagan, till 1989.

He was the co-founder of the Brock Group, which doled out legal advice on trade, political, legislative and investment matters for the United States and foreign companies.