 The only thing that Freddie Mac officials could recall Davis doing for the company, the "Times" said, was speaking at an October 2006 forum attended by midlevel and senior executives who contributed to Freddie PAC, the company’s political action committee.In 2005, Davis and his business partner, political consultant Paul J. Manafort, pitched a plan to Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska under which they would influence news coverage, business dealings, and politics in the former Soviet Union, Europe, and the United States "to benefit President Vladimir Putin's government.