Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, previously worked for pro-Russian forces in Ukraine. This was no minor engagement. Manafort spent five years providing a “make over” to Viktor Yanukovych, eventually succeeding in getting the Putin supporter elected Ukraine’s president. It wasn’t until Yanukovych took a series of actions that were blatantly pro-Putin—including rejecting EU membership and attempting to bind Ukraine back to Russia—that he was ousted as president and had to run for asylum Moscow in 2014. From Russia, Yanukovych has continued to claim to be the legitimate president of Ukraine and cheered on Putin’s invasion.
Meanwhile, Manafort also left the Ukraine and returned to the United States, where he became Trump’s manager. But that doesn’t mean he has broken ties with Yanukovych or with Russia.
… Mr. Manafort’s presence remains elsewhere here in the capital, where government investigators examining secret records have found his name, as well as companies he sought business with, as they try to untangle a corrupt network they say was used to loot Ukrainian assets and influence elections during the administration of Mr. Manafort’s main client, former President Viktor F. Yanukovych.
What they found was $12.7 million in cash payments from Yanukovych’s pro-Russian forces to Manafort. These weren’t the acknowledged, legitimate payments to Manafort for his services in the campaign. These were secret payments. While the ledgers show these secret payments continuing through 2012, Manafort continued to work in Kiev and was still being paid openly through Yanukovych’s ejection in 2014. And even now, there are indications that he may still be on Moscow’s rolls.
It is not clear that Mr. Manafort’s work in Ukraine ended with his work with Mr. Trump’s campaign. A communications aide for Mr. Lyovochkin, who financed Mr. Manafort’s work, declined to say whether he was still on retainer or how much he had been paid.
Paul Manafort has issued a statement denying that he piled up off-the-books cash from pushing Ukraine toward Moscow.
“Once again, the New York Times has chosen to purposefully ignore facts and professional journalism to fit their political agenda, choosing to attack my character and reputation rather than present an honest report,” Manafort said in a statement obtained by NBC News. “The suggestion that I accepted cash payments is unfounded, silly and nonsensical.”
Which fits with the “don’t trust the media” theme that has dominated Trump’s campaign over recent days.
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Donald Trump’s campaign overruled delegates and worked to soften the position of the Republican Platform toward Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. This was widely reported at the time, and it wasn’t until weeks later, when the spotlight started shining more brightly on Russian connections to both Trump and Manafort, that both felt compelled to deny involvement.
However, there were plenty of witnesses.
Trump staffers in the room, who are not delegates but are there to oversee the process, intervened. By working with pro-Trump delegates, they were able to get the issue tabled while they devised a method to roll back the language.
Paul Manafort spent at least five years working openly to support pro-Russian forces in Ukraine. It now looks like he was getting large, secret cash payments for helping hand the country to Putin. He may still be getting payments.
Both before and after Manafort joined his campaign, Trump has made numerous statements favorable to Putin, and also given confused, contradictory statements about the Ukraine including supporting Russia’s capture of the Crimea.