Manafort was consulting for former Ukrainian president and candidate Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 when his ouster and flight to Russian Federation set in motion the chain of events that culminated with Russia’s invading and annexing the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which had been under the administration of Ukraine.
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Investigators for the newly formed bureau said the payments were “part of an illegal off-the-books system”, according to the Times.
The newspaper report claims that the ledger showed $12.7 million cash payments to Manafort.
Svitlana Olifira, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, confirmed that documents were recovered, but cautioned that the probe was in early stages.
Mr Manafort, the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign manager, vehemently denied any wrongdoing, saying he had never received the payments.??
But Manafort’s prominence in the ledger is reason for concern, especially in light of Trump’s soft-and at times reverent-attitude toward Russian Federation.
“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”, he said in a statement.
“The truth is Mr. Manafort is involved in our campaign, but he’s not running for president”.
Trump may have a new speech about the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) read from a working teleprompter, but he said not long ago that he knows more about ISIS than American commanders!
He added that his five-year stint as doing work as a political consultant in Ukraine ended after that country’s elections in 2014. “In addition, as the article points out hesitantly, every government official interviewed states I have done nothing wrong, and there is no evidence of “cash payments” made to me by any official in Ukraine”, the statement continued. He also accused The Times of covering up recent reports that Clinton’s Foundation had accepted money for political favors. “And we did cover those Hillary Clinton emails”, Tapper said.
Following a weekend in which he called CNN “disgusting” and said The New York Times is “going to hell”, Trump is now portraying his candidacy as a dual-pronged campaign against both Hillary Clinton and the media.
The New York Times reported Sunday that Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort could have received $12.7 million in undisclosed cash from Ukraine’s pro-Russian political party.
Trump’s campaign on Wednesday announced a staff shake-up replacing Manafort as campaign manager after just two months.
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Manafort’s entire statement is here.
