Trump said in a statement he had accepted Manafort’s resignation, but did not offer an explanation for the departure. Per The Post, Manafort was all for adding Conway and Brannon and even though he is resigning from the campaign, he still supports Trump and it’s a parting on good terms. He was elevated in late June after the ouster of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, with whom Manafort clashed over the unconventional candidate’s strategy and message.
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PAUL Manafort has resigned as chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, under fire in connection with a Ukrainian corruption investigation and two days after being sidelined in a team reshuffle. “I am very appreciated in his great work in helping to get us where we are today and in particular work guiding us through the delegate and the convention process”, the statement read. Trump praised Manafort’s work on the campaign and called him a “true professional”.
PHOTOS: Donald On Top! The former campaign chairman had past business dealings that were under extreme scrutiny.
Further Fusion investigations into Manafort’s Ukrainian ties found he had received millions in under-the table payments from Ukrainian government clients, and may have participated in setting up a protest against USA marines visiting the Ukraine for a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation demonstration.
The New York Times this week reported Manafort’s name was found on secret ledgers showing cash payments designated to him of more than $12 million from a Ukrainian party with Russian ties. The Trump campaign chair had consulted for the Russian-backed Yanukovych in several elections. When Lewandwski was sacked in June, Manafort attempted to rein in some of Trump’s most controversial actions. The switch comes as Trump is running far behind Clinton in polls, with prospects slipping away for winning the key battleground states he needs to reach the 270 electoral votes it takes to win the White House.
Clinton’s campaign has said Manafort’s associations are a troubling sign of ties between Trump’s campaign team and pro-Kremlin elements in Ukraine. Donald Trump’s campaign chairman is out. But Eric Trump, the real estate mogul’s younger son, claimed that his father considered Manafort and the Ukraine allegations a “distraction”. Mr Trump, however, has made clear that he had no desire to change or “pivot”.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign rushed to assert that Manafort’s resignation would not end Trump’s admiration of Putin as a “strong leader”.
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Gates was named in an Associated Press report Thursday that said the two men “never disclosed their work as foreign agents as required under federal law”.
