Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party relied heavily on the advice of Manafort, who helped them win several elections, according to the Times.
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Paul Manafort finds himself facing lots of new questions surrounding his past work with the former pro-Russian regime in Ukraine following a pair of damming reports this week. Ukrainian authorities stated that the transaction was an illegal payment that included diverse election officials and business associates.
JOHN YANG: The papers were discovered by Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Spanning five years, from 2007 to 2012, the documents reportedly detail undisclosed payments totalling $12. He was a registered lobbyist for the Kashmiri American Council – a group operating as an independent lobbying effort by US citizens to advocate on behalf of the Kashmiri people that the Justice Department found was illegally financed by the ISI.
The day before the paper ran the story about Manafort, it ran a story about the internal strife within the Trump campaign, eliciting a prompt and vehement response from the Republican candidate in a series of tweets. “But again, I think we should expose both these issues in both campaigns”. The ledger does not say whether Manafort was paid, and he denies having received any money.
He has since denied the reports, but the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Bureau confirmed that his name appears in a ledger of payments, though it is still investigating whether the money was delivered to him.
After being accused of receiving payment from the Ukrainian government, the chairperson of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign claims he never received any off-the-books payment for political work from Ukraine.
“Donald Trump has a responsibility to disclose campaign chair Paul Manafort’s and all other campaign employees’ and advisors’ ties to Russian or pro-Kremlin entities”, said a statement by Clinton’s Campaign Manager Robby Mook.
It is not the first time that Manafort’s offshore antics have caused suspicion.
Manafort, whose worldwide clients have included one-time Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, denied any wrongdoing.
The ledger is called in Ukraine the black ledger, and it’s a collection of papers, perhaps 400 pages, as you mentioned, with handwritten notes describing payments from the Party of Regions, which is a pro-Russian political party that Paul Manafort worked for before becoming manager of the Republican campaign this year in the United States.
He added that all political payments directed at him were for his entire staff and their work on campaigns, and that the allegation he received cash was “silly”.
Trump has made numerous muddled and conflicting statements about his relationship with the Russian president.
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In his statement Monday, Manafort attacked the Times. And the newly found ledgers aren’t the most troublesome aspect of Manafort’s career, which been built largely on helping dictators and despots overseas attain political power.
