“Facing another news story detailing Trump’s team’s ties to Russian Federation and on the day of his foreign policy address, Trump’s campaign manager’s statement raised more questions than it addressed”.
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According to the Times report, published Sunday, officials for Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau found 22 mentions of Manafort in a newly discovered “secret ledger” belonging to Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party, the Party of Regions.
Manfort has a long history of working with unsavory overseas governments, including former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
The chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign says he never received a single off-the-books cash payment for political work in Ukraine.
In a statement, it demanded that the Republican nominee disclose Manafort’s ties to Russian or pro-Kremlin entities, given Trump’s “pro-Putin policy stances” and “the recent Russian government hacking and disclosure of Democratic Party records”. They have not been able to verify whether or not the Trump campaign chairman ever received the payments.
Manafort’s lawyer, Richard A. Hibey, told the newspaper his client did not receive “any such cash payments”, The Times reported. The prosecutor, Artem Sytnyk, said that didn’t mean that Mr. Manafort necessarily received any money.
Svitlana Olifira, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, confirmed that the documents were recovered, but cautioned that the investigation was in its early stages.
Given Manafort’s top-level political connections, prosecutors say it is unlikely that he was not aware of the deep-rooted corruption, which included channeling money to offshore shell companies.
Yanukovych was removed from power in 2014.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, August 10, 2016, in Abingdon, Va.
But the bigger news on Twitter was who promoted the Times report: none other than former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was pushed out by Manafort but still advises Trump.
Manafort himself at the time refused to comment on this or other reports that he was advising the Ukrainian president.
However, Mr Manafort maintains that he simply did work as a “campaign professional” for an worldwide campaign when he worked with Mr Yanukovych.
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The hacked emails, some of which were released by WikiLeaks, were an attempt to harm Hillary Clinton’s campaign and boost Trump – who has spoken favorably of Putin and promises to bolster U.S.
