The sudden resignation Friday of Donald Trump’s campaign chairman put renewed emphasis on revelations about his past work on behalf of Ukraine’s pro-Russian political leaders, including his firm’s role directing a covert Washington lobbying operation that would have required him under federal law to disclose his efforts to the Justice Department.
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Manafort had brought in to make the Trump campaign a bit more professional after his success in the primaries, but the campaign has so far sputtered on the national stage.
His resignation came two days after Trump shook up his campaign staff in the face of his sinking popularity ratings.
Breitbart News executive Stephen Bannon will now take over for Manafort, as well as veteran pollster Kellyanne Conway. “I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process”.
“Manafort’s resignation is a clear admission that the disturbing connections between Donald Trump’s team and pro-Kremlin elements in Russian Federation and Ukraine are untenable”, Robby Mook, campaign manager of Clinton Campaign, said on Friday.
But this doesn’t change the fact that Trump himself has spent the entire campaign parroting Putin’s talking points. Trump fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in June, a time at which Manafort ascended to the top of the organization.
Trump’s son, Eric Trump, told Fox News in an interview that will air Sunday that his father anxious questions about Manafort’s past were taking attention away from the billionaire’s presidential bid.
The emails obtained by AP were sent by Gates to Vin Weber, the head of Mercury’s Washington office, and to Michael McSherry, a Mercury lobbyist who Politico reported was tapped earlier this month for a senior position in Trump’s campaign. The documents allegedly show payments of $12.7 million earmarked for Manafort.
The departure from Trump’s team did not surprise political consultants. A Trump source said Manafort told Trump he was becoming a distraction and he wanted to end that. “And I do regret it – particularly where it may have caused personal pain”.
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A person who answered a telephone number for Manafort said Manafort was not available for comment. Throughout the campaign, Trump has generally refused to apologize for remarks viewed as insensitive or insulting. The bureau said, however, that it can not prove that Manafort actually received the money because other people including a prominent Party of the Regions deputy signed for him in those entries. “It’s more like he’s trying to catch Ryan Lochte”.
