Donald Trump released a statement on Friday announcing that he had accepted the abrupt resignation of campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
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The accounts have prompted questions about the Trump campaign chairman’s previous work in Ukraine and his links to the former president, who fled the country in disgrace in 2014 and is now being investigated for corruption.
Meanwhile, new documents released by Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators appear to link the lobbying work the men directed in the U.S.to handwritten entries in ledgers listing $12.7 million in cash payments alongside Manafort’s name. 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.
“Paul 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”, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement.
A Trump rally Thursday night revealed hints that Trump may be heeding the advice of party leaders and insiders to shift his tone – something Manafort had urged.
Gates also directed the firms to gather information in the US on a rival lobbying operation, including a review of its public lobbying disclosures, to determine who was behind that effort, the emails show.
The departure also comes as Manafort is defending himself from investigations into his extensive lobbying history overseas, particularly in the Ukraine, where he represented pro-Russian interests. During the Republican Party convention, Trump campaign officials pushed and succeeded in removing a pledge promising to provide Ukraine with “lethal defensive weapons” from their platform, the Washington Post reported. Gates worked for Manafort’s political consulting firm DMP International LLC at the time, and Manafort reportedly oversaw Gate’s work with the lobbying firms.
Handwritten notes in a column describe what the payments were used for with entries such as: “Payment for Manafort’s services”, “contract payment to Manafort” dated between November 2011 and October 2012.
Manafort’s resignation comes amid media reports about his ties to Russian Federation and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort has been beating back reports from multiple media outlets in recent days over his ethics, which have been egged on by a Clinton campaign eager to highlight Trump’s ties to the Kremlin.
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The ledgers initially turned up during the chaos following Ukraine’s 2014 revolution, as protesters ransacked the Party of Region’s offices. Podesta said he was unaware of the firm’s work for the Ukraine’s Party of Regions, led by Yanukovych. The nonprofit operation subsequently paid at least $2.2 million to the lobbying firms to advocate positions generally in line with those of Yanukovych’s government. On Thursday, his firm said it had nothing new to add.
