A top aide of the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump- implicated in a New York Times report that he was designated to receive millions in undisclosed cash payments from Ukraine’s pro-Russian political party – has denied any wrongdoing.
Paul Manafort, manager of Trump’s presidential campaign, going on the offensive condemned the report for choosing to “purposefully ignore facts and professional journalism.” He said he had never received off-the-books cash payments from former Ukrainian president and Russian ally Viktor Yanukovych.
The Times had reported 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. Spanning five years, from 2007 to 2012, the documents reportedly detail undisclosed payments totaling $12.7 million.
Investigators told the Times that the “disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials,” and are the focus of an ongoing criminal investigation. It has not yet been determined, however, if Manafort received the payments.
“I have never received a single ‘off-the-books cash payment’ as falsely ‘reported’ by The New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia,” Manafort wrote in a statement. “As the article points out hesitantly, every government official interviewed states I have done nothing wrong, and there is no evidence of ‘cash payments’ made to me by any official in Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign has asked the Republican rival to disclose any connections that exist between Russia and aides to the Republican nominee.
“On the eve of what the Trump campaign has billed as a major foreign policy speech, we have learned of more troubling connections between Donald Trump’s team and pro-Kremlin elements in Ukraine,” campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement late Sunday night.
“Given the pro-Putin policy stances adopted by Donald Trump and the recent Russian government hacking and disclosure of Democratic Party records, Donald Trump has a responsibility to disclose campaign chair Paul Manafort’s and all other campaign employees’ and advisers’ ties to Russian or pro-Kremlin entities, including whether any of Trump’s employees or advisers are currently representing and or being paid by them.”
