Though we do not know what prosecutors may want from Manafort, our reporter, Tom McCarthy, reminds us that he was present for a handful of campaign interactions with Russian operatives.
Manafort attended a June 2016 meeting with Russians at Trump tower set up by Donald Trump Jr. He received emails from former Trump aide George Papadopoulos, who had been informed that Russia had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. He was campaign chairman when Wikileaks began publishing emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee by hackers that US intelligence has linked to Russia. He may have knowledge of Trump’s business relationships in Russia. He may have been party to campaign conversations about how to handle news of the Russia investigation.
Manafort essentially took over the campaign as of mid-April 2016 and was Trump’s go-to man during a critical period of the campaign,” de la Vega told the Guardian. “Reporting shows that Trump called Manafort 20 times a day, and, of course, Manafort knows the whole story of the Trump Tower meeting and events before and after.
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LATEST: Prosecutors revealed in court this morning that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort completed a successful meeting with investigators in which he offered them information they consider valuable. https://abcn.ws/2NaVobM
12:59 PM - Sep 14, 2018
“Mr. Manafort has accepted responsibility and he wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life,” Kevin Downing, one of Manafort’s attorneys told reporters, speaking outside the courthouse.
“He’s accepted responsibility and this is for conduct that dates back many years and everybody should remember that.”
