Latest On Manafort
Jason Maloni represented Manafort and was a spokesman on his behalf.
“Paul Manafort did not collude with the Russian government to undermine the 2016 election,” Maloni said. “No amount of wishing and hoping by his political opponents will make this spurious allegation true.”
Maloni wouldn’t say if Manafort met with anyone while in Russia.
Investigators were looking into “talks between Russians about using Manafort as part of their broad influence operations during the elections,” a source said.
Daniel Fried said “he’s at best got a conflict of interest and at worst is really doing Putin’s bidding.” Fried was a former Assistant Secretary of State.
“You can make a case that all along he … was either working principally for Moscow, or he was trying to play both sides against each other just to maximize his profits,” said Fried.
It does look based on evidence that Manafort would face some level of prosecution. He had pleaded not guilty, but that doesn’t change the facts that were discovered.
Rick Gates who was also a partner of Manafort pleaded not guilty. Based on the media coverage the focus was more on Manafort than Gates.
