Yeah, this looks kinds bad (but we’ve said that before) The New York Times reported just last night that Donald Trump‘s campaign chief Paul Manafort’s name shows up 22 times in a secret ledger in Russia. The hand-written ledger details cash payments by Ukraine’s pro-Russia party (before it was deposed in a popular uprising.)
According to the ledgers, Manafort received $12.7 million in cash payments from Yanukovych’s party between 2007 to 2012. The details were discovered by the Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau that is trying to piece together the vast network of corruption that the previous government used to rob the state.
Manafort’s connections to the political and business interests of the deposed government seem to make it unlikely he didn’t know about the rampant corruption. A former senior official in Kiev said,
“He understood what was happening in Ukraine. It would have to be clear to any reasonable person that the Yanukovych clan, when it came to power, was engaged in corruption.”
Manafort’s lawyer vehemently denied that he had received “any such cash payments,” calling the allegations
“suspicions, and probably heavily politically tinged ones.”
Shady is what they call it. Even more damning may be than the story itself is who shared it on social media. Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski (who was fired from the campaign, remember) shared the Times story on Twitter without comment. But THAT’s not all Twitter brought. Journalist Adam Weinstein wrote,
“Speaking as someone who has a story coming this week: This is just the beginning for Manafort. It gets worse.”
Manafort you’re supposed to be the master of spin, start spinning!
(via Slate)