Paul Manafort was Donald Trump’s presidential campaign chairman. He allegedly had deep, long-lasting, corrupt ties to Russia for which he will likely go to prison if convicted — he’s just been indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller. According to the indictment, he contracted with the Podesta Group — headed by Tony Podesta, a longtime Democratic lobbyist and brother of former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta — to run interference for the Ukrainian government under now-deposed leader Viktor Yanukovych. Podesta stepped down from the group on Monday amid the Manafort allegations.
Meanwhile, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos just pled guilty to lying to the FBI. He admits that he was attempting to connect with foreign sources with connections to the Russian government who promised a better Trump campaign-Russia relationship and stated they had “dirt” on Clinton, including “thousands of emails.” Papadopoulos implicated other members of the campaign. This would be the second piece of evidence that someone in the Trump campaign was warm toward receiving information on Clinton via Russian sources. The first came earlier this year when we found out that Donald Trump Jr. had openly encouraged a meeting with Russia-connected lawyers promising material on Clinton. Neither reach-out by the Russians apparently materialized into anything serious.
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