Donald Trump’s top political aide is denying a news report that he received $12.7 million in secret cash payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.
“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,” Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said in a statement.
Manafort, who did work for the party led by the pro-Russian former Ukrainian president Viktor F. Yanukovych, also said that “I am a campaign professional” and “it is well known that I do work in the United States and have done work on overseas campaigns as well.”
The New York Times reports that “handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau.”
The report added: “Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.”
The story broke shortly before Trump was set to deliver a foreign policy speech Monday at Youngstown State University in Ohio.
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SOURCE: David M Jackson
USA TODAY
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