Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Tuesday formally acknowledged his lobbying work for a group tied to Ukraine’s Party of Regions.
The filing was submitted to the Justice Department on Tuesday evening, according to The Washington Post, which cited an 87-page document that reportedly listed individual meetings with policymakers intended to influence U.S. policy toward Ukraine and payments from the client, among other details.
The forms retroactively filed Tuesday showed that Manafort’s firm received $17.1 million from the political party, according to the Post.
The report covers work done between 2012 and 2014, when Manafort and his associate Rick Gates led an effort to improve the image of pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was eventually expelled from office by protests in the country.
It was Manafort’s work during this time — involving Russia and the Party of Regions — that became an underlying reason for his ouster from the Trump campaign in the summer of 2016.
Manafort is one of several Trump campaign associates reportedly under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller for possible ties to Russia during the 2016 election.
A spokesman for Manafort told The Hill that the filing Tuesday was unrelated to the ongoing Russia investigation.
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: The Hill, Megan Wilson and John Bowden
BCNN1 WP 