How A 2016 NYT Report Led To Mueller's Coverup Charges Against Manafort And Gates
By Caitlin MacNeal | March 7, 2018 6:00 am
In mid-August 2016, the Trump campaign was hit with a New York Times story revealing a secret ledger with $12.7 million in planned payments from a Ukrainian political party to Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman at the time.
The Trump campaign already appeared to be in turmoil at the end of the summer, with Trump itching for a staff shakeup and the Republican National Committee facing pressure to pull funding for Trump. The Times’ story laying out Manafort’s ties to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych only added to the list of the Trump campaign’s woes, and Manafort was fired a few days later.
At the time of Manafort’s ouster, the staff shakeup was seen in part as another sign of the chaos in Trump’s campaign — reports on Manafort’s resignation noted that Trump and Manafort had been butting heads over the direction of the campaign for weeks.
However, the latest revelations in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s charges against Manafort and his associates that dropped last month reveal that the New York Times report sent Manafort and his team scrambling to cover their tracks as the Justice Department narrowed in on their lobbying work. Manafort and Gates allegedly engaged in a coverup while still working for the Trump campaign, and several of the charges handed down in the indictments cover conduct during the span of Trump’s presidential run.
more
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/manafort-gates-august-september-2016