Paul Manafort looked to establish back channels with at least two senior AFL-CIO officials during the 2016 presidential election in an effort to hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign in key midwestern states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, The New York Times reports.
The AFL-CIO, the main labor federation in the United States, endorsed Clinton for president and typically backs Democrats. Manafort wanted to persuade the organization to reduce its get-out-the-vote efforts in those states, according to three people close to the Trump campaign who spoke with the Times.
Manafort, who is serving a 7½ year term in federal prison in Pennsylvania for federal bank and tax fraud convictions, wanted to convey to the AFL-CIO that Trump was open to loosening his support for right-to-work laws typically opposed by unions.
There was not any evidence provided to prove the two sides negotiated a deal.
The Times said Manafort did connect with an AFL-CIO field operative named Don Slaiman through Steven Brown, who worked with Manafort in Ukraine in 2013.
"He wanted to meet with me," Slaiman said. "I never did. I responded to him because we regularly communicated with both Democrats and Republicans — our focus is on pro-labor issues not party identification."
He added, "These con artists were delusional if they believed that the labor movement would enter into any kind of deal."
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