President Donald Trump called former campaign chairman Paul Manafort a "good man" and again slammed Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe as a "witch hunt" less than an hour after Manafort was found guilty of bank and tax fraud.
"I must tell you that Paul Manafort's a good man. ... It doesn't involve me, but it's a very sad thing that happened," Trump told reporters in Charleston, W. Va., after he landed there early Tuesday evening ahead of a planned rally.
"This had nothing to do with Russian collusion. ... It's a witch hunt, and it's a disgrace. I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. He worked for Bob Dole. ... He worked for Ronald Reagan."
When asked about his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to eight charges Tuesday, including campaign finance fraud stemming from his role in arranging hush money payments to two women who claimed they had affairs with the president before he ran for office, Trump didn't respond,. However, Trump did say at the outset of his remarks that he felt badly for "both."
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