Paul Manafort was in debt to pro-Russia interests by as much as $17 million prior to signing on as Donald Trump’s presidential campaign manager in March 2016, The New York Times reported late Wednesday.
Manafort had business dealings in Ukraine and shell companies connected to those activities appear to have owed the money, according to financial records filed in Cyprus. Manafort was forced to resign as Trump’s chairman in August 2016 amid questions of his business dealings.
The Times report adds fuel to the controversy over the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, and comes shortly after it was announced that Manafort and Donald Trump Jr. will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a public hearing next week.
Manafort has come under fire over the last week following reports he and Trump Jr. attended a meeting with a Russian-linked lawyer last year who promised them damaging information about then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
A spokesman for Manafort told the Times the debts might have existed, but were “stale and do not purport to reflect any current financial arrangements.”
“Manafort is not indebted to Mr. Deripaska or the Party of Regions, nor was he at the time he began working for the Trump campaign,” Jason Maloni said. “The broader point, which Mr. Manafort has maintained from the beginning, is that he did not collude with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.”
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