Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort tried to broker a deal with Ecuador officials to get WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange handed over to the United States, The New York Times reported Monday.
According to the Times, which cited three unnamed sources, Manafort went to Ecuador in May 2017 to offer his services to Ecuador's incoming president, Lenín Moreno — focusing on a deal in which China would invest in the South American nation's power system.
In at least two meetings, however, Moreno and his aides talked about ridding themselves of Assange, who had been staying in an Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012.
No power system deal was made — and there is no evidence Manafort was working on behalf of the Trump administration in the talks about Assange, the Times reported.
Manafort was convicted of bank and tax fraud earlier this year, and agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller in his prove of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
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