Trump DENIES having knowledge that Manafort shared 2016 polling with Russian ‘spy’

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he didn’t know ‘anything’ about his former campaign chair Paul Manafort passing on campaign polling to an alleged Russian spy during the 2016 campaign.

Trump got asked about the revelation days after it was revealed in a court filing by Manafort’s lawyers. Although the filing was meant to push Manafort’s position that he had not lied in breach of a cooperation deal, botched redactions revealed the substance of what the dispute was about.

The most explosive among them is that Manafort, while a senior figure in Trump’s campaign, gave campaign poll data to Konstantin Kilimnik, a former business associate who special Mueller’s office has tied to a Russian intelligence service. 

‘No I didn’t know anything about it – nothing about it,’ said Trump, when asked about it before taking off for the border on the 20th day of a government shutdown. 

Manafort’s lawyers filed the letter containing the information under seal late Monday. 

Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing and his team countered prosecutors’ claims that he lied by arguing that it was difficult for his client to remember things about Ukraine during the busy campaign season when he was among Trump’s top advisors.

In this handout provided by Alexandria Sheriff’s Office, Paul Manafort poses for a mugshot photo at the Alexandria Detention Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Prosecutors say he violated a cooperation deal, which could extend his jail term at sentencing

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors accuse Manafort of violating a cooperation agreement

Konstantin Kilimnik has been indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller on charges he tampered with witnesses in the upcoming Paul Manafort trial. Kilimnik has been described as a fixer, translator or office manager to Trump’s ex-campaign chairman, Manafort. But an Associated Press investigation finds documents show that he was far more involved in Manafort’s activities than had been portrayedHe helped formulate Manafort’s pitches to clients in Russia and Ukraine, including Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, to whom he was main go-between. Mueller has alleged that Kilimnik has ties to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus

Blacked out portions reveal what Manafort told prosecutors in a ‘proffer meeting’ in September of 2018

COPY PASTE: When readers copied the document and pasted it in a file, it was possible to read the redactions that the government had imposed

Former Donald Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort sent campaign polling data to an alleged Russian spy in the midst of the 2016 campaign, according to a filing by his lawyers that the government failed to properly redact

‘Issues and communications related to Ukrainian political events simply were not at the forefront of Mr. Manafort’s mind during the period at issue and it is not surprising at all that Mr. Manafort was unable to recall specific details prior to having his recollection refreshed,’ according to the blacked out material in the memo. 

‘The same is true with regard to the Government’s allegation that Mr. Manafort lied about sharing polling data with Mr. Kilimnik related to the 2016 presidential campaign,’ according to the Manafort filing.

That passage was meant to be blacked out, but could be seen when the document was copied and pasted. 

CNN reported this week that Ukrainian oligarchs Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov were the intended recipients. Both had paid Manafort for his work in Ukraine in the past. 

Manafort banked millions as a consultant, including through wire transfers from the oligarchs that went through some of the many shell companies he set up overseas. Manafort wrote his accountant in August 2016 stating that he expected to be paid $2.4 million in November 2016 for his Ukraine work. The money was to reimburse debts from Ukrainian backers Lyovochkin and Akhmetov, Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni told the network.