Paul Manafort, Former Trump Campaign Chief, Faces New Allegations in Ukraine
By ANDREW E. KRAMERMARCH 20, 2017
KIEV, Ukraine — After his name surfaced last August in a secret ledger listing millions of dollars in payments from a pro-Russian party in Ukraine, Paul Manafort not only lost his job running Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign
but also assumed center stage in a bizarre internecine struggle among Ukrainian political forces.
This was corruption linked to Ukraine, and American law enforcement should investigate." In a statement, a spokesman for Mr. Manafort, referring to the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine, dismissed Mr. Leshchenko’s allegations
as "baseless, as reflected by the numerous statements from NABU officials who have questioned the validity of the so-called ledger evidence against Mr. Manafort." Please verify you’re not a robot by clicking the box.
The note threatened to turn the information over to American and Ukrainian law enforcement unless Mr. Manafort found a way "to work things out." Mr. Manafort has said
that he believes Mr. Leshchenko sent the message and was trying to blackmail him.
On Monday, the intrigue took another turn, when a member of Parliament in Ukraine released documents
that he said showed that Mr. Manafort took steps to hide the payments, which were tied to Mr. Manafort’s work for former President Viktor F. Yanukovych.
The message addressed Mr. Manafort as "Honorable Count!" – a reference to an old nickname —
and the writer claimed to have "bulletproof facts" regarding illicit payments to Mr. Manafort in Ukraine.
That’s Mr. Manafort, by the way, a respected man, a respected man,
but I think he represented the Ukraine or Ukraine government or somebody, but everybody knew that." Iuliia Mendel contributed reporting from Kiev, and Mike McIntire from New York.