Manafort sought for questioning - in D.C. and Kiev
Authorities in Washington and Kiev are seeking testimony from Trump’s former campaign chairman.
By KENNETH P. VOGEL, JOSH MEYER and DAVID STERN 03/20/17 09:50 PM EDT
American and Ukrainian officials are pushing to question President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort in separate investigations related to his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine once headed by that country’s disgraced former president Viktor Yanukovych.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) told POLITICO that Manafort “would certainly be at the top of my list to testify” before the House Intelligence Committee’s ongoing investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The panel held its first public hearing Monday, featuring hours of testimony from FBI Director James Comey, who publicly acknowledged for the first time that his agency is investigating the possibility of Russian coordination with members of Trump’s campaign team. “Of all of the characters in and around the Trump campaign and administration, Paul Manafort’s relationships with Russians are by far the longest-standing and the deepest,” said Himes, who is a member of the committee. “And he has some pretty unsavory contacts.”
At the same time, an investigative department within a top Ukrainian law enforcement agency intends to ask the U.S. Department of Justice for help questioning Manafort about his possible relationship to Yanukovych during the 2014 riots that drove Yanukovych from power, according to Serhiy Gorbatyuk, the head of the department for special investigations within the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/paul-manafort-trump-ukraine-russia-236286