Paul Manafort corresponded with a former employee to see if he could leverage his role as Donald Trump’s campaign manager to gain favor with a top Russian oligarch, according to emails obtained by The Atlantic.
Manafort emailed Russian-Ukrainian political operative Konstantin Kilimnik to ask whether Russian oligarch Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska and his team had seen the news coverage of his hiring by Trump, The Atlantic reported on Monday.
“I assume you have shown our friends my media coverage, right?” Manafort wrote to Kilimnik in April 2016, according to the emails.
“Absolutely, every article,” responded Kilimnik, who had worked for Manafort for over a decade while Manafort did business in Ukraine.
“How do we use to get whole? Has OVD operation seen?” Manafort asked. The initials referred to Deripaska, one source confirmed to the magazine.
Deripaska, one of the richest men in Russia, is known to have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The source also confirmed to The Atlantic that the email repeatedly mentions an aide of Deripaska in the exchanges.
The emails are currently being scrutinized as part of an ongoing investigation into possible meddling by Moscow in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Lawyers for the Trump campaign turned over the materials to investigators.
The Washington Post first reported excerpts from these emails late last month.
The full text of the email exchanges, according to The Atlantic, show how Manafort sought to use his top position in the Trump campaign to get close with a Putin ally as Manafort was suffering from massive debt.
The Atlantic reported that there is no evidence that Deripaska was aware of the attempts to contact him or that Manafort met with him last year.
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Manafort tried to use Trump campaign role to gain favor with Russian oligarch close to Putin: report https://t.co/L8mrslLlPz pic.twitter.com/28W4W38R3a
— The Hill (@thehill) October 3, 2017
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