Manafort faced blackmail attempt, hacks suggest

Source: Politico | February 23, 2017 | Kenneth P. Vogel, David Stern and Josh Meyer

Stolen texts appear to show threats to expose relations among Russia-friendly forces, Trump and his former campaign chairman.

A purported cyberhack of the daughter of political consultant Paul Manafort suggests that he was the victim of a blackmail attempt while he was serving as Donald Trump’s presidential campaign chairman last summer.

The undated communications, which are allegedly from the iPhone of Manafort’s daughter, include a text that appears to come from a Ukrainian parliamentarian named Serhiy Leshchenko, seeking to reach her father, in which he claims to have politically damaging information about both Manafort and Trump.

Attached to the text is a note to Paul Manafort referring to “bulletproof” evidence related to Manafort’s financial arrangement with Ukraine’s former president, the pro-Russian strongman Viktor Yanukovych, as well as an alleged 2012 meeting between Trump and a close Yanukovych associate named Serhiy Tulub.

“Considering all the facts and evidence that are in my possession, and before possible decision whether to pass this to [the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine] or FBI I would like to get your opinion on this and maybe your way to work things out that will persuade me to do otherwise,” reads the note. It is signed “Sergii” — an alternative transliteration of Leshchenko’s given name — and it urges Manafort to respond to an email address that reporters have used to reach Leshchenko.

In the typo-ridden text to Manafort’s daughter to which the note was attached, the sender writes from a different address, “I need to get in touch with Paul i need to share some important information with him regarding ukraine investigation.” The sender adds “as soon as he comes back to me i will pass you documents,” but also warns: “if I don’t get any reply from you iam gonaa pass it on to the fbi and ukrainian authorities including media.”

Leshchenko disavowed the texts in question, telling POLITICO on Tuesday “I’ve never written any emails or messages to … Manafort or his family. I don’t know their contact details.” He added he said “I have nothing to do with” the email address from which the texts were sent.

And in a Facebook post, he wrote that the “correspondence with Manafort’s daughter is obviously fake.”

The White House did not respond to a question about whether Trump had met with Tulub, a hunting buddy of Yanukovych’s who had served in the government when Yanukovych was prime minister. But a White House official questioned the chronology supporting the claim, explaining that Trump had not worked with Manafort before the 2016 campaign.

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