Former Trump campaign boss faces new claims

NEW CORRUPTION allegations lodged in Ukraine against US President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairperson, Paul Manafort, have thrust Manafort back into the forefront of ongoing scrutiny over whether the Trump team co-ordinated with the Russian government to influence the US election.

The allegations were disclosed on Tuesday at a news conference by a Ukrainian member of parliament who said he had obtained documents showing Manafort had tried to hide payments he had received from the party of Ukraine’s former president, who was living in Russia and wanted on corruption charges at home.

A spokesperson for Manafort called the claims “baseless” and said some of the documents released appeared to be fabricated because the letterhead and signatures did not match those of Manafort’s.

The spectacle in Kiev came just hours after FBI director James Comey confirmed a federal probe into possible links between Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin.

It also followed an apparent effort by the White House to distance Trump from the man who helped lead his campaign during five critical months last year, with White House press secretary Sean Spicer declaring Manafort had played a “limited role for a very limited amount of time” in the campaign.

Manafort, 67, a long-time lobbyist and Republican strategist, was hired by the Trump campaign in March last year and made campaign chairperson in May.

From the start, the focus was on his ties to pro-Russian figures, given Trump’s repeated calls to forge closer relations to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s emerging role in seeking to meddle in the US election.

Manafort had done business with Putin-aligned moguls and worked in Ukraine for ex-president Viktor Yanukovych’s political party from 2004. During the campaign,Trump expressed openness to consider easing sanctions on Moscow.