What does Manafort know?

When the home of the man who was a key figure in the Trump campaign for five months was raided by the FBI in August of 2017, Trump and his White House categorized Manafort simply as a campaign “volunteer.”

Right. He was such a bit player that he was invited to the infamous Trump Tower meeting with a Russian promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in June 2016. Just days later, at the urging of Donald Trump Jr., Manafort was named chairman of Trump’s campaign. Manafort literally led the campaign into, through and after the Republican National Convention before resigning amid growing scrutiny of his unregistered foreign agent work in Ukraine.

Manafort’s resume actually included a decade of work in Ukraine on behalf of a Kremlin-friendly political party, and he helped elect former Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted from power amid public protests in 2014 and fled to Russia.

Trump folks have claimed that Manafort was under investigation and being tried for crimes “years ago” that didn’t pertain to the Trump campaign or the president.

Yet during the Republican National Convention, the only GOP platform to be adjusted was one that called for the U.S. to supply weapons to Ukrainian government forces fighting Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east. The proposal was mysteriously changed to vaguely call for “appropriate assistance” to Ukraine. And then there’s the email Manafort sent to a Russian intelligence-linked, Ukraine-based employee of his consulting business, Konstantin Kilimnik. That April email sought a briefing with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who is close to Vladimir Putin. In the email, Manafort wanted Deripaska to know about his new position with Trump as a campaign strategist, and he asked, “How do we use to get whole?”

Now it seems Manafort, who was convicted last month on federal bank and tax fraud charges but has not yet been sentenced, is asking that question in a somewhat different way to the special counsel.

The answer from Mueller likely is another question: What did the Trumps know and do, and when did they know and do it?

Manafort is now the fifth Trump campaign team member to plead guilty to criminal charges.

Witch hunt? Gee, the broom is getting crowded.