A swamp news alert

Even as President Trump delights in carrying out his jihad against CNN and “Fake News,” there is certifiable real news about the man who was once Trump’s campaign manager and the $17 million his consulting firm collected from a Ukrainian political party with ties to Russia.

The source? Well, that would be the exceedingly belated filings with the Justice Department by Paul Manafort that finally acknowledge his lucrative role as the agent of a foreign government for his work on behalf of the one-time president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, and his Party of Regions.

Yanukovych was forced into exile in Russia in 2014. Anti-corruption investigators in Ukraine subsequently uncovered evidence of some $12.7 million in cash payments supposedly earmarked for Manafort’s firm, which operated in Kiev from 2007 to 2012. It was that revelation during the summer of 2016 that forced Manafort’s firing from the Trump campaign.

But the sweeping federal investigation here into a number of Trump campaign officials with ties to the Kremlin no doubt played a role in Manafort’s need — several years after the fact — to disclose the $17 million paid to his firm over a two-year-period.

And while a spokesman for Manafort insisted the efforts were primarily “directed at domestic Ukrainian political campaign work,” the actual filing shows the firm’s job included advising Ukrainian officials on their dealings with the U.S. government.

The filings also show hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to a polling firm co-owned by Tony Fabrizio, who would later work for the Trump campaign.

Why does any of this matter? Well, there is the sleaze factor, of course, for candidate Trump who promised to “drain” the Washington swamp — a place filled with swamp creatures like Manafort.

But there is the broader question of advisers — and Manafort was not the only one — bought and paid for by foreign governments having the ear of the man who would be president.

That’s real — and quite horrifying — news.