White House derides new report on Russian ties to Trump campaign chairman

WASHINGTON — The White House dismissed a report Wednesday that President Trump's former campaign chairman had received a $10 million contract a decade ago to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer derided the Associated Press report about Paul Manafort's work for a Russian billionaire in 2005. "What else is coming out, where he went to school? What grades he got? Who he played with in the sandbox?" he said. "To insist that the president should know who his clients were from a decade ago is a bit… insane."

Spicer said Trump didn't know about the contract when Trump hired him, and didn't know if it would have made a difference it he had.

The revelation about Manafort's work for Putin comes as the FBI has acknowledged an active investigation into the relationship between Trump associates and people connected to the Russian government.

Documents obtained by the AP show that Manafort had proposed plans to "greatly benefit the Putin government" by "offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government.” In selling his services to Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally, Manafort touted his close ties to the Bush White House.

Manafort confirmed his work with Deripaska to the AP, saying he was "representing him on business and personal matters in countries where he had investments.” He said the work "did not involve representing Russian political interests.”

Manafort did not disclose his work to the Justice Department at the time, which would be required by the Foreign Agent Registration Act if he was representing Russia's interests to the U.S. government.

As recently as Monday, Spicer tried to downplay Manafort's stature in the campaign, saying he "played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time." In fact, he worked on the campaign for five months and was its chairman for three months. On Wednesday, Spicer acknowledged a more expansive role in the campaign but said Manafort had performed similar with for the campaigns of Gerald Ford, Bob Dole and George W. Bush.

"He was hired to count delegates, which is what he did, and he was successful at it," Spicer said. Manafort was fired after the convention because his work for Ukrainian interests had become a "distraction," and the campaign was 16 points behind, he said.

Read more:

Paul Manafort’s plan to ‘greatly benefit Putin government’

House Intel chair: Trump transition officials monitored 'incidentally'