Ukraine details payments allegedly earmarked for Trump aide

The new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, had described Mr Manafort and Mr Gates as part of a new “core four” atop the Trump operation with her and chief executive Stephen Bannon.

Leshchenko also said Manafort continued to work in Ukraine after Yanukovych fled and a new pro-European government stepped in and that Manafort consulted the Party of Regions for the 2014 parliamentary election and visited Ukraine a year ago.

Handwritten notes in a column describe what the payments were used for with entries such as: “Payment for Manafort’s services”, “contract payment to Manafort” dated between November 2011 and October 2012.

While working under Manafort, Gates sent emails to Mercury LLC, which along with the Podesta Group Inc. represented the European nonprofit on Ukrainian issues between 2012 and 2014.

Mr Manafort has faced public scrutiny in recent weeks after the New York Times reported that the Ukrainian government had uncovered ledgers pledging more than $12m (£9.2m) in undisclosed cash payments for his work for Mr Yanukovych.

Trump overhauled his top political team this week, demoting Manafort, who was brought on as campaign chief in June to professionalise its approach but struggled to get the wealthy businessman to rein in his freewheeling ways.

Manafort has been relying on a former interpreter for Russian military intelligence to collect unpaid fees in Ukraine owed to his company by the Opposition Bloc, a political party founded by former Party of Regions legislators, Politico reported Friday.

Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned on Friday in the wake of campaign shake-up and revelations about his work in Ukraine.

The new disclosures about their work come as Trump faces criticism for his friendly overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

When asked if he has evidence that Manafort actually received the money that had been earmarked for him, Leshchenko said investigators could prove that only if they question the people named in the ledgers.

For the first time since declaring his presidential run, Trump offered an extended apology to those who may have been hurt by his caustic comments, saying that he regrets some of what he’s said “in the heat of debate”. Gates previously told the AP, “At no time did our firm or members provide any direct lobbying support”. The center paid Mercury and the Podesta Group a combined $2.2 million over roughly two years.

“There is no question that Gates and Manafort should have registered along with the lobbying firms”, said Joseph Sandler of Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, a Democratic-leaning Washington law firm that advises Republican and Democratic lobbyists.

The emails appear to contradict the assertion that the nonprofit’s lobbying campaign operated independently from Manafort’s firm.

Political consultants are generally leery of registering under it, because their reputations can suffer once they are on record as accepting money to advocate the interests of foreign governments – especially if those interests conflict with America’s.

The chairman of the Podesta Group, Tony Podesta – the brother of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta – said his firm believed Gates was working for the nonprofit.

A former member of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, Vitaliy Kalyuzhny, allegedly received most of the funds on behalf of Manafort, Leshchenko said.