The consulting firm of President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort received $1.2 million from a pro-Russian political party, payments that are part of a corruption probe by Ukrainian investigators, it was reported on Wednesday.
The two payments were made in 2007 and 2009 — well before Manafort helmed Trump’s presidential campaign from March to August last year — and link him to a handwritten ledger containing his name and dollar amounts that Ukrainian officials say is proof of a political slush fund, the Associated Press reported.
The so-called Black Ledger first surfaced last August and included the name of Manafort, who worked for the Russian political party as an international consultant for more than a decade in Ukraine, the report said.
Manafort has said the ledger was a fraud and claimed no public evidence existed to show he or others on the list received payments, but in a statement on Tuesday responding to the AP report he pivoted.
He did not deny his firm, Davis Manafort, received the money, but said, “Any wire transactions received by my company are legitimate payments for political consulting work that was provided. I invoiced my clients and they paid via wire transfer, which I received through a US bank.”
He added that he was paid according to his “clients’ preferred financial institutions and instructions.”
Officials with the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which is looking into corruption involving former President Viktor Yanukovych, said they believe the ledger is genuine, but do not know whether Manafort received the funds.
The agency said Manafort is not part of their investigation because he is not a Ukrainian citizen.
But his connection to the Russians is part of congressional and FBI investigations into possible communications between Trump associates and Moscow officials during the presidential election.
Separately, federal prosecutors are probing Manafort in connection to missing Ukrainian assets after the ouster in 2014 of Yanukovych.
The payments in the ledger come before Manafort was associated with the Trump campaign.