Manafort’s Offer to Russian Oligarch Tied to Disputed Deal
When Donald Trump’s campaign chairman offered private briefings to a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin last year, he wasn’t only appealing to a superpower, he was pursuing a personal mission: the end to a costly dispute over a failed business deal.
The campaign’s chairman, Paul Manafort, wanted a meeting in hopes of resolving a long-simmering dispute with the Russian, said two people familiar with the offer. The message, sent by email on July 7, 2016, through an intermediary, was never delivered to the intended recipient, Oleg Deripaska, and the briefings never occurred, the people added.
But the correspondence compounds questions about the allegiances of Manafort, who famously offered to work for the campaign without payment. Though a presidential campaign is a 24/7 job, Manafort’s dispute with Deripaska apparently worried him enough to seek a meeting -- and even to trade on his powerful job to lure the billionaire.