Russian Oligarch Connected To Trump Campaign Manager Offers To Testify
Another Important Trump-Russia Story That You May Have Missed Yesterday.
A Russian oligarch with ties to Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort has offered to cooperate with congressional investigators probing the Trump-Russia scandal.
The offer to testify was first reported by the New York Times which notes that lawmakers declined to accept his offer to testify in exchange for immunity.
Oleg Deripaska is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an oligarch who has been linked in reports to Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Deripaska’s name has repeatedly come up in the Russia investigation for his ties to Paul Manafort.
In March, the Associated Press reported that Manafort plotted with Deripaska to influence U.S. foreign policy to “greatly benefit the Putin government” in 2005.
Deripaska and Manafort did business together in the mid-2000s however their relationship has since gone south after Deripaska accused Manafort of misusing funds for a Cayman Islands deal.
Manafort stepped down from Trump’s campaign amid increasing scrutiny over his Russia ties last August, though his lobbying activities for Russia continue to be a focus of the FBI’s probe into ties between Trump’s campaign and Moscow.
