Report: Manafort offered campaign briefing to Russian billionaire

WASHINGTON—Paul Manafort, while running President Donald Trump’s election campaign, offered private briefings to a Russian billionaire connected to the Kremlin, according to a report from The Washington Post. He made the offer in an email to an overseas intermediary, requesting the message be delivered to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian businessman. “If he needs private briefings we can accommodate,” Manafort wrote, according to the Post. Manafort sent the email on July 7, 2016, just two weeks before Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president. The correspondence is part of thousands of messages turned over to Robert Mueller, who is leading the U.S. Department of Justice inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort’s spokesman, Jason Maloni, confirmed the contents of the emails but asserted the briefings never happened and the message was an innocuous attempt to collect past debts. “It’s no secret Mr. Manafort was owed money by past clients,” Maloni said in a statement. He added Manafort’s business dealings had nothing to do with his work for the Trump campaign.