Donald Trump has responded to the arrest of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort by mischaracterising the nature of the indictment against Manafort.
Writing on Twitter on Monday afternoon, Trump wrote "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????"
Trump's claim that "this is years ago" is refuted by the indictment itself, which plainly charges Manafort with laundering money he made while working in Ukraine "at least through 2016."
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/925005659569041409
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/925006418989715456
The indictment also charges that Manafort, along with his associate Rick Gates, acted as an unregistered agent of the Ukrainian government until as recently as 2015.
Manafort was hired by Trump campaign in March of 2016, and the 68-year-old was made campaign chair in May, before eventually being replaced by Steve Bannon in August.
It has also been revealed that a Trump aide, George Papadopoulos, has already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI on the matter of communicating with Russians as part of the Trump campaign.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/925005966445371392
https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/925004084867944448
