In an appearance on “The View” Thursday morning, Donald Trump’s campaign manager insisted that a report alleging one of his companies broke the Cuban trade embargo in 1998 does not mean that the candidate had been “treasonous.”
But she did say “they paid money, as I understand from the story, they paid money in 1998,” referring to the story published by Newsweek hours earlier.
“The question is: ‘Did he spend money?’ He’s very critical of Cuba, he’s very critical of Castro, and he’s been critical,” Kellyanne Conway said. “He gave a speech the very next year to the Cuban-American National foundation of Miami critical of those who want to do business with Castro, and he’s talked about the Cuban Embargo even on this [campaign] trail.”
“But again, we’re talking about, ‘Did his hotel invest money in 1998 in Cuba?’ No,” she continued.
Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts paid at least $68,000 to a consulting firm called called Seven Arrows Investment and Development Corp., which sent consultants to Cuba for the purposes of “giv[ing] Trump’s company a foothold should Washington loosen or lift the trade restrictions” on the Communist country, according to the investigation from Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald.
Seven Arrows advised Trump Hotels to mask the consulting bill as a charitable expense, according to the report.
Watch the exchange below at 2:32: