Special counsel Robert Mueller has issued grand jury subpoenas compelling testimony from public relations executives who worked with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on a campaign promoting a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party, NBC News reported Friday.
Several unname people with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC that Mueller’s team has asked for documents and testimony from firms who assisted Manafort’s lobbying campaign, which ran from 2012 to 2014. Manafort retroactively registered as a foreign agent for his work on behalf of Ukraine’s Party of Regions and the country’s deposed president, Viktor Yanukovych.
Manafort has emerged in recent weeks as a linchpin in Mueller’s probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, potential collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, and the financial dealings of various Trump associates.
FBI agents raided a home he owns in Alexandria, Virginia last month, and he is under federal scrutiny for his work for the Party of Regions, his offshore banking transactions, and mounting questions about whether he used his complex web of real estate dealings to launder money from Eastern Europe.
Manafort also attended a pivotal June 2016 sit-down with Donald Trump, Jr., President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and several Russian operatives, one of whom claimed to information that would hurt Hillary Clinton as part of a Kremlin effort to help Trump’s campaign.
