DNC Hits Trump Over Report Linking Manafort to Campaign

(Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

The Democratic National Committee took aim at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday over reports that he’s mulling bringing back former top adviser Paul Manafort to help with the Republican National Convention this summer.

Trump had no comment about a Washington Post report that he’s determined to bring Manafort into the fold, but the DNC called Trump’s 2016 adviser among the “absolute weirdos” who could be part of Trump’s orbit heading into July’s convention.

Manafort was convicted of tax and bank fraud felonies in the wake of Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian collusion by the Trump campaign, later proved to be a hoax. Trump pardoned Manafort in 2020, seven months after he was released to home confinement.

“Convicted felon Paul Manafort will fit right in with the C-Team of election deniers, conspiracy theorists, and absolute weirdos that make up Donald Trump’s MAGA takeover of the GOP,” read an email statement from the DNC’s Rapid Response team.

“This latest report just confirms that Trump’s soft-on-crime approach for the violent insurrections who stormed the Capitol on January 6 extends to tax cheats and fraudsters as well. Given the RNC’s desperate financial state, we can’t imagine what could go wrong with hiring a convicted con man like Manafort to help run a multimillion-dollar convention,” the DNC statement went on.

The DNC email blast also took aim at Trump operatives Scott Presler, Christina Bobb, a frequent guest on Newsmax, and new RNC chair Michael Whatley.

Newsmax reached out to the Trump campaign about the DNC’s attack.

A specific role for Manafort is still being hammered out, according to The New York Times, which added that discussions have been ongoing for months.

Manafort, 74, began his political career in 1975 working for President Gerald Ford. He would later be a convention operative for Ronald Reagan and Bob Dole.

The Times reported that Trump and Manafort have remained in touch since the pardon, with Manafort recommending his onetime attorney Todd Blanche to Trump. Blanche is litigating three of the four criminal trials against Trump.