Paul Manafort, a top adviser to Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign who was pardoned by the former president at the end of his White House term, is in discussions to return to help with the Republican National Convention, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Mr. Manafort’s potential role at the party’s convention in Milwaukee has not been decided, and the discussions have gone on for several months. His possible involvement was first reported by The Washington Post.
A Trump campaign spokesman and Mr. Manafort did not respond to requests for comment.
One of the people familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to speak publicly about internal deliberations, downplayed the prospective hire. The person suggested that unlike in 2016, Mr. Manafort would have a limited role and it was not indicative of broader moves to reshape the current Trump campaign to look like the old one.
Mr. Manafort, 74, was closely involved in the 1996 Republican Party convention when Bob Dole was the nominee, and he also worked on the convention in support of Ronald Reagan. Mr. Trump brought him in to help with delegates during his 2016 bid, but Mr. Manafort soon took over running the campaign after Mr. Trump’s initial campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was ousted.
Mr. Manafort was dismissed by Mr. Trump later that summer. He became enmeshed in the federal investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s campaign had ties to Russian officials; among other findings, investigators said he shared campaign polling data with a Russian connected to intelligence services there.
Mr. Manafort for many months tried to fend off the charges filed against him by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. Trump praised him publicly for initially refusing to cooperate with investigators and compared him favorably to Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen.
Source: nytimes.com
