Why Did Manafort Share Trump Polling? Mueller Leaves Clues
- Ex-aide Gates said data was intended for Putin ally Deripaska
- Mueller report shows tangled motives, disguised actions
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Around the time in 2016 when Paul Manafort began sharing the Trump campaign’s internal polling data with an associate linked to Russian intelligence, each man was trying to advance an agenda.
Manafort was seeking to end a long-running business dispute with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. The associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, was peddling a peace plan that would give Moscow more influence in eastern Ukraine.