On Wednesday night, CNN reported the FBI “has information that indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” citing unnamed US officials.
That news broke two days after FBI Director James Comey confirmed that Trump and his associates’ ties with Russian officials are under investigation. And it broke on the same day as news about former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s secret work to benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During Thursday’s White House news conference, Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked by CNN’s Sara Murray if he can “say unequivocally” that “associates of Trump did not collude with suspected Russian operatives and coordinate on the release of damaging information about Hillary Clinton’s campaign.”
But Spicer didn’t rule it out. Instead of answering the question, he took issue with the word “associates” and characterized Manafort — who managed the campaign during a crucial stretch of time last summer during which WikiLeaks began publishing emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee — as merely “a gentleman who was employed by someone for five months.”
“The way that the term ‘associates’ is thrown around, I don’t understand what that means,” Spicer said. “If you’re talking about employees of the campaign, employees of the transition or in the White House, that’s one thing.”
Referring to Manafort, Spicer said, “You pull out a gentleman who was employed by someone for five months and talk about a client that he had 10 years ago… No, I can’t unequivocally say that nobody ever in his past who may or may not have come in contact with him, who sat next to him on a plane, who grew up with him in grade school…”
Murray reminded Spicer that Manafort was Trump’s campaign chairman and played a large role in selecting Mike Pence to be his vice president nominee.
“But the point that I’m making is that when you use a term like ‘associate,’ and you use all of these subjective terms, there’s a reason that you’re doing it which is because you don’t have anything concrete,” Spicer replied. “Can you be certain that nobody that works for [CNN] has ever done anything illegal? I think that’s a pretty broad way of casting a net.”
Spicer just demoted Manafort from “campaign staffer” to “a gentleman who was employed by someone for 5 months” pic.twitter.com/r9elCLhYm8
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 23, 2017
This wasn’t Spicer’s first attempt at distancing Trump from his former campaign chairman. On Monday, hours after Comey announced that Trump is under FBI investigation, Spicer described Manafort as someone “who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time.” But Spicer himself acknowledged Manafort’s leading role in the campaign last summer.
Video: Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort briefs the media #RNCinCLE @ GOP Convention https://t.co/lFemBI4nBv
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) July 17, 2016
The two were even on a stage together together.
can anyone identify this mystery no-name Trump campaign staffer (volunteer?) next to Sean Spicer at this RNC Q&A? pic.twitter.com/2zlVmWElCs
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) March 23, 2017
Trump himself has tried to distance himself from Manafort, saying during a news conference last month that he “was replaced long before the election.”
“When all of this stuff started coming out, it came out during the election,” Trump said. “But Paul Manafort, who’s a good man also by the way, Paul Manafort was replaced long before the election took place. He was only there for a short period of time.”
But Manafort’s influence on Trump’s campaign and presidential transition continued after he was ousted in August amid reports Ukrainian authorities were investigating him for allegedly receiving $12.7 million in illegal payments from Ukraine’s former pro-Russia ruling party.
CNN’s latest report on the Trump-Russia scandal cites a “law enforcement official” as saying “people connected to the campaign were in contact and it appeared they were giving the thumbs up to release information when it was ready.” But other officials CNN spoke with said “it’s premature to draw that inference from the information gathered so far since it’s largely circumstantial.”
The same month of Manafort’s ouster as chairman, another Trump confidante, Roger Stone, was exchanging direct messages on Twitter with Guccifer 2.0, an account the US intelligence community says was used as a front for hackers directed by the Russian government.
In one copy of a direct messages exchange that Stone himself shared with the Washington Times, Guccifer 2.0 offers to help Stone, writing, “i’m pleased to say that u r great man… please tell me if i can help u anyhow. it would be a great pleasure to me.”
Manafort and Stone have a relationship spanning decades. They were partners in the Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly lobbying firm that was active from 1980 until 1996.