Special counsel Robert Mueller, who brought the charges against Manafort, is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US election, and related matters. Manafort attended the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting that Donald Trump Jr. agreed to after being promised "information that would incriminate" rival candidate Hillary Clinton. Konstantin Kilimnik, Manafort's business partner in his Ukrainian lobbying effort, was the intermediary between Manafort and Deripaska, according to The Washington Post. Manafort met with Kilimnik twice while working on Trump's campaign in 2016, according to The Washington Post and Politico . While the platform was being drafted, Trump campaign officials stepped in to block a provision about arming Ukraine to fight Russian-backed militias.

Source: CNN September 15, 2018 12:22 UTC