Russian tycoon: Willing to expound on Manafort

He’d join hearings on ex-Trump aide, he says

In this July 2, 2015 file photo, Russian metals magnate Oleg Deripaska is seen in Moscow, Russia.
In this July 2, 2015 file photo, Russian metals magnate Oleg Deripaska is seen in Moscow, Russia.

WASHINGTON -- A Russian billionaire close to President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he is willing to take part in U.S. congressional hearings to discuss his past business relationship with President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

Last week, The Associated Press reported that Manafort had written aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska in 2005, proposing to do work for Deripaska that would "benefit the Putin Government." The story was based on interviews with people familiar with Deripaska's business dealings with Manafort and documents obtained by the reporters, including strategy memorandums, contracts and records showing international wire transfers for millions of dollars.

In a quarter-page advertisement in Tuesday's editions of The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, Deripaska said news stories suggesting that he had "commitments or contracts" with Manafort to "greatly benefit the Putin government" were "based on complete and full lies." He demanded that such reports by the AP and other media outlets "cease immediately."

He also wrote that he was "ready to take part in any hearings conducted in the US Congress on this subject in order to defend my reputation and name."

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Manafort signed a $10 million contract in 2006 that laid out a four-country communications and political strategy intended to support Deripaska's company and undermine anti-Russian political movements. Payments continued until at least 2009, seven years before Manafort joined and led Trump's 2016 political campaign, according to people familiar with the relationship. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the business arrangement openly.

In his newspaper ads responding to the AP's story, Deripaska said he "never made any commitments or contracts with the obligation or purpose to covertly promote or advance 'Putin's Government' interests anywhere in the world."

The news agency's story said Manafort wrote a strategy memo proposing that the work he would do for Deripaska would "benefit the Putin Government," not that the contract contained that language.

"This AP Exclusive report falls into the negative context of current US-Russian relations and causes fresh unfair and unjustified concerns and alarm in the US Congress about Russian involvement in US domestic affairs," Deripaska's ad says.

The AP stands by its reporting, spokesman Lauren Easton said.

The revelations about Manafort come as Trump campaign advisers are the subject of an FBI investigation and two congressional investigations, and they appear to guarantee that Manafort will be sought as a key witness in coming hearings. He has volunteered to appear.

Investigators are reviewing whether the Trump campaign and its associates coordinated with Russia to meddle in the 2016 campaign. Manafort has dismissed the investigations as politically motivated and misguided.

Deripaska is one of Russia's wealthiest men. He amassed his fortune under Putin and has bought assets abroad in ways widely perceived to benefit the Kremlin's interests. U.S. diplomatic cables from 2006 described him as "among the 2-3 oligarchs Putin turns to on a regular basis" and "a more-or-less permanent fixture on Putin's trips abroad."

A spokesman for Manafort has confirmed that Manafort worked for Deripaska representing him on business and personal matters, but has denied that the work involved "representing Russia's political interests." White House spokesman Sean Spicer said last week that Trump was not aware of Manafort's work for Deripaska a decade ago.

The AP reported last week that Manafort proposed a political strategy in a June 2005 memo that was based on work he had done in Ukraine. Manafort described how his plan could be used to influence politics, business deals and news coverage in the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to the benefit of the Russian government.

The $10 million contract Manafort signed in 2006 outlined the political and communications activities in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Georgia in more detail; it remains unclear how much of that work was performed.

Last week, Deripaska wrote in a statement to the AP that "there was an agreement between Mr. Deripaska and Mr. Manafort to provide investment consulting services related to business interests of Mr. Deripaska."

A Section on 03/29/2017

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