Rudy Giuliani has been asking an imprisoned Paul Manafort for information on Ukraine


Unable to chat face-to-face with Paul Manafort due to his imprisonment, Rudy Giuliani has been communicating with President Trump's former campaign manager through his lawyer, seeking information on Ukraine.
Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, told The Washington Post this week that he's spoken with Manafort via an intermediary several times over the last few months. Giuliani, who said he's been investigating Ukraine since last year, asked Manafort about a ledger The New York Times reported on in August 2016. This secret ledger, discovered by Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau, showed that former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's political party paid Manafort $12.7 million in cash.
Giuliani said he thinks that this ledger was faked and is the key to proving the already debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that meddled in the 2016 presidential election, seeking to help Hillary Clinton. Manafort said the ledger doesn't exist, Giuliani told the Post. The FBI had a case open against Manafort prior to the 2016 election and the discovery of the secret ledger. After being convicted of tax and bank fraud last year, Manafort pleaded guilty to laundering money he received from Ukraine.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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