Convicted felon and current jailbird Paul Manafort, who served as the 2016 Trump campaign manager at a critical juncture, pushed the false conspiracy theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, was behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) server, according to notes released from an FBI interview. That bogus conspiracy theory fit nicely into demagogue and mentally unstable Donald "Impeachable Me" Trump's desire to absolve Russia of any role in that scandal, but eventually led to Trump's extortionist call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25. In that call, Trump not only asked for Ukraine to provide dirt on former VP Biden and his son, but also wanted Ukraine to investigate the DNC server conspiracy, all in exchange for the release of military aid needed to fight Russia's incursion into Ukraine. That call is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
Manafort was on the payroll of the pro-Russian Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych, which was overthrown in 2014 in the "Orange Revolution" which demanded closer ties with Western Europe and the U.S. Along with his business partner and deputy campaign director, convicted felon Rick Gates, Manafort had an interest in discrediting the new pro-Western Ukrainian government under President Petro Poroshenko by concocting the notion that they were involved in the DNC server hack. Gates is still cooperating with Federal investigators and is awaiting sentencing.
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