How to get from Trump to Putin, by way of Paul Manafort — in 4 steps

How Trump’s former campaign chair fits into Trump’s tangled Russian web

Paul Manafort has some of the deepest connections to Russia of any one on Donald Trump’s campaign team. And for five months in 2016, he also held the most powerful position on Trump’s team.

Here’s how Trump is connected to Vladimir Putin and Russia — a path that runs straight through Manafort:

1. In April 2016, Donald Trump announced Paul Manafort, a friend of longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, as campaign chairman.
2. Prior to joining the Trump campaign Manafort founded lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly with Roger Stone — who himself has ties to Russia.
3. Manafort worked for Putin-ally Viktor Yanukovych on his successful presidential campaign in the Ukraine. A secret ledger listed $12.7 million in cash payments to Manafort for work for Yanukovych’s party, some of which he hid by funneling through an offshore account.
4. Manafort also worked for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, reportedly presenting him with a political strategy that would “greatly benefit Putin’s government” — undermining anti-Russian opposition — by influencing politics, business and news coverage in Europe and the United States.

What does this mean?

Though the Trump administration has tried to distance itself from Manafort, he ran Trump’s campaign for five months.

While he was in charge, the first emails stolen by Russian hackers were released, the Russian Ambassador met with multiple Trump aides and the Trump campaign weakened anti-Russian language in the GOP’s platform.

Manafort’s own daughter said she believes her father took “blood money” from Russian-aligned officials.

It is hard to believe his ties to Russia are merely a coincidence. It’s time for Trump to stop lying and come clean about his connections to Russia.