Newly obtained flight records shed light on Paul Manafort's extensive Russia ties

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's flight records show that he traveled to Moscow at least 18 times while advising the pro-Russian strongman Viktor Yanukovych, who later became Ukraine's president.
Yanukovych fled to Russia in 2014, but Manafort continued advising Ukraine's Opposition Bloc — a political party that is considered even closer to the Kremlin than Ukraine's Party of Regions.

President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, traveled to Moscow at least 18 times between 2004-2011, while he served as a top adviser to ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and the pro-Russia Party of Regions.

The flight records, which were obtained by McClatchy News from a government source in Kiev, suggest that Manafort's consulting work and business dealings were more closely linked to Russia than he has let on.

Manafort's business dealings with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs have come under intense scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.

Manafort's trips to Russia are not the only ones that may be of interest to Mueller. He and his longtime Russian-Ukrainian business associate Konstantin Kilimnik reportedly traveled to Frankfurt

A federal grand jury indicted Manafort and his longtime business associate, Rick Gates, in October on 12 counts, including money laundering, tax fraud, and failing to register as foreign agents. Federal prosecutors said in a court filing that

Citing financial documents filed in Cyprus, The New York Times reported in July that Manafort was in debt to pro-Russian interests by as much as $17 million by the time he joined Trump's campaign team in March 2016.

Manafort also has significant business ties to the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who signed a$10 million annual contract with Manafortin 2006 for a lobbying project in the US that Manafort said would "greatly benefit the Putin Government," The Associated Press reported in March.

Deripaska's representatives were "openly" accusing Manafort of fraud and pledging to recover the money from him as recently as early 2016, according to the Associated Press. But they reportedly backed off the accusations shortly after Manafort joined the campaign in the spring.

How do we use to get whole?

Shortly after being named a campaign strategist in April, Manafort emailed his longtime employeeKonstantin Kilimnik, a Russian-Ukrainian operative with suspected ties to Russian intelligence.

"I assume you have shown our friends my media coverage, right?" Manafort reportedly wrote to Kilimnik.

"Absolutely," replied Kilimnik. "Every article."

"How do we use to get whole," Manafort responded. "Has OVD operation seen?"

Russia-linked entities dangled compromising information about Clinton to the Trump campaign at least twice after Manafort was enlisted to corral convention delegates in March 2016.

The campaign's stance on Russia's interference in eastern Ukraine did not seem aligned with traditional GOP orthodoxy, either: A

Manafort forwarded that email to Gates, adding: "Let's discuss. We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal."

Manafort's prominent campaign role and history of working with Ukrainian and Russia-linked entities apparently spurred the FBI to seek a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrant to surveil him at least twice between 2014-2016.

Manafort resigned as Trump's campaign chairman shortly after The New York Times reported that the pro-Russia political party he had worked for had earmarked him$12.7 millionfor his work between 2007 and 2012. Ukrainian prosecutors havesaidthey've found no proof of illicit payments to Manafort, who has said he never collected the payments.