Paul Manafort, a critical voice in former President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, has stepped aside from a volunteer role in the 2024 Republican presidential campaign.
“As a longtime, staunch support of President Trump and given my nearly 50 years’ experience in managing presidential conventions, I was offering my advice and suggestions to the Trump campaign on the upcoming convention in a volunteer capacity,” Manafort told the New York Times.
Manafort had reportedly been in Milwaukee last week planning meetings for the upcoming Republican National Convention.
“It’s clear that the media wants to use me as a distraction to try and harm President Trump and his campaign by recycling old news. And I won’t let the media do that. So, I will stick to the sidelines and support President Trump every other way I can,” Manafort added.
Manafort was convicted of financial felonies in 2018 and sentenced to 47 months in prison for bank and tax fraud. He was also ordered to pay $24.8 million in restitution and a $50,000 fine. At the trial, federal judge T.S. Ellis made a point of distancing Manafort’s crimes from Robert Mueller’s Russian collusion investigation of the Trump campaign saying, “He is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government to influence the election.”
In March, the Democratic National Committee lashed out at the Trump campaign for considering Manafort as a potential adviser. “Convicted felon Paul Manafort will fit right in with the C-team of election deniers, conspiracy theorists, and absolute weirdos that make up Donald Trump's MAGA takeover of the GOP,” said the DNC’s Rapid Response team.
President Trump pardoned Manafort in the final weeks of 2020 saying, "As a result of blatant prosecutorial overreach, Mr. Manafort has endured years of unfair treatment and is one of the most prominent victims of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American history.”