Paul Manafort Won't Advise Republican National Convention, Refuses To Be A 'Distraction'
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Donald Trump insider Paul Manafort will no longer be assisting party officials ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this July.
Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, who the former president later pardoned, announced he was going to “stick to the sidelines” in a statement on Saturday following criticism of his unofficial role with the campaign.
“As a longtime, staunch supporter 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 in a statement provided by the Trump campaign.
“However, it is 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,” he continued. “So, I will stick to the sidelines and support President Trump every other way I can.”
The Times previously reported that the political advisor had been on the ground in Milwaukee, where he attended planning meetings for the convention.
According to the outlet, Manafort was expected to advise convention organizers on the staffing structure of the platform committee but would not have had input on the party platform itself.
A seasoned convention strategist, Manafort was first brought onto the Trump campaign to secure the 2016 Republican nomination amid an intense intraparty battle for delegates.
Manafort also worked for the late Sen. Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, managing the GOP convention in San Diego that same year.
Trump pardoned Manafort in 2020 after he served two years of his seven-and-a-half year sentence for financial crimes unrelated to the presidential campaign.
Adding to worries over Manafort’s criminal history, additional concerns arose around his role with the RNC after The Washington Post reported on Friday that he was helping launch a Netflix-style streaming platform in China.
In response, Manafort told the outlet he was “not involved with China” but had helped the streaming project with “introductions” to “U.S. studios and potential U.S. partners in the venture.”
