Trump Aides Covertly Fought Freeing of Ukraine Prisoner

By JEFF HORWITZ AND CHAD DAY, ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — Aug 23, 2016, 2:57 PM ET

For more than three years, lobbyist Jim Slattery worked in Washington to secure the release in Ukraine of the imprisoned political rival of the country's then-president. He said the work was sometimes harder than expected.

"I had a sense that there were people working on the other side," he said, "but they were doing it pretty secretively."

Slattery's hunch was right. His unknown opponent: The consulting firm run by Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his deputy Rick Gates, now the campaign's liaison to the Republican National Committee.

Manafort resigned last week, shortly after disclosures by The Associated Press about his firm's covert lobbying on behalf of Ukraine's pro-Russian government at the time.

The U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act requires people working on behalf of foreign political leaders to disclose their efforts to the Justice Department, but neither Manafort and Gates nor U.S. lobbyists they directed did. Working on the other side, Slattery filled out the required paperwork describing contacts with Congress and State Department officials including specific phone calls and emails and the topics of their discussions.

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