According to Politico, family members of Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort had misgivings about his political work for Ukranian strongman Viktor Yanukovych and Donald Trump. This is largely based upon text messages allegedly hacked from one of the daughters of Paul Manafort. Texts reflect frets over safety, ethics, and consequences for Manafort’s work with Yanukovych and reveal how the two daughters view their dad’s role in Trump’s campaign with a mixture of pride and embarrassment.
Daughter Jessica Manafort, 34, who is not a Trump supporter, wrote that despite her feelings about the now-President, she is proud of her dad.
Her sister Andrea Manafort 31, referred to their dad’s relationship with Trump as the most dangerous friendship in America. In another exchange, she labeled the two as the perfect pair of power-hungry egomaniacs. Andrea Manafort added that the only reason her father was involved in the campaign was because he likes a challenge, comparing it to an egomaniac’s chess game with no motivation for money needed.
The Russian-Ukrainian issue
Paul Manafort’s daughters and their mother appeared more unsettled by his work for Yanukovych as his political consultant, especially since the Russian party backed the Ukrainian leader. In one 2015 exchange between the daughters, Andrea seemed to have suggested their father bore some responsibility for the deaths of protesters during a 2013 uprising.
Andrea cautioned that the money the family had obtained is blood money and the payment her father earned in the Ukraine was legally questionable.
In an April 2016 text exchange between the two sisters, Jessica tells Andrea that Trump and their father spend much of the day in Trump Tower plotting together, to which Andrea replies: “Gross.” While it is not clear who hacked the phone of Paul Manafort’s daughter, he has since acknowledged her phone has been hacked.
Living in world filled with Russian hackers
Paul Manafort stepped down from his position with the Trump campaign last summer amid questions about his links to Russia. His daughter’s hacked texts cover a period starting in October 2012 through September 2016. Rumors began circulating over the summer that Manafort was receiving threats of blackmail related to his work in the Ukraine, including an alleged role in setting up a 2012 meeting between a Yanukovych ally and Donald Trump.
