When Paul Manafort was managing the Trump campaign last year, it was reported that he was at an RNC meeting with Republican delegates where Trump surrogates worked behind the scenes to change the language on the Republican Party's position over Russian aggression against the Ukraine. In 2014, when there was an uprising of Ukrainians against then President Yanukovych, Paul Manafort was his advisor and reportedly fled the country at the same time that Yanukovych had when the uprising seized power.

Arming Ukraine against Russia

The Washington Post reported that, during the committee meeting, the Trump campaign worked to change the language which most Republicans initially agreed with, from arming Ukrainians against Russian aggression to weakening that pledge and making their stance towards Russia more favorable.

When Yanukovych fled the Ukraine for Russia, it was reported that unidentified armed separatists had begun to take over buildings in the Ukraine's eastern region before they were identified as Russian. Since then, Ukraine has asked the United States for weapons to protect themselves but this never happened.

The RNC meeting took place before the Republican National Convention and at the time the Trump campaign had already alienated traditional Republicans who promised to defy the candidate after he won the primary. After news broke out of the changes to the language, Paul Manafort was on NBC's Meet The Press where he was asked about the changes. In the interview, he claimed that the changes "absolutely did not come from the Trump campaign," but the Daily Beast said at the time that Manafort blatantly lied about it.

Paul Manafort's lie

They said at the time that four delegates contradict Paul Manafort's denial, one saying that they might not have intervened but that the Trump campaign "did" come in with language to soften the platform. Another delegate said that it was their understanding that the Trump campaign and a former spokesman for the Pentagon J.D.

Gordon led the effort. The Daily Beast points out that a Ted Cruz delegate Diana Denman proposed "providing lethal defense weapons" to the Ukraine and that her amendment was put on hold so that the Trump campaign could discuss that with her.

She said that that was the trigger that got the Trump campaign and Mr.

Gordon to react. They took her amendment, made some calls to what they said were Trump's campaign headquarters in New York saying that the amendment needed to be changed. Others who claimed to be at the meeting said that at no other time did Trump aides "hover" over such details, but there's no way to know about these discussions because the minutes for the meeting are missing.

Manafort has been told by Congress to send all documents and other materials on Russia to them as they're one of many bodies conducting an investigation to see if the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials to hack on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) last year which Manafort reportedly sent. He ended up leaving the campaign last year after it was discovered that he received mass payouts from Russia over the Ukraine and was replaced by Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway. The investigation has become serious enough for the Department of Justice to name a Special Prosecutor, but there is no information as to whether last year's RNC meeting is part of the investigation.
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