putin s ally, victor jarn covism, the former president of ukraine. he was a strong man who presided over a deadly crackdown against pro tessetesters in the streets kiev. he left his country in disgrace. manafort had helped bring him to power. paul manafort has for decades been the washington lobbyist and influence peddler around the world for a lot of the most vicious dictators we ve seen. the question is was manafort also linked to russia s strong man, vladimir putin? are there any ties between mr. trump, you and your campaign and putin and his regime? no, there are not. it absurd and there s no basis to it. but u.s. intelligence saw a different story. agents intercepted