as a client. who he s represented in a wide range of litigation matters for over 15 years. oleg isn t on his list of clients. but records show he is the attorney in a federal lawsuit where he represents an investment vehicle wholly owned by darapaska. one attorney with two billionaire clients? perhaps. but consider this. the russian has a shoestring connection to donald trump and it s tied to this man. donald trump s former campaign chief paul manafort. they re former business partners. republican strategist who ran trump s campaign for five months also started several offshore companies with oleg. the russian billionaire entrusted nearly $19 million to man jaesmt fort in 2008, the money to be invested in a ukrainian telecom business. it was part of a major deal to
isolated issue where a lawyer who is involved representing various clients, or whether or not it fits into just a larger narrative of involvement with russia. paul manafort confirmed he did work for oleg, but rejects the allegation he was pushing the political interests of vladimir putin. that denial came after the associated press reported on a 2005 memo, the memo according to the a.p. was from manafort to darapska that could influence politics, business dealings, and news coverage inside the united states. cnn has been unable to verify the memo, and oleg has since taken out advertisements in american newspapers, to resolutely deny this malicious assertion, adding context often creates an illusion of might be true information. though it s based on complete
map. one connects paul manafort to passka. vladimir putin was asked about the possibility of him appearing before the senate intelligence committee to discuss his relationship. putin said, that s his right, let him do it. tonight, though, there s another connection you should know about. drew griffin tonight has the latest. his name is oh leg darapazka. typical of russian billionaires, he s well-known to vladimir putin and given awards by the russian government. there s no indication donald trump has ever met him, but turns out the two men do have connections. cnn has learned donald trump and oleg has shared the same attorney over the years. on his website, kasawits prominently lists donald trump
and full lies. as for the fact donald trump and oleg share the same attorney, there is no prove of anything nefarious. in the greater context of russian investigations, it is at the very least curious. do we know how it ended up that donald trump and this russian billionaire s company had the same attorney? well, the white house and oleg did not respond at all. but the attorney did. mark kasawits said their firm doesn t rep oleg. they represent the company battle run, which is wholly owned by oleg. they said our representation had nothing to do with the representation of any trump personnel or entities, and never relayed information or facilitated communication between mr. deripacifica and president trump and his representatives. a lot of legalese there, anderson, to say this may just