'It's absurd': Paul Manafort says 'no basis' for suggestions Trump colluded with Putin on DNC hack
Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort said Sunday morning that suggestions the Manhattan billionaire colluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the hack of Democratic National Committee emails were baseless.
"No," Manafort said on ABC's "This Week," when asked if the campaign had ties to Putin.
He added: "It's absurd. There's no basis for it."
Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort calls charges of Trump-Putin ties "absurd": "There's no basis to it." #ThisWeek https://t.co/BKdBhevwVb
- This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 24, 2016
On Friday, Wikileaks published thousands of emails that were compromised in a recent hack of the Democratic National Committee. The hack was linked to Russian intelligence services and showed that DNC officials were tipping the scales against Bernie Sanders, deepening a divide in the Democratic Party.
Speaking to "This Week," Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook suggested Putin perhaps orchestrated the hack to help Trump's campaign.
"[S]ome experts are telling us this was done by the Russians for the purpose of helping Donald Trump," Mook said.
Mook additionally implied a relationship could be beneficial to both Putin and Trump, noting the GOP nominee suggested last week that he may not honor the NATO agreement to help the Baltic states if they were to come under attack from Russia.
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