Manafort interviewed twice by FBI before joining Trump campaign

Newly filed court documents show that US President Donald Trump's former election campaign chairman Paul Manafort was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) twice when he worked as a consultant for a political party in Ukraine aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The revelation was made in the documents published by the Washington Post on Tuesday, reporting that Manafort, who is now the subject of US special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged ties between Moscow and Washington in the latest US presidential election, had been interviewed in March 2013 and again in July 2014.

Mueller has charged Manafort with conspiracy, money-laundering, and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the Ukrainian government, among other charges.

Manafort resigned as Trump’s campaign chairman in August 2016 amid a series of reports about his lobbying work in Ukraine, including reports that he had received more than 12 million dollars in off-the-record payments from Viktor Yanukovych’s party.

Yanukovych was Ukraine's president beginning in 2010.

After Yanukovych was overthrown in 2014 and exiled to Russia, Manafort returned to the United States and joined Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.

Manafort denied receiving the payments and doing anything improper in Ukraine, but said at the time that he was stepping down to spare the campaign distraction.

He also dismissed accusations of involvement in a scheme to coordinate with Russia during the 2016 US presidential race.

The court filings also indicated that Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, who held a top role with Trump’s campaign, had been interviewed by the FBI in July 2014.

Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to the FBI in February and is cooperating with Mueller’s investigation.

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Manafort, however, has accused Mueller’s office of going beyond its authority by charging him with crimes that are not related to Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.

He is scheduled to be tried in the US state of Virginia in July and on related charges in Washington in September.

Manafort and Gates were among the first to be charged as part of Mueller's ongoing investigation into whether the Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 US election. 

Several US congressional committees along with the special counsel have been investigating allegations of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and its “collusion” with the campaign of the then-Republican presidential candidate.

The intelligence agencies say Moscow’s interference included a campaign of hacking and releasing embarrassing emails, and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit the campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump has repeatedly denied allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians and has condemned the investigations, labeling Mueller’s probe as a “witch hunt." Russia has also denied the allegations.

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