Washington: As part of an ongoing effort to convince the public that his campaign did not collude with Russia, President Donald Trump on Friday dramatically misrepresented comments made by the judge who presided over the sentencing of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison on Thursday for cheating on his taxes and bank fraud. The case was prosecuted by special counsel Robert Mueller's office but was unrelated to his core mission of investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

During Thursday's proceedings in a courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, US District Court Judge T.S. Ellis noted the distinction, saying that Manafort was "not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election".

In a tweet and later when talking to reporters, Trump incorrectly suggested that Ellis' comments had cleared his campaign of wrongdoing.