Negative media reports about Paul Manafort's ties to a pro-Russian governing party in Ukraine as a consultant are stacking up. | AP Photo Scandals around Trump aide Manafort deepen

Paul Manafort is still in as Donald Trump's campaign chairman, and his top aide Rick Gates is staying put.

But the promotion of Trump's chief pollster, Kellyanne Conway, as campaign manager and hiring of Breitbart executive Stephen Bannon as campaign CEO on Wednesday come amid a deluge of negative media reports about Manafort's ties to a pro-Russian governing party in Ukraine as a consultant.


The Associated Press published a report Wednesday in which it cited people with direct knowledge detailing Manafort's involvement in helping the political party of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych "secretly route at least $2.2 million in payments to two prominent Washington lobbying firms in 2012." The report said the payments were made "in a way that effectively obscured the foreign political party's efforts to influence U.S. policy."

The AP cited people with direct knowledge of Gates' work, who said he was in charge of advocacy work for the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a pro-Yanukovych nonprofit that hired the D.C. lobbying firms Mercury LLC and Podesta Group Inc. The nonprofit initially included parliament members from Yanukoyvch's party, and subsequent lobbying from the group, according to AP, "included downplaying the necessity of a congressional resolution meant to pressure the Ukrainian leader to release an imprisoned political rival." In another twist of the election cycle, the founder and chairman of Podesta Group Inc. is Tony Podesta, the brother of Democratic strategist John Podesta, the campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton.

Those involved in the lobbying gave conflicting accounts to AP over the details. Tony Podesta said his group worked simultaneously with Gates and the Ukrainian nonprofit, and that Manafort was not involved. But Gates told the AP that both he and Manafort were working for Yanukoyvch's Party of Regions. It is illegal for U.S. lobbyists to fail to disclose their work for foreign leaders or parties to the Justice Department.

The AP article did not conclude whether it appeared Manafort and Gates may have broken any laws. Manafort has denied any wrongdoing in his lobbying work.

Another report, from The Times of London, hit early Wednesday, revealing 12 itemized accounting entries from the secret Ukrainian ledger dating between 2009 and 2012 and totaling $7.61 million. The Times could not confirm whether Manafort actually received those payments.

In the report, a senior Ukrainian prosecutor alleged that Manafort in 2006 organized anti-NATO, anti-Kiev protests in Crimea, eight years before Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the territory from Ukraine.

"It was his political effort to raise the prestige of Yanukovych and his party — the confrontation and division of society on ethnic and linguistic grounds is his trick from the time of the elections in Angola and the Philippines," the memo obtained by the British newspaper stated. "While I was in the Crimea I constantly saw evidence suggesting that Paul Manafort considered autonomy [from Ukraine] as a tool to enhance the reputation of Yanukovych and win over the local electorate.”

News of the ledger was first disclosed earlier this week by The New York Times, which reported on $12.7 million in cash earmarked for Manafort. For his part, Manafort hit back at the initial report that he accepted secret cash payments as "unfounded, silly and nonsensical."