“Certainly I remain confident in the White House’s assertion that the president was involved in no wrongdoing, was not involved in any collusion," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at her first on-camera briefing in a month.

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She referred questions about Manafort's conduct to his attorneys. Her assertion of innocence did not cover anyone else who worked on the Trump campaign.

Months after Manafort reportedly last met with Assange, WikiLeaks released a trove of emails that had been stolen from the Democratic National Committee and other Democratic officials. U.S. officials have said Russian intelligence officers were behind the theft of the emails. Manafort has denied any involvement with the hack.

Sanders also said she was not aware of any discussions involving a pardon for Manafort, who was found guilty on federal crimes related to his work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine, charges that were brought in connection with Mueller’s probe.

“I’m not aware of any conversations for anyone’s pardon involving this process at all,” Sanders said.



Manafort was convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud in federal court in Virginia over the summer before agreeing to plead guilty and cooperate with the special counsel to avert a second federal trial in D.C.



He had been viewed as a significant cooperator in Mueller’s probe.