(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is denying that he ever met WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Manafort says in a statement that a Guardian report saying he met with Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy is “totally false and deliberately libelous.” Manafort says that he has never been contacted by “anyone connected to WikiLeaks, either directly or indirectly.”
He also says the Guardian published the story after being told by Manafort’s representatives that it was false.
The British newspaper reported that Manafort met with Assange “around March 2016,” the same month he joined the Trump campaign. The newspaper also said that Manafort had met with Assange previously in 2013 and 2015.
The report didn’t identify the sources for its reporting.
