Donald Trump insider Paul Manafort will no longer be assisting party officials ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this July.
Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, who the former president later pardoned, announced he was going to “stick to the sidelines” in a statement on Saturday following criticism of his unofficial role with the campaign.
“As a longtime, staunch supporter of President Trump and given my nearly 50 years experience in managing presidential conventions, I was offering my advice and suggestions to the Trump campaign on the upcoming convention in a volunteer capacity,” Manafort told The New York Times in a statement provided by the Trump campaign.
“However, it is clear that the media wants to use me as a distraction to try and harm President Trump and his campaign by recycling old news. And I won’t let the media do that,” he continued. “So, I will stick to the sidelines and support President Trump every other way I can.”
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