I believe that Manafort was a plant by the McCain wing of the party.as soon as Trump found out, he fired him. Manafort’s partner, Rick Davis ran McCain 2008 and arranged meetings between McCain and Russian Oligarchs
I dunno, I believe Manafort and Trump were long time acquaintances, friends. I am trying to remember who it was that already had an apartment in Trump Tower before Trump announced. Could it have been Manafort? Probably not.
I think I read that it has turned out that Paul Manafort was associated with a consultation contract with the Ukraine, rather than Russia, but news changes and is seldom dependable anymore.
As for McCain, let us hope Manafort loathed him as much as I do, and hopefully would much prefer Trump, enough to decline any serious dirty tricks. (Blue sky thinking, huh?)