Congressman Sean Duffy Calls Paul Manafort, Former Trump Campaign Chairman, ‘Sleazy’

Northern Wisconsin Republican Congressman Sean Duffy — a supporter of President Donald Trump — called the president’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort “a sleazy guy,” after news broke that Manafort was convicted of tax and bank fraud on Tuesday.

That same day, Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including campaign-finance violations that included payments made to two women Trump allegedly had affairs with to keep them quiet, the Wall Street Journal reports.

But on “Route 51,” a WPR talk show, Duffy questioned whether the plea deal that Cohen reached implicated the president in any wrongdoing, saying Trump might have made the payments to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, and former Playboy model Karen McDougal only to hide the affairs from his wife, first lady Melania Trump.

“Now Cohen might have problems,” Duffy said, “but Trump, if he paid it out of his own pocket, you might say, ‘Well, is this for politics or is this to say that I don’t want my wife to find out I was having an affair on her?’”

When pressed on why the payments were made just before Trump’s election, Duffy said, “Because I think these folks were going to leverage that and expose it right before the election.”

Duffy, who represents the 7th Congressional District, was harshly critical of Manafort, who joined Trump’s presidential campaign in March 2016 and was campaign chairman from June to August of that year.

“He’s kind of a sleazy guy. He’s working for foreign governments and wasn’t reporting it,” Duffy said. “You make money, you should pay your taxes. And those who try to avoid paying taxes, I find that to be, as you’re violating the law, anti-American.”

When asked if hiring Manafort showed poor judgment, Duffy said as a candidate Trump had trouble finding good people to work for him.

“If you step back into 2016 for a moment, there were not a lot of people who thought then-candidate Trump could win the primaries, and so all of the Republican talent was going to Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and even John Kasich.” Duffy said. “He didn’t have many people who would join his team and help him out. Manafort was one, but in a short time, he got rid of him and actually brought in some real pros.”

Duffy praised the president’s policies, but criticized the language that he uses in his tweets and at his rallies, and his description of his former advisor, Omarosa Manigault.

“He called Omarosa a ‘dog.’ I mean that’s not the way we talk about women or people or even those who are in opposition to us,” Duffy said. “Even on the Trump supporters’ side, people will say, ‘Love the policies,’ like I do, ‘Love where we’re going with economic growth,’ but I don’t like all of the tweets and all of the nasty language that he uses on people.”

In terms of Russian collusion into the 2016 presidential election, Duffy said that Cohen didn’t implicate the president during congressional hearings.

“He didn’t have any information about Russian collusion, didn’t see the president collude with Russia, and so if he changes that story for the (Robert) Mueller team, that’s a problem,” Duffy said.

Duffy also said conservatives think the Mueller investigation is one-sided.

“When Hillary didn’t retain the 30,000 emails when asked by Congress and destroyed them, that makes people angry,” Duffy said. “When you see just a one track (investigation) blazing for the president and then you see others get off, we do want Lady Justice to be blind.”

Listen To Complete Duffy Interview On “Route 51”