Maddow wonders 'why today of all days is the day we learn' about Paul Manafort

Amid Donald Trump's ongoing public allyship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, The Washington Post reported Monday that the MAGA hopeful is eyeing the possibility of bringing back former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to join the ex-president's 2024 campaign team.

Per The New Republic, the ex-Trump staffer "was found guilty of hiding millions of dollars that he made lobbying for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians in overseas bank accounts," and then "convicted of tax and bank fraud in 2018 under Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election."https://www.alternet.org/manafort-coming-back/

Manafort was pardoned by Trump near the end of his presidency in December 2020.

READ MORE: Paul Manafort reveals he secretly advised Trump while awaiting pardon

The former Trump campaign manager would "likely focus on the Republican convention in July and on fundraising for Trump’s campaign," The New Republic reports, according "to four anonymous sources. Those four people said that nothing has been officially decided yet, but Trump is determined to bring Manafort back onto his team and is widely expected to hire him."

During the latest episode of The Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow pointed to the fact that Donald Trump lawyers said Monday that the former president has not been successful in getting the $464 million bond for the judgement in the New York civil fraud case against him — which goes against Trump's claims that he's a billionaire.

"I would just ask you to consider is the very specific timing, as in what happened today," Maddow said. "What Paul Manafort went to prison for — what he was found to have done, when he inexplicably rose up out of Russian Oligarchville to return to Washington to become the 'Trump for President' campaign chairman in 2016 — what was his purpose in life at that time?"

Maddow continued, "His purpose in life at that time was extracting money from Russian interests — from pro-Kremlin interests, to serve the interests of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. That was his life's work. Paul Manafort has announced today as coming back to the Trump campaign again on the same day that Donald Trump also announces that he is out of money and he cannot secure a bond to pay the half billion dollar court judgment that is due from him one week from today. That is a court judgment. That's not some bank being please pay us back. That's a court judgment. If he doesn't pay it, the New York attorney general can start padlocking his buildings and taking everything he owns. As of one week from today."

READ MORE: Ex-Trump campaign manager ordered to pay $3.2 million settlement for tax-dodging charges

The MSNBC host emphasized, "Donald Trump has never been more desperately in need of money than he is right this second today — the day it is reported that this guy, for all his baggage, for all his ex-con sparkle, this guy is coming back, the guy who specializes in extracting money from Kremlin-aligned interests to serve Vladimir Putin's long-term goals. I wonder why today of all days is the day we learn that Paul Manafort is coming back."

Watch the video below or at this link.