At the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July 2016, Trump campaign representatives made changes to the official GOP platform with regards to how the United States should deal with ongoing Russian interference in Ukraine.
The party's original language called for the U.S. to provide "lethal weapons" to Ukrainian troops fighting Russian aggression. The Trump campaign changed the language to say the U.S. would "provide appropriate assistance."
Congress wants to know why:
The altered amendment has come back into the spotlight in September amid reports that the campaign's chairman at the time, Paul Manafort, offered to exchange briefings about the campaign for debt repayment and/or cancellation from his contacts in Ukraine and Russia. Manafort had been a top adviser to Ukraine's pro-Russia Party of Regions from 2004 to 2014.
Trump campaign foreign policy adviser J.D. Gordon served as the team's national security representative for the convention. He tells Business Insider that House and Senate investigators have questioned him about the platform change and his role in facilitating it. Gordon admits he alerted campaign officials when the amendment was being discussed but insists he did nothing inappropriate:
Gordon told POLITICO in a series of exchanges that he wasn’t involved in any wrongdoing and that he wasn’t aware of any suspect activities by Manafort or other campaign officials or advisers. He said investigators were probing other people involved in pushing the platform change that the Trump campaign opposed, though he would not identify them.
Adding to the mystery, the Steele dossier makes specific mention of the Ukrainian policy change:
The collection of information, presented by top intelligence officials to President Barack Obama and then President-elect Trump in January, included a claim that the campaign agreed to soften US support for Ukraine in exchange for the Kremlin releasing damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
The altered Ukraine policy amendment ultimately was included in the GOP platform. WikiLeaks released the hacked DNC documents weeks later, in a document dump that coincided with the kickoff the Democratic National Convention.
A transcript of the House Intelligence Committee's interview with Carter Page, another Trump campaign foreign policy advisor, released Monday night shows ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) focused on exploring the Ukraine issue with Page too:
Schiff asked Page who he had communicated with about the platform change, referring him to an email he sent to Gordon, other campaign advisers and at least one campaign official that said, “As for the Ukraine amendment, excellent work.”
“Does it refresh your recollection at all about what other interactions you may have had with the campaign about the amendment?” Schiff asked, according to the transcript.
“No,” Page replied. “This … is my only interaction that I vaguely recall. And this expresses my personal opinion. And that's all that was.”
Schiff also asked Page, “Did you ever communicate with Paul Manafort about the Ukraine amendment?”
“Absolutely not,” Page replied.
Read more: A Trump adviser gave the campaign 'the chance to intervene' in controversial Ukraine platform change — and lawmakers want to know why (Business Insider)
Russia investigators probe 2016 GOP platform fight (Politico)