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Blavatnik. leonard blavatnik is a significant shareholder in da deripaska's company. that company once sanctions were first imposed, dropped like a stone. once the sanctions were lifted, it increased by some 24% in terms of the stock price. i think very strongly that secretary mnuchin should have recused himself or certainly should have asked the ethics office whether or not he should have been involved in the negotiations on the sanctions relative to deripaska and the lifting of those sanctions. >> since you have been pressing the treasury department on this, have you been able to get whether...

>> reporter: we just spoke to the white house a short time ago, and sean spicer told me, and i will use his words as they came out, quote, it would be inappropriate to comment on a person that is not on a white house employee. they did describe manafort as playing a limited role in the campaign, and he was the chairman, and in a statement to nbc news, manafort confirmed that work with deripaska, but said it did not involve representing russian interests. >> i have to bring in my panel. for sean spicer to say we are not going to comment on somebody not employed by the white house. which is it? ...

Opposition across former soviet republics, and the ap has a 2005 memo where manafort writes to deripaska, and he signed a contract in 2006, and he told da deripaska in 2005, we are now of the belief this model can greatly benefit the putin government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success. the ap says that manafort did not disclose details about his foreign lobbying work to the justice department during the period in that contract, when that contract was in place. stephanie? >> what is manafort saying this, or the white house?