Saturday, October 31, 2026Every claim sourced. Every source linked.
The record of what the American press got wrong, and who it helped
The Big Lies › 2019 › File PF-0148
Retracted

NYT: Manafort Wanted Polling Data Passed to Deripaska

The Times reported that Paul Manafort told Rick Gates to have Konstantin Kilimnik pass Trump campaign polling data to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

First reported Jan 8, 2019 · The New York Times
Screenshot of the original report as published
Screenshot of the report as published: nytimes.com (archived copy, Wayback Machine). Tap to open the source.
Who it helped: Democrats

The error strengthened the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.

What was reported

The Times reported that Paul Manafort told Rick Gates to have Konstantin Kilimnik pass Trump campaign polling data to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

What actually happened

The front-page story, citing one person familiar with the matter, tied campaign data directly to a Kremlin-linked oligarch. A day later the Times corrected it, saying Manafort wanted the data sent to two Ukrainian oligarchs, Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov, not to Deripaska. The correction removed the story's most direct link to Russia.

The proof

The New York Times' Jan. 9, 2019 correction naming Lyovochkin and Akhmetov as the intended recipients.

The receipt. Copy this and paste it anywhere:

NYT: Manafort Wanted Polling Data Passed to Deripaska — Retracted. The New York Times' Jan. 9, 2019 correction naming Lyovochkin and Akhmetov as the intended recipients. Full file: https://www.thepropagandafiles.com/case/nyt-manafort-polling-data-deripaska/

Original reporting

Corrections, findings & records

Archived copies

Stories get edited after publication. These open the Internet Archive's earliest saved copy of each original.

Get the daily file.