Trump expected to bring Paul Manafort back into his campaign three years later after pardoning him for bank and tax fraud, which earned him a seven-year prison sentence.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to reinstate 74-year-old Paul Manafort as a campaign adviser later this year.

The Washington Post reported this on Monday about the presumptive Republican nominee’s plans, citing four sources close to the former president.

Manafort was Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman but left in August before the general election after his ties to Russia-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych exposed Trump’s pro-Russian vulnerabilities.

He was later charged with tax evasion, bank fraud and hiding offshore bank accounts for money he raised while working for Yanukovych, which he and his deputy Rick Gates tried to hide from authorities.

Manafort was sentenced to seven years in prison, but was placed on house arrest during the COVID-19 pandemic and then pardoned by Trump in December 2020, when the Republican had less than a month in office.

Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, was sentenced to seven years in prison for financial crimes uncovered during special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Trump pardoned Manafort in 2020 after he was released under house arrest due to the pandemic

The Post reported that Trump is determined to rehire Manafort because of the ex-aide’s loyalty to the former president — and because Manafort has actually served time in prison.

Discussions centered around the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a possible fundraising role for the campaign.

Trump’s campaign spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment from DailyMail.com.

Bringing back Manafort will revive questions about Trump’s coziness with Russia.

Last weekend, Trump made headlines when he appeared skeptical about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“I don’t know,” the ex-president told journalist Howard Kurtz on Fox News’ MediaBuzz. ‘Maybe. I mean, possibly, I could say probably. Don’t know. He’s a young man, so statistically he would live a long time. Based on the insurance numbers, he would live another 40 years.”

“Something happened that was unusual,” Trump added.

When Kurtz pointed out that Navalny had previously been poisoned, Trump also declined to answer definitively.

‘Don’t know. You certainly can’t say that with certainty,” Trump said.

These comments were just the latest to show Trump’s reluctance to criticize the authoritarian Russian leader.

Manafort’s financial crimes came to light during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether there was any coordination with the Trump campaign.

The final report found that Trump’s campaign welcomed Russian interference and expected to benefit from it, but there was insufficient evidence of collusion.

Trump was never charged with crimes related to the Mueller report — although his plans to pardon Manafort were included in the section detailing possible examples of obstruction of justice.

Democrats reacted Monday with glee to The Post’s report.

“Convicted felon Paul Manafort will fit right in with the C-team of election deniers, conspiracy theorists and absolute lunatics that are part of Donald Trump’s MAGA takeover of the Republican Party,” said Alex Floyd, director of the Democratic National Committee, Rapid Response in a statement.

“This latest report only confirms that Trump’s soft approach to the violent insurrections that stormed the Capitol on January 6 also extends to tax cheats and fraudsters,” Floyd continued. “Given the desperate financial state of the RNC, we can’t imagine what could go wrong with hiring a convicted con man like Manafort to help run a multi-million dollar convention.”