During a press gaggle this morning, Trump said he knew nothing about the blockbuster news that his former campaign chairman met with Russians to give them polling data.

After claiming there was no collusion with his campaign and Russia, a reporter stepped up.

"Did you know Paul Manafort was sharing polling data from your campaign with the Russians?"

Trump replied, "No, I didn't know anything about it. Nothing about it."

That sounds specious on its face.

Digby made a nice connection after hearing Trump mouth those words.

Yes, indeed. How many times has Trump denied knowledge of an event, like the Daniels payoffs and then later was forced to admit he lied?

Remember when he said he didn't write his son's response to the press about his involvement in the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians?

And then Sekulow was forced to retract his statements, pretending to do what Rudy Giuliani has done in the past -- make the lame excuse that he must have had bad information.

Fox News' Judge Napolitano stated what the new Manafort revelations reveal: "This shows that Bob Mueller can demonstrate to a court, without the testimony of Paul Manafort, that the campaign had a connection to Russian intelligence, and the connection involved information going from the campaign to the Russians,” he continued. “The question is, was this in return for a promise of something from the Russians, and did the candidate, now the president, know about it.”

Whenever Trump says he didn't know when one of his family members or closest advisers did something untoward, you can be sure he did.