The sprawling 31-page indictment, unsealed on Monday morning, makes no mention of Manafort’s work for President Trump’s campaign, which began in March of 2016 and ended with his ouster in August. Mueller alleges they were paid tens of millions of dollars for the work and then laundered the money “in order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities.” The charges are related to work done by Manafort and Gates on behalf of a pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine. Manafort turned himself in at the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office on Monday morning. The 12-count indictment includes five counts against Manafort’s former business partner and protégé Rick Gates, who was ousted from the pro-Trump group America First Policies in April. One person they could look to for answers is Paul Manafort.Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is charged with conspiracy against the United States, tax fraud and money laundering in the first indictment to come from the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller. Manafort served in the Trump campaign."īut Manafort was at the top of the Trump campaign for three months in 2016 and Mueller's investigators are in the midst of a months-long investigation of trying to determine who had contacts with Russia in the long run-up to Trump's upset win in the November election over former U.S. was seeking to further democracy and to help the Ukraine come closer to the United States and the EU."ĭowning said, "Those activities ended in 2014 over two years before Mr. Manafort represented pro-European Union campaigns for the Ukrainians and. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government. 30, 2017.Īfter Manafort pleaded not guilty to the charges, his lawyer, Kevin Downing, told reporters, "I think you all saw today that President Donald Trump was correct. Kevin Downing, attorney for Paul Manafort, turns away after speaking to reporters outside federal court in Washington, Oct. Trump was quick to note, "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign." The indictment against Manafort did not describe his tenure as Trump's campaign chief and was related solely to lucrative lobbying transactions that predated the Trump campaign. democracy and help Trump win.īy the end of Monday, Manafort was under house arrest, awaiting resolution of charges that could, if convicted, land him in prison for years. presidential election aimed at undermining U.S. The charges came as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Now the lobbying and political worlds of the 68-year-old Manafort have achieved a merger of sorts.Ī federal grand jury in Washington indicted him in a money-laundering scheme linked to his lobbying for Moscow-supported Yanukovych before the Kyiv leader was ousted in 2014 and fled to Russia in exile. Just last year, he briefly was campaign chairman for the upstart candidacy of real estate mogul Donald Trump on his eventually successful run to the White House. capital, including the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos, Zaire's military dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and most recently Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovych.Īt the same time, he has been a Republican political operative, advising and serving an array of the party's presidents since the 1970s. For nearly 40 years, Paul Manafort has been one of Washington's top lobbyists, paid millions of dollars to represent controversial figures from around the globe who needed to burnish their standing in the U.S.
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