Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort Has Been Indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller
Politics Features Paul Manafort
On Friday night, CNN reported that indictments were coming as soon as Monday in Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Well, it’s Monday, and multiple indictments have been handed down (for the FAKE NEWS folks, the title photo for this piece is a screenshot of the actual indictment released by the Department of Justice). Manafort is charged on 12 counts and will appear in court at 1:30 EST today. Per the DOJ:
conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.
There is no charge in here relating to the Trump campaign, but keep in mind the litany of reports that Mueller is trying to “flip” Manafort. Per Reuters from July 22nd:
U.S. investigators examining money laundering accusations against President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort hope to push him to cooperate with their probe into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia, two sources with direct knowledge of the investigation said.
“If Mueller’s team can threaten criminal charges against Manafort, they could use that as leverage to convince him to cooperate,” said one of the sources.
The FARA charge got my attention. FARA stands for Foreign Agents Registration Act, and the jist of it is that anyone working on behalf of a foreign power in a “political or quasi-political activity” must formally register as a foreign agent. Former National Security Council Spokesman for Barack Obama, Tommy Vietor, said on Pod Save America a couple months ago that lots of people in Washington D.C. “play fast and loose” with FARA. Violating FARA is a crime that gets punished far less than it gets perpetrated, as Matt Tait, former British spy and current senior cybersecurity fellow at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin put it:
But Manafort’s Trump tower $3m condo is conspicuously missing.
— Pwn ?? ?? ??? (b)(5) (@pwnallthethings) October 30, 2017
But hey, if that’s what you were trying to do, maybe you’d go after Manafort for something like FARA, with 3 indictments and no convictions since 1966
— Pwn ?? ?? ??? (b)(5) (@pwnallthethings) October 30, 2017
And then maybe ask if he has anything he wants to proffer to avoid an extended taxpayer-funded vacation to federal jail.
— Pwn ?? ?? ??? (b)(5) (@pwnallthethings) October 30, 2017
Trump’s former deputy campaign manager and Manafort’s protégée, Rick Gates, was also charged along with Manafort. They aren’t the only ones who are staring down the law today, as former Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos plead guilty to making false statements to the FBI.
— Pwn ?? ?? ??? (b)(5) (@pwnallthethings) October 30, 2017
Papadopoulos, working for the campaign, had numerous meetings via Skype and email with someone he understood to be working for the Russian MFA pic.twitter.com/ET8tECgRPb
— Pwn ?? ?? ??? (b)(5) (@pwnallthethings) October 30, 2017
There should be absolutely no doubt that this was an active approach by Russian Intelligence pic.twitter.com/36nKkLuORr
— Pwn ?? ?? ??? (b)(5) (@pwnallthethings) October 30, 2017
This ordeal is about to get a whole lot louder, primarily fueled by President FAKE NEWS! It already began this morning.
Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS. The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK’d!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017
Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017
….Also, there is NO COLLUSION!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017
The logic in this attack is that the Democrats financed a dossier filled with salacious and unverified rumors about Trump…but never used it during the campaign to try to win. Even by Trump’s warped standards, this doesn’t make any sense. Something shady happened, otherwise Trump wouldn’t have THREE high level campaign managers facing charges for making false statements to federal investigators—with one pleading guilty. Former United States Attorney Preet Bahara believes that Papadopoulos’s guilty plea means that he is cooperating with the investigation.
Special Counsel Mueller appears to have a cooperating witness, George Papadopoulos. That is significant. Time will tell how significant.
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) October 30, 2017
Right now, there is a lot of noise surrounding this investigation, but Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare put where we stand perfectly:
It boils down to this: the President of the US had as his campaign manager an alleged foreign agent who was allegedly laundering millions.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) October 30, 2017
Be patient folks, this is the beginning of a new chapter in this saga.
Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.