New criminal charges have been filed under seal in special counsel Robert Mueller 's case against former Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, multiple outlets reported Wednesday.
The charges, first reported by Politico, were put under seal by Judge Amy Berman, barring details about the charges themselves from public view.
The development follows the special counsel's recent discovery of alleged "additional criminal conduct" articulated in a court document sent from the prosecutor's office on Friday.
In that filing, Manafort and Gates were accused of "a series of bank frauds and bank fraud conspiracies." Some of those bank frauds are related to properties that Manafort is seeking to pledge as collateral in lieu of a $10 million bail bond, the special counsel said.
Mueller's office said the three properties Manafort put up for bail are insufficient substitutes for the bond.
"The bail package that Manafort proposes is far less than the $10 million that he alleges in his supplemental memorandum, and the difference is not made up by any surety," the special counsel said.
One of those properties is Manafort's Manhattan apartment in Trump Tower, which Mueller said is at risk of bank foreclosure.
At another, a property in Fairfax, Virginia, Manafort is alleged to have acquired a mortgage "from The Federal Savings Bank through a series of false and fraudulent representations to The Federal Savings Bank." Manafort previously claimed that the property had no mortgage, Mueller said.
Manafort and Gates were indicted by the special counsel in October 2017 on multiple charges, including conspiracy to launder money, lying to federal investigators and failure to register as foreign agents in their work on behalf of a pro-Russia Ukraine party.
Manafort is a lobbyist deeply connected to the governments of Russia and Ukraine who also served as then-candidate Donald Trump 's campaign chief for a time. Gates, who was Manafort's longtime associate, also worked on the Trump campaign.
Lawyers for Manafort and Gates, and a spokesman for the office of the special counsel, did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment. __________________
Man. So between the indictments that dropped on the Russians nationals, and now this.
Guys, that’s a lot of bank, wire, and identity fraud going on. Lots of money laundering taking place.
Hmm...does trump have a slight history of money laundering?
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Rick Gates, Trump Campaign Aide, Pleads Guilty in Mueller Inquiry and Will Cooperate
By MARK MAZZETTI and MAGGIE HABERMANFEB. 23, 2018
WASHINGTON — A former top adviser to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel inquiry into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election after pleading guilty on Friday to financial fraud and lying to investigators.
The adviser, Rick Gates, is a longtime political consultant who once served as Mr. Trump’s deputy campaign chairman. The plea deal could be a significant development in the investigation — a sign that Mr. Gates plans to offer incriminating information against his longtime associate and the former Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and possibly other members of the campaign in exchange for a lighter punishment. He faces up to nearly six years in prison.
The deal came as the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has been raising pressure on Mr. Gates and Mr. Manafort with dozens of new charges of money laundering and bank fraud unsealed on Thursday. Both men were first indicted in October and pleaded not guilty. The plea agreement was part of a flurry of recent activity by the special counsel’s team. Last week, 13 Russians were indicted on charges relating to a carefully planned scheme to incite political discord in the United States in the months before the 2016 election.
Mr. Gates changed his plea on Friday during an appearance in a Washington courtroom, his eyes cast down as the government outlined the charges against him. A man who had made millions of dollars lobbying in Ukraine accepted the fate that may await him: a prison sentence for carrying out a financial conspiracy to hide the money he earned there.
He also admitted that he lied to investigators this month — while under indictment and negotiating with prosecutors — about the details of a 2013 meeting about Ukraine that Mr. Manafort had with a pro-Russian member of Congress.
What the dramatic courtroom scene might mean for President Trump depends on what Mr. Gates has to offer the special counsel, though at the least, the plea agreement is further evidence that the Trump campaign attracted a cast of advisers who overstepped legal and ethical boundaries. The indictments so far have not indicated that either Mr. Gates or Mr. Manafort had information about the central question of Mr. Mueller’s investigation — whether Mr. Trump or his aides coordinated with the Russian government’s efforts to disrupt the 2016 election.
But Mr. Gates was present for the most significant periods of the campaign, as Mr. Trump began forging policy positions and his digital campaign operation engaged with millions of voters on social media platforms such as Facebook. Even after Mr. Manafort was fired by Mr. Trump in August 2016, Mr. Gates remained with the campaign at the request of Stephen K. Bannon, who took over as head of the campaign.
From there, Mr. Gates assumed a different role — as a liaison between the campaign and the Republican National Committee — and traveled aboard the Trump plane through Election Day.
In addition to offering visibility into the Trump campaign, Mr. Gates might be able to provide prosecutors with glimpses into decision-making in the months after Mr. Trump’s election victory. Mr. Gates was a consultant on the transition team, and in the months after the inauguration, he worked with America First Policies, the main outside group supporting the Trump presidency.
Besides the agreement with Mr. Gates, the special counsel’s team has already secured guilty pleas from two of Mr. Trump’s advisers. Michael T. Flynn, the president’s first national security adviser, and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy aide during the campaign, have both pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. and agreed to cooperate with the inquiry.
Mr. Gates’s plea deal came together over the past few days, according to people familiar with the process. In a letter to friends and family, Mr. Gates said there had been false news stories about an impending plea deal over the past two weeks.
But, he added, “Despite my initial desire to vigorously defend myself, I have had a change of heart. The reality of how long this legal process will likely take, the cost, and the circuslike atmosphere of an anticipated trial are too much. I will better serve my family moving forward by exiting this process.”
Testimony from Mr. Gates could give Mr. Mueller’s team a first-person account of the criminal conduct that is claimed in the indictments — a potential blow to Mr. Manafort’s defense strategy. On Friday, Mr. Manafort pledged to continue the fight.
“Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pleaded today, I continue to maintain my innocence,” he said in a statement. “I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me.”
After Mr. Gates’s plea hearing, prosecutors filed a new indictment against Mr. Manafort. That indictment did not allege new charges against him, but was done for procedural purposes as prosecutors pursue separate cases in Washington and Northern Virginia.
The court papers give few specifics about how Mr. Gates came to be charged with lying to the F.B.I. On Feb. 1, as he was negotiating with prosecutors about a possible deal, Mr. Gates misled investigators about a conversation he had with Mr. Manafort in March 2013, after Mr. Manafort had met with the congressman to discuss the situation in Ukraine. The documents do not name the lawmaker, but news accounts have identified him as Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, a Republican long known for his pro-Russia views.
Mr. Gates falsely told investigators that Mr. Manafort had told him that the subject of Ukraine had not come up at the meeting, even though Mr. Gates had helped draft a report to Ukraine’s leadership after the meeting about what had transpired, according to the court papers.
Court records detail a byzantine scheme he and Mr. Manafort employed from about 2006 to 2015 in which they funneled millions of dollars they earned from their work as political consultants in Ukraine into shell companies and foreign bank accounts. The men worked in various capacities with Viktor F. Yanukovych, the onetime president of Ukraine and a longtime ally of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
They then hid the existence of the companies and accounts — set up in Cyprus, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles — from American tax authorities.
“Gates helped maintain these accounts and arranged substantial transfers from the accounts to both Manafort and himself,” prosecutors argued in the charges against Mr. Gates made public on Friday. Acting on Mr. Manafort’s instructions, Mr. Gates classified the overseas payments as “loans” to avoid having to pay income taxes.
Mr. Mueller’s team found that more than $75 million passed through offshore accounts, and that Mr. Manafort laundered more than $18 million to furnish a lavish, largely tax-free lifestyle. Mr. Gates transferred more than $3 million from the offshore accounts, court documents show.
Mr. Manafort purchased multimillion-dollar homes, expensive clothing, antiques and a Range Rover. Mr. Gates used the money to pay his mortgage and school tuitions, and for the interior decorating of his home in Virginia.
The work the two men did for their firm, Davis Manafort, connected them to numerous people with ties to the Kremlin. One was Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate and an ally of Mr. Putin’s. Mr. Deripaska has been denied a visa to travel to the United States because of allegations that he is linked to organized crime operations, claims he has denied.
Court records unsealed Friday revealed other lobbying schemes, including how Mr. Manafort used offshore accounts to wire more than 2 million euros to pay a group of former senior European politicians to take pro-Ukraine positions and lobby in the United States. In an “Eyes Only” memo that Mr. Manafort wrote in 2012, the purpose of the “Super VIP” effort was to assemble a group of “politically credible friends who can act informally and without any visible relationship with the Government of Ukraine.”
After their Ukraine work was disclosed in news reports in August 2016, when Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates were working for the Trump campaign, they “developed a false and misleading cover story” to distance themselves from Ukraine, according Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors.
Then, they covered their tracks when reporting their income to the Internal Revenue Service. Two months after Mr. Manafort left the campaign, according to the court documents, his accountant emailed him a question about whether he had any foreign bank accounts.
AND THEN THERE IS THIS EYE POPPING REPORT! MUST SEE IMHO:
The detailed report of the Manafort/Gates relationship, actions, and charges from a day before. I include this for those details and relevant back story to them joining the Trump Campaign. This report was very eye opening as well.
Pro-Russia GOP Congressman Features Prominently In Trump Aide’s Plea Document
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has been interviewed by congressional investigators but not yet by special counsel Robert Mueller.
By Akbar Shahid Ahmed
WASHINGTON ― The criminal information document released by special counsel Robert Mueller ahead of Trump campaign aide Rick Gates’ guilty plea on Friday contains prominent references to “a member of Congress” who met in 2013 with future Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and another lobbyist.
HuffPost has identified that member as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), a loudly pro-Russia lawmaker who has drawn the attention of Mueller and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller has not yet interviewed Rohrabacher, the congressman’s spokesman told HuffPost on Friday in a message that also confirmed the 2013 meeting with Manafort. But Mueller’s team wanted to interview Rohrabacher as of late last year, according to news reports, and the criminal information released in advance of Gates’ plea suggests they were asking about Rohrabacher recently. The congressman has already been interviewed by the House and Senate Intelligence committees.
Gates has told a court that he lied to federal investigators on Feb. 1, 2018, about his knowledge of the meeting between Rohrabacher, Manafort and lobbyist Vin Weber when he falsely claimed he did not know Ukraine was discussed. Ukraine is one of the top foreign policy concerns of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Manafort spent years working for Ukrainian politicians close to Moscow. And Rohrabacher was one of only a few U.S. lawmakers to oppose American assistance to a new government in Ukraine established in 2014 after protests against Putin’s allies in that country.
Rohrabacher has become notorious for being what The New York Times calls “an apologist” for Putin. “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said during a 2016 meeting of the GOP’s top brass, according to a secret recording shared with The Washington Post. (McCarthy later said he was joking.) Russian intelligence officials gave Rohrabacher a code name because they viewed him as a valuable source, The New York Times revealed last year.
Rohrabacher maintains that he is simply motivated by a sincere desire for better relations between Washington and Moscow. In a 2014 Twitter exchange, the congressman wrote, “Have known Manafort 35 years. As in all matters, I make up mind based on truth & right, not donations or even friendship.”
Officials speaking with The New York Times last year said they did not believe Rohrabacher was actively working with the Russians.
As both chair of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee covering Europe and a former anti-Soviet hawk, the congressman argues that the two countries with the world’s largest nuclear arsenals need to get along and that Americans should have more sympathy for Russia’s priorities and its fears of Western encirclement.
His team said that Friday’s news does not show any wrongdoing.
“As the congressman has acknowledged before, the meeting was a dinner with two longtime acquaintances ― Manafort and Weber ― from back in his White House and early congressional days. The three reminisced and talked mostly about politics. The subject of Ukraine came up in passing,” Ken Grubbs, Rohrabacher’s spokesman, told HuffPost in an email. “It is no secret that Manafort represented [pro-Putin Ukrainian President] Viktor Yanukovych’s interests, but as chairman of the relevant European subcommittee, the congressman has listened to all points of view on Ukraine. We may only speculate that Manafort needed to report back to his client that Ukraine was discussed.”
Still, Rohrabacher has emerged as an important figure in the investigations into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to help President Donald Trump and hurt his rival Hillary Clinton.
One of a mere handful of well-known GOP figures in Washington who were enthusiastic about Trump before his election victory, Rohrabacher was once under consideration to be the new administration’s secretary of state. He has cast doubt on the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community about the election and said voters benefited from the hacks of Clinton campaign messages. Last year, he met with Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, the group that released the stolen Clinton materials, and said he wanted to give Trump information proving the hack was not committed by Russia. Soon afterward, top Republicans curtailed his powers on his influential subcommittee. And in 2016, Rohrabacher had meetings with Trump adviser Michael Flynn ― who is now cooperating with Mueller ― and with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya ― who is known for a Trump Tower meeting she had with Donald Trump Jr., Manafort and others hoping that Russia would share information damaging to Clinton.
The 15-term congressman is courting controversy even as he faces what observers describe as his toughest re-election race yet in a California district that seems to be turning more liberal. He appears unfazed.
“My constituents couldn’t care less about this,” Rohrabacher told The New York Times last year. “They are not concerned about Russia.”
so if the cops are investigating something, and they come across a dead body with evidence, are they legally supposed to ignore it?
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
so if the cops are investigating something, and they come across a dead body with evidence, are they legally supposed to ignore it?
although I think anything anyone did illegally should be put in jail, that's not a valid analogy. Special Counsels work different than regular investigation, idk if he has a foot to stand on our not, but they are not two of the same types of investigation.
Yeah, they weren't complaining when Ken Star began investigating Clinton over White Water and ended up with Monica.
right. this isn't anything new. crimes are uncovered all the time from an investigation into another crime.
also, the special counsel is legally allowed to do it.
it seems like people are more upset at who's investigating rather than being upset that, ya know, CRIMES have been committed.
isn't that an exact parallel to what trump supporters and conservatives said during the election season when bombshells dropped on hillary? don't get mad at the leakers, be mad at what she did.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
I don't know where it will stop or if it will lead to Trump. But I'm pretty sure Manafort is a pos who is in deep deep trouble. Kushner is another who sounds like a douche and who will eventually be exposed.
Trump's biggest transgressions may end up simply being an arrogant idiot who surrounded himself not with quality people, but hand picked friends who were crooks and incompetent. However ignorance is no defense of the law, so if his actions and choices resulted in criminal activity he'll have to own it.
I'm shocked at how fast Mueller has started making progress.
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
I don't know where it will stop or if it will lead to Trump. But I'm pretty sure Manafort is a pos who is in deep deep trouble. Kushner is another who sounds like a douche and who will eventually be exposed.
Trump's biggest transgressions may end up simply being an arrogant idiot who surrounded himself not with quality people, but hand picked friends who were crooks and incompetent. However ignorance is no defense of the law, so if his actions and choices resulted in criminal activity he'll have to own it.
I'm shocked at how fast Mueller has started making progress.
Just so we can draw a line in the sand. Are you saying no-one from the Trump campaign ever discussed the timing of the release or of the content/dirt the Russians had with the Russians/agents working for russia?? AND .... Would it matter if the campaign tried to obtaini dirt by communicating with the Russians even if the dirt/intelligence turned out to be false?
Can we get you on record now as that being your position???? Please verify if there is a different position you have.
See what's going to *probably* happen is that there is going to be something at the end of all these bread crumbs. And I expect more than likely Trump will get off with plausible Deniability ............ You Know, That Guy THat You Crow ABout Wielding THe hamma is Gonna Claim HE Never Knew Nuffink. while the rest of his ship sinks like a stone ... And maybe at that point you'll then claim vindication. So we need to clarify. Just for the record.
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
It is you guys who have said Trump Colluded with Russia to win the election.
It is time for you guys to put up or shut up.
Where's the Beef? Where's the Collusion?
I see you are evading. Congrats.
I never claimed any such thing. I did say and still say there is enough stink to warrant an investigation. Funny enough I think your boy might end up being guilty of obstruction, not because he was hiding what he did, he was too dumb and too arrogant to let things play out.
We'll see. But your lack of commitment to a stated belief speaks volumes. A bit like your lack of any follow up on your false claim that Amazon is being subsidized by taxpayers money.
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
Here's a sample of what the headline is going to look like when members of Trump's team are sent to the slammer for their illegal activities that involve and center around members of the Russian intelligence services!
Your guy who you crow about carrying a big hamma. You're going to be saying 'yeah, Trump never knew he never knew' .... Apparently Trump is such a push over his Lawyer does whatever the f*** he wants to without Trump's blessing. Of course that's not ethical for the lawyer to do .... But the other option would be that Trump knew and, well that's not a good look. Bank on it, there are more "I barely knew my campaign manager" ... "He was a fringe part of my team despite being present at all those high ranking meetings" ... "I never knew, never knew".
Last edited by mgh888; 04/05/1805:25 PM.
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
