Paul Manafort and Richard Gates face twelve charges stemming from the Russia probe, and have surrendered to the FBI.
Paul Manafort, a veteran Republican political consultant who ran President Donald Trump’s campaign during several crucial months before the elections, turned himself in on Monday to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The charges include conspiracy against the United States, tax evasion and money laundering to the tune of millions of dollars.
Richard Gates, an associate of Manafort who worked with him for years and also joined the Trump campaign, surrendered separately to the FBI.
The indictment states that between at least 2006 and 2015, Manafort and Gates allegedly acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine and the pro-Russia party of Victor Yanukovych. They lobbied the US government on behalf of both without declaring that they were being paid for such work, and hid from the IRS the tens of millions of dollars they received in payment for services rendered.
Yanukovych was president of the Ukraine from 2010-2014. He is now being tried in absentia for treason for “helping the Russian Federation violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” according to the Ukrainian state prosecutor’s website.
Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at the University of Alabama Law School, told The Guardian newspaper that the authorities may know much more about Manafort’s activities than has been made public, and may seek to convert that intelligence into knowledge about Trump’s activities.
The Justice Department appointed Mueller last May as special prosecutor to lead an investigation into the alleged secret Russian attempt to help Trump win the elections, and to determine whether anyone around the president was involved. Mr. Trump has denied any such collusion, and no evidence has surfaced publicly to contradict him. However, The New York Times revealed in July that Mr. Manafort and others close to Mr. Trump met with Russians last year when they promised to give them certain information on Clinton.
By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News