Mueller Unveils New Charges Against Ex-Trump Advisers

Manafort, Gates face 32 new counts in Virginia
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 22, 2018 5:19 PM CST
Mueller Unveils New Charges Against Ex-Trump Advisers
In this Dec. 11, 2017 file photo, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort arrives at federal court in Washington.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Special counsel Robert Mueller unveiled 32 new criminal charges against former Trump advisers Paul Manafort and Rick Gates on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reports. The charges are laid out in an indictment from a federal grand jury in Virginia. According to ABC News, there are 16 counts related to false individual income tax returns, seven counts for failure to report foreign bank and financial accounts, five counts for bank fraud conspiracy, and four counts for bank fraud. The charges are similar to those filed against Manafort in October in a federal court in Washington DC, the New York Times reports. Manafort is a former Trump campaign chairman, and Gates was his campaign deputy.

In the new indictment, Gates is charged with helping Manafort avoid taxes on his income. They're both accused of getting over $20 million in loans by "falsely inflating" Manafort's income. Manafort is charged with giving false information to banks when he applied for mortgages. Gates and Manafort had already faced charges out of Washington DC for failing to file tax and lobbying reports, and Manafort was accused of laundering millions of dollars and secretly lobbying for the pro-Russia government in Ukraine. While the charges are unrelated to President Trump, the Times state they "paint an unflattering portrait of the man who ran the Trump campaign." Mueller said he was prepared to bring all charges in Washington DC, but either Manafort or Gates chose to keep the new charges in Virginia, NBC News reports. (More Paul Manafort stories.)

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