Paul Manafort and Rock Gates indicted on 12 federal charges

The first figures to be indicted under the Mueller investigation were President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Rock Gates, a former business associate, on federal charges ranging from conspiracy against the US, conspiracy to launder money and foreign lobbying. Both surrendered to the FBI Monday morning, shortly after it emerged that a federal grand jury assembled by the Department of Justice special counsel Robert Mueller had voted to indict them in the probe into possible coordination between Russia and people close to the Trump campaign.

Manafort resigned from the campaign after revelations that he worked for a pro-Russia party in the Ukraine. During the summer he and Gates registered as foreign agents.

Trump fired Manafort after only three months on the job when it transpired he had worked for a pro-Russia party in the Ukraine.  Manafort developed extensive ties with the Russians while working as a lobbyist for Kiev. DEBKAfile’s sources add that in recent months, after the Mueller probe focused on his activities, he went to work as a Washington lobbyist on behalf of the government of semiautonomous Iraqi Kurdistan. American sources report that Manafort and Gates between them held around $75 million in offshore tax havens.