The New York Times reported Monday morning that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a business associate were ordered to surrender to federal authorities. News broke Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller had filed the first charges in his investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
Update: The indictment has been made public. Manafort and Rick Gates face charges on 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, failure to register as a foreign agent, and making false statements.
Manafort served as Trump’s campaign manager from June to August last summer, resigning after it was revealed he had done lobbying work for “pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs.”
Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel in the wake of President Trump’s controversial firing of FBI director James Comey in May. As part of Mueller’s investigatin, FBI agents raided Manafort’s home in August.
Also asked to surrender is Rick Gates, identified by the NYT as Manafort’s former business associate. The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza tweeted Monday morning that Gates worked for the Trump campaign and stayed on after Manafort resigned.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s Michael Warren wrote last month that the Mueller investigation was honing in on Manafort.
Also see Warren’s piece from this morning looking at whether Trump would actually fire Mueller. And expect more to come out about Deripaska. This post will be updated as more information becomes available.
