The Russian probe continues and Robert Mueller has made some substantial developments as he indicted 13 Russians and 3 Russian companies last week. On Thursday, he filed additional criminal charges against Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates. Paul is President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman and is being charged with tax evasion and bank fraud.
The scary aspects of the Russian probe are that it does not limit its investigation to colluding with Russia in its meddling exercise but also includes any other criminal findings. This means that if the team finds any other criminal offenses apart from Russian meddling then they are at liberty to charge the offenders.
Addition to Original Charges
When conducting an initial investigation, Mueller’s team found Paul and an associate Rick Gates to have been involved in a multimillion-dollar money laundering conspiracy hidden behind lobbying work for a Ukrainian political party which is friendly to Russia. For this finding, they were charged on a 12-count indictment on October 2017.
The new filling adds bank fraud and tax evasion charges against Paul Manafort hence likely to increase the jeopardy facing him. The previous charges may earn Paul a decade-long prison sentence but with the new charges, it is likely to increase. The new charges allege that Paul and Gates doctored financial documents and lied to tax preparers. They also defrauded banks by way of using the money they cycled through offshore accounts with the objective of spending it lavishly on real estate and other luxury items.
Mueller assigned the case to T.S. Ellis III, the US District Judge. The case comes a week after Mueller indicted 13 Russians and 3 Russian companies for their involvement in undermining the 2016 presidential elections. Although the new charges against Manafort and Gates were not related to the Russian probe, Mueller is still conducting investigations to determine whether there are potential ties with Russia.
Highlights of the Ongoing Cases
Revelations allege that there is an ongoing turmoil in the Manafort and Gates defense camps. It is claimed that Manafort has been unable to reach a consensus with prosecutors on the standings of his bail thus remains under house arrest. On the other hand, Gates’ lawyers withdrew from the case over irreconcilable differences with Gates. Thomas Green the new lawyer was seen on Thursday while appearing on behalf of his client.
Jason Maloni, Manafort’s spokesman stated that Manafort is innocent. He is confident that Manafort will be acquitted of all the charges leveled against him.
