Ex-Trump campaign adviser pleads guilty to making false statement
Story highlights
- The developments signal a dramatic new phase of Mueller's wide-ranging investigation
- They are the first people in Trump's orbit charged in connection with the special counsel investigation
Washington (CNN)A
former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser has pleaded guilty to
making a false statement to the FBI after he lied about his interactions
with foreign officials close to the Russian government, the campaign's
clearest connection so far to Russia's efforts to meddle in the 2016
election.
In court
records unsealed on Monday, the FBI said George Papadopoulos "falsely
described his interactions with a certain foreign contact who discussed
'dirt' related to emails" concerning Hillary Clinton.
In
addition, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump
campaign official Rick Gates surrendered Monday to Justice Department
special counsel Robert Mueller.
The
charges against top officials from Trump's campaign signals a dramatic
new phase of Mueller's wide-ranging investigation into possible
collusion between the Russian government and members of Trump's team as
well as potential obstruction of justice and financial crimes.
Papadopoulos'
guilty plea brings the Mueller probe into actions that occurred during
the 2016 campaign. The charges against Manafort and Gates are unrelated
to the Trump campaign, though it's possible Mueller could add additional
charges.
Gates,
45, is a longtime business associate of Manafort, 68, having worked
together since the mid-2000s, and served as his deputy on the campaign.
The two were indicted under seal on Friday, a source with direct
knowledge of the matter said.
President
Donald Trump distanced himself from Manafort Monday morning, asking why
his general election opponent, Hillary Clinton, wasn't being
investigated.
"Sorry, but this is
years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why
aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" He soon added:
"Also, there is NO COLLUSION!"
He tweeted before Papadopoulos' guilty plea was unsealed.
Papadopoulos
lied to FBI agents "about the timing, extent and nature of his
relationships and interactions with certain foreign nationals whom he
understood to have close connections with senior Russian government
officials," according to the complaint. Mueller signed a 14-page
statement regarding Papadopoulos' offense, which lays out of the facts
of the case.
Mueller's statement
also says that Papadopoulos met with a Russian woman in March 2016 --
introduced to him as a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin,
though she was not -- and he sought to use her connections to arrange a
meeting between the campaign and Russian government officials.
The
statement says that Papadopoulos falsely claimed he met with an
overseas professor before joining the Trump campaign about "the Russians
possessing 'dirt' on then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of
'thousands of emails.'"
The professor only took interest in Papadopoulos because of his status on the campaign, according to the statement.
A
former Trump campaign official said Papadopoulos interacted with the
campaign "a significant amount" during the 2016 election cycle.
"He
was a foreign policy adviser," said the official, who described
Papadopoulos as an adviser who was in contact with the campaign staff
via email and not a familiar face around Trump Tower. The official said
Papadopoulos exchanged emails "constantly" on foreign policy matters
with the Trump team during the campaign.
Still,
this official placed Papadopoulos in the same category as Carter Page,
who felt more like a "hanger-on" to the campaign staff.
Manafort, Gates charged with conspiracy against the US
The indictment
against Manafort and Gates contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the
United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a
foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration
Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to
file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.
Manafort
arrived at the FBI's Washington field office Monday morning. The two
are being processed separately, according to a law enforcement official.
They will later be transported to federal district court in Washington
later Monday morning.
The two are
scheduled to make their initial court appearances before US District
Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson at 1:30 p.m. ET Monday.
CNN has reached out to lawyers for Manafort and Gates.
Manafort
and Gates were the first officials in Trump's orbit charged in
connection with the special counsel investigation, which is exploring
whether Trump's actions surrounding the firing of former FBI Director
James Comey amount to obstruction of justice. Mueller has taken a broad
approach to his mandate that includes a focus on the financial dealings
of Trump's team.
Trump has been
briefed on the charges against Manafort and Gates, a source close to the
President told CNN. The source said Trump will likely say later Monday
that he feels badly for Manafort and his family. The source added that
Monday's developments with regard to Manafort and Gates had been
predicted and are completely unrelated to Trump.
A
source close to the White House -- before Papadopoulos' guilty plea was
unsealed -- said "today has zero to do with the White House," noting
that the charges pertain to Manafort and Gates' business dealings.
"These
guys were bad guys when they started, they were bad guys when they
left," said another source close to the White House. Asked how Trump
will receive the news, the second source said, "I think he takes it on
its face" because "it has nothing to do with him."
This source added that Trump is still not planning to try to fire Mueller.
Clinton,
Trump's general election opponent during last year's presidential
contest, has no comment on the charges, a spokesman told CNN.
Manafort,
whose work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has
attracted scrutiny from federal investigators, has previously denied
financial wrongdoing regarding his Ukraine-related payments, his bank
accounts in offshore tax shelters and his various real-estate
transactions over the years. Gates, who has also denied wrongdoing, was
Manafort's longtime business associate in his lobbying firm before being
tapped as his deputy on the Trump campaign.
Manafort's Ukraine work scrutinized
Before the indictment, the FBI in July executed a so-called no-knock search warrant
with guns drawn at Manafort's home in Alexandria, Virginia, seizing
financial and tax documents, including some that had already been
provided to congressional investigators.
Federal
investigators' interest in Manafort and Gates goes back well before the
special counsel was appointed. For about a decade, Manafort worked for
Yanukovych and his Russia-friendly Party of Regions. Manafort's work
spurred a separate federal investigation in 2014, which examined whether
he and other Washington-based lobbying firms failed to register as
foreign agents for the Yanukovych regime.
Gates
joined Manafort's lobbying firm in the mid-2000s and handled projects
in Eastern Europe, which later included work for Yanukovych.
Yanukovych
was ousted amid street protests in 2014, and his pro-Russian Party of
Regions was accused of corruption and laundering millions of dollars out
of Ukraine. The FBI sought to learn whether those who worked for
Yanukovych — Manafort's firm, as well as Washington lobbying firms
Mercury LLC and the Podesta Group — played a role. The Podesta Group is
headed by Tony Podesta, the brother of John Podesta, a former chief of
staff of the Clinton White House, a senior adviser to President Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.
At
the time, the case hinged on the failure by the US firms to register
under the FARA, a law the Justice Department rarely uses to bring
charges. Earlier this year, all three firms filed retroactively with the
Justice Department.
Gates once
became involved in a failed business venture with Manafort and Russian
oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Putin, according to legal
filings. The plan was for Deripaska to invest $100 million in a private
equity company that Manafort and Gates would manage.
The
project fell apart, and Deripaska sued Manafort and Gates in the Cayman
Islands for mishandling his money. Deripaska, a Russian citizen, has
offered to cooperate with Capitol Hill investigations in exchange for
immunity.
A secret order authorized
by the court that handles the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA) began after Manafort became the subject of an FBI investigation
that began in 2014, sources previously told CNN. But the surveillance
was discontinued last year due to lack of evidence.
Later
in 2016, however, the FBI restarted the surveillance as part of its
investigation into Russian meddling. Investigators' interest in Manafort
was reignited due to intercepted communications between Manafort and
suspected Russian operatives, and among the Russians themselves, CNN has
reported.
The
investigation into Manafort intensified after Mueller was named as
special counsel in May. Mueller has hired a team of prosecutors who have
examined Manafort's financial and tax history stretching back 11 years to January 2006, while he was working in Ukraine.
Running the Trump campaign
Manafort
entered the Trump campaign orbit in early 2016, when he reached out to
Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner and offered
to work for free, according to The New York Times.
Manafort
joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 to help with delegate counting
ahead of the Republican National Convention, as some Republicans hoped
to use arcane delegate procedures to wrest the nomination from Trump at
the convention in Cleveland.
He
soon was promoted to campaign chairman, and he became the top official
on the campaign after then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was fired
in June 2016.
His tenure didn't last long.
The Times reported
in August 2016 that Ukrainian investigators found Manafort's name in an
off-the-books, handwritten ledger detailing secret payments — including
$12.7 million to Manafort from Yanukovych's Party of Regions.
Manafort denied he had received any such payment and claims the ledger was forged. But just days later, he resigned from the campaign as the accusations swirling around him became a major distraction for Trump.
In
addition to Manafort's Ukraine business dealings, his real estate
dealings, overseas business ventures and bank accounts in offshore
havens like Cyprus have also come under scrutiny.
Gates rose and fell with Manafort
When Manafort joined the Trump campaign, he brought Gates on board shortly thereafter.
As
Manafort rose in the ranks, so did Gates, who took on a more prominent
role after Lewandowski was fired. But his stock rose and fell with his
business partner -- after Manafort resigned in August 2016 amid
questions about his Ukraine dealings, Gates' role was diminished, and he
later left the campaign.
Questions about Gates' work in Ukraine continued to dog him even after Trump was inaugurated.
Gates was a founding member of America First Policies, a pro-Trump advocacy group, but stepped down after about two months.
Gates
was forced to leave amid another round of blistering headlines about
Manafort, his longtime business partner and political ally, CNN reported at the time.
Gates
has denied any allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and
Russia, telling the Times in June that they were "totally ridiculous and
without merit."
Gates, according to a source, accompanied Trump ally Tom Barrack to the White House several times this year.
Focus of multiple investigations
Mueller
hasn't been the only one to focus on Manafort. He's also been a central
figure in multiple congressional investigations into Russian election
meddling and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.
Manafort's
role was further scrutinized after CNN and The New York Times reported
in February that he and other senior Trump aides were in regular contact with suspected Russian operatives during the campaign. Manafort has denied those allegations.
Manafort
has been interviewed behind closed doors by the Senate intelligence
committee, and he has provided documents to the congressional panels
investigating potential Russian collusion.
Manafort's web of connections to Russia has continued to expand as the investigations have moved forward.
In
July, new reports revealed that Manafort was part of a June 2016
meeting organized by Donald Trump Jr. with a Russian lawyer who had
connections to the Kremlin.
In September, The Washington Post reported that Manafort had offered to provide private briefings on the campaign to Deripaska.
Manafort
has denied that he ever "knowingly" communicated with Russian
intelligence operatives during the election or participated in any
Russian efforts to "undermine the interests of the United States."
This story is breaking and will be updated.
CORRECTION:
This story has been updated to reflect that John Podesta was a chief of
staff in the Clinton administration and Hillary Clinton's campaign
chairman.
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