Paul Manafort is the fifth prominent Trump aide to have pleaded guilty or been convicted of crimes since the election.
How Trump’s closest circle might bring him down in the Russia investigation – video explanation
As part of a plea agreement, Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, agreed to help with Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling in 2016.
This comes only weeks after Manafort was found guilty of eight counts of bank and tax fraud, which came just minutes after Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer,” Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to charges involving campaign crimes.
All of this increases the total number of presidential aides found to be in violation of the law to five.
Key Points
As a consequence of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, Trump’s campaign chairman, deputy campaign manager, national security advisor, personal lawyer, and a foreign policy aide have all confessed crimes or been convicted since his victory in November 2016.
Paul Manafort
Manafort, 69, served as Trump’s campaign chairman for five months in 2016, at a critical phase in the election campaign.
In exchange for the dismissal of other counts against him, he pleaded to conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to obstruct justice on Friday.
According to Mueller’s team’s petition to the court, Manafort could face a maximum sentence of ten years in jail.
The allegations against Manafort are connected to his work as a Ukrainian consultant, not Russian election meddling in 2016, which is the focus of the special counsel’s inquiry.
However, as part of the agreement, he must assist “fully and honestly” with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, which may be a major setback for Trump.
This comes only weeks after he was convicted of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failing to register a foreign bank account, for which he risked decades in jail.
President Trump has defended and distanced himself from Manafort, who worked for Ronald Reagan and other prominent Republicans before launching a profitable political consulting firm in Ukraine.
Prosecutors allege that between 2010 and 2014, Manafort accumulated $65 million (£50 million) in overseas bank accounts, spent more than $15 million on luxury items, and developed a taste for ostrich leather coats.
Michael Cohen
Cohen, 51, started working for Trump in 2006 as a lawyer and “fixer,” rising to executive vice president of the Trump Organization.
He was previously a fervent supporter of his boss, declaring that he “would take a bullet for the president,” but his devotion to Trump seems to have eroded.
He pled guilty to a variety of crimes on Tuesday, the most serious of which was providing a “excessive campaign donation at the direction of a candidate or campaign,” which Trump was.
Payments to Playboy model Karen McDougal and pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels were involved.
“If those payments were a criminal for Michael Cohen, why wouldn’t they be a felony for Donald Trump?” Cohen’s lawyer tweeted after the admission.
Cohen’s sentencing is set for December 12th.
Michael Flynn
Flynn, 59, served as national security advisor for just 23 days before resigning when it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his talks with the Russian ambassador before to Trump’s inauguration.
In December 2016, he entered a plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller, admitting to lying to the FBI and promising to fully assist with the investigation into Russian meddling.
The sentence of the retired army lieutenant-general has been postponed four times amid reports that he is assisting law enforcement in the Russia probe.
Flynn’s sentence has been repeatedly postponed, and is now set for September 17th.
Rick Gates is an American businessman.
“Did you conduct crimes with Mr Manafort?” prosecutors questioned him during his trial earlier last month.
“Yes,” Gates is believed to have replied.
He went on to outline the list of crimes he did on Manafort’s orders, including falsifying tax returns, setting up shell businesses to mask sources of foreign money, and defrauding banks to get loans.
Gates’ punishment has yet to be decided, and whatever prison time he receives will likely be lowered based on his amount of cooperation with the investigation.
When he admitted to making false statements to the FBI about his interactions with Russians during the campaign, Papadopoulos, 31, became the first of Trump’s aides to plead guilty in Mueller’s probe.
According to the prosecution, he harmed the investigation irreparably by repeatedly lying in an interview in January 2017, causing the FBI to lose a chance to adequately examine a prospective critical witness.
On September 7, Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days in jail by the District of Columbia District Court.
In a prosecution initiated by Mueller, he became the second person to be condemned to jail.
Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for lying to investigators about his contacts with Rick Gates, a former Trump associate who testified against Manafort in court.
