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First Charges Filed in Mueller Investigation

Tax fraud.

I guess Putin prepared his returns.

Just heard on NPR a lot more charges than just tax fraud.


Nope, just tax fraud.

https://www.justice.gov/sco

U.S. v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., and Richard W. Gates III (1:17-cr-201, District of Columbia)

Paul J. Manafort, Jr., of Alexandria, Va., and Richard W. Gates III, of Richmond, Va., have been indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 27, 2017, in the District of Columbia. The indictment contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. The case was unsealed on Oct. 30, 2017, after the defendants were permitted to surrender themselves to the custody of the FBI.
 
Trump is tweeting about Hillary’s 33,000 missing emails.
 
The indictment is very well crafted. Based on the information in the indictment, I'm curious to know whether a target letter was issued to the two defendants (#3).

It is unusual for an indictment of this magnitude to not be supported by indictments of lesser folks involved in the conspiracy. Obviously, Company A and Company B have cooperated substantially in the investigation (so much so that they got to keep their name out of the Indictment).

The indictment establishes facts that support insane sentences. The Guidelines for 18 U.S.C. 1956(h) are based on the loss table in 2B1.1. They'll get another 2 points for (b)(2)(B), so that's like a level 22 right there. Super rough guideline calculation, but CHC I, means 41-61 months on Count 2.

2S1.3 gets a higher sentence, because it's 6 plus the 20 2B1.1 levels.
 
Anyone have an idea of what led to the conspiracy against the US charge? Is it just a result of laundering money for Russians at the time of being campaign manager, or something more?
 
 
The fact that this has to do with lying to the government and then lying about Russia sure looks like they will be going after Jared and Donnie, Jr. soon.

The tax charges could also lead to charges in NY about the same type of crimes. Those aren't pardonable by Trump.
 
From March: Manafort is gone, but his business associate remains a key part of Trump’s operation

The White House on Wednesday sought to again distance itself from President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who is under increasing scrutiny over his connections to Russian business interests.

But even as Trump officials downplay Manafort’s role, his ­decade-long business associate Rick Gates remains entrenched in the president’s operation. Gates is one of four people leading a Trump-blessed group that defends the president’s agenda. As recently as last week, he was at the White House to meet with officials as part of that work.

The next day: Rick Gates out at America First Policies over Manafort ties to Russia

Gates was one of six former Trump campaign aides who joined forces after the campaign to form the nonprofit after Trump was elected president in November. Gates was one of the group's top officials alongside the Trump campaign's digital director Brad Parscale and longtime Mike Pence aide Nick Ayers, both of whom remain at the helm of the nonprofit.
 
 
Anyone have an idea of what led to the conspiracy against the US charge? Is it just a result of laundering money for Russians at the time of being campaign manager, or something more?


Read the indictment, Manafort and Gates were not "laundering money for the Russians" they were laundering money for themselves. The charges all relate to the failure of Manafort and Gates to register as agents of a foreign power, failure to report money held in foreign bank accounts, and then using that money on spending in the US while failing to report the income. The current charges have nothing to do with Manafort and Gates' work on the Trump campaign. I am sure that Mueller is hoping he can use these charges to obtain cooperation in his investigation of others, but the current charges do not have anything to do with Manafort's work on the Trump Campaign.
 
Here's the real thing coming out of this - almost all of these crimes involve deception and falsehood. That makes for a shitty informant at the trial of the upstream investigations. If Muller is going for bigger fish, he either (1) has other more reliable sources of information for presentation at the trial of the bigger fish, or (2) isn't going for bigger fish.
 
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