Paul Manafort is driven in a car from the garage of his home in Alexandria, Virginia.Rod Lamkey Jr.
Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manger, and his former business partner surrendered to federal authorities on Monday as the first charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election are filed, a report on Monday said.
Charges against Manafort and his former business partner Rick Gates were not clear, the New York Times reported.
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They were indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday, but it has been under seal since. The indictment is expected to be unsealed later Monday.
Gates is a long time business associate of Manafort’s and his name appears on documents connected to companies created by Manafort in Cyprus to receive payments from politicians and businesses in Eastern Europe, the newspaper reported.
Manafort was hired to run Trump’s campaign in May 2016 but he was forced out just three months later when news reports began questioning his work for Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He has reportedly been a focus of Mueller’s investigation, and gun-toting federal agents burst into his Alexandria, Va., home in July to execute a search warrant.
They retrieved documents and materials a day after he voluntarily appeared before staff members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Manafort’s shadowy work for Yanukovych has drawn recent scrutiny from Mueller’s team of investigators.
They were examining wire transfers made by off-shore companies linked to Manafort that moved $3 million around the globe between 2012 and 2013, BuzzFeed News reported on Sunday.
The transactions were being probed to determine whether Manafort was hiding money from tax authorities or helping clients in Ukraine launder money.
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