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| Special Counsel Robert Mueller |
The former campaign manager for US President Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, was told to surrender to federal authorities on Monday, according to two media reports, in the first charges stemming from a special counsel investigation of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
Manfort was to surrender to federal law enforcement authorities, CNN and the New York Times reported, each citing a source with knowledge of the matter.
The charges would be the first from the investigation of Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed to look into alleged Russian meddling to sway the election in favor of Trump.
The Times also reported that Manafort associate Rick Gates would also surrender.
Manafort, 68, served the Trump campaign from June to August of 2016 before resigning amid reports he may have received millions in illegal payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.
Mueller has been investigating Manafort’s financial and real estate dealings and his prior work for that political group, the Party of Regions, which backed former Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich.
Investigators also examined potential money laundering by Manafort and other possible financial crimes, sources have told Reuters.
Gates was a long-time business partner of Manafort and has ties to many of the same Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. He also served as deputy to Manafort during his brief tenure as Trump’s campaign chairman.
The Russia investigation has cast a shadow over US President Donald Trump’s 9-month-old presidency and widened the partisan rift between Republicans and Democrats.
US intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her.
Mueller is also investigating whether Trump campaign officials colluded with those Russian efforts.
Trump has denied the allegations of collusion with the Russians and called the probe “a witch hunt.” The Kremlin also has denied the allegations.
Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been looking into possible links between Trump aides and foreign governments, as well as potential money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes, according to sources familiar with the probe. He also is exploring whether Trump or his aides have tried to obstruct the investigation.
Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation a week after Trump’s May 9 firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was heading a federal probe into possible collusion with Russia. Trump initially said he fired Comey because his leadership of the FBI was inadequate. In a later interview with NBC, he cited “this Russia thing” as his reason.
On Sunday, Trump tried to shift the focus back to Democrats and Clinton, tweeting that the Russia issue was being used to sidetrack the Republican push for tax reform and praising Republican “anger and unity” on the need to look into whether Democrats and the Clinton campaign paid for a portion of a dossier that detailed accusations about Trump’s ties to Russia.
Special White House counsel Ty Cobb said the president’s tweets were “unrelated to the activities of the Special Counsel, with whom he continues to cooperate.”
Investigators led by Mueller have interviewed former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, former spokesman Sean Spicer and other current and former White House and campaign officials.
In July, FBI agents raided the Virginia home of Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, whose financial and real estate dealings and prior work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine are being investigated by Mueller’s team.
Mueller also has investigated Michael Flynn, an adviser to Trump’s campaign and later his national security adviser. Flynn was fired from that post in February after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the extent of his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak last year.
Some of Trump’s conservative allies have called for Mueller’s firing. Sebastian Gorka, an outspoken former adviser who left the White House in August, said on Twitter that Mueller “should be stripped of his authority” and investigated if he executed warrants in the probe.
The White House said in the summer that Trump had no intention of firing Mueller even though he questioned his impartiality.
