If you didn’t know already, there is an government committee investigating the Trump campaign’s connections with Russia led by Robert Mueller and the FBI. Now this can be confusing at first but it is an ongoing investigation to prevent government corruption and find to what lengths that the Trump administration was involved with Russian election interference.
Although this committee was formed in May of 2017, the first indictments were issued today (October 30th, 2017) against Paul Manafort, a former Trump campaign advisor, and Rick Gates, an associate of Manaforts. Now what is an indictment? An indictment is an official criminal charge against a person, and are held up by probable cause. This means that Mueller and the committee have found enough significant evidence to charge both Manafort and Gates with 12 counts which include conspiracy, failure to file reports of bank statements, false statements, money laundering, and acting as an unregistered agent for a foreign country. In addition, former Trump policy advisor George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI investigators about his relationships with foreign governments.
How does this connect to the Trump Administration? Paul Manafort was Trump’s campaign chairman in mid-2016, resigning after accusations that he had been paid 12.7 million from a Ukrainian political party. Gates joined the Trump campaign shortly after Manafort and also left around the same time as the two were very closely connected. Gates then founded America First Policies, a Trump advocacy group that closely collaborated with the campaign. Manafort and Gates have connections to both the Russian government and the Trump campaign, raising red flags about the extent of knowledge that Trump and his close officials knew about Russian interference. It must be noted that there is no official evidence that shows Trump had a hand in the events leading to the charges against Manafort, Gates, and Papadopoulos.
What happens next? Shortly after their indictment, Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty to all 12 counts against each of them. They are expected in federal court on Monday, November 5th and further investigation will proceed from there. It is important to stay aware as this investigation is ongoing and much has yet to be discovered. This is only the beginning of possible indictments and evidence linking the Trump campaign to the Russian election interference.
Want to know more? Here are some sources, remember to research on multiple sources to get all the facts and avoid political bias!
Any opinions expressed are those of the writer and not those of HC LIM College or LIM College as a whole.