First charges filed mueller investigation
The first charges filed in the Mueller investigation were against four individuals:
- Paul Manafort, former campaign chairman for Donald Trump, and his business associate Rick Gates, were charged with 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States, money laundering, and making false statements to federal investigators. The charges were filed on October 27, 2017.
- George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, was charged with making false statements to federal investigators about his interactions with Russian nationals during the 2016 presidential campaign. The charges were filed on October 30, 2017.
The charges against Manafort and Gates were related to their work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, as well as their alleged efforts to launder money and hide their income from the US government. The charges against Papadopoulos were related to his interactions with a professor who had connections to the Russian government, and his alleged lies about those interactions to federal investigators.
The charges were announced by the Department of Justice and were the first to be filed as part of the Mueller investigation, which was launched in May 2017 to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Here are the specific charges filed against each individual:
Paul Manafort and Rick Gates:
- Conspiracy against the United States (Count 1)
- Conspiracy to launder money (Count 2)
- Unregistered agent of a foreign principal (Count 3)
- False statements (Count 4)
- Failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts (Count 5)
- Money laundering (Count 6)
- Unlawful lobbying (Count 7)
- Failure to register as a foreign agent (Count 8)
- Making false statements (Count 9)
- Failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts (Count 10)
- Money laundering (Count 11)
- Unlawful lobbying (Count 12)
George Papadopoulos:
- Making false statements (Count 1)
It's worth noting that these charges were just the beginning of the Mueller investigation, and many more charges would be filed in the months and years that followed.