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THE SCORECARD SO FAR
The Mueller indictments so far: Lies, trolls and hacks
POLITICO
25 January 2019
Since former FBI chief Robert Mueller was appointed to probe potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russians during the 2016 campaign, the special counsel has held Americans spellbound. His investigation has exposed illegal schemes across international borders and produced more than 100 criminal charges. Inside the White House, the probe has, at times, consumed President Donald Trump and his inner circle. Here are all the people Mueller has charged so far.
TEAM TRUMP
GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS
The first indictment, under seal.
Nearly five months after the special counsel officially began his work, Mueller filed his first charge, accusing the foreign policy advisor to Trump's campaign of lying to the FBI. According to Mueller, Papadopolous told an Australian diplomat in 2016 that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton months before the Democratic candidate's internal campaign emails started leaking online.
As part of his plea deal with Mueller, Papadopoulos admitted that he discussed his Russia contacts with top campaign officials, including a possible meeting between candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House sought to distance itself from Papadopoulos before he was eventually sentenced to 14 days in prison. Papadopoulos's indictment and plea deal was kept under seal until Oct. 30, 2017. Read the full indictment here.
TEAM TRUMP
PAUL MANAFORT
TEAM TRUMP
RICK GATES
Mueller's first bombshell.
With the Manafort indictment, Mueller ensnared one of the Trump campaign’s top aides and exposed a web of allegedly illicit business dealings between the former campaign chairman and pro-Russian Ukrainian officials that stretched back years. Mueller also indicted Rick Gates, Manafort’s longtime business partner. Manafort was eventually convicted on eight counts of tax and bank fraud, and later pleaded guilty to committing a conspiracy against the United States and a conspiracy to obstruct justice.
As part of his plea deal, Manafort agreed to cooperate with Mueller. But the special counsel eventually ripped up the agreement, accusing Manafort of lying repeatedly to investigators and requesting that the court move quickly to sentence the longtime GOP lobbyist. Read the full indictment here.
TEAM TRUMP
MICHAEL FLYNN
Mueller searches for the Trump-Kremlin connection.
Flynn's guilty plea signaled that the special counsel was looking into communications at the highest levels of the Trump transition team and the Kremlin.
Flynn, who served a brief 24 days as Trump's national security adviser, admitted that he lied to federal investigators about conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition about sanctions President Obama had just imposed on Russia for its interference in the 2016 elections and entered a plea deal with Mueller. After Flynn's guilty plea, the retired military officer met 19 times with investigators, offering "substantial assistance," according to a Mueller court filing. The special counsel recommended little to no jail time for Flynn. Read the full indictment here.
DEC. 02, 2017 - FEB. 11, 2018
Mueller interviews Trump world.
During this period, Mueller's team interviewed several key figures in Trump's orbit, including then-White House communications director Hope Hicks, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and George Nader, a businessman with connections to the United Arab Emirates.
OTHER
RICHARD PINEDO
The stolen bank accounts that fueled Russia's meddling.
Pinedo is a California resident who pleaded guilty to selling stolen bank account information to Russian internet trolls who allegedly used the credentials to buy internet ads to sow division among Americans during the election. His company, Auction Essistance, sold bank account numbers that could be used to set up accounts online, likely with PayPal. Pinedo knew that many of his customers were abroad and he admitted he “willfully and intentionally avoided learning” about the stolen identities. His sentence, six months of prison and six months of home confinement, is the longest sentence Mueller has secured. Read the full indictment here.
FOREIGN NATIONALS
THIRTEEN RUSSIAN NATIONALS AND THREE RUSSIAN COMPANIES
The Russian “troll farm” that tried to divide America.
Mueller's first indictment of foreign nationals blamed Russia's Internet Research Agency for orchestrating a "troll farm" that saturated online platforms with posts that vilified Clinton and supported Trump. Beyond the virtual sabotage, Mueller alleged that Russians also physically entered the United States and paid Americans to help them.
As part of the indictment, the special counsel charged two companies that he said funded the IRA, along with thirteen Russian individuals with a broad charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States and other narrower ones, such as tax fraud and identity theft. However, the indictment did not allege that the Russians' million-dollar propaganda scheme succeeded in swaying votes, which Trump largely took as a sign of vindication. One of the companies, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, hired American lawyers and has pleaded not guilty. Read the full indictment here.
FOREIGN NATIONALS
ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN
The Dutch lawyer who lied to Mueller.
Alex van der Zwaan is a Dutch lawyer who, according to the special counsel's office, lied to federal investigators about communications with Rick Gates, Manafort's business associate, related to a 2012 report meant to shield the pro-Russia Ukrainian president from scrutiny for jailing a political dissident.
Van der Zwaan was later sentenced to 30 days in a low-security prison in Pennsylvania — the first sentence handed out in the Mueller probe — after which he was deported. Read the full indictment here.
TEAM TRUMP
PAUL MANAFORT
TEAM TRUMP
RICK GATES
Mueller details a massive financial fraud scheme.
The new superseding indictment against Manafort and Gates included a whopping 32 charges of tax and bank fraud. Specifically, Mueller accused the pair of severely understating their income on tax forms, and the timing overlapped with some of Manafort's work as Trump's campaign chairman. Read the full indictment here.
Within days, Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to the FBI, striking a deal to cooperate with Mueller. Gates, formerly Manafort’s deputy, would go on to serve as a star witness at the trial against Manafort, who was found guilty on eight different counts by an Alexandria, Va., jury. As part of Manafort's eventual plea deal, Mueller agreed to dismiss the charges that resulted in a hung jury in Virginia.
TEAM TRUMP
PAUL MANAFORT
Ukraine and a secret lobbying campaign.
A new filing in the special counsel investigation alleged that Trump's former campaign chairman was the mastermind behind a covert group of former prominent European politicians "secretly retained" to promote Ukrainian interests in Washington. According to the document, a member of the so-called "Hapsburg Group," which was led by a former Austrian chancellor, at one point met with former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden to try and credit a Ukrainian dissident. Read the full filing here.
Trump changes lawyers, negotiates Q&A.
After the flurry of activity in February, Mueller's team takes a four-month break from major public action. During this time period, Mueller's team is negotiating with Trump's over a possible in-person interview between the special counsel's office and the president. Trump also turned over his legal team during this span. Lead attorney John Dowd resigned over disagreements regarding strategy, and Rudy Giuliani took his place, installing a more pugilistic approach toward the special counsel.
NOTE: This rather shocking list of people and organizations who have been caught up in the Mueller probe reads like a Justice Department campaign to take down the Mafia. Well, at least a pre-Trump campaign when the DOJ did such things. And here's the kicker: all of the plea agreements, the indictments and convictions are pre-Michael Cohen's turn against his former boss and the re-energized Congressional committee investigations underway now that the House is in Democrats hands.
And, we still don't have the much anticipated and long awaited Special Counsel report.
With such a long list only two years into the Trump Administration, what the hell are we going to see between now and Election Day, 2020 and beyond? My guess is an even more extensive chain of indictments and convictions now that State Attorney's General are also a part of the game.
But Trump continues to claim that the Russia Investigation is a witch hunt and that there was no collusion. Maybe so. He also claims that climate change is a hoax despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. But so far there seems to have been a whole lot of "witches" among Trump's associates who were colluding all over the damned place. Stay tuned. It just could be that we've only seen the tip of the iceberg.
Have A Great Day Everyone!
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