Manafort and Gates plead 'not guilty'

The Mueller drama ended early Monday morning after an announcement was made Friday that there would be an indictment in the Russian election meddling scandal. 

As many thought, the person who most likely would be the target of the indictment was Paul Manafort. His associate, Rick Gates, was also indicted with him, on 12 counts by a federal grand jury. The special counsel headed by Robert Mueller, handed down the indictment regarding the meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign officials in the 2016 presidential election.

The counts told to Fox News include conspiracy against the United States (not the same as treason, but conspiracy not to pay them money owed to the feds); conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agent Registration (FARA) statements, false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign banks and financial accounts.

The alleged miscreants appeared before Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson on Monday for their initial appearance and arraignment.

The indictment states that between 2006 and 2015, both Manafort and Gates acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions--a Ukrainian political party whose leader was Victor Yanukovych, president from 2010 to 2014, and the Opposition Bloc.

No mention of the Trump campaign was mentioned in the indictment as all the activity mentioned occurred well before the campaign of 2016.

The indictment states that both Manafort and Gates laundered the money through scores of US and foreign corporations, bank accounts and partnerships to hide Ukraine payments for U.S. authorities.

Manafort laundered over $18 million which was used by him to buy property, goods and services in the U.S. and concealed it from the U.S. Treasury and Department of Justice.

That's a 'no, no.'



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