Former US Diplomat: ‘It’s Trump, Not Manafort They’re After’
SputnikNews.com
30.10.2017
Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his former business associate, Rick Gates, have been indicted on twelve counts by US authorities as part of the ongoing FBI investigation led by Robert Mueller into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Sputnik spoke to former US diplomat Jim Jatras on the news of the indictment of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, and his former business associate, Rick Gates.
The charges against them include: conspiracy against the United States; conspiracy to launder money; unregistered agent of a foreign principal; false and misleading FARA (Foreign Agent Registration Act) statements; false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.
According to the indictment, Manafort, who had worked as an advisor to Ukraine’s ousted former president, Viktor Yanukovych, had been engaged in a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign in the US at the request of Kiev.
He has been accused, together with Rick Gates, of laundering over US$18 million through many US and foreign entities to hide payments from the US authorities, “which was used by him to buy property, goods, and services in the United States,” without paying taxes.
Jim Jatras highlights the timing of the charges against Manafort and how it is not so much Manafort, as Trump, that the FBI are interested in discrediting. He also notes the lack of concrete evidence to date implicating Russian collusion, with the latest charges centering around Manafort’s business connections with Ukraine.
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