Robert Mueller Files Yet Another Round of Charges Against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates

Special counsel Robert Mueller is extremely not done investigating Paul Manafort, the onetime campaign manager for Donald Trump who was indicted for money laundering and who, we discovered yesterday, is also under scrutiny for allegedly promising a Chicago banker a place in Trump’s White House in exchange for a multi-million-dollar home loan.

Thursday evening, CNN reported that Mueller filed another (37-page) indictment against Manafort and his former associate Rick Gates. The two “allegedly laundered $30 million, failed to pay taxes for almost 10 years and used real estate they owned to fraudulently secure more than $20 million in loans,” per CNN.

The charges come less than a week after Mueller’s team indicted 13 Russian nationals for allegedly attempting to orchestrate a misinformation campaign to smear Hillary Clinton.

While Manafort faces 18 new charges, Gates faces 23—on top of 12 existing criminal charges combined. From CNN (and please pay particular attention to what Manafort and Gates spent the money on):

More than $75 million dollars flowed through offshore accounts the men had set up in foreign countries, including Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles, the indictment alleges. These are small island nations where local laws make it easy to park money.

Manafort used some of the money to buy real estate in the US, and they both used the money on home improvement and to refinance their mortgages, the indictment alleges. They also allegedly used money from their offshore accounts to pay for luxury goods, and, in Gates’ case, for his mortgage and children’s tuition.

It remains incredible to me that Paul Manafort has apparently concocted multi-million-dollar money laundering schemes almost exclusively intended to maintain the quality of his homes. Paul, please send us photos so we can judge whether the renos were worth it!