Oops! Mueller files new charges against ex-Trump aides Manafort and Gates [View all]

[malaise]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/21/manafort-mueller-charges-new-rick-gates-trump-investigation-fbi-latest
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The special counsel investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin has stepped up pressure on the former campaign manager Paul Manafort by filing new sealed court charges against him.

Reuters saw a court record referring to the sealed charges, which were also directed against Rick Gates, Manafort’s former business associate, but the documents provided no details on the nature of the charges.

It was not clear if the charges involved alleged bank frauds the special counsel’s office referred to in a court dispute over Manafort’s bail on Friday, in which he is said to have doctored profit and loss statements from his firm, in order to get a mortgage on a property in Virginia.

NBC News reported on Wednesday that Manafort was being investigated for having allegedly promised the president of the Chicago-based Federal Savings Bank that loaned him his mortgage a job in the Trump White House in return for $16m in home loans on his properties in Virginia, New City and the Hamptons.