WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed new charges in the case against ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his former deputy, Rick Gates, according to a sealed court filing.
The filing in Washington federal court doesn’t specify the nature of the charges, or whether it expanded the case against both men or added others. They were indicted in October for money laundering and failing to register for political consulting work performed in Ukraine.
Earlier this week, Mueller’s office announced a guilty plea submitted by a London-based lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, who worked with Manafort and Gates on a report that largely defended the conviction of a former Ukrainian prime minister, despite widespread criticism that it was politically motivated.
Mueller’s office hinted at possible new charges in a separate filing last week. In that document opposing more lenient bail terms, prosecutors said Manafort engaged in a “series of bank frauds and bank fraud conspiracies’’ not previously charged. Those frauds relate to a mortgage on a Virginia property that Manafort seeks to pledge to secure his $10 million bail, according to the filing. He “provided the bank with doctored profit-and-loss statements’’ from his company for 2015 and 2016, while “overstating its income by millions of dollars,’’ prosecutors said.
Manafort previously denied any wrongdoing regarding his mortgages.
Former Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg will be interviewed by the special counsel Thursday, a person familiar with the matter said.
Nunberg will meet with a member of Mueller’s team in Washington.
Nunberg was fired from Trump’s campaign in August 2015 after Business Insider published a story about his racially charged Facebook posts. In July 2016, Trump sued him for violating a confidentiality agreement. The suit was dropped in August 2016.
Van der Zwaan, a 33-year-old Dutch citizen, acknowledged in federal court in Washington that he lied to prosecutors about a September 2016 conversation with Gates over work they did together for a Ukrainian political party aligned with Russia. He also admitted that he deleted records of e-mail exchanges that prosecutors had sought. He faces up to five years in prison but said in court that he expected to serve six months or less.
