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Indictments

Dozens charged in Russian meddling probe

By Masood Farivar | VOA News

Since his appointment in May 2017, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has brought charges against more than 30 individuals as part of his wide-ranging investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and related matters. The indictments have led to eight guilty pleas and one conviction by former associates and campaign aides of President Donald Trump. The majority of charges were brought against Russian operatives who remain at large.

Indicted

Guccifer 2.0

GRU

Yanukovych

KREMLIN

Gates

Kislyak

Flynn

Mifsud

Papadopoulos

National #1

National #2

Cohen

Assistant spokesman

IRA

Pinedo

Indicted

Guccifer 2.0

Military intelligence

van der Zwaan

Manafort

Yanukovych

KREMLIN

Gates

Kislyak

Flynn

Mifsud

Papadopoulos

National #1

National #2

Cohen

Assistant spokesman

IRA

Troll farm

Pinedo

Campaign / Administration

Indicted

Guccifer 2.0

Victor Yanukovych

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak

Joseph Mifsud

Assistant to Putin spokesman

Russian national #1

Russian national #2

KREMLIN

GRU

Military intelligence

IRA

Russian troll farm

Lineup of players charged in the investigation

Many of the guilty pleas obtained by the special counsel stem from witnesses lying to the federal investigators during the course of the probe. Other charges related to campaign finance violations, bank fraud, and conspiracy.

Convicted [X]

Paul Manafort (Virginia court)

Former Trump campaign chairman

Aug. 22, 2018: Convicted of eight counts of financial crimes. Jury undecided on 10 charges.

Special counsel Robert Mueller brought a second indictment against Manafort, also related to his Ukraine work, in the Eastern District of Virginia in February. The new charges alleged that Manafort had hidden from U.S. authorities tens of millions of dollars he earned in Ukraine, and fraudulently obtained bank loans. The case was tried in Virginia because some of the alleged activities took place in that state. Read more…

Pleaded guilty [X]

George Papadopoulos

Former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign

Oct. 5, 2017: Pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Sept. 7, 2018: Sentenced to two weeks in prison.

Papadopoulos joined the Trump campaign as a foreign policy adviser in March 2016. Prosecutors say he made at least six attempts to set up a meeting between the campaign and Russian officials. In January 2017, while being interviewed by FBI agents, he lied about his meeting with Kremlin-connected academic Joseph Mifsud, who had told him Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." Read more…

Pleaded guilty [X]

Michael Flynn

Former National Security Advisor

Dec. 1, 2017: Pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents.

Flynn served as Trump's national security advisor for just 24 days before he was fired for lying to administration officials about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia's ambassador to Washington. The former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency later pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about those contacts, becoming the first former Trump aide to enter a guilty plea and cooperate with Mueller's investigation. Read more…

Pleaded guilty [X]

Rick Gates

Former Manafort business associate and former Trump campaign deputy chairman

Feb. 23, 2018: Pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement and one count of conspiracy.

A longtime Manafort business associate in Ukraine, Gates followed Manafort into the Trump campaign as deputy chairman. He stayed on even after Manafort resigned and later served as deputy chairman of the Trump Inaugural Committee. Gates was named a co-defendant in the first indictment against Manafort but pleaded guilty and became a cooperating witness after special counsel Robert Mueller III announced additional charges in Virginia against the two former business partners. Read more…

Pleaded guilty [X]

Paul Manafort (DC court)

Former Trump campaign chairman

Sept. 14, 2018: Pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice

The veteran Republican consultant joined the Trump campaign in March 2016. He was named campaign chairman in June and served in that role until August, when he abruptly resigned. The resignation came after reports Manafort earned millions of dollars lobbying for pro-Moscow Ukrainian politicians and hid his work from U.S. authorities. The charges against Manafort related to his Ukraine lobbying. In September 2018, Manafort pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and agreed to cooperate with Mueller. But the special prosecutor announced in November that Manafort had breached his plea agreement by "repeatedly lying" to investigators. Read more…

Pleaded guilty [X]

Michael Cohen

Former Trump lawyer and "fixer"

Nov. 29, 2018: Pleaded guilty to making false statements to Congress. August 22, 2018: Pleaded guilty in Manhattan to eight criminal counts of tax fraud, false statements to a bank and campaign finance violations tied to his work for Trump. Dec. 12, 2018: Sentenced to three years in prison.

During the 2016 campaign, Cohen arranged for hush money payments to two women — pornographic actress Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model — who alleged sexual relations with Trump. By 2018, as prosecutors zeroed in on Trump's finances, Cohen turned on his former boss. In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including campaign finance violations in connection with the hush money. In November, he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate project Trump was pursusing during the campaign. Read more…

Pleaded guilty [X]

Richard Pinedo

California businessman

Feb. 12, 2018: Pleaded guilty to one count of identity fraud. October 10, 2018: sentenced to six months in prison.

Pinedo, a Californian, operated an online service called Auction Essistance that sold stolen bank accounts to customers seeking to circumvent PayPal's identity verification requirements. Russian trolls involved in the online influence operations during the 2016 election used the service, ensnaring Pinedo in the Mueller investigation. Read more…

Pleaded guilty [X]

Alex van der Zwaan

Dutch lawyer

Feb. 20, 2018: Pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents. April 3, 2018: Sentenced to 30 days in prison.

The London-based Dutch lawyer worked for Skadden Arps, the corporate law firm hired by Paul Manafort in 2011 to produce a report that aimed to exonerate the government of Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych of improperly prosecuting his predecessor. FBI agents examined the report as part of an investigation into Manafort's and Gates's ties to Russia. Van der Zwaan and Gates communicated about the report well into 2016, but Van der Zwaan lied about his contacts when asked by the FBI. Read more…

Pleaded guilty [X]

Sam Patten

Republican lobbyist

Aug. 31, 2018: Pleaded guilty to lobbying for a wealthy Ukrainian businessman and Ukrainian opposition party without registering with the U.S. Justice Department. As part of his guilty plea, Patten admitted to lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee during its investigation of Russian interference.

The Republican lobbyist and former head of the International Republican Institute in Moscow worked with Paul Manafort on political campaigns in Ukraine and later formed a consulting firm with Konstantin Kilimnik. He pleaded guilty to failing to lobbying for Ukraine without registering as a foreign agent and agreed to cooperate with Mueller's office. The case was referred by the special counsel to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

Indicted [X]

Roger Stone

Political consultant

Arrested on Jan. 25, 2019 following a grand jury indictment the day before.

Stone was indicted by a federal grand jury for lying to Congress about the release of hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 election and trying to prevent an associate from testifying truthfully about the affair. Prosecutors allege Stone was in close contact with the Trump campaign as he tried to find out the content and timing of the emails' release by WikiLeaks.

Indicted [X]

Konstantin Kilimnik

Former Manafort aide

June 8, 2018: Charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice as part of a third superseding indictment against Manafort.

A Russian national with suspected ties to Russia's military intelligence service, Kilimnik managed the Kiev office of Paul Manafort's political consultancy from 2006 to 2014. In June 2018, as Manafort headed for trial on federal charges, Kilimnik and Manafort were charged with attempting to tamper with the testimony of two potential witnesses. Prosecutors alleged that Manafort and Kilimnik tried to get the two unidentified witnesses to testify that Manafort had recruited former EU officials to lobby in Europe, not the United States, where Manafort had failed to register as a foreign lobbyist.

Indicted [X]

IRA et al

Russian troll farm

Indictment announced Feb. 16, 2018.

Special counsel Robert Mueller announced charges against three Russian entities and 13 Russian nationals in connection with Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The indictment said the Internet Research Organization, a St. Petersburg-based “troll farm” with ties to the Kremlin, orchestrated an audacious online influence operation to tip the election in favor of candidate Donald Trump. Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as “Putin’s chef,” was named as the financier of the operation. Read more…

Indicted [X]

GRU

Russian military intelligence service

July 13, 2018: Grand jury indicts 12 GRU agents for their alleged roles in 2016 Democratic computer hacks aimed at interfering in the U.S. election.

A federal jury in Washington, D.C., indicted 12 officers of Russia’s military intelligence service on charges of hacking Democratic computers during the 2016 election, marking the second indictment of Russia in connection with the election meddling. The indictment accused GRU operatives of hacking into the Hillary Clinton campaign, as well as the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment. Read more…