Paul Manafort — along with his business partner Rick Gates — pleaded “not guilty” after being hit with a 12-count indictment that charged them with conspiring against the U.S.A.
The former Trump campaign manager, who was replaced by Kellyanne Conway early in the 2012 presidential campaign, appeared before the federal court in Washington, D.C.
Mueller made headlines as the first arrest in former FBI head Robert Mueller’s investigation into charges of collusion between the Russian government and the Donald Trump presidential campaign.
Manafort, however, isn’t facing any charges about colluding with the Russian government — as Trump boasted in a Twitter posting where the President declared that the charges were from “years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign.”
Trump added: “…Also, there is NO COLLUSION!”
Instead, Manafort and Gates are accused of hiding tens of millions of dollars from the government while doing secret work for the Ukrainian government.
The charges also come just as The National ENQUIRER exposed Manafort’s bitter and dirty divorce battle — with his own daughter caught on cell-phone texts blasting his young mistress!
Both men surrendered their passports, and are expected to be given home confinement.
