All of Robert Mueller’s indictments and plea deals in the Russia investigation so far
That we know of.
By
Andrew Prokopandrew@vox.com
Jun 8, 2018
Alex Wong/Getty
According to
a recent poll, most Americans don’t think special counsel
Robert Mueller’sinvestigation has uncovered any crimes.
But the truth is that Mueller’s team has either indicted or gotten guilty pleas from 20 people and three companies — that we know of.
That group is composed of four former Trump advisers, 14 Russian nationals, three Russian companies, one California man, and one London-based lawyer. Five of these people (including three former Trump aides) have already pleaded guilty.
None of the charges against Americans or Trump advisers so far have directly alleged that they worked with Russia to interfere with the campaign.
Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos have pleaded guilty to making false statements about their contacts with Russians to investigators. Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were hit with tax, money laundering and other charges that relate to their work for the government of Ukraine and a Russia-affiliated Ukrainian political party.
Other reported focuses of Mueller’s investigation — such as the
hacking and leaking of prominent Democrats’ emails and potential
obstruction of justice by the Trump administration — have not resulted in any indictments yet.
Also, it’s possible that there are more charges we don’t know about — Papadopoulos’s arrest last July was kept secret for three months after it happened. Here, though, are the indictments and plea deals that are public.
The full list of known indictments and plea deals in Mueller’s probe:
1) George Papadopoulos, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser,
pleaded guiltyin October to making false statements to the FBI.
2) Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser,
pleaded guilty in December to making false statements to the FBI.
3) Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair,
was indicted in October in Washington, DC on charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and false statements — all related to his work for Ukrainian politicians before he joined the Trump campaign. He’s pleaded not guilty on all counts. Then, in February, Mueller filed a
new case against him in Virginia, with tax, financial, and bank fraud charges.
4) Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and Manafort’s longtime junior business partner, was indicted on similar charges to Manafort. But in February he agreed to a
plea deal with Mueller’s team, pleading guilty to just one false statements charge and
one conspiracy charge.
5-20) 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies were indicted on conspiracy charges, with some also being accused of identity theft. The charges related to a Russian propaganda effort designed to interfere with the 2016 campaign. The companies involved are the
Internet Research Agency, often described as a “Russian troll farm,” and two other companies that helped finance it. The Russian nationals indicted include 12 of the agency’s employees and its alleged financier, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
21) Richard Pinedo: This California man
pleaded guilty to an identity theft charge in connection with the Russian indictments, and has agreed to cooperate with Mueller.
22) Alex van der Zwaan: This London lawyer
pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Rick Gates and another unnamed person based in Ukraine.
23) Konstantin Kilimnik: This longtime business associate of Manafort and Gates, who’s currently based in Russia,
was chargedalongside Manafort with attempting to obstruct justice by tampering with witnesses in Manafort’s pending case this year.
Two ex-Trump advisers lied to the FBI about their contacts with Russians
Michael Flynn Mario Tama/Getty
So far, no Trump associates have been specifically charged with any crimes relating to helping Russia interfere with the 2016 election.
The closest we’ve come to that is that both Papadopoulos and Flynn both now admit that they lied to the FBI about their contacts with people connected to the Russian government. (Papadopoulos’s contacts took place before the election, and Flynn’s after it.)
Papadopoulos: Back in April 2016, Papadopoulos
got a tip from a foreign professor he understood to have Russian government connections that the Russians had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.” He then proceeded to have extensive contacts with the professor and a Russian woman, during which he tried to plan a Trump campaign trip to Russia.
But when the FBI interviewed Papadopoulos about all this in January 2017, he repeatedly lied about what happened, he now admits. So he was arrested in July, and later agreed to plead guilty to a false statements charge and start cooperating with Mueller’s probe.
Flynn: In December 2016, during the transition, Flynn spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about sanctions that President Barack Obama had just placed on Russia, and about a planned United Nations Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements.
But when FBI agents interviewed him about all this in January 2017, Flynn lied to them about what his talks with Kislyak entailed, he now admits. In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to a false statements charge and began cooperating with Mueller’s investigation.