(CBS) — President Trump’s former 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, Manafort’s former business associate, have been indicted by a federal grand jury in the investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, according to unsealed documents released Monday.
Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty in federal court on Monday afternoon. They entered a packed courtroom for their arraignment, accompanied by U.S. marshals, but not restrained in any way, reports CBS News’ Paula Reid. Both men were asked to stand, state their names and pledge to tell the truth. Manafort’s lawyer spoke for him and entered a plea of not guilty on all counts. Gates had not retained a lawyer and was represented by a public defender who said Gates intends to hire private counsel soon and entered a plea of not guilty on all counts for Gates.
And another Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI. His statements had to do with the nature of his relationship with “certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials.”
The 31-page indictment against Manafort and Gates contains 12 counts including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the U.S., unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading statements surrounding the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.
After it became public that three of his former campaign aides were indicted, Mr. Trump claimed on Twitter Monday morning that there was “no collusion.”
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