A few hours after special counsel Robert Mueller handed down indictments against President Donald Trump‘s former campaign manager and his associate, the White House will officially respond.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will take questions from reporters in a daily White House press briefing Monday. The briefing is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Eastern and a live stream can be viewed at the top of the page.
On Monday morning, Mueller and the Department of Justice announced that 12 charges had been filed against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.
Manafort, 68, of Alexandria, Virginia, was indicted on 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, the special counsel’s office said in a press release. Gates, 45, of Richmond, Virginia, faces the same charges.
“The case was unsealed on Oct. 30, 2017, after the defendants were permitted to surrender themselves to the custody of the FBI,” peter Carr, a spokesperson for Mueller’s office, said in the press release.
For decades, Manafort served as a lobbyist, consultant and lawyer and joined Trump’s presidential campaign in March 2016, serving as campaign manager from March 2016 until August 2016. He often lobbied on behalf of former Ukraine President Victor Yanukovych and many others before working for Trump’s campaign. Numerous of his business dealings had been closely examined, and his home was raided last month. It’s been suspected he’s taken out several home equity loans over the years and was directly paid by a foreign entity to lobby on their behalf.
Gates has worked for Manafort since the mid-2000s and served as a deputy to him when Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager. He attended multiple meetings at the Whtie House with Trump and other advisers and once created a pro-Trump group with other campaign aides.
Manafort and his attorneys have not commented, and he’s expected to be taken to federal district court in Washington D.C. later Monday for his first appearance.