President Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Manafort’s former business associate Rick Gates were been indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller and told to surrender to federal authorities on Monday, multiple media outlets have reported.
Manafort has been at the center of Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow during the 2016 election. Legal experts speculated over the weekend, after news of the sealed indictments broke on Friday, that Mueller would arrest Manafort in an effort to get him to “flip” against Trump.
The FBI conducted a predawn July raid on Manafort’s home. Manafort was told at the time that he would be indicted, according to his longtime friend Roger Stone. Investigators were looking for tax documents and foreign banking records, documents typically sought when investigating violations of Bank Secrecy Act.
The Bank Secrecy Act was passed “to deter and detect money laundering, terrorist financing, and other criminal acts and the misuse of our nation’s financial institutions,” according to the Treasury Department.
Related:
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- Report: FBI Agents Entered Paul Manafort’s Home With Guns Drawn
- Mueller Reportedly Plans To Indict Manafort
- Feds Wiretapped Paul Manafort Before And After The Election