INTELLIGENCE/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA: “With Monday’s [10-30-17] unsealing of a 12-count indictment and a guilty plea, Special Counsel Robert Mueller signaled that his probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has taken him far beyond the campaign, former prosecutors and legal experts said.
The sweep of the tax and money-laundering charges against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Richard Gates surprised some experts, who had been following the investigation of Mr. Manafort in the media.
‘There’s a ton that we don’t know,’ said Paul Fishman, who was U.S. attorney in New Jersey from 2009 until this year.
Prosecutors alleged Mr. Manafort laundered $18 million he received for political consulting work for Ukrainian politicians to avoid reporting it to U.S. tax authorities. He spent more than $12 million in untaxed income on home improvements, antique rugs, luxury clothing, cars and landscaping from 2008 to 2014, according to the indictment.
The guilty plea by George Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign-policy adviser to President Donald Trump during the campaign, may prove to be more significant than the indictment against Messrs. Manafort and Gates, revealing that Mr. Papadopoulos had been cooperating with federal authorities for months.”
-Joe Palazzolo and Jacob Gershman, “Mueller’s Moves Signal Broad Scope,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 30, 2017 10:37pm