Trump's ex-campaign chief Manafort charged in Russia probe

Paul Manafort, who served as Donald Trump's campaign chairman, surrendered on Monday to federal authorities after being indicted in connection with the special counsel's investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Manafort and a former business associate, Rick Gates, face conspiracy and 11 other charges, Efe reports.

Trump, for his part, weighed in on the case against his former campaign chairman, noting that the alleged crimes occurred long before Manafort worked for him.

"Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" Trump said in a Twitter post. "...Also, there is NO COLLUSION!"

The New York Times was the first media outlet to report that arrest warrants had been issued for Manafort and Gates.

The 68-year-old Manafort left his house in the Washington suburbs and arrived a short time later at FBI headquarters, where he turned himself in.

On Friday, media reports said that a grand jury in Washington had issued indictments in the probe being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into alleged Russian interference in last year's presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow and Trump campaign officials.

There was speculation over the weekend over who might be charged by Mueller, who was appointed to his post in May.

Investigators had been targeting Manafort, who worked as a lobbyist, for months and the FBI searched his house in July.

Manafort once worked for a Russian businessman who had links to the Kremlin and was involved in questionable business deals with pro-Russian elements in Ukraine.

Over the weekend, Trump once again called Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt" and demanded that "something" be done about alleged irregularities that his former Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, committed during the 2016 election.

"Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?)" Trump tweeted.

On Monday, the president continued attacking his political opponents.

"Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS. The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK'd!" Trump tweeted.

The so-called "Trump dossier," prepared by a former British spy who runs a firm called Fusion GPS, details alleged contacts between Trump's team and the Kremlin, Russian spying on Trump and the possibility that that information could be used to blackmail him during his presidency.

The dossier cites sources that say that members of Trump's team met with representatives of the Russian government.

Those sources also say that they have proof that Trump met with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel where Russian intelligence operatives had allegedly installed cameras and microphones.

Trump has categorically denied the dossier's content.

Media reports said last week that an unidentified Republican who opposed Trump's bid for the party's nomination initially provided the funding for the dossier, but that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) later paid Fusion GPS for damaging information on the now-president.

Congressional investigators are trying to determine the role that Fusion GPS played in the campaign and who paid the firm.

--IANS

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