A federal grand jury has approved the first charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russ🌠ian meddling in the presidential campaign, it was reported Friday night.
The indictment is sealed, but whoever has been charged will be taken𝓀 into custody as soon as Monday, , citing sources briefed on the matter.
Rumors of some grand jury development had been stoked earlier Friday, after top lawyers involved in Mueller’s probe — including veteran prosecutor Andrew Weissmann — were seen entering the Washington federal courtroom where꧅ the panel meets.
The investigation is probing possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, along with possible obstruction of justice by President Trump, who fired FBI 🔜Director James Comey as the collusion probe 🐓was ramping up.
Mueller took over the probe in May, and has been scrutinizing several of 🅠Trump’s closest campaign associates, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former national secur👍ity adviser Michael Flynn.
Both Manafort and Flynn have been the subject of scrutiny over their finances and contacts with Russian offꦐicials.
By July, it༺ was reported that Mueller was working with New York Attorney General Eric 💖Schneiderman and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. in probing Manafort’s finances for evidence of possible money laundering.
M꧟anafort has borrowed and spent tens of millions of dollars on real estate over the past decade.
He lost his job running Trump’s campaign in August 2016, after reports that he allegedly to𝓰ok hundreds of thousands of dollars in u🦄nder-the-table payments for consulting with pro-Kremlin political organizations in Ukraine.
In March, may have gone to great lengths to hide th🧔is income.
An invoice cited by the Times appeared to show he funneled $750,000 in Ukrainian payments into an offshore accou﷽nt.
Manafort also allegedly failed to register as a fo⛄reign agent with the Justice Department in 2012 through 2014, as his lobbying firm accepted $17.1 million in Ukrainian payments.
Closer to home, property recꦺords show Manafort repeatedly used shell companies to purchase real estate, including in New York, in all-cash deals, afterwards transferring the properties into his own name and taking out sizeable mortgages against them — a typical money-launder scheme, according to investigations by WNYC and others.
In late July, the FBI cond🦋ucted a predawn, records-seizing raid on Manafort’s home in Alexandജria, Va.
Gun-wielding FBI agents picked his locks ꦏand snuck into the home to gather evidence as he and his wife slept upstairs.
Last monthꦍ, told Manafort that they planned to indict him.
Manafortꦰ has repeatedly insisted he💎 has committed no crime.
Mueller’s probe has also conducted extensive interviews with top Trump aide and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, former White House cꩲhief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House spokesman Sean Spicer.
Trump has condemned Mueller’s probe as a politic🍸ally motivated “witch hun𝓀t.”