Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his business partner were slapped with a slew of new tax-fraud and bank-fraud charges by special counsel Robert Mueller on Thursday.
The 32-count indictment against Manafort and Rick Gates had been expected, according to The Washington Post.
Manafort was President Trump’s campaign chair from June to August 2016, and Gates also worked for the Trump campaign.
The filing came a week after federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson chided both parties for what she called “unacceptable delays” in the case — which still doesn’t have a trial date set, the paper reported.
The pair were slapped with a 12-count indictment last October in the first criminal charges in Mueller’s probe of Russian meddling in the US election.
The president has adamantly denied colluding with the Russians — 13 of whom were indicted on Friday in a sophisticated scheme to sabotage the election — calling the case “a hoax,” “fake news” and a “witch hunt.”
The initial indictment involved financial transactions covering work by Manafort and Gates for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party, and their failure to tell the feds they were working as lobbyists for a foreign government.
Three of Gates’ lawyers have asked to quit his legal team, and The Daily Beast reported he has fired the one remaining, ending speculation that he might have been close to a plea deal. The lawyer denies the report.