In a move that shows that just because there’s already an indictment doesn’t mean the case is complete, Robert Mueller has filed additional charges against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates.
The new charging document filed in federal court in Washington could be a superseding indictment, adding new charges or even new defendants to the charges filed last October, accusing Manafort and Gates of money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents for their work related to Ukraine, among other crimes.
The details of these new charges are hidden, as they were filed under seal. However, they are almost certainly related to Gates’ apparent decision to cooperate with Mueller and the guilty plea on Tuesday by attorney Alex Van der Zwaan, which is likely related to Manafort and Gates’ activities in Ukraine.
But just because the charges are under seal doesn’t mean there’s not good reason for speculation.
Last week, prosecutors told the court they'd received new evidence that Manafort took part in "a series of bank frauds and bank fraud conspiracies" in connection with a loan he sought in 2016. Mueller's team said Manafort obtained the loan using “doctored profit and loss statements” that overstated "by millions of dollars" the income of his consulting business.
It wasn’t clear when the information appeared that Mueller intended to indict Manafort on charges related to this fraud. Now it seems clear.
All of this seems designed as part of the Put More Pressure On Manafort program, one that could lead to him taking a seat in Mueller’s “queen for a day” chair to tell all that he knows. But if he’s going to talk, he’d better start talking … and it’d better be a good story. Because the pace of activity in this investigation appears to be speeding up. Bigly.