text: U.S. v. Michael Cohen (1:18-cr-850, Southern District of New York) 
   
   Michael Cohen of New York, New York, pleaded guilty on Nov. 29, 2018, to making false statements to the U.S. Congress in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1001 (a)(2). Cohen was sentenced on December 12, 2018, to serve two months in prison and pay a $50,000 fine. 
   
   Plea Agreement 
   
   Criminal Information 
   
   U.S. v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr. (1:17-cr-201, District of Columbia) 
   
   Paul J. Manafort, Jr., of Alexandria, Va., pleaded guilty on September 14, 2018, to a superseding criminal information filed today in the District of Columbia, which includes conspiracy against the United States (conspiracy to commit money laundering, tax fraud, failing to file Foreign Bank Account Reports and Violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and lying and misrepresenting to the Department of Justice) and conspiracy to obstruct justice (witness tampering). 
   
   Superseding Criminal Information 
   
   Exhibits 
   
   Plea Agreement 
   
   Statement of the Offense 
   
   U.S. v. Viktor Borisovich Netyksho, et al (1:18-cr-215, District of Columbia) 
   
   A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment on July 13, 2018, against 12 Russian nationals for their alleged roles in computer hacking conspiracies aimed at interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections. The indictment charges 11 of the defendants with conspiracy to commit computer crimes, eight counts of aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to launder money. Two defendants are charged with a separate conspiracy to commit computer crimes. 
   
   Indictment 
   
   U.S. v. Konstantin Kilimnik (1:17-cr-201, District of Columbia) 
   
   A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a third superseding indictment on June 8, 2018, against Konstantin Kilimnik, of Moscow, Russia. Kilimnik is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice. 
   
   Third Superseding Indictment 
   
   U.S. v. Richard W. Gates III (1:17-cr-201, District of Columbia) 
   
   Richard W. Gates III of Richmond, Va., pleaded guilty on Feb. 23, 2018, to a superseding criminal information that includes: count one of the indictment, which charges conspiracy against the United States, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 371 (which includes conspiracy to violate 26 U.S.C. 7206(1), 31 U.S.C. 5312 and 5322(b), and 22 U.S.C. 612, 618(a)(1), and 618(a)(2)), and a charge of making false statements to the Special Counsel’s Office and FBI agents, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1001. 
   
   Superseding Criminal Information 
   
   Plea Agreement 
   
   Statement of the Offense 
   
   U.S. v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., and Richard W. Gates III (1:18-cr-83, Eastern District of Virginia) 
   
   Paul J. Manafort, Jr., of Alexandria, Va., and Richard W. Gates III, of Richmond, Va., were indicted by a federal grand jury on Feb. 22, 2018, in the Eastern District of Virginia. The indictment contains 32 counts: 16 counts related to false individual income tax returns, seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, five counts of bank fraud conspiracy, and four counts of bank fraud. On March 1, 2018, the court granted a motion to dismiss without prejudice the charges against Gates, following his guilty plea in a related case in the District of Columbia (1:17-cr-201). On Aug. 21, 2018, a federal jury found Manafort guilty on eight counts: counts 1-5, subscribing to a false individual income tax return for tax years 2010-2014; count 12, failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts for year 2012; count 25, bank fraud; and count 27, bank fraud. The court declared a mistrial on 10 counts (counts 11, 13-14, 24, 26, 28-32). As part of his plea agreement on Sept. 14, 2018, Manafort admitted his guilt of the remaining counts against him in this case. 
   
   Indictment 
   
   U.S. v. Alex van der Zwaan (1:18-cr-31, District of Columbia) 
   
   Alex van der Zwaan, of London, pleaded guilty on Feb. 20, 2018, to making false statements to FBI agents, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1001. Van der Zwaan was sentenced on April 3, 2018, to serve 30 days in prison and pay a $20,000 fine. 
   
   Criminal Information 
   
   Plea Agreement 
   
   Statement of the Offense 
   
   U.S. v. Internet Research Agency, et al (1:18-cr-32, District of Columbia) 
   
   A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment on Feb. 16, 2018, against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities accused of violating U.S. criminal laws in order to interfere with U.S. elections and political processes. The indictment charges all of the defendants with conspiracy to defraud the United States, three defendants with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and five defendants with aggravated identity theft. 
   
   Indictment 
   
   U.S. v. Richard Pinedo, et al (1:18-cr-24, District of Columbia) 
   
   Richard Pinedo, of Santa Paula, Calif., pleaded guilty on Feb. 12, 2018, to identity fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1028. On Oct. 10, 2018, Pinedo was sentenced to serve six months in prison, followed by six months of home confinement, and ordered to complete 100 hours of community service. 
   
   Criminal Information 
   
   Plea Agreement 
   
   Statement of Offense 
   
   U.S. v. Michael T. Flynn (1:17-cr-232, District of Columbia) 
   
   Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn (Ret.), of Alexandria, Va., pleaded guilty on Dec. 1, 2017, to making false statements to FBI agents, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1001. 
   
   Criminal Information 
   
   Plea Agreement 
   
   Statement of the Offense 
   
   U.S. v. George Papadopoulos (1:17-cr-182, District of Columbia) 
   
   George Papadopoulos, of Chicago, Illinois, pleaded guilty on Oct. 5, 2017, to making false statements to FBI agents, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1001. The case was unsealed on Oct. 30, 2017. On Sept. 7, 2018, Papadopoulos was sentenced to serve 14 days in prison, pay a $9,500 fine, and complete 200 hours of community service. 
   
   Criminal Information 
   
   Plea Agreement 
   
   Statement of the Offense ||||| 01:34 
   
   White House chief of staff John Kelly waded into the debate over Confederate statues late Monday, stating in an interview that the civil war was prompted by an inability to compromise, while suggesting both sides acted in “good faith”. 
   
   Speaking with Fox News in a rare interview, Kelly described Confederate general Robert E Lee as “an honorable man” while discussing the recent push to remove monuments and symbols memorializing the pro-slavery Confederacy. 
   
   “There are certain things in history that were good, and other things that were not so good,” Kelly told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. 
   
   Kelly went on to say that Lee, the general of the Confederate army during the American civil war, “was a man that gave up his country to fight for his state”. 
   
   
   
   “It was always loyalty to state first back in those days,” said Kelly, while adding: 
   
   But the lack of an ability to compromise led to the civil war. And men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscience had to make their stand.” 
   
   Kelly’s comments echoed those made by Donald Trump in the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia in August, when a white supremacist drove his car into counter protesters, leaving one woman dead and several others injured. 
   
   The president sparked controversy in the days that followed by blaming violence “on both sides”, appearing to put neo-Nazis and white supremacists on equal footing with those demonstrating against them. ||||| George Papadopolous, a former foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, admitted to lying to the FBI in January, before Robert Mueller took over the probe. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Former Trump campaign adviser pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia contacts Papadopoulos said he had been told as early as April 2016 that Russia had 'thousands of emails' related to Hillary Clinton. 
   
   A foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump’s campaign secretly pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI and said he had been told as early as April 2016 that Russia had "thousands of emails" related to Democrat Hillary Clinton, court records made public on Monday show. 
   
   George Papadopoulos, 30, entered the guilty plea in a closed courtroom in Washington on Oct. 5, special counsel Robert Mueller’s office announced. Papadopoulos is cooperating with Mueller’s prosecution team, according to a plea agreement released Monday. 
   
   Story Continued Below 
   
   The court records offer the clearest evidence yet that a Trump-connected individual knew Russia had obtained thousands of emails related to Clinton, months before the leaks began of exchanges hacked from Democrats' email accounts. Papadopoulos' agreement was also the first guilty plea to be made public in Mueller's long-running probe of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. 
   
   The documents became public on the same day an indictment was unsealed against Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and adviser Rick Gates for money laundering and other charges. But unlike the 12 counts against that duo, the single felony count against Papadopoulos directly relates to 2016 presidential campaign activity. 
   
   An attorney for Papadopoulos, Thomas Breen, declined to comment. “We will have the opportunity to comment on George’s involvement when called upon by the Court at a later date. We look forward to presenting all the facts that led to the events that resulted in this charge," Breen said. 
   
   White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sought to distance the president from Papadopoulos on Monday, referring to him as a "volunteer" whose role with the Trump campaign had been "extremely limited." At no point was Papadopoulos acting in an official capacity for the campaign, Sanders said, saying he was part of an advisory committee that met only once. 
   
   "We've been saying from day one there's been no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion and nothing in the indictment today changes that at all," Sanders said. "I'm not here to speak on behalf of the, you know, thousands of people who may have volunteered on the campaign." 
   
   The 30-year-old was photographed at a meeting with Trump, and the president listed him among his advisers during a 2016 meeting with The Washington Post's editorial board, characterizing him as an "excellent guy." 
   
   In the agreement, Papadopoulos admitted to lying to the FBI in an initial interview in January — shortly after Trump's inauguration and months before Mueller took over the probe — about contacts with an overseas professor with Russian government contacts and with a representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
   
   Papadopoulos acknowledged in the initial interview that the professor claimed the Russian government had "dirt" on Democratic presidential candidate Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." However, Papadopoulos admitted in his plea that he had falsely told the FBI the contacts took place a year or so before he joined the Trump campaign. 
   
   It is unclear exactly which emails Papadopoulos believed Russia had or how they had obtained them. But in July 2016, the website Wikileaks published emails hacked from the accounts of the Democratic National Committee. Trump, then the Republican nominee, subsequently called on Russia to hack and release Clinton's own emails from her time as secretary of state. 
   
   Later in the campaign, hacked emails from Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, were also made public. The intelligence community has said the hacks appeared to be part of a wide-ranging effort by Moscow to meddle in the 2016 election and to hurt Clinton. Mueller's investigation includes whether any Trump campaign aides helped Russia with that effort. 
   
   A statement of facts Papadopoulos agreed to as part of the plea also shows he repeatedly discussed his Russia-related contacts with top campaign officials, including a potential meeting between the then-Republican candidate and Russian President Vladimir Putin. 
   
   The encounter never took place, but the court filing notes that an unnamed campaign "supervisor" approved a trip to Moscow by Papadopoulos and another foreign policy adviser. 
   
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   Previous reports said then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski approved a trip to Russia by Trump adviser Carter Page. Lewandowski and Page were not accused of any crime in the cases unsealed Monday. 
   
   J.D. Gordon, a former Defense Department spokesman who acted as a national security adviser to the Trump campaign along with Jeff Sessions, now Trump's attorney general, said Papadopoulos acted outside the campaign's chain of command. 
   
   “I was surprised to learn today what George Papadopoulos was up to during the campaign. He obviously went to great lengths to go around me and Senator Sessions. Presidential campaigns are like that," Gordon said. "It’s very hard to know what every single person is doing, especially since some folks deliberately go around the chain of command or circumvent it. George Papadopoulos obviously represents an extreme case.” 
   
   Papadopoulos’ stint on the Trump campaign followed a brief stint advising the campaign of Ben Carson, who dropped out of the race after Trump gained steam. 
   
   Carson’s campaign manager Barry Bennett — who went on to join Trump’s campaign after Carson dropped out — said he never interacted with Papadopoulos after leaving Carson’s camp. 
   
   “He came on in December and left after Iowa, so he was on 6 weeks or so. He was 28 then. Very junior. Have no idea how he got on Trump list,” Bennett said in an email. “Did not and would not have suggested it. 
   
   The court document also appears to reference Manafort. In May 2016, Papadopoulos sent an email to a "high-ranking campaign official" saying, "Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss." The official forwarded the note to another campaign aide and said: "Let[']s discuss. We need someone to communicate that OT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal." 
   
   In August, the Washington Post reported that Manafort had received a similar email from Papadopoulos and forwarded it to Gates, saying, "We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips." 
   
   Shortly after Papadopoulos’ second round of questioning by the FBI in February, he deactivated his Facebook account, ceased using his cell phone number and switched to a new one, according to the factual statement he admitted to in his guilty plea. 
   
   The former campaign adviser was arrested July 27 at Dulles airport outside Washington as he arrived on a flight from Munich, court records show. The day after Papadopoulos' arrest, he appeared in court in Alexandria, Va., and was released on his own recognizance after prosecutors did not seek his detention. 
   
   While the initial complaint in the case charged Papadopoulos with both making false statements and obstruction of justice, that charge was dropped when the plea deal was filed early last month. 
   
   The felony false statements charge carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison, but sentences are typically much shorter than that, especially when a defendant pleads guilty and cooperates with prosecutors. 
   
   Papadopoulos' guilty plea was unsealed Monday morning just as Trump took to Twitter to downplay the significance of the Manafort and Gates charges and to note that they did not appear to relate to the campaign. 
   
   "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 asked, adding: "Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" 
   
   The president did not immediately address the Papadopoulos plea, which has a much stronger nexus to the 2016 Trump campaign. 
   
   Kyle Cheney, Darren Samuelsohn, Josh Meyer and Josh Dawsey contributed to this report. 
   
   ||||| LinkedIn 
   
   An early foreign-policy adviser and aide to President Donald Trump's campaign team secretly pleaded guilty earlier this month to making false statements to the FBI about the nature and extent of his contacts with foreign nationals who he knew had ties to senior Russian government officials. 
   
   George Papadopoulos, 30, was a foreign-policy adviser to Trump's campaign in early 2016. He sent at least six emails to top Trump advisers during the campaign offering to set up meetings with Russian officials, The Washington Post reported in August. The first of those emails was sent in March 2016 with the subject line "Meeting with Russian Leadership - Including Putin." 
   
   The newly unsealed charge, filed October 3 by the special counsel Robert Mueller's office, said that on January 27 Papadopoulos lied to FBI agents about "the timing, extent, and nature of his relationships and interactions with certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials." 
   
   Papadopoulos told the FBI that his outreach to the Russia-linked foreign nationals occurred before he joined the campaign, the FBI document said. But his first interaction with an "overseas professor" with ties to high-level Russian officials occurred on March 14, 2016, weeks after he joined the campaign. That professor told Papadopoulos just over a month later that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton that came in the form of "thousands of emails," according to the FBI document. 
   
   Papadopoulos further told the FBI that he met with a Russian woman who claimed to be a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin — Papadopoulos described her as Putin's "niece" in one email — before he joined the campaign, but he actually met her on March 24, according to the special counsel's office. 
   
   "He believed she had connections to Russian government officials; and he sought to use her Russian connections over a period of months in an effort to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian government officials," the filing says. 
   
   linkedin/gpapadopoulos7 
   
   The professor introduced Papadopoulos via email to a person in Moscow with ties to Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 18, according to the filing. They had multiple conversations over the next few weeks to lay the groundwork for a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials. 
   
   Papadopoulos emailed then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in April saying he had received "a lot of calls over the past month" about how "Putin wants to host the Trump team when the time is right," according to The Post. He emailed Lewandowski and another campaign adviser, Sam Clovis, on May 4 to ask again about setting up a meeting. 
   
   "There are legal issues we need to mitigate, meeting with foreign officials as a private citizen," Clovis replied. 
   
   Two months later, on July 14, 2016, Papadopoulos emailed one of the foreign contacts and indicated a meeting had "been approved from our side." 
   
   The meeting, Papadopoulos wrote, would be "for August or September in the UK (London) with me and my national chairman, and maybe one other foreign policy adviser and you, members of president putin's office and the mfa to hold a day of consultations and to meet one another." 
   
   Papadopoulos was arrested on July 27 of this year upon his arrival to Dulles airport in Washington, DC, and met with government agents several times thereafter. He pleaded guilty on October 5 and now appears to be a cooperating witness in Mueller's investigation. 
   
   "The Papodopolous guilty plea seems very significant," said William Yeomans, a former deputy assistant attorney general who spent 26 years at the Justice Department. 
   
   "As I understand it, he lied about his contact — while he was with the campaign — with a professor with ties to the Russian government. That brings campaign collusion into play. It's early. There will undoubtedly be more to come." 
   
   Read the full statement of the offense against Papadopoulos below: ||||| An advisor to President Donald Trump's campaign pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to lying to FBI agents about when he met with Russian nationals to get "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, according to court filings released Monday. 
   
   The documents revealed that George Papadopoulos was arrested on July 27 upon arrival at Dulles International Airport from an undisclosed location. 
   
   According to the documents, shortly after Papadopoulos learned he would become a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, he met in March 2016 with a Russian professor who claimed to have "dirt" on Clinton. Investigators say Papadopoulos had told them he met with the professor before he learned of his role in the campaign. 
   
   Ten days later, Papadopoulos met with a female Russian national who was introduced to him as a niece of Russian President Vladimir Putin with ties to senior Kremlin officials, investigators said. 
   
   Papadopoulos later learned, however, that the woman was in fact not related to Putin. 
   
   He told investigators that his correspondence with the woman was superficial when in fact the purpose of the contacts was to set up a meeting between Russian leaders and the Trump campaign, the court filings said. 
   
   The filings say Papadopoulos is cooperating with the U.S. government in its ongoing investigation of Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election. 
   
   In a Monday afternoon press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Papadopoulos had an "extremely limited" role in the 2016 campaign. She said he was in a "volunteer position" and had not done work in an "official capacity on behalf of the campaign." 
   
   But investigators said a campaign supervisor had urged Papadopoulos to try to visit Russia for an off-the record meeting with officials. 
   
   Papadopoulos' attorneys declined to comment on the case. 
   
   "We will have the opportunity to comment on George's involvement when called upon by the Court at a later date," his legal representatives said. "We look forward to telling all of the details of George's story at that time."
target: – The unsealed indictment against Paul Manafort made big headlines on Monday, but another development in the Robert Mueller investigation might have more troubling implications for President Trump. That's because while the Manafort charges have no connection to the Trump campaign, this one does, notes Politico. Former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, 30, has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his outreach to a Russian national who promised "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, reports CNBC. Papadopoulos initially told the FBI that this contact was a "nothing," but he has since acknowledged that he knew the professor had "substantial connections to Russian government officials," per the New York Times. The case is outlined in court documents here. Papadopoulos also told the FBI that his contact with the professor took place before he joined the Trump campaign, when, in fact, Papadopoulos met with the professor days after becoming an adviser, reports the Guardian. The Times calls his guilty plea, which occurred earlier this month, "the most explicit evidence connecting the Trump campaign to the Russian government's meddling in last year's election." Similarly, Papadopoulos met with a woman he believed to be related to Vladimir Putin after joining the campaign, even though he told the FBI the contact occurred beforehand, reports Business Insider. "He believed she had connections to Russian government officials; and he sought to use her Russian connections over a period of months in an effort to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian government officials," per the court filing.