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...she is a whistleblower who sent suspicious activity reports to BuzzFeed News after trying in vain to work through lawful channels. Her actions became the basis for the global FinCEN Files investigation. They also described her disclosures as “unparalleled in FinCEN’s history,” having sent approximately 50,000 documents, including 2,000 SARs, to Leopold over the course of a year and running searches within internal systems at his request.

Newly released documents reveal the FBI never had even preliminary evidence of a Trump campaign conspiracy with Russia, and instead used a rarely enforced statutory relic – the Foreign Agents Registration Act – as the legal rationale for opening investigations in 2016-2017 and surveilling Trump campaign aides. On July 31, 2016, the FBI opened a counterintelligence probe of the Trump campaign’s alleged ties with Russia – nicknamed Crossfire Hurricane – not under espionage conspiracy laws but under FARA. The next month the FBI opened four separate FARA cases into people associated with the Trump campaign. Two other FARA cases were...

Editors Note: Just The News officially launches later this month but we are offering you a sneak peek with this story of the sort of reporting we will be doing. One of Robert Mueller’s pivotal trial witnesses told the special prosecutor’s team in spring 2018 that a key piece of Russia collusion evidence found in Ukraine known as the “black ledger” was fabricated, according to interviews and testimony. The ledger document, which suddenly appeared in Kiev during the 2016 U.S. election, showed alleged cash payments from Russian-backed politicians in Ukraine to ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. “The ledger was completely...

President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, suggested as early as the summer of 2016 that Ukrainians might have been responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the presidential campaign rather than Russians, a key witness told federal investigators last year. Newly released documents show that Manafort’s protege, deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, told the FBI of Manafort’s theory during interviews conducted as part of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Gates told the FBI that Manafort had shared his theory of Ukrainian culpability with him and other campaign...

Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates testified in federal court Thursday against Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig about the ex-counsel's Ukraine-related work for Paul Manafort, Politico reported. Gates was a top lieutenant to Manafort, a former Trump campaign chairman, for approximately 10 years. During that time, Manafort supervised a 2012 review conducted by Craig of the abuse-of-power trial of ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, according to Politico. While the review was presented as an independent probe of the trial, it was commissioned by Manafort's primary client, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and bankrolled by Victor Pinchuk, a steel oligarch and...

Rick Gates, the former campaign aide to Donald Trump, is cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into whether individuals from the Middle East worked with the Trump campaign to influence the election, according to two individuals with first-hand knowledge of the investigation. Gates has answered questions specifically about Psy Group, an Israeli firm that ex-employees say drew up social media manipulation plans to help the Trump campaign, according to sources familiar with the questions. Mueller’s team also asked Gates about interactions with Psy Group’s owner, Joel Zamel, and Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, who worked as an emissary for Saudi...

Former Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates, who has pleaded guilty in Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation, sought proposals from an Israeli company in 2016 to create fake online identities in an effort to aid President Trump's campaign, The New York Times reported Monday. Gates sought a proposal from a company staffed by former Israeli intelligence officers, Psy-Group, to use fake identities to sway 5,000 Republican National Convention delegates by attacking Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), an opponent of Trump's at the time, according to the Times. Mark Mazzetti, one of the Times reporters who authored the story, said Monday on CNN...

Clinton-connected lobbyist Tony Podesta knew he was working with Paul Manafort on behalf of a Ukrainian politician, according to an indictment released Friday by the special counsel’s office. Podesta, Manafort and Mercury Public Affairs all failed to register as foreign agents of Ukraine for the work. Manafort entered a plea agreement with the special counsel Friday. Two lobbying firms, including one owned by Democratic superlobbyist Tony Podesta, knowingly worked with Paul Manafort at the direction of the Ukrainian government, according to an indictment released Friday by the special counsel’s office. The indictment, which was released ahead of an expected plea...

The two big stories this week are interrelated: the utter collapse of the Russian Collusion Fantasy and the conclusion of the Manafort case, a case of selective and apparently not very persuasive prosecution which flows from that fantasy. The Manafort Trial EndsThis week marked the end of the trial of Paul Manafort. The jury is now deliberating his fate. I cannot with certainty opine on the prosecution’s handling of the case. I can’t because all we know -- in the absence of transcripts of the trial -- is what reporters have told us. In my experience they often lack the...

The first two weeks of the trial of former Donald Trump presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort on 18 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud charges have failed to implicate Trump or his campaign in any alleged criminal conduct. Prosecutors working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller – who is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election – are expected to call their final witness Monday at Manafort’s trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. If convicted on all counts, Manafort could face a maximum sentence of 305 years in prison. So far we’ve learned that the prosecution’s star...

LEXANDRIA, Va. – After jurors were dismissed Monday in the Paul Manafort trial Monday, the federal judge overseeing the case and prosecutors trying the former Trump campaign chairman got into an extended verbal debate -- lasting about 10 minutes -- over the merits of the prosecution, the length of the case and even the eye contact of prosecutor Greg Andres. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III specifically pushed Andres on why the prosecution was moving slowly with Rick Gates – the former Manafort business partner who testified on Monday – and specifically to describe the link between wealthy Ukrainian politicos...

It looks like Mueller’s prosecutors can’t take the heat. Rick Gates, Paul Manafort’s former business associate took the witness stand Monday afternoon in the bank fraud and tax evasion case against Manafort.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates testified on Monday that he stole money from former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is on trial for tax and bank fraud. Gates, a former business partner of Manafort’s, also testified that Manafort had asked him to omit information in a court deposition regarding a private equity fund.

4:21 p.m. Paul Manafort's longtime deputy has been called to the witness stand to testify against the former Trump campaign chairman. Rick Gates has been regarded as a crucial government witness ever since he pleaded guilty last year and agreed to cooperate in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Prosecutors will turn to Gates for first-hand support of their accusations that Manafort concealed millions of dollars in foreign income and later lied when he applied for bank loans. Manafort's defense has sought to blame Gates for any illegal conduct and accused him of embezzling millions of dollars. Gates and Manafort worked...

Rick Gates took the stand in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s trial on Monday, where he testified that the two men committed crimes while working together. Gates, a longtime business associate of Manafort's, was indicted on fraud charges in October, but later pleaded guilty to reduced charges as part of a plea deal. According to multiple news outlets, Gates was asked on Monday if he was involved in criminal activity when working with Manafort. “Yes,” Gates reportedly responded. “Did you commit a crime?” the prosecution asked. “Yes,” Gates replied again. Manafort is on trial in Virginia for various financial...

A former accountant for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort testified Friday that she helped falsify tax records on his behalf in order to misrepresent $900,000 in personal income as a business loan. Cindy Laporta testified before a jury that she was asked by Manafort's former business associate, Rick Gates, that Manafort couldn't afford to pay his taxes 2015, telling her that she should instead misrepresent Manafort's income, The Washington Post Reported. The misrepresentation is estimated to have saved Manafort at least $400,000 in taxes, according to Laporta. Laporta, who has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors for her testimony,...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors raised the possibility on Wednesday that an expected star witness may not testify against President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, while Trump asked for an end to the Russia probe that led to the charges. On the second day of Manafort’s trial, the first stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 14-month investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election, the judge also tried to rein in prosecutors in their description of Manafort’s lavish lifestyle. Manafort’s consulting work for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine that earned him $60 million also took the spotlight...

Mueller’s prosecutors sent shockwaves through the Alexandria, VA courtroom Wednesday morning when they admitted Manafort’s former business associate Rick Gates may not testify. Rick Gates previously pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mueller; he was even referred to as the Special Counsel’s ‘star witness.’ Judge T.S. Ellis blasted Uso Asonye, Mueller’s prosecutor who told him Rick Gates may not testify. In a shocking admission Wednesday morning, federal prosecutors said Rick Gates may not testify in the trial of his former business partner Paul Manafort. Mr. Gates, who oversaw some of the financial dealings of Mr. Manafort’s consulting business, was...

Special counsel Robert Mueller is focusing intensely on alleged interactions between former top Trump campaign official Rick Gates and political operative Roger Stone, one of President Donald Trump's closest confidants, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Kahn, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in prison and must pay a $20,000 fine for lying to federal investigators about his contacts with senior Trump campaign official Rick Gates as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe. Van der Zwaan, 33, received the first sentence in Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates during the 2016 presidential election.