Manafort to appear before judge Monday afternoon

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is scheduled to appear before a federal judge at 1:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon.

A sprawling 31-page indictment, unsealed on Monday morning, accuses Manafort of laundering millions of dollars through overseas accounts that he used to buy luxury goods in the United States.

The charges come from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Russia — and any other matters arising from that probe.

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The indictment makes no mention of Manafort’s work for Trump’s campaign, which began in March of 2016 and ended with his ouster in August. 

Instead, the charges are related to work Manafort did on behalf of a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine, for which Mueller alleges Manafort and business partner Richard Gates were paid tens of millions of dollars that they then laundered “in order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities.”

There is speculation that Mueller may be attempting to push Manafort to cooperate with the broader Russia probe.

Manafort will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson.