Kelly on Manafort indictment: Everyone’s ‘presumed innocent’

White House chief of staff John Kelly on Monday, asked about a West Wing reaction to the indictment of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Richard Gates, pointed out everyone is “presumed innocent” until proven otherwise.

“I think the reaction of the administration is let the legal justice system work, everyone’s innocent until — presumed innocent, and we’ll see where it goes,” Kelly told host Laura Ingraham in an interview set to air on the premiere of Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”

Kelly added that the Justice Department’s 12-count indictment against Manafort and Gates occurred “long before they ever met Donald Trump or had any association with the campaign.” 

{mosads}

The retired general, who served as President Trump’s first Homeland Security secretary, dismissed that the White House staff is concerned about being slapped with an indictment as well as special counsel Robert Mueller continues his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“I think the staff is very comfortable with simply serving the nation, and the vast majority of the staff would have nothing to do with any of this kind of thing,” Kelly told Ingraham.

Both Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty to all charges from Mueller’s probe earlier in the day, after the 31-page indictment was unsealed.

A third former Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to charges of lying to FBI agents in the investigation.

Manafort turned himself in to the FBI after the charges came to light which include conspiracy against the U.S. and using the laundered money to buy goods in the country — charges that relate to his work on behalf of a Russian-backed political party in Ukraine. 

The indictment does not point to any of  Manafort’s work for Trump’s campaign, which took place between March of 2016 until his ouster in August.