The three key Trump aides charged
The first criminal charges to come from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into foreign meddling in the 2016 election stem from different activities. A primer on those charged:
PAUL MANAFORT
Before Manafort became GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s top strategist between late March and August 2016, he had a storied career in Republican politics. In 1995, Manafort set up a lobbying firm with Rick Davis, who later helped Manafort establish his political contacts in former Soviet states. Manafort’s work in Eastern Europe came at a lucky time, as struggles in his domestic lobbying business and his spending on an ill-fated career as a movie producer left him nearly broke in the early 2000s. As an adviser to Ukraine’s pro-Russian Party of Regions, Manafort helped the party turn around its reputation as corrupt and under Russian influence, getting Ukraine’s president elected in 2006. Among Manafort’s long-term friends was Thomas Barrack, who was also personally close with Trump. That connection and Manafort’s perceived skill in Republican Party politics got Manafort his entree into Trump’s campaign. In August 2016, he was ousted amid revelations of large payments listed in an alleged “black book” of under-the-table payments by the ousted Ukrainian government.
RICK GATES
Rick Gates was Manafort’s deputy, both in the Trump campaign and in Manafort’s work in Ukraine. Gates joined Manafort’s new firm, Davis Manafort Inc and was working with Manafort to drum up business in former Soviet States. Gates joined Manafort for the Trump campaign, too, serving as a top decisionmaker for day-to-day matters. But he never drew a Trump campaign paycheck. When Manafort got booted from the campaign amid revelations about his Ukrainian political work and questions about how he’d been paid for it, Gates stayed on in Trump Tower as a Republican National Committee liaison to the campaign.
GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS
Trump’s campaign named him as one of eight foreign policy advisers in March 2016 as it scrambled to develop policy positions on key international issues. The Washington Post previously reported he had tried to facilitate contact between Russian government entities and the campaign.