DeVos touts $1.3B for military kids
SPECIAL COUNSEL Robert Mueller put new pressure on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and aide Rick Gates Thursday, slamming the pair with a slew of additional tax and bank fraud charges.
A new 32-count indictment was unsealed from a federal grand jury in Virginia, adding to the money laundering and other charges leveled last year.
The indictment alleges Manafort and Gates doctored financial documents, lied to tax preparers and defrauded banks, using money they cycled through offshore accounts to fund lavish lifestyles in the U.S.
The charges come a week after a separate Mueller indictment accused 13 Russians in a conspiracy to undermine the U.S. presidential election.
The charges against Manafort and Gates are not connected to any allegations of misconduct related to Trump’s campaign.
A grand jury first indicted the Trump associates last October over their shady business dealings on behalf of a pro-Kremlin political party in the Ukraine.
Since then, the men have been forced to give up millions of dollars in assets and property just to stay out of jail.
The new indictment charges Manafort and Gates with concocting a complex plot to avoid paying taxes on the fortunes they made while working as consultants to ousted Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych between 2006 and 2015.
In total, Mueller stated, the two men funneled more than $75 million through offshore bank accounts and shell companies to maintain their high-rolling lives.
With Gates’ help, Manafort concealed more than $30 million from the Treasury Department, according to court papers. Gates, meanwhile, allegedly kept more than $3 million hidden from U.S. tax authorities.
“Manafort and Gates engaged in a scheme to hide income from United States authorities, while enjoying the use of the money,” according to court papers.
The new charges come as Gates is rumored to be nearing a plea deal with Mueller, paving the way for him to cooperate with the investigation and testify against his longtime business associate.
Both men, already looking at a decade behind bars, could face additional prison time in light of the new filings.
Manafort’s spokesman downplayed Mueller’s new charges, calling his client “innocent.”
“The new allegations against Mr. Manafort, once again, have nothing to do with Russia and 2016 election interference,” Jason Maloni told the Daily News. “Mr. Manafort is confident that he will be acquitted.”
Both Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty.
The President has maintained Manafort and Gates and their myriad legal troubles have nothing to do with him because their alleged crimes took place long before they joined his campaign.
But the new indictment charges that the pair were still using real estate holdings to secure fraudulent loans around the time of Trump’s inauguration.
Gates worked as a senior foreign policy adviser on Trump’s campaign before joining his transition team. Manafort abruptly resigned as Trump’s campaign manager three months before the election after his suspect ties to Ukraine were first reported.
Trump has blasted Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling as a “hoax” cooked up by resentful Democrats.
U.S. intelligence agencies have said the Russians interfered. The open questions are the extent of the meddling and whether the Trump campaign was a witting or possibly unwitting participant.
The special counsel’s office is also looking at the possibility that Trump obstructed justice by firing ex-FBI Director James Comey. WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday backed a proposal to allow military families to use $1.3 billion in public funds to send their children to private school or pay for other education services.
The plan is in line with the Trump administration’s focus on promoting charter and private school programs and other alternatives to traditional public schools across the nation. But it stops short of the $20 billion school choice program that President Trump promised on the campaign trail.
DeVos said that many active duty military families living in bases were dissatisfied with their neighborhood schools and that they deserved to have options. Under the proposal, the government would set up education savings accounts for these parents and send them the money earmarked for them in the public school system. The money can then be used to pay for private school, private instruction, therapy for special needs students, textbooks and other services.
Public school advocates are highly critical of DeVos and her school choice agenda, saying that it drains money and resources from public schools.