NOTHINGBURGER? – AT 10:18 A.M.  ET:  Federal charges were filed this morning against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his longtime business associate Rick Gates.  From Fox: 

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates have been indicted by a federal grand jury Monday on 12 counts, according to the special counsel’s office.

The special counsel’s office told Fox News that the counts include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agent Registration (FARA) statements, false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign banks and financial accounts.

In addition, a guilty plea by former Trump campaign policy adviser George Papadopolous was announced by Mueller. He admitted to making false statements to FBI agents as part of the investigation. 

The cases were unsealed Monday, after Manafort and Gates were permitted to surrender themselves to the custody of the FBI, the special counsel’s office told Fox News.

Manafort and Gates face the first charges in the special counsel’s investigation. This is also the first time the special counsel's office has confirmed that a grand jury has been impaneled.

According to the indictment, reviewed by Fox News, between at least 2006 and 2015, Manafort and Gates acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions, a Ukrainian political party whose leader Victor Yanukovych was president from 2010 to 2014, and the Opposition Bloc. Manafort and Gates generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their work in Ukraine.

The indictment says that Manafort and Gates laundered the money through scores of the United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts in order to hide Ukraine payments from U.S. authorities.

COMMENT:  Stories about this alleged behavior surfaced during the Trump campaign, resulting in Manafort being fired.  In effect, these are old concerns.  They do not appear to involve the 2016 campaign in any way, and do not seem to relate to any concerns about collusion with Russia.  Thus, they may well be a relief to the Trump White House.

We await further details.  So far, no one has touched Trump on the "Russian collusion" front.

October 30,  2017