Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his long-time business associate, Rick Gates have been ordered to surrender in the first apparent indictments of Robert Mueller’s probe of obstruction of justice and meddling in the 2016 campaign by Donald Trump’s associates.
While the charges are not yet clear, the timing of the charges couldn’t be worse for President Trump and the GOP as they had hoped to focus on the GOP tax plan scheduled to be unveiled this week.
President Trump tweeted repeatedly over the weekend about the Russia investigation and, as he often does, tried to charge his opponents with the very misdeeds he has been charged with. “… The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R’s are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!,” tweeted the President on Sunday.
Counselor to the president, Kellyanne Conway, attempted to push the controversy aside indicating that, despite the fact that her boss is seemingly obsessed with the Russia investigation, Americans are not that interested. “We know what America cares about,” Conway wrote to POLITICO. “We know there is a complete disconnect between what Americans are told matters to them and what they tell us matters to them.”
More later on the exact indictments and what it means for the investigation.