Paul Manafort paid former top European officials to lobby for Ukraine, Robert Mueller alleges

Before serving as Donald Trump’s campaign chair Paul Manafort enlisted former European politicians to clandestinely lobby on behalf of Ukraine, according to a new indictment from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

In a series of indictments, Mr Mueller alleged that Mr Manafort and his associate Rick Gates deliberately concealed from the US government proceeds from their lobbying work on behalf of Ukrainian political entities and failed to report their lobbying activity.

A superseding indictment filed this week alleges that Mr Manafort and Mr Gates “secretly retained” a coterie of “former senior European politicians”, informally dubbed the “Hapsburg group”, to advance Ukraine’s agenda. Mr Manafort allegedly wired them more than 2 million euros from offshore bank accounts, according to the indictment.

The group was intended “to appear to be providing independent assessments of Government of Ukraine actions, when in fact they were paid lobbyists for Ukraine”, the indictment says.

While Mr Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to government investigators, Mr Manafort has denied any wrongdoing.

“Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled today, I continue to maintain my innocence,” Mr Manafort said in a statement. “I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me.”

The indictments of Mr Manafort and Mr Gates flowed from Mr Mueller’s investigation of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mr Manafort at one point served as chairman of Mr Trump’s presidential campaign.

Mr Mueller’s team has also secured guilty pleas from former campaign aide George Papadopoulos and former campaign adviser Michael Flynn, who also briefly served as Mr Trump’s National Security Adviser. Both men admitted to lying about contacts with Russian emissaries.

Last week Mr Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals, alleging an elaborate years-long campaign to disrupt American politics and sway the 2016 presidential contest.

Throughout Mr Mueller’s investigation Mr Trump has repudiated the notion of collusion between his campaign and the Russian government, dismissing Mr Mueller’s probe as a “witch hunt” distorted by a political agenda.