The orbit of former advisers and associates of President Donald Trump who have been indicted or found guilty grew Thursday when Steve Bannon, his former senior adviser and chief strategist, was arrested and indicted.
The crimes they have been accused of are different and stem from a constellation of alleged criminal conspiracies.
Here is a list:
Steve Bannon
Trump’s political guru and onetime chief strategist, Bannon was charged Thursday with defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a border wall fundraising campaign. Once among Trump’s most trusted advisers – with walk-in privileges to the Oval Office – Bannon left the White House in 2017 on bad terms and, for a period, was on the outs with Trump.
In an interview with The New York Times in February 2019, Trump said he hadn’t spoken with his former campaign manager “in a year and a half.” He did, however, offer praise for Bannon as a top advocate during the President’s impeachment who caught his attention.
Trump has praised him more recently, including in an interview on Fox News this summer: “Steve Bannon’s been much better not being involved. He says the greatest president ever. I mean, he’s saying things that I said, ‘Let’s keep Steve out there, he’s doing a good job.’ But they’re all being – they’re all involved.”
Michael Cohen
Trump’s onetime lawyer and fixer, Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax fraud, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations for facilitating hush money payments to two women who alleged past affairs with the President. Trump has denied having affairs with the women.
Last week Cohen released the foreword of his upcoming book, teasing what he claims is a behind-the-scenes exposé of his acts as Trump’s fixer – from stiffing contractors on a business deal to lying about extra-marital affairs to the President’s attempts to “insinuate himself into the world of President Vladimir Putin.”
Paul Manafort
Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, Manafort had been in jail since June 2018 before being released to home confinement amid the coronavirus pandemic. He is serving a 7.5-year sentence after being convicted by a jury of tax and banking crimes in August 2018, then pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
As part of a plea deal cut in September 2018, Manafort admitted to money laundering, tax fraud and illegal foreign lobbying connected to his years of lucrative work for Ukrainian politicians, as well as defrauding banks to supplement his income with cash through mortgages. He also agreed to cooperate with the prosecutors from then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s office – before lying during those interview sessions.
Rick Gates
A onetime deputy campaign chairman for Trump, Gates was sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years’ probation in 2019 after admitting to helping Manafort conceal $75 million in foreign bank accounts from their years of Ukraine lobbying work. Gates shared searing details about Trump’s efforts in 2016 with Mueller.
Roger Stone
Trump’s friend and political adviser, Stone was convicted of crimes that included lying to Congress in part, prosecutors said, to protect the President. Trump commuted his sentence this summer days, before Stone was set to report to a federal prison in Georgia.
Stone was convicted last year of seven charges – including lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing a congressional committee proceeding – as part of Mueller’s Russia investigation. Among the things he misled Congress about were his communications with Trump campaign officials – communications that prosecutors said Stone hid out of his desire to protect Trump.
Michael Flynn
Trump’s onetime national security adviser, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his talks with the then-Russian ambassador about approaches that would undermine Obama administration policy before Trump took office.
The case has become a political lightning rod, with Trump and Flynn both saying he’s been treated unfairly by the judge and the prosecutors who cut his plea deal. Trump has not ruled out a pardon for Flynn.
Further out of Trump’s orbit
George Papadopoulos
A onetime campaign aide, Papadopoulos served 12 days in prison for lying to investigators about his contact with individuals tied to Russia during the 2016 campaign.
George Nader
An informal campaign foreign policy adviser, Nader was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a federal judge in Virginia stemming from his convictions on child sex charges.
Chris Collins
The first member of Congress to endorse Trump, Collins was sentenced to 26 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges in an insider trading case.
