WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed a new set of criminal charges on Thursday against President Donald Trump’s former campaign aides Paul Manafort and Rick Gates that include bank and tax fraud, escalating a legal battle that started last year. The charges were contained in a 32-count indictment against the two men that was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. They were among the first to be charged, as part of Mueller’s ongoing investigation into whether the Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election. The latest indictment includes allegations of wrongdoing as recently as January 2017 and said Manafort and Gates were desperate for cash when their lobbying business dried up. The indictment charged they were able to secure more than $20 million in loans by falsely inflating the income of Manafort and his lobbying firm and failing to disclose existing debt.

Source: Huffington Post February 22, 2018 22:30 UTC