MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes featured The Daily Beast political reporter Betsy Woodruff on "All In" Tuesday, only minutes after she published a bombshell report on former Donald Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort's ongoing legal jeopardy.
"Betsy...you have a new piece just published and the headline is 'Robert Mueller may indict Paul Manafort again.' What's that about?" Hayes eagerly asked.
"Having had conversations with numerous former Justice Department officials and legal experts over the last few days...folks expect for Mueller to hand down what's called a superseding indictment," Woodruff explained. "It's when a prosecutor like Bob Mueller essentially says, 'here's a new indictment that includes everything from the previous one, but also tacks on some additional charges' additional detail, additional problems for the person who's being charged."
"The reason all these folks are telling me this is because in the initial Manafort indictment, there was a lot of detail that didn't actually amplify or support the specific charges, particularly on tax questions," Woodruff exlained. "There was a lot of detail about dicey financial dealings that Manafort and Rick Gates were involved in, about questionable absences of financial information on tax forms, that indicates Mueller might have enough evidence to bring additional charges against Manafort."
"That could put more pressure not just on Manafort, but also on Rick Gates, who my sources believe has the biggest potential to be additional cooperating witness to Mueller," Woodruff concluded.
“I would expect a superseding indictment to come down relatively soon,” Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University’s law school, told The Beast.
Professor Turley is a former federal prosecutor.
“There was much in the narrative of the indictment that referenced crimes not charged,” he added. “Prosecutors will often issue a superseding indictment as the grand jury continues its work. There’s also a tactical reason for this, that superseding indictments tend to grind defendants a bit more over time.”
“The Manafort and Gates indictment left a number of torpedoes in the water,” said Turley. “We’re just waiting to see who they hit.
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