House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI)
During a stop in southern Wisconsin Monday, House Speaker Paul Ryan declined to comment on federal indictments handed down against President Trump’s former campaign chairman.
While Ryan acknowledged that Paul Manafort being indicted on charges of money laundering and filing false lobbying reports was “big news”, he addressed the issue only briefly when asked by reporters at a town hall meeting at a factory in Darien.
“I have nothing to add to these indictments, other than this is what Bob Mueller was tasked to do,” Ryan said. “I haven’t read the indictments, I don’t know the specific details…but that is how the judicial process works.”
The charges were filed as the result of a special investigation into claims that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russian government.
Also indicted Monday on similar charges was Rick Gates, an associate of Manafort. Prosecutors also unsealed a plea deal involving former Trump campaign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who admitted to making false statements to the FBI.