Paul Manafort: Trump former campaign manager ‘not aware’ of possible criminal charges against him

A suspect could be detained as early as Monday

Mr Manafort's home was raided by the FBI earlier this year (Getty)

Donald Trump’s former campaign Paul Manafort has said he has not been informed of any possible criminal charges against him, after it was reported the first indictments had been filed by the team investigating Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election.

Reports said a grand jury working with Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, had approved the first charges to result from the ongoing probe that is looking at possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The reports, which have not specified what the charges are or who they were filed against, said a suspect could be taken into custody as soon as Monday.

CNN, which broke the news, said the charges were filed on Friday and placed under a seal by a federal judge. Yet, that has not stopped a flurry of speculation as to who may be the focus of Mr Mueller’s charges and the nature of them.

Much of the speculation has focussed on Mr Manafort, who served as Mr Trump’s campaign manager until August 2016, until he resigned as details emerged of his dealing with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. In July, FBI agents raided the Virginia home of Mr Manafort, who was among those senior members of Mr Trump’s team who in June 2016 met with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who had allegedly offered Donald Trump’s eldest son incriminating information about Hillary Clinton.

Other people who were the subjects of speculation included Mr Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner. NBC said it had confirmed that charges will be announced on Monday.

ABC News said lawyers from Mr Mueller’s office were at the federal courthouse in Washington on Friday, and that among them was one of his senior prosecutors who specialises in fraud cases. The network said sources close to Mr Manafort said they had no indication any charges against him may be imminent.

Mr Mueller, who was appointed to head the special investigation after Mr Trump in May fired FBI Director James Comey, has declined to comment on the report that charges have already been filed.

The White House has also had little to say on the matter. Instead, it has sought to move attention away from any possible charges against former members of Mr Trump’s team, by highlighting the news that the research team that helped produce the now notorious Steele Dossier on Mr Trump, had been paid directly by Ms Clinton’s campaign.

On Saturday, White House press secretary Sara Huckabee Sanders, wrote on Twitter: “The evidence Clinton campaign, DNC and Russia colluded to influence the election is indisputable.”

It also emerged the research team, Fusion GPS, which had previously worked with Ms Veselnitskaya - something the company has insisted was purely a coincidence - had initially been employed to collect dirt on Mr Trump by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website that has received considerable funding from Republican donor and hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer.

Matt Miller, a former Justice Department official who served under Barack Obama, said he believed the news that a charge had been filed meant Mr Mueller’s probe would be “a rolling investigation”.

“Rather than conduct his entire investigation and then wrap things up with indictments and possibly a report at the end, he is doing it in stages, the way the Justice Department might attack a drug cartel or a mafia family,” he told Axios.com

“This is a a watershed moment for the politics surrounding the investigation. In less than six months on the job, Mueller has already returned indictments. This isn't a fishing expedition or a witch hunt - it’s an investigation that's already born fruit with a grand jury of regular Americans finding probable cause that a crime was committed.”

Mr Trump has repeatedly denied that his campaign colluded with Russia in any way and has said the federal probe, along with the several congressional investigations looking into the issue, amount to a witch hunt.

Corey Lewandowski, who served as Mr Trump’s campaign manager before he was replaced by Mr Manafort, insisted there had been no collusion, coordination or cooperation with Russia.

“Let’s take a deep breath and wait and see what happens on Monday,” he told Fox News. “Let me be very clear - this has nothing to do with the President.”