President Donald Trump slammed "fake news" early Tuesday for "working overtime" on the Paul Manafort indictment and the reporting efforts to connect the president's former campaign chairman to Russia collusion.
Posting to Twitter for the first time in 22 hours, Trump wrote:
Manafort and his associate Rick Gates were arraigned Monday on a 12-count federal indictment that included charges of money laundering, lying and conspiracy. Both were held on house arrest.
The "low level volunteer" is George Papadopoulos, who weeks ago pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Trump and the White House are distancing themselves from the former adviser, saying his role was "extremely limited" and that anything nefarious he did was done on his own.
Trump last tweeted early Monday, in a post that also addressed the Manafort indictment.
Rather than support his former campaign frontman, Trump's tweet Monday pointed out that all of Manafort's alleged illegal efforts took place well before he became Trump's campaign chairman in May of 2016.
However, part of special counsel Robert Mueller's indictment alleges that Manafort was engaged in fraud against banks and the federal government from 2008 until 2017, well after he resigned as campaign chairman in August of 2016.
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