The Robert Mueller investigation: cast of characters

Michael Flynn

Flynn has the distinction of holding the position of US national security adviser for the shortest amount of time, stepping down after just 24 days in the job after it was revealed that he had concealed improper contacts with Russia’s US ambassador. He pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about the discussions, which involved US sanctions policy.

The former general was an early, ardent supporter of Mr Trump’s outsider campaign, leading chants at rallies of “Lock Her Up”, referring to Hillary Clinton. It has since emerged that Flynn also pushed for the US to share nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia.

Paul Manafort

The longtime Washington lobbyist and political consultant was briefly chairman of the Trump campaign. He attended the June 2016 meeting at New York’s Trump Tower, where a Russian lawyer promised “sensitive information” on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Manafort last year pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and also admitted to various crimes of money laundering and bank fraud. In March he was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison — the longest so far in a case brought by Mr Mueller. The charges related to income Manafort made from political consulting work in Ukraine, rather than Russian interference in the 2016 race.

Roger Stone

The longtime friend and confidante of Mr Trump was arrested in January at his home in Florida. He was charged with seven counts related to congressional testimony he gave about his attempts to contact WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign when it released troves of stolen Democratic party emails. He has pleaded not guilty.

A proud master of campaign “dark arts,” Mr Stone was also accused of lying to the House of Representatives intelligence committee and attempting to influence the testimony of an associate — in one case, by urging him to behave in the manner of a character in ‘The Godfather Part II’ and in another, by threatening his dog.

Michael Cohen

Mr Trump’s personal lawyer once claimed he would “take a bullet” for his boss. A lot has changed since then. In a February testimony before Congress, Cohen called the US president a “racist”, “cheat” and “conman” who sought business deals in Russia during the 2016 election and inflated his net worth to impress the public. He said he ignored his own conscience to blindly serve Mr Trump and was now trying to set the record straight before serving a three-year prison term.

Cohen last year had pleaded guilty to bank fraud and campaign finance violations and has since sat for more than a dozen meetings with the special prosecutor to offer his co-operation. He has also admitted to arranging hush money — on his boss’s orders, he said — to pay off two women who claimed to have had extramarital affairs with Mr Trump.

Russian officers

Mr Mueller charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential election. He alleged that the 12 Russians stole and leaked emails as part of a Russian government effort to interfere with the election.

The indictment offered a clear indication that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 US election — an assertion American intelligence agencies have made repeatedly and which Mr Trump has continuously questioned.

Mr Mueller said the agents employed “spearphishing” — a hacking technique involving the use of deceptive email addresses — to trick Clinton campaign and DNC staffers and hacked into the election database of a US state.

George Papadopoulos

The former foreign policy aide to the Trump campaign lied to the FBI about his meetings with a Maltese professor, who had links to Russian intelligence and told Papadopoulos that Moscow had “dirt” on Mrs Clinton it wanted to share.

Prosecutors had accused Papadopoulos of telling the FBI that his interactions with the professor took place before he joined the Trump campaign.

But Papadopoulos met the professor shortly after joining the campaign, and allegedly continued to try to leverage the professor’s connections to arrange a meeting with Russian officials.

Papadopoulos was arrested and pleaded guilty. Although Mr Mueller recommended a six-month jail term, he was sentenced to two weeks in prison, 200 hours of community service and a fine of $9,500.

Rick Gates

The former deputy chair of Mr Trump’s campaign pleaded guilty in February 2018 of financial fraud and lying to investigators. Gates, the former protégé of Manafort, agreed to co-operate with the special counsel.

Among other matters, Gates provided information about millions of dollars Manafort had earned in Ukraine and then concealed from US tax authorities. He testified that he created false documents in order to help his then-boss obtain bank loans and said he helped inflate Mr Manafort’s income at a time when their company had no clients.

Konstantin Kilimnik

Born in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union, Kilimnik went on to work closely with Manafort and Gates, lobbying on behalf of the country’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. Mr Kilimnik has been long suspected of having ties to Russian intelligence. His efforts to promote a peace plan in eastern Ukraine favourable to Russia have reportedly attracted scrutiny from prosecutors.

He was charged alongside Manafort with attempting to obstruct justice by tampering with witnesses in Manafort’s case last year.

Robert Mueller

The strait-laced special prosecutor was appointed in May 2017 to investigate Russian interference in the US election. A former FBI director and Marine officer who served with valour in Vietnam, Mr Mueller is renowned for his toughness and tenacity. The special counsel has run an extraordinarily leak-free investigation.

Andrew Weissmann

One of the special counsel’s top deputies — and one of the highest profile prosecutors working for Mr Mueller — Mr Weissmann is known for his success at flipping witnesses, often through aggressive tactics. He has previously brought cases against the mafia and Enron.

Robert Khuzami

The deputy US attorney in Manhattan led the southern district’s involvement in Trump-related investigations after his boss, Geoffrey Berman, recused himself. Most notably, the southern district has won a guilty plea from Cohen, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, after receiving evidence from Mr Mueller. Mr Khuzami said he would leave his post next month.

Donald Trump Jr

The president’s eldest son enthusiastically accepted an invitation to meet in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer promising “sensitive information” about his father’s opponent, Mrs Clinton.

That meeting at Trump Tower has become a focal point for possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. It has since emerged that the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was pushing for a future Trump administration to soften economic sanctions on Russia. Manafort and Mr Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also attended the meeting.

Jared Kushner

Mr Kushner, the scion of another wealthy real estate family, married to Mr Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, has been a close adviser to Mr Trump since the early days of the campaign.

His vast portfolio in the Trump administration ranges from rebooting the Middle East peace process and cosying up to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman to domestic criminal justice reform. Mr Kushner attended the infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, in which a Russian lawyer promised “sensitive information” to the campaign.