Former Trump Adviser Pleads Guilty, 2 More Indicted

On Monday, former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his longtime business partner Rick Gates appeared in Washington, D.C., federal court. They pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering and tax fraud.

These are the first indictments and charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The Manafort and Gates indictments may be grabbing headlines, but there's an even bigger story — it's found in other court documents also unsealed on Monday.

The documents reveal that on October 5, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulous pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, and in that plea, he provided evidence that the Trump campaign was aware that the Russian government was trying to help Trump and that the campaign was open to accepting that help.

When questioned during the daily briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stuck to the administration's argument that Papadapoulos was simply a volunteer gone rogue.

"How is this not collusion?" asked CNN's Jim Acosta.

"This individual was the member of a volunteer advisory panel that met one time over the course of a year," said Sanders. "He was part of a list that was read out in the Washington Post, I would hardly call that some kind of regular adviser, or as you want to push, some sort of senior member of the staff. He was not paid by the campaign. He was a volunteer on a council that met once."

Noah Feldman, is a professor at Harvard Law School. He tweets @NoahRFeldman.