Around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Breaking tonight, a new 32count indictment as the special counsel, robert mueller, follows the money in the russia investigation. A federal grand jury piling on more charges against former Trump Campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his associate, rick gates. Manafort accused of laundering more than 30 million in income with gates help. This hour, ill get reaction from former u. S. Attorney, Preet Bharara and congressman Hakeem Jeffries, a democrat on the judiciary committee. And our correspondents and analyses are all standing by. First, lets go to our justice correspondent, jessica schneider. Jessica, youve been poring over this lengthy indictment. What are you learning . Yeah, wolf, this indictment outlines a detailed scheme where manafort and gates allegedly hid Bank Accounts, failed to pay taxes on income for more than a decade, and then when that money ran dry, prosecutors say they resorted to bank fraud to secure millions of dollars in real estate loans. These amount to 32 new and additional counts in a different court, in virginia. And it really amps up the prosecution of both manafort and gates and does raise some new questions on whether or not gates may be on the verge of a plea deal. More evidence special Counsel Robert Mueller is not letting up. Tonight, cnn has learned a virginia grand jury has returned a new indictment against President Trumps former campaign chairman, paul rick gates. There are 32 new charges and they are separate from the charges the pair faces in d. C. Federal court, including Money Laundering, failing to register as a foreign agent, and failure to report foreign Bank Accounts. In this new indictment, prosecutors describe a scheme where the two longtime Business Partners failed to pay taxes for almost ten years, and then used real estate they owned to fraudulently secure more than 20 million in loans. The indictment also alleges manafort, with the assistance of gates, laundered more than 30 million, income that he concealed from the United States department of the treasury, the department of justice, and others. The charges were announced just hours after rick gates was spotted leaving this d. C. Federal courthouse, wi. With this long list of new charges, it appeals any plea deal from gates may have fallen apart. Cnn reported that gates has been in plea negotiations with the special counsels team for the past month. And if he pleads guilty, he could testify against Paul Manafort. I think these lawyers are putting so much pressure on these guys, with so many high stakes that the ultimate decision is going to be, ive got to protect myself and my family, and theyre going to cooperate. Reporter in addition to tonights new charges, the wall street journal reports muellers team and federal prosecutors in new york are also examining up to 16 million in loans to manafort, from federal savings bank, a bank run by a former Campaign Adviser to President Trump, steve koch. The special counsel is reportedly looking at whether the loans were made as part of a quid pro quo. Manafort got the loans and steve koch was promised a job in the Trump Administration. While new york prosecutors are investigating possible Money Laundering. Both manafort and koch have not commented. Koch did not get a spot on the cabinet, but was a member of candidate trumps Economic Advisory council in august 2016. Manafort who served as the Trump Campaign chairman, until he stepped down three months before the election, sought in the past to distance candidate trump from russian money. To be clear, candidate trump has no financial relations with any Russian Oligarch . Thats what he said, thats what thats what the position is. Reporter manafort left the campaign for the payments he received. When it comes to rick gates, he is scheduled for a hearing tomorrow at 10 00 a. M. That relates to his lawyers efforts to withdraw from his case. In the meantime, after weeks of working with rick gates, prominent white collar criminal defense attorney, tom green, he has officially entered an appearance as gates attorney. That happened today. Now, this is significant, because tom green has been talking with muellers team about a potential plea deal for gates more than a month behind the scenes. So a guilty plea could still be possible. In addition, muellers investigators were scheduled to interview former Trump Campaign adviser, sam nunberg today. He was an early adviser to the campaign, but was fired in august 2015 for racially charged facebook posts. But its very interesting, in terms of a rick gates possible paralegal, we understand from several sources, hes rejected a few possible deals. However, today, those talks are still noiongoing. So this is still in flux, it could still happen. And if he cops a plea, the pressure will build on manafort to do the same thing. Well see how this unfolds. Lots going on, jessica, good report. Thank you very much. Lets bring in cnns senior legal analyst, former u. S. Attorney, Preet Bharara. Preet, thanks so much for joining us. What do these new charges mean . I assume youve gone through this lengthy document. I have. They mean a few things. They mean that bob mueller and his team, if people didnt realize it before now, are incredibly serious, are incredibly thorough, and are going to keep looking. So just because you see charges filed against one person or another, it doesnt mean that thats all theres going to be. This is the first superseding indictment. I think its possible there could be additional superseding indictments against manafort and gates as they continue to look at the paper trail and the money trail. And so, you know, every day or week that goes by with someone like rick gates choosing not to plead guilty, is another week where the mueller team is continuing to look at his background, continuing to look at his finances, and so many charges could be in the offing in the future. So, big picture, preet, how do you see the special counsels strategy unfolding . Reporter well, the first bit of strategy and approach for any prosecutor, special counsel or otherwise, is to get at the entire truth and to find out, in as thorough a way as possible, who should be held accountable for what. And so, in the course of doing that, of course, youre trying to get as far up the food chain as you can. So if rick gates has more exposure, hes more likely to plead guilty and hes more likely to cooperate up the food chain against Paul Manafort. And if Paul Manafort can be accused of more things legitimately and that can be proven in court, then Paul Manafort has greater and greater incentive to cooperate further up in the chain, as well. So, the overall strategy is to figure out who has done what, why, whether you can prove it, and its also clear that the mueller team is not, you know, sort of doing everything all at once. Fit finds something theyre prepared to charge someone, whether its mike flynn or rick gates or anyone else, that doesnt mean its the end of the line for that person. So your assumption is that mueller is pressuring both gates and manafort to cop a plea, to plea guilty, to fully cooperate, because they potentially have useful information about what . It could be a whole number of things. Paul manafort was a significant figure in the campaign for a substantial period of time. Even though people in the Trump White House like to discount him, like they do everyone who runs afoul of the law, or runs afoul of the boss, he could have information about dealings with other countries, he could have information about potential quid pro quo s that went on. He could have information about the interactions with russia. The sky is the limit with respect to how much Paul Manafort could have possibly known. And so theyre doing everything they can, you know, as they like to say, turn the screws, to see if theyll cooperate. And they already have michael flynn, the president s former National Security adviser, hes already pled guilty. So, presumably, hes cooperating. He knows a lot about whats going on as well, right . Yeah, he does. I mean, the odd thing about the flynn plea, as ive said before, is its a plea to, you know, a false statement to the fbi. Given all the information thats been swirling around about the kinds of activities he was engaged in, including with respect to turkey, and not just russia, people were expecting more. So, you know, i dont want to speculate overly, but i still think its possible we see additional charges against michael flynn, if at some point hes going to be asked to testify against someone, with respect to conduct that he himself participated in, i would expect further charges against flynn as well. I wouldnt rule out further charges against anyone, including flynn. Preet, he was the National Security adviser, for only a month, but served as a top adviser during the transition and during the campaign as well. The white house argues, at least previously, its suggested, that Paul Manafort and rick gates had really not much to do with President Trump at all. What do you make of that . Its a its a common strategy, generally, to try to, you know, throw off to the side people who are in trouble and you want to distance yourself from, and its a particular strategy of this president. You know, anybody who runs afoul of the law or the boss, as i said a second ago, is someone that they say was just, you know, a coffeegetter or someone who ordered lunch from time to time, didnt know anything about them. Theyve even said the same kinds of things about steve bannon. When someone is out of the loop and they dont like them anymore or they think theyre in a position to provide damaging information about the president or the white house, they say they werent really connected to them. And obviously, the evidence shows otherwise. You agree with jeffrey toobin, our legal analyst, that based on these 32 counts, these additional 32 counts, if convicted, Paul Manafort, whos 70 years old, could potentially wind up spending the rest of his life in prison . Yeah, i always like to agree with jeff toobin and i agree with him there, as well. The other point to the make, though, is the nature of the charges are certainly serious and theyre very numerous, but theyre also pretty straightforward. You know, some of the charges have to do with whether or not he declared income, and whether or not they lied about having foreign Bank Accounts. Those are fairly simple things to prove. Pretty straightforward. If he had income and didnt declare it on his tax returns, its a very hard defense to make in response to that. And the same is true with respect to the Bank Accounts in other countries. I know a little bit less about the facts relating to the bank fraud and the loans. But, you know, cases like that can be made fairly quickly and straightforwardly and theres not much you can do about it. Its really amazing, if you go through the document, and gone through it, how much detail the special counsel and his team, theyve collected. They clearly have gone ahead and followed the money. But i suspect what we know publicly right now, and all the various indictments is a relatively very small part of what they know. Do you agree . I completely agree. And i think its a point worth reiterating over and over again. At various points in this investigation, it hasnt even been that long, the mueller team surprises us. You know, nobody saw coming i dont think anybody saw coming last week the indictment of 13 russian nationals and three organizations. These things happen at the pace and with the intensity with which the mueller team wants to bring them. And there are lots and lots of things that are happening behind closed doors with the mueller lawyers that we have no idea about and im sure well be back to talk about them when they happen. Yep, i agree. Preet bharara, thanks, as usual, for joining us. Thanks. Lets get to other breaking news were following on President Trump. Escalating his call to arm up to 40 of the nations teachers. Hays promising action in response to the Florida School massacre. So far, its a lot of talk today that doesnt seem to be changing a lot of minds over at the National Rifle association, the nra. Lets go straight to our senior white house correspondent, pamela brown. Pamela, the president has seized on this idea of Arming Teachers. Reporter yeah, thats right. He has told his advisers, wolf, that he wants to lead on the gun issue, unlike his predecessors, and one of his solutions is putting more guns in schools by arming, quote, highly adept teachers. And he even suggested the idea of giving those teachers bonuses. Theres a tremendous feeling that we want to get something done. And were leading that feeling, i hope. But theres a great feeling, including at the nra. Reporter President Trump is pledging action on gun violence in the wake of the shooting at a Florida High School last week that left 17 dead. For many years, where people sitting in my position did not take action, they didnt take proper action, they took no action at all, were going to take action. Reporter but what that action will be is still unclear. Trump unleashed a series of tweets on guns this morning, saying, i will be strongly pushing comprehensive background checks with an emphasis on mental health, raise age to 21, and end sale of bump stocks. Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue, i hope. The president says he is working the phones to rally support for his ideas. Ive called many senators last night, many congressmen, and jeff and pam and everybody in this room, i can tell you, curtis, theyre into doing background checks that they wouldnt be thinking about, maybe, two weeks ago. To stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun. Reporter even as Wayne Lapierre, the head of the National Rifle association, blamed democrats and the media for turning a tragedy into a moment for political gain. The elites dont care, not one whit, about Americas School system and schoolchildren. If they truly cared, what they would do is they would protect them. Their goal is to eliminate the second amendment. And our firearms freedoms. Reporter despite those objections, the president says he believes the nra will join him in reforming the countrys gun laws. I dont think ill with going up against them, i really think the nra wants to do whats right. I mean, theyre very close to me, im very close to them. Theyre very, very great people. They love this country. Theyre patriots. The nra wants to do the right thing. Reporter at the same time, the president is doubling down on his position that some teachers should have guns at schools. An idea raised during a listening session with parkland students and parents at the white house wednesday. If you had a teacher with who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly. Reporter today, trump insisting attacks would end if teachers were armed. Adding that they would need regular training and would get paid bonuses. These people are cowards. Theyre not going to walk into a school if 20 of the teachers have guns. It may be 10 , it may be 40 . And what i would recommend doing is the people that do carry, we give them a bonus. Reporter the president saying schools that remain gunfree zones are open targets. I think we need hardened sites. We need to let people know, you come into our schools, youre going to be dead. And its going to be fast. And unless you do that, youre going to always have this problem. Reporter that idea echoed by the nra today. It should not be easier for a madman to shoot up a school than a bank or a Jewelry Store or some hollywood gala. Schools must be the most hardened targets in this country. Reporter but the white house says, it doesnt expect to agree with the nra on every issue. Is he willing to go against the nra ultimately . Because the nra is Standing Firm that it does not support age limits for semiautomatic rifles. Is the president willing to stick with his hes willing to do whats right to ensure safe to ensure we have safe schools. Reporter so tonight the president remains at odds with the nra over the issue of raising the age limit for those buying semiautomatic rifles. Meantime today, the president said he opposed active shooter drills in schools. The white house later clarified that he was talked about the branding wi ing branding, the name, not the actual drill, saying that the name would be traumatizing for younger students and suggesting the idea of safety drills, instead. Wolf . Pamela brown at the white house for us. Thank you. Lets get some more on all of this. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries is joining us. Hes a democrat who serves on the judiciary committee. Congressman, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me, wolf. So we just learned that the School Resource officer who is armed didnt actually go into the High School Building where the shooting happened. What would be the impact of President Trumps proposal to have more trained and armed teachers in schools all across the