Indictment Released by Special Counsel's Office

choi

Special Counsel's Office (SCO), US Department of Justice.
https://www.justice.gov/sco

(1) US v Paul J Manafort, Jr, and Richard W Gates III (1:17-cr-201, District of Columbia)

indictment (filed on Oct 27, 2017 under seal)

Note:
(a) The "cr" stands for a criminal case, as opposed to "cv" for a civil case.
(b) The indictment is long. However, once you read to paragraphs (4), you can guess the rest, and there is no need to read more facts.
(c) Proceed to Count One at page 23, whose very end cites the statute: 18 USC § 371. One may go to US House of Representatives's Web page to enter title and page numbers.
http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml
(d) The indictment has nothing to do with alleged influence of Russia in the presidential election. Usually prosecutors use the charges as a leverage to flip an insider (before or after conviction). But White House has said in the past several days that neither Manaford nor former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has anything against Trump to bargain with prosecutors.

(2) US v George Papadopoulos (1:17-cr-182, District of Columbia)

Criminal Information
Plea Agreement
Statement of the Offense

My comment:
(a) If you have read the news account on this case, there is no need to read more.
(b) The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution starts with this clause: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger."

SCO (with a summary of facts and pertinent statutes)  forewarned Mr Manaford he would be charged, but he refused to budge. So SCO indicted him. On the other hand, Mr Papadopoulos, upon being warned, apparently quickly indicated through his lawyers, that he would plead guilty (perhaps in exchange of leniency from SCO). Then SCO need not go through the trouble to present evidence to a grand jury, for the purpose of indicting Mr Papadopoulos; instead SCO filed an information, accompanied by a plea agreement filed at the same time.