. ♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, bombshell indictments. president trump's former campaign chairman, paul manafort and two former campaign advisers, charged by the special counsel. one pleading guilty to lying to the fbi as the white house pushes back. >> today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the president's campaign, or campaign activity. >> the criminal allegations and what this means for the president. plus, turning tiles. we're backstage at one of america's favorite game shows to meet the woman behind the wheel. >> i get all dressed up like a barbie doll. i go out, i give someone else's money away, make them happy. >> vana white, still smiling after 35 years and more than 6,000 gowns. >> never the same one twice.

>> vana white! >> how she landed the job bon ♪ good evening. a pair of bombshells today out of special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. the first, president trump's former campaign chairman indicted along with his right-hand man.

but the bigger bombshell, we learned a former trump campaign adviser secretly pled guilty weeks ago and has been cooperating ever since with investigators. how did we fwget here and what does it all mean? >> reporter: the ground beneath the white house shaken today as special counsel robert mueller announced charges against three individuals closely connected to president donald trump. former trump campaign manager paul manafort and close campaign adviser richard gates indicted on multiple counts. and former trump adviser george papini pleadi papadopoulos pled guilty. >> he was seeking to further democracy and help the ukraine come closer to the united states and the eu. >> reporter: the announcement comes months into the investigation into collusion between the trump campaign and

russia. >> the white house was blindsided by this news. this was no notification from the special counsel's office to the president, to the white house counsel, that this indictment was coming. >> reporter: the white house today, resolute. the president tweeting, there is no collusion. >> today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity. >> reporter: and white house spokesperson sarah sanders even flipping the script. >> there's clear evidence of the clinton campaign colluding with russian intelligence to spread disinformation and smear the president. >> reporter: earlier this year, they asserted that russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election in favor of donald trump. in march, the fbi confirmed it was investigating whether team trump and the russians worked together. >> what we're talking about h hh is a hostile foreign power, the kremlin, trying to disrupt our democracy. the fact that we now have evidence that that influence was

solisitted by a campaign is very serious. >> reporter: none of the charges against manafort or gates announced today show evidence of collusion with russia, but the plea deal with 30-year-old george papadopoulos could be the most problematic development for the president, seen here in this photo, he literally had a seat at the table during the campaign. >> there's every reason to believe that he is now cooperating with the investigators and giving them information readily, that they would not have had as easily. >> reporter: papadopoulos was arrested for lying to the fbi about his contacts with people allegedly linked to the kremli one of them saying the russians had dirt on hillary clinton in the forms of thousands of e-mails. the next day donald trump gave his first foreign policy speech with an emphasis on russia. >> i believe an easing of tensions, improved relations with russia from a position of

strength only, is possible, absolutely possible. >> reporter: about a month later, papadopoulos e-mailed a high ranking trump campaign official saying russia has been eager to meet their trump for quite some time and had been reaching out to me to discuss. in response, the campaign official forwarded papadopoulos's e-mail to another trump campaign official, saying, in part, we need someone to communicate that d.t. is not doing these trips. it should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal. >> when you actually read the statement of facts, it says that he had contacts with high-level campaign officials. it doesn't say who they were, but it makes clear that there were contacts, and at one point, one of them suggests he goes to russia. >> reporter: today the white house insists papadopoulos played an insignificant role. >> the george papadopoulos is about the campaign. >> it has nothing to do with the activities of the campaign. it has to do with his failure to

tell the truth. that doesn't have anything to do with the campaign or the campaign's activities. >> it may be true that he's low level, but that's irrelevant, if he's contacting high-level people, they're engaging with him and at one point suggesting something he should do. >> reporter: trump and the white house have also sought to distance themselves from one-time campaign manager paul manafort. >> paul manafort, who is a good man, also, by the way, paul manafort was replaced long before the election took place. he was only there for a short period of time. >> reporter: even going to great rhetorical lengths at times to downplay manafort's role in the campaign. >> obviously there's been discussion of paul manafort, who played a very limited role for a limited amount of time. >> he was the chairman of the -- >> jonathan, hold on, can you stop interrupting other people. >> he didn't play a limited role. >> somebody's asking a question. it's not your press briefing. >> reporter: trump hired manafort in march of 2016 to help secure the republican presidential nomination, a job

manafort offered to do for free. >> clearly he didn't need the money, we've now discovered. he had millions and millions of dollars coming in, according to the indictment. he wanted to be in the middle of things, and he certainly was for a while. >> reporter: manafort was trump's only non-family member to attend the now infamous june 2016 meeting with a russian lawyer who claimed to have compromising information about hillary clinton. >> mr. manafort, thanks for joining us. >> reporter: a month after that meeting, manafort denied to abc news any connection between russia and the campaign. >> are there any ties between mr. trump, you, or your campaign, and putin and his regime? >> no, there are not. that's absurd. there's no basis to it. >> reporter: but in august 2016, after reports of cash payments to manafort, for his lobbying on behalf of a pro-russian political party in ukraine, manafort left the trump campaign. in fact, it was those payments that helped lead to today's indictments. the 12 charges include lying to the department of justice, tax

evasion, and laundering more than $18 million. >> this is a significant set of indictments and i think that it's a massive distraction for everyone in the trump administration. makes it really hard for them to just do their day jobs. and it undermines and erodes the feeling of authority that they have, both over their country domestically a domestically and also around the world. >> reporter: manafort's deputy remained on as a prominent trump campaign adviser all the way through the transition and inauguration. he now faces charges similar to manafort. his long-time business partner. >> these were not considered the kind of people that you and i would be naturally doing business with. manafort, i mean, you're talking about somebody who was known as operating in very high level circles, close to the kremlin, some of whom were overtly sketchy. >> reporter: also caught in the fall-out today, tony podesta, brother of clinton campaign manager john podesta, resigning from his own company amidst the

special counsel's investigation into his work for a ukrainian group tied to manafort. manafort and gates are both under house arrest tonight with multi million dollar bonds, while george papadopoulos has surrendered his passport. the three congressional investigations into possible collusion mean team trump and russia continue as does special counsel robert mueller's work, at least for now. >> there's no intention or plan to make any changes in regards to special counsel. >> i'm an average american, watching today's developments. >> yeah pch. >> why does it matter for me at all? >> because it makes the u.s. government appear like a dysfunctional joke. >> it's clear that when it comes to the russia investigation, this is the beginning, not the end. ♪ ♪ coming up next here on "nightline," we switch gears entirely. the always glamourous wheel of fortune hostess, vanna white,

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thank you, ikea. oh, john can't come. my uncle geoff just confirmed. the one that's always bringing a plus-one? yes, but we've got plus-one insurance. what's your dream? at ikea, we help you live it. make the dream yours. (cheering)

thank you, ikea. oh, john can't come. my uncle geoff just confirmed. the one that's always bringing a plus-one? yes, but we've got plus-one insurance. what's your dream? at ikea, we help you live it. make the dream yours. (cheering) ♪ we have welcomed her into our living rooms for more than 35 years. now we are finally going into hers. tonight vanna white shows us her home, her closets and her backstage green room and explains why even though here job is not the most complex in showbusiness, it's the only one she ever wants. here's abc's nick watt. >> now we will officially welcome her. please do that for vanna white. vanna! >> a pirouette in purple, december 13th, 1982, a moment in

television history. >> congratulations and welcome. >> thank you. i'm very excited and happy to be part of "wheel of fortune." >> wheel of fortune! >> reporter: now 6500 gowns later. >> never the same one twice. >> and vanna white, now 60 years old, still here, still loving it. >> i get all dressed up like a barbie doll, i go out, i give someone else's money away, make them happy. and we all go home. in showbusiness, no, there's nothing else i want to do. >> thanks for coming. we'll talk to you later. >> reporter: we are behind the scenes. >> somewhere along the line we became more than a popular show. we became part of the popular culture. >> reporter: vanna white, once an aspiring model, has carried the olympic torch, appeared on the cover of "newsweek" and "play boy." >> when i became famous, hugh hefner decided to put me on the

cover. he was a friend of mine and i went to him and said, hef, if you put these pictures on the cover, it could ruin my career. and he still put them on there. >> did you remain friends? >> i didn't go to the mansion anymore after that. >> reporter: merriam-webster dictionary is now considering the verb "to vanna white." >> to vanna white means to present. >> reporter: already in the guinness book of world records. >> for most frequent clapper. they say i have clapped more than 3.9 million times. >> reporter: wheel is celebrating 35 seasons on our tv screens. simple, massively successful. they shoot six shows a day, just four days a month. that's the gig. >> ooh! nice. >> i had to take two goes on there. not quite as easy as it looks.

>> ouch. >> you see what i mean. >> i caught my finger in the thingy. >> nothing lasts for 35 years what are you doing? >> we're playing hangman on tv. >> it's hangman with prizes. >> reporter: vanna white, perhaps the main ingredient of the secret sauce. >> nice little haven you have up here. >> isn't it? it's my home away from home. >> normally backstages are yucky, but this has a cha chandelier. >> well, i spend a lot of time here. >> reporter: vanna, we've already established it's four days a month. >> but that i long days. >> kathy has been dressing vanna 28 years now. >> kathy made this for me in 1995. >> you made that? >> out of a blanket. >> i wear this every day i come to work. >> 188 bucks. >> not bad, huh? >> not bad, nod bad. >> we like to go sale shopping. >> i like wearing the short ones best. >> okay. >> because i don't trip. >> reporter: how long do you have between shows? >> oh, ten minutes. >> ten minutes? >> yes, we change very quickly.

>> okay. >> we change the dress, we change the shoes. we change the lipstick. i'll stand in front of the mirror and i'll do a few of these. >> before the show? just to pump them up? >> well, yes. yes, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. >> reporter: you've also done very well out of the show. you've earned a lot of money? >> yes, i have. i'm a businesswoman. you know, i have other investments too. real estate. i used to a long time ago, i would buy a house and flip it. but now everybody does that, so i don't do that anymore. because there's no houses out there to buy. >> reporter: for someone who's been on tv for so long, vanna white is quite a private person, so this rare. access to casa vanna. >> i'm shy. i'm shy. i'm not outgoing. >> really? >> i'm a home body. i like staying home. >> but you're on tv. >> i am on tv. but you know what's interesting, how much do i talk on tv?

>> this is my closet. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: here we go, walk-in closet. >> oh, hello. here you go. >> purses. >> you know she's big on crochet. >> so many people are having babies, so i do it on airplanes. >> you see that label? >> that's me. >> reporter: next door, home gym. how many hours a day in here? >> 45 minutes a day on this, this is my spin bike. >> i find exercising so boring. >> i listen to music, i have a little tv right there too. i have telephone. >> and a telephone. >> just in case. >> reporter: and this doesn't happen every shoot. vanna white followed us around with a tray of snacks. >> snacks! >> reporter: someone's been at the baba ghan ush already. >> i know, it's all i had laying around. >> reporter: she has a rep as a pool hustler. >> that was lucky. i better get some tachalk. >> reporter: has her own table

at home. >> did you see that! >> yes, i did. >> who's getting hustled here? >> married to george, divorced in 2002, now has a boyfriend, john. >> he's great, been sergeant for six years. he's like a male version of me. i met him through my best friend. he was hesitant, he was like, i don't want those hollywood people, i'm not interested in that. but as he said, i'm just the opposite of that. >> reporter: her father back home in south carolina, still watches wheel every day. >> he's going to be 92 next month. i call him every day to say hello. >> have you ever had a massive fight with pat? >> no. i've never had one fight with him. >> really? >> one fight. >> what was that about? >> putting ketchup on my hotdog. >> he put ketchup on your hotdog? >> no, i put it on. he doesn't like it. how can you eat ketchup on a hotdog? >> i've been trying to find

something bad about her. she has no prison time stories to talk about. >> she is who she is. >> pat didn't say anything bad about you backstage? >> he didn't? >> if you say, i'm a facilitator and i hope to direct, she goes, i touch letters and they light up. >> reporter: it's not exactly the most feminist job in the world. >> you know what, though, i feel like i hold my own on that show. i don't feel like it's degrading, because i'm up there walking in a dress touching letters. and i don't think people look at that way anymore. they think of me and pat as a team, as a couple that put on a good show. i'll be the first to make fun of what i do, because it's a crazy job. but i love my job and it's great and i think it brings a lot of happiness to people. >> reporter: and for the past 20 years, she's only had to touch the letters. it's automated. >> by the way, these are tv

monitors turned to the side. oh, touch the blue one. there you go! >> reporter: and she's signed up for at least three more years. i'm nick watt for "nightline" in los angeles. >> our thanks to nick watt. and we'll be right back. abc news "nightline," brought to you by mercedes-benz. ahhhh!!! they can fly... ...travel at the speed of light... ...and command the currents. they don't need another way to get around. or do they? [ engine revving ] this this this is my body of proof.

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thank you, ikea. oh, john can't come. your cousins just confirmed. looks like i'm meeting the whole family. oooo, a food blogger? and a wine expert? yes, and yes. expert-level glassware. my uncle geoff just confirmed. the one that's always bringing a plus-one? historically, yes... but we've got plus-one insurance. what's your dream? at ikea, we help you live it. make the dream yours. ♪ ♪ (cheering) we can now use a blood sample to detect lung cancer. if we can do that, imagine what we can do for asthma. and if we can stop seizures in epilepsy patients with a small pacemaker for the brain, imagine what we can do for multiple sclerosis, even migraines. if we can use patients' genes to predict heart disease in their families,

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♪ and finally tonight, it's halloween tomorrow and for some it will be their first halloween ever. one retired nurse and grandmother made costumes, a hundred of them, for babies in the yale newhaven hospital neonatal intensive care unit, to help their families celebrate every precious moment with them. >> there's astronauts and scuba divers and football and baseball and princesses. >> this one-pound baby, fittingly becoming super girl. and we're wishing many more happy halloweens to that little girl and all of those families tonight. thank you for watching abc news.

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