Paul Manafort trial: judge hands case to jurors after closing arguments
Paul Manafort’s fate is now in a jury’s hands.
A Virginia court heard closing arguments Wednesday in the trial of the former Donald Trump campaign chairman on charges of bank fraud, tax fraud and failure to disclose foreign bank accounts.
If he is convicted, Manafort, 69, could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Judge TS Ellis III handed the case to jurors Wednesday evening. Deliberations were scheduled to begin in earnest on Thursday morning on the 18 charges.
A not guilty verdict would vindicate Manafort’s apparent decision not to seek a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller, whose team is prosecuting the case.
Prosecutors said the “star witness” in the case was the stack of documents purportedly showing that Manafort had wilfully sought to mislead banks and the Internal Revenue Service about his income.
The defense argued that lawyers for the government had failed to prove that banks acted on misleading information submitted by Manafort, and they attacked former Manafort protégé Rick Gates, who testified against the defendant after reaching a plea deal.
The case moved quickly, unfolding over just two weeks. Prosecutors called witnesses who described a debt crisis within Manafort’s political consulting business even as he spent lavishly on real estate, clothing and entertainment.
Manafort did not testify and the defense rested on Tuesday without calling any witnesses.
Ellis, the judge, spurred the prosecution along while barring the defense from arguing that Manafort had been selectively prosecuted by the special counsel’s office.
An attempt nevertheless by defense attorney Kevin Downing to make that argument on Wednesday was met with a swift objection from prosecutor Greg Andres.
Manafort faces a second trial in a district court in Washington DC in September.