Manafort defense rests; no witnesses called
Tactic signals move to focus on Gates
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Lawyers for Paul Manafort rested their case Tuesday without calling any witnesses, bringing a swift end to the evidence stage of his tax and bank fraud trial, which legal analysts say appears stacked against President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman.
The decision by Manafort’s legal team is a common tactic by defense lawyers, who often prefer to attack the government’s case by grilling prosecution witnesses instead of offering their own.
Doing so can also send a signal to jurors that the burden of proving a crime rests with the prosecution and defendants don’t have to prove their innocence. The Manafort trial is the first to arise out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, though charges against the political strategist center on his personal finances.
Manafort, 69, spoke briefly in court Tuesday, confirming to U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III that he did not wish to testify.
The move by Manafort’s defense team means the jury in Alexandria, Va., is scheduled to hear closing arguments this morning and could begin deliberating later today.
Deliberations could take some time because Manafort faces 18 counts of tax and bank fraud, based in large part on technical details of IRS forms and bank loan applications. Prosecutors say the defendant hid millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts from the IRS and lied to banks to get millions more in loans. Convictions on the more serious charges could send him to prison for the rest of his life.
Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor, said the defense move was another indication that Manafort is set on an allor-nothing strategy of trying to convince jurors that the star witness, Manafort’s former right-hand man, Rick Gates, is too unreliable.