Witnesses testify about Manafort’s luxury ways
Judge rips prosecutors over unnecessary info
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort personally directed millions of dollars in international wire transfers to pay for high-end suits and more than $3 million in improvements at his various houses, witnesses testified Wednesday on the second day of his financial fraud trial.
The testimony was aimed at bolstering prosecutors’ argument that Manafort orchestrated a scheme to hide millions of dollars in income from the IRS. The accounts from witnesses also contradicted Manafort’s lawyers, who have signaled they will pin blame for any illegal conduct on his longtime deputy, Rick Gates.
The prosecution’s focus on Manafort’s personal finances — at times laid out in painstaking detail — revealed the vast amount of evidence gathered by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team against the longtime political consultant. But it also tried the patience of U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who repeatedly scolded the government’s attorneys for what he said was excessive and unnecessary information.
Ellis warned prosecutors Wednesday against using the word “oligarchs” to describe wealthy Ukrainians and admonished them for spending so much time documenting Manafort’s extravagant lifestyle.
It’s not a crime to be wealthy, he noted. And the pejorative term “oligarchs” and evidence of home renovations aren’t necessarily relevant to the charges in question, he added.
“The government doesn’t want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, do they?” Ellis said amid testimony that Manafort had spent nearly a million dollars on clothing from a boutique retailer where he was one of only about 40 clients. “Let’s move on.”
Ellis even called out lawyers from both sides for rolling their eyes.
The trial is the first courtroom test for the special counsel, who was tasked last year with investigating Russia’s efforts to sway the 2016 election and to determine whether the Trump campaign was involved. So far, Manafort is the lone person to stand trial as a result of the ongoing probe, even though the charges of bank fraud and tax evasion are unrelated to possible collusion.