Jury convicts former Trump campaign manager on 8 counts
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal jury has found Paul Manafort guilty on eight of 18 counts in the financial fraud trial of a man who just two years ago helped President Donald Trump secure the Republican nomination for the White House.
Manafort was found guilty on five counts of submitting false tax returns, one count of failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts, and two counts of bank fraud.
He faces a maximum of 80 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III declared a mistrial on the other 10 counts. The judge gave prosecutors a week to decide whether they would seek a retri-
al on those counts.
During the reading of the verdicts, Manafort faced the jury expressionless as some of the jurors looked directly at him. Manafort’s wife, Kathleen, sat directly behind him in the gallery.
Ellis called Manafort to the lectern briefly where he told the former political operative that he would not set an immediate sentencing date.
Ellis then turned to prosecutors and defense attorneys, complimenting them for their efforts. “I think the government and Mr. Manafort received very effective and zealous representation from both sides,” Ellis said, standing at the bench. “Unfortunately, I can’t make that statement all of the time.”
Before he excused the jurors, Ellis said he would keep their identities under seal after jurors unanimously requested he take the action.
Ellis has been ridiculed by some for his open questioning of prosecutors’ tactics during the case. He then chuckled and said, “In my Rome, I am far less superior than Caesar.”
Kathleen Manafort, wearing sunglasses, left the courthouse without commenting, shielded by two of her husband’s attorneys.
Manafort’s defense attorney Kevin Downing said, “Mr. Manafort is disappointed at not getting acquittals all the way through or a complete hung jury on all counts. However, he would like to thank Judge Ellis for granting him a fair trial.”
Downing didn’t say whether Manafort would appeal. “He is evaluating all his options at this point,” Downing said.
The verdict marked a victory for special counsel Robert Mueller, whose case against Manafort represented the first contested prosecution brought from the ongoing investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Though the Manafort prosecution is not related to Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling, the case has been seen as an important initial test for Mueller, whose legitimacy has been repeatedly questioned by Trump and his Republican allies.
Over the course of the trial, prosecutors painted Manafort as a liar in pursuit of a lavish lifestyle that was fueled by millions of dollars in unreported income stashed in foreign bank accounts and fraudulently obtained bank loans.
More than two dozen witnesses were
called to testify, and nearly 400 government exhibits were submitted by prosecutors during 10 days of testimony.
In their final appeal to the jury of six men and six women on Wednesday, prosecutors guided panelists through hours of government testimony, highlighting the alleged tax and loan fraud, the foundation of 18 criminal counts lodged against Manafort.
“Mr. Manafort lied to keep more money when he had it,” prosecutor Greg Andres said in the government’s closing argument Wednesday. “And he lied to get more money when he didn’t.”
Manafort’s attorneys, meanwhile, took direct aim at the government’s star witness, Rick Gates, who served as a trusted business partner to Manafort for a decade.
Gates, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy and lying to the FBI as part of a deal to offer evidence against his former associate, acknowledged during hours of testimony that he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort.
Defense attorneys also told jurors that it was Gates – not Manafort – who had complete access to the foreign bank accounts, which took in $60 million from their political consulting work for Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine.
Last Tuesday, Manafort declined to testify on his own behalf, and his lawyers told a federal judge that they would offer no witnesses for the defense. Downing later told reporters that the defense made the move because the government had “not met its burden of proof ” in the financial fraud case.
The verdict here does not mark the end of Manafort’s legal troubles.
The 69-year-old longtime Republican operative faces a second trial next month in the District of Columbia on related charges of money laundering.