Manafort found guilty on 8 counts of tax evasion, fraud
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal jury convicted Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, of eight counts of tax evasion and bank fraud Tuesday, a victory for special counsel Robert Mueller in the first criminal trial brought by his office.
The jury said it was deadlocked on 10 related charges and the judge declared a mistrial on them after four days of deliberations and a 12-day trial that focused in part on Manafort’s gilded lifestyle, making him a symbol of greed in the Trump era.
Manafort, 69, showed a glimmer of a smile when he learned the jurors could not reach an unanimous decision on the 10 charges. But it quickly disappeared as a clerk read the eight guilty verdicts.
He was convicted on five counts of filing false tax returns, one count of not filing a report on a foreign bank account and two counts of bank fraud. He could be sentenced to as many as 80 years in prison.
Once an influential Republican operative, wealthy Washington lobbyist and globe-trotting
adviser to foreign leaders, Manafort stood motionless as the judge explained the sentencing process to him.
His wife, Kathleen, sat behind him in the first row of the ninthfloor courtroom. Once the proceedings were over, Manafort appeared to walk toward her, briefly making eye contact before deputies escorted him out the side door he’s used throughout the trial.
The case focused chiefly on Manafort’s efforts to hide tens of millions of dollars from his work as a political consultant in Ukraine before he joined Trump’s presidential campaign in March 2016. But evidence introduced at trial indicated some of the actions occurred as Manafort steered the candidate through the Republican National Convention in Cleveland that summer.
Evidence also showed that after the election, Manafort tried to secure a job in the Trump administration for a Chicago bank executive who helped him get $16 million in loans in 2016 that prosecutors said were based on fraudulent documents. No job ultimately was arranged, although the executive was given an advisory position on Trump’s campaign.
None of the charges cited Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, the initial focus of the special counsel’s wide-ranging probe. But the verdict could strengthen Mueller’s hand as he spars with Trump’s lawyers over whether the president will agree to an interview — or face a potential subpoena — in coming months.
The guilty verdict is also politically awkward for Trump, and he appeared to question the verdict after he arrived Tuesday in Charleston, W.Va., for a campaign rally.
“This is a witch hunt, and it’s a disgrace,” Trump told reporters.
The question of a presidential pardon has hung over Manafort’s case ever since he decided to risk a trial — and the stiffer prison sentence that could result — rather than cut a deal with the special counsel’s office as other defendants have done.
Trump didn’t mention a pardon Tuesday, but he said Manafort was treated unfairly by prosecutors, a description he’s deployed when issuing previous pardons.
“I feel very badly for Paul Manafort,” the president said. The case against him had “nothing to do with Russian collusion,” insisting the special counsel’s office had strayed from its “original mission.”
It wasn’t clear if Manafort would try to appeal.
Kevin Downing, a lawyer for Manafort, told reporters outside the Alexandria courthouse that he is “evaluating his options at this point.”
“Mr. Manafort is disappointed at not getting an acquittal or a complete hung jury on all counts,” Downing said.
During the trial, Manafort’s defense lawyers chose not to present any witnesses or evidence, gambling instead that the jury would simply reject the government’s case as unreliable or insufficient. Manafort did not take the stand.
He faces another federal trial on related charges Sept. 17 in Washington, D.C., and the judge in that case ordered him incarcerated in June after he was accused of attempted witness tampering.
Manafort was the latest reminder of the scandals that have swirled around Trump’s senior staff almost since he took office.
The secretary of Health and Human Services and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency were forced out over ethical controversies, and other senior aides have faced harsh scrutiny. Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty last year to lying to federal investigators.
Prosecutors prevailed in the Manafort case despite frequent criticism from U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis, a stern jurist who repeatedly questioned prosecution tactics in front of the jury. Ellis sought to limit testimony about Manafort’s work in Ukraine and his opulent tastes, saying the details were not relevant to the legal question of whether he had evaded U.S. taxes.
Mueller’s team twice filed formal motions asking Ellis to retract his comments. He agreed only once, telling the jury Thursday to disregard an outburst during which he accused prosecutors of improperly allowing an expert witness to sit in the courtroom during testimony.
“This robe doesn’t make me anything other than human, and I may have made a mistake,” he said.
On Tuesday, after the jury dismissed, Ellis seemed chastened by criticism he received during the trial. He referenced the “brickbats” he had gotten and told prosecutors and defense lawyers that they provided “effective and zealous representation,” a rare bit of praise from a judge better known for scolding the attorneys before him.