Trial puts Mueller’s credibility on line
Jury selection starts for Trump campaign chief
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The potential jeopardy facing former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort cannot be underestimated.
A stark assessment was offered this year by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who declared that the Republican political operative faced the prospect of life in prison if convicted on the barrage of bank fraud and tax evasion charges leveled against him.
Jury selection in Manafort’s criminal trial begins Tuesday in a case that is the first public test for a team of federal prosecutors assembled more than 14 months ago by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller.
Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and whether there was collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Kremlin has been repeatedly derided by the president as a “witch-hunt.”
Last week, prosecutors said they do not intend to offer evidence related to Russia’s election interference effort. They suggested that references to Manafort’s association with the Trump campaign would be limited.
The government’s pronouncements have done little to dispel the looming shadow of the president, whose active Twitter account has offered real-time commentary on the prosecution’s case as it moves toward trial.
Trump is the reason the bank of television cameras stands at the ready in the plaza across from the Albert V. Bryan Courthouse. Whatever fate – or a jury – confers on Manafort, it will be significant for Trump, who has long sought to undermine the legitimacy of Mueller’s inquiry.
“This case is incredibly important to the integrity of the special counsel’s investigation going forward,” said Jimmy Gurule, a University of Notre Dame law professor and former federal pros-
ecutor. “The focus of the Manafort trial may not be about Trump or whether the president sought to obstruct Mueller’s Russia investigation, but it speaks to the overall credibility of the Russia investigation. If Manafort somehow gets acquitted, you can pretty much expect the president’s tweet to say, ‘See, I told you so.’ ”
Mueller’s team has assembled a formidable case – 18 criminal counts in all. Bruce Udolf, a former federal prosecutor who served as an associate independent counsel during the Whitewater investigation, said the risk for Mueller has grown to match the high profile of the target.
“Prosecutors have an expression: ‘If you aim to shoot a king, you better hit him between the eyes,’ ” Udolf said. “If (prosecutors) do that, they go far to making believers out of others, including those who may have been sitting on the fence on Mueller.”
Mueller’s deniers and doubters include not only the president but also a loyal group of conservative lawmakers who have pressed the Justice Department in recent months to turn over sensitive documents about the Russia inquiry. Last week, members of the House Freedom Caucus escalated their battle, filing articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees Mueller’s inquiry.
Public opinion polls reflect a slow erosion of support for Mueller’s effort. Last month, a CNN poll showed that the special counsel’s approval rating dipped from 48 percent in March to 41 percent in June.
Mueller has never shown much regard for public approval. He has preferred to speak through a tsunami of charging documents. In the case against Manafort, investigators sought to offer a portrait of head-spinning extravagance supported by massive financial fraud, some of it extending back to 2008 and continuing through 2017.
Prosecutors asserted that Manafort funneled tens of millions of dollars in income for work on behalf of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russia regime into foreign bank accounts, which were concealed from U.S. tax authorities.
Manafort was allegedly paid by friendly Ukrainian oligarchs who routed money to Manafort-controlled bank accounts, many of them in Cyprus. Prosecutors asserted that Manafort “used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States” that included multiple residences, luxury cars, fine oriental rugs and racks of tailored clothing.
About $75 million allegedly passed through the offshore bank accounts.
Prosecutors claimed Manafort helped obtain more than $20 million in loans by lying about business income and debt.
Although charges do not refer to Manafort’s work on the Trump campaign, the fraud allegedly occurred while Manafort served as campaign chairman and after he left the campaign, following the 2016 Republican National Convention.
Manafort denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyers contended that Mueller’s team ranged far beyond its central mission to examine Russian interference by bringing charges against the 69-year-old defendant.