Gates, star witness against Manafort, concludes testimony
ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Paul Manafort’s protégé on Wednesday wrapped up his testimony aimed at implicating the former Trump campaign chair in financial crimes while also enduring stinging attacks on his character and credibility.
Rick Gates has been the government’s star witness in Manafort’s financial fraud trial, testifying how, at the behest of his longtime boss, he helped conceal millions of dollars in foreign income and submitted fake mortgage and tax documents.
Defence lawyers saw an opening to undermine his testimony by painting him as liar and a philanderer, getting him to admit to an extramarital affair and reminding jurors how he had lied to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team while working out a plea deal for himself.
The testimony, stretching across three days, created an extraordinary courtroom showdown between the two former Trump campaign aides who were indicted together by Mueller but who have since opted for radically different strategies: Manafort is the lone American charged by Mueller to opt for trial, whereas Gates pleaded guilty and agreed to co-operate by testifying against his former boss.
Gates endured a challenging cross-examination that focused on his admitted embezzlement from Manafort, an extramarital affair and a guilty plea that may spare him severe punishment. “After all the lies you’ve told and the fraud you’ve committed, you expect this jury to believe you?” Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing asked at one point.
On Wednesday, Downing sought to counter earlier testimony that Manafort had encouraged Gates to deceive authorities by getting Gates to acknowledge that Manafort told him to be truthful about offshore shell companies and bank accounts during a 2014 interview with the FBI. The interview was part of an FBI investigation that sought to recover assets looted from the Ukrainian government under the rule of former president Viktor Yanukovych.
Gates said under questioning Wednesday that he told FBI agents and Justice Department lawyers about some of the offshore companies that contained millions of dollars in proceeds from their Ukrainian political work. But prosecutor Greg Andres followed up by suggesting that Gates and Manafort were not fully truthful. “Did you tell the FBI that there was hidden income in those accounts?” Andres asked. “No, I did not,” Gates responded.
Prosecutors had braced for the tough questioning by getting Gates to come clean about his own crimes. He told jurors how he disguised millions of dollars in foreign income as loans in order to lower Manafort’s tax bill. Gates recounted how he and Manafort used more than a dozen offshore shell companies and bank accounts in Cyprus to funnel the money, all while concealing the accounts and the income from the IRS.
But the grilling got more intense Tuesday afternoon when Downing pressed Gates about a “secret life” he said was funded by embezzlement, including an extramarital affair that Gates himself acknowledged. Gates also said he may have submitted personal expenses for reimbursement by Trump’s inaugural committee, which he helped operate.