Manafort faces tough challenge
Ex-campaign leader, lobbyist’s fraud trial begins Wednesday
WASHINGTON — With his well-coiffed hair, tailored suits and keen ability to charm the powerful, Paul Manafort spent decades wheeling and dealing with U.S. politicians and foreign despots before he became Donald Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016 and ran the Republican National Convention.
As a Republican political strategist, he had helped run successful campaigns for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. As a lobbyist and consultant, he had pocketed tens of millions of dollars working for autocratic leaders, warlords and kleptocrats in such far-flung locales as Angola, Zaire, the Philippines and Ukraine.
Manafort, 69, is about to face his toughest challenge yet — winning over a federal judge and jury in Alexandria, Va. He’s scheduled to go on trial Wednesday on allegations of bank fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy in the first courtroom showdown over charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Although Manafort was ensnared by the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, he wasn’t accused of election-related crimes. But prosecutors say his scheme extended through his time working for Trump — and according to a motion filed July 6, the campaign “is relevant and inextricably Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort walks around the floor before the opening of the GOP convention in Cleveland. intertwined” with one of the charges against Manafort.
Prosecutors say Manafort fraudulently obtained $16 million in two loans from a financial institution where an executive sought a role on the Trump campaign and, if he won, the administration. The executive, who was not named in the court filing, served as a campaign adviser but did not end up working in government. The bank was not named.
But for those hoping the case will finally reveal — or permanently dispel — a broader and more insidious conspiracy are likely to be disappointed. In the same court filing, prosecutors said, “The government does not intend to present at trial evidence or argument concerning collusion with the Russian government.”
Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has fought every step of the way. Even if he’s acquitted, however, he faces a second trial in September on related charges, including failing to register as a lobbyist for a foreign government, in Washington, D.C.
Once the trial starts, Mueller’s team has amassed so much evidence it could take more than a week to present its case. In a July 6 filing, they gave the court a 20-page list of more than 500 pieces of evidence they might use at trial.
Prosecutors also may showcase how Manafort used his wealth, submitting photos of his expensive suits and invoices from hefty purchases from his allegedly ill-gotten gains. Manafort’s indictment said he had spent $934,000 on antique rugs, $1.4 million at men’s clothing stores and $5.4 million for renovations at his beach home in the Hamptons.
The evidence list also includes dozens of emails involving Manafort and former business partners like Richard Gates, who also worked on Trump’s campaign. Gates pleaded guilty earlier this year to false statements and conspiracy for participating in Mana- fort’s schemes, and he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Also on tap are five potential witnesses who have not been publicly identified. Prosecutors have asked District Court Judge T.S. Ellis, who is presiding over the case, to grant immunity to the five so they could testify without fear of self-incrimination.
Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March 2016, a critical juncture in the race. Trump was winning Republican primaries but appeared in danger of losing delegates needed to lock down the party’s nomination without a floor fight. Manafort helped stanch the bleeding.
That May, he was named campaign chairman and chief strategist. A month later, his influence grew further after Trump fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who had openly sparred with Manafort.
His position began unraveling in August, barely five months after he joined the campaign, after the New York Times reported that investigators were looking into $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments to Manafort from former Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovych, and the Associated Press reported he helped a pro-Russian party in Ukraine funnel money to lobbying firms in Washington, D.C.
Yanukovych fled to Russia after he was ousted during violent protests in 2014. One of Manafort’s business partners in Ukraine, Konstantin Kilimnik, is alleged to have ties to Russian intelligence.
Michael Dreeben, a lawyer in Mueller’s office, said in April that investigators started looking into Manafort to determine whether any of his Russian connections provided a “back channel” between Trump’s campaign and Russia. They found no such evidence, he said.
The White House tried to distance itself from Manafort even before he was indicted last October. Seven months earlier, Sean Spicer, then the president’s spokesman, had downplayed Manafort’s role in the campaign, saying he “played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time.”