What’s at stake today in Manafort’s trial
WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort, the veteran Republican political operative and lobbyist who helped run President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, is scheduled to go to trial on financial fraud charges starting today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
The following are some of the most frequently asked questions about the trial. What are the charges?
The 32-count indictment charged Manafort with disguising more than $30 million in overseas income by moving it through offshore accounts, lying to banks and evading taxes.
Prosecutors claim that beginning in 2006, Manafort hid millions of dollars in income that he received from the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian oligarchs to promote a pro-Russian leader, Viktor Yanukovych. When Yanukovych fled to Russia after a popular uprising in 2014, prosecutors say, the spigot of funds from Ukraine dried up. They charge that Manafort then resorted to bank fraud to maintain his lifestyle.
According to the indictment, he was helped by his right hand man, Rick Gates, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and lying to the FBI. Gates, who also worked for the Trump campaign, is expected to testify against Manafort.
The most serious charges against Manafort could carry sentences of up to 30 years each.
How does the case fit into the Mueller inquiry?
Manafort’s supporters claim that it does not, and his legal team at one point sought to have the case thrown out on the basis that special counsel Robert Mueller had exceeded his authority. The judge in the Virginia case, T.S. Ellis III, suggested in court that the prosecutors were simply pursuing the case as a way of pressuring Manafort to provide evidence that could implicate Trump.
But the judge ultimately decided that Mueller’s team had “followed the money paid by pro-Russian officials” to Manafort — a line of inquiry that fell squarely in his authority.
If Manafort is convicted, it will be harder for Trump and his supporters to claim the special counsel is waging a “witch hunt.” If he is acquitted, it would likely elicit more calls from Trump’s supporters for Mueller to wind up his work.
What’s at stake for Trump?
The charges against Manafort do not involve any allegations that the Trump campaign conspired with the Russians to tip the 2016 election. Nonetheless, the question of what, if anything, Manafort might know about that looms over the trial.
Should Manafort decide to cooperate with prosecutors, Mueller’s team will probably have a wide range of questions related to his role in the Trump presidential campaign, including what he knows about the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 organized by Russian emissaries who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.
On the other hand, Gates, Manafort’s close associate, has been cooperating with Mueller’s team for months. So even if he has information of interest to Mueller and decides to make a deal, Manafort might not lead investigators into brandnew territory.
How could the trial play out?
To prove that Manafort defrauded banks, prosecutors need to show he deliberately lied about financial facts, said Nancy Gertner, a former U.S. district judge and a professor at Harvard Law School.
The prosecutors have provided the outline of their case in the indictment and various filings. Prosecutors intend to show that beginning in 2006, Manafort used offshore accounts and corporate entities to illegally disguise income that he used to maintain a lavish lifestyle.
In 2012 alone, they have said, Manafort paid $3 million in cash for a Brooklyn brownstone and nearly $3 million for a Manhattan condominium and he bought a house in Arlington, Virginia. All told, $75 million flowed through offshore accounts that he tapped, they say.
Manafort’s defense team has not revealed its strategy.
Why is Manafort in jail?
The federal judge who will try the charges filed in Washington, Amy Berman Jackson, revoked Manafort’s bond and ordered him to jail in mid-June after prosecutors filed new charges saying that after his indictment, Manafort sought to influence the testimony of two witnesses.
They said that Manafort and an associate had suggested to the witnesses that he had not violated federal law requiring lobbyists representing foreign interests disclose their activities to the Justice Department.
Why are there two trials?
Prosecutors filed the tax and bank fraud charges in Virginia, where Manafort has a home, because that’s where they say those crimes occurred. The other charges, including money laundering, were lodged in Washington for the same reason.
Manafort’s lawyers could have agreed to consolidate the cases. Instead, they opted to hold the first trial in northern Virginia, where the jury pool is likely to be more conservative politically than in heavily Democratic Washington and perhaps more sympathetic to him.