Next Manafort trial will delve deeper into Russia
WASHINGTON — The Paul Manafort trial set for September in Washington is expected to last three weeks and, on the basis of a list of 1,500 possible exhibits, will delve far more deeply into how he operated as a lobbyist and consultant than was done in his just-completed trial in Virginia.
The estimated trial timeline and exhibits were included in a joint filing Friday night in federal court in Washington by Manafort’s defense and prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller III.
The required filing is a road map of the next trial facing President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, convicted Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria on eight of 18 tax- and bankfraud charges after a trial that focused on Manafort’s finances.
Manafort’s trial in the District of Columbia, set to begin Sept. 17, will cover much of the same ground but will scrutinize more closely his politic al work from 2006 to 2017, during which he allegedly reaped $30 million as a consultant for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.
Manafort, 69, has pleaded not guilty to charges related to his advising of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. In his upcoming trial, the list of prosecution exhibits suggests how Manafort became an architect of Washington’s modern-day influence industry, gaining access to foreign influence and foreign money.
Manafort faces seven counts in the District charging him with conspiring against the United States, money laundering, failing to register as a lobbyist, making false state- ments and witness tampering.
The last count arose after prosecutors in June accused Manafort and along time associate they linked to Russian intelligence of repeatedly contacting two members of a public relations firm and asking them to falsely testify about secret lobbying they did at Manafort’s behest. Manafort has been in jail since then on the order of U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing the case in Washington.
Prosecutors disclosed the list of 1,500 potential exhib- its with minimal descriptors, but among the subject lines in emails and other correspondence are references to Democratic power lobbyist Tony Podesta, whose firm, the Podesta Group, went out of business after Manafort’s indictment was unsealed; former GOP congressman and Jeb Bush adviser Vin Weber of Mercury Public Affairs; and former Ba rack Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig, who this year left his job as of counsel at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
The exhibit list also mentions items citing “OVD” and O leg ,” which appear to be references to "Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate and ally to Russian President Vladimir Put in who employed Manafort as an investment consultant.
The list also appears to refer to many oft hep urchases of high-end clothing and consumer electronics hat were discussed in the Virginia trial as prosecutors there laid out their case about Manafort’s income and wire transfers from foreign accounts.