Well, it's a question that a lot of people are asking, because today in the opening statements on both sides, Russia never came up, collusion never came up, the election never came up, President Trump never came up, candidate Trump never came up.Īs you remember, Mueller's mandate was to look at what role the Russians might have played in messing around with our presidential election and whether or not the Trump campaign colluded with that. That seems to be the contours of the argument as they go forward. And from the outset today, it seems that the prosecution is going to say Rick Gates is the one who set up these offshore accounts, Rick Gates was the money guy, Rick Gates was in control of all of this, Paul Manafort was too busy running a political campaign in Ukraine, and he couldn't be cared about the details that were going on back here. He worked a lot with Manafort over the years, and worked with him in Ukraine. ![]() He was also the deputy campaign manager of the Trump campaign. Rick Gates, as you remember, he was Paul Manafort's partner. They seem to be putting all of the blame on Rick Gates. The defense, in their opening statement, said that Paul Manafort didn't willfully lie to the IRS, he didn't try to hide this money. And they started to lay out that case today. secretly, not alerting tax authorities, and he funded a very lavish lifestyle.Īnd one of the prosecutors today said that Paul Manafort put himself and his money above the law.Īnd that's what they have argued all along. He stashed in an offshore bank accounts, he funneled it back to the U.S. They're basically arguing that Manafort made tens of millions of dollars in Ukraine and he didn't want to pay taxes on it. The prosecution's case is as laid out in the indictment. But several months later, Trump tapped him to lead the entire campaign, and at the convention, Manafort himself was emerging as a public face of Trump's candidacy. He was in charge of wrangling enough delegates so that candidate Trump could lock up the nomination. When the Trump campaign brought Manafort on board in 2016, it was initially as convention manager. ![]() Still, the judge has let this case go forward, and, on these charges alone, Manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison, if convicted. Manafort has pled not guilty, and his lawyers have argued previously that these charges have no obvious connection to the matter at the heart of Mueller's investigation. He's up against five counts of filing false tax returns, four counts of not reporting foreign financial accounts, four counts of bank fraud, and five counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. to fund his own lavish lifestyle.Īnd when that income stream slowed, prosecutors allege that Manafort lied to banks to get access to millions of dollars more in loans. Vincent and the Grenadines to hide the fact that he was bringing that money into the U.S. ![]() Prosecutors allege Manafort laundered the income from that work, some $30 million, using shell companies and offshore bank accounts in Cyprus, the Seychelles, and St. Manafort is accused of working as an unregistered lobbyist for several pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, people like former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. While Mueller's investigation focuses mostly on Russia's attempts to meddle in the presidential election, and whether the Trump campaign colluded in that effort, this trial against Manafort will largely focus on alleged financial crimes that happened before the election. Paul Manafort is the first of the defendants charged by special counsel Robert Mueller to go to trial.
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