UPDATE: Paul Manafort's fate now is in the hands of the jury.
7:01 p.m.: Manafort case heading to jury, deliberations to begin Thursday morning
After more than an hour of jury instructions, Judge T.S. Ellis III sent the case to the jury, telling them they would begin deliberations Thursday morning.
In the final instructions to the jury, the judge reminded the panel that their decision must be unanimous and “your sole interest is to seek the truth in the case.”
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Court resumes at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.
... After exchanging brief words with his lawyers and his wife, Manafort left unsmiling for the Alexandria jail where he has been held for several weeks for violating the conditions of his bond on a related case in Washington, D.C., federal court.
But outside the courthouse, lead attorney Kevin Downing said his client was pleased.
“Mr. Manafort was very happy with how things went today,” Downing told a crowd of reporters.
Paul Manafort trial Day 12: Case heading to jury, deliberations start Thursday (WaPo)
Closing arguments in Paul Manafort's trial took place Wednesday.
Greg Andres, a prosecutor with special counsel Robert Mueller's team, repeated the word "lie" more than a dozen times at the outset of his closing argument.
"Mr. Manafort lied to keep more money when he had it and he lied to get more money when he didn't," Andres told the jury.
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Manafort's defense team will get an opportunity to present their own version of the case — in which they are expected to argue the prosecution failed to present evidence to convict Manafort beyond a reasonable doubt.
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After closing arguments, Judge T.S. Ellis — whose routine interjections have irked prosecutors throughout the trial — is expected to deliver lengthy instructions to the jury, which could begin deliberations as early as Wednesday afternoon.
Live updates via The Washington Post: Paul Manafort trial Day 12: Live coverage
10:34 a.m.: Prosecution’s closing argument begins: Manafort’s trail of money “is littered with lies”
Special Counsel’s Office Prosecutor Greg Andres, in a dark blue suit, white shirt and black tie, took a sip of water and began his closing argument at about 10 a.m. Speaking slowly – at times reading and at times looking up at jurors from a lectern that was turned to face them – Andres told the panel that the case boiled down to Paul Manafort’s lies.
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Andres began his closing argument by breaking up the charges into two parts: the period between 2010 and 2014 when Manafort is accused of not paying taxes and of filing false returns to keep the money he had; and the period between 2015 to 2017 when he wasn’t making money and allegedly began defrauding banks.
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“In total, Mr. Manafort failed to pay taxes on more than $15 million,” Andres said, adding that the money was used to pay various vendors.
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10:40 a.m.: Prosecutor addresses some criticism from judge
Throughout the trial, Judge T.S. Ellis III derided prosecutors for focusing on Paul Manafort’s extravagant spending on suits and home improvements. In closing arguments prosecutor Greg Andres got a chance to explain the government’s case.
In essence, he said he agreed with the judge: “This case is not about Mr. Manafort’s wealth. It’s not a crime in this country to be wealthy.”
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“We’re in this courtroom because Mr. Manafort filed false tax returns and failed to file FBARs,” or foreign bank account reports.
10:46 a.m.: Prosecutor asks jury to take careful notes
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“Write down the exhibit numbers so you can review them in the jury room during deliberations,” [prosecutor Greg Andres] said near the outset of his argument, which he promised would be less than two hours long.
Some of the documents, he explained, had not yet been shown in court: “I’m going to do my best to refer to the exhibit numbers,” he said, because “some of the exhibits you’re going to be seeing for the first time.”
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“Why would he lie?” he asked. “The answer is simple: He wanted to hide that money and evade taxes.”
Jurors appeared to take Andres’s words to heart, diligently taking notes as he spoke.
11:10 a.m.: Manafort had millions in 31 foreign accounts, reported none of them, prosecutor says
Early in his closing argument, prosecutor Greg Andres sought to highlight for jurors a simple fact: Paul Manafort reported on his tax returns that he did not have foreign bank accounts, when in fact he did.
Displaying charts to jurors that demonstrated his point, Andres asserted that not only did Manafort have such accounts, but he kept millions of dollars in them, much of which he funneled to the U.S. to buy luxury clothes, cars and property.
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As Andres spoke, jurors looked up at him, occasionally scribbling notes in the black notebooks they have used throughout the trial. Andres spoke slowly and dispassionately – often referring to particular exhibit numbers that he said jurors should consult when they retire to discuss the case. For his part, Manafort, dressed in a blue suit and blue shirt, sat staring forward or looking down, never turning his head toward Andres or the jury.
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Andres ... appealed to jurors’ common sense. Was it possible, he asked facetiously, that [Rick] Gates or some unknown person had forged Manafort’s signature on the accounts, put $60 million in them over time, and then allowed Paul Manafort to use them to buy $15 million in clothes and cars?
“Does that make any sense at all?” Andres asked the jury. “We should all be so lucky.”
A few jurors chuckled in response.
11:40 a.m.: Defense attempts to shift blame to Rick Gates are wrong, prosecutor argues
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Ten witnesses — including an FBI agent, an IRS employee, and Manafort’s bookkeepers — testified before Gates took the stand and all their testimony showed Manafort was not ignorant of his financial activity. Manafort was willful in his actions, Andres said. He knew the law and still chose to violate it.
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“Ladies and gentlemen, the star witness in this case is the documents,” Andres said.
Andres also asked the jury to question why the defense leaned hard on Gates’s extramarital affairs.
“Was it to distract you?” Andres asked. “Does it matter?”
Any affair Gates had 10 years ago doesn’t make Manafort any less guilty, Andres said.
Manafort was a mentor to Gates, and if anything, Manafort “didn’t choose a Boy Scout” as a business partner but sought someone with whom he could commit fraud and other crimes.
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11:56 a.m.: Prosecutor delves into bank fraud allegations
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“Time and time again, Mr. Manafort provided false information” to banks, Andres said, adding that “any number of bank documents that Mr. Manafort signed” explicitly say that doing so is a crime.
The fraud was necessary, Andres explained, because Manafort’s Ukrainian patron Viktor Yanukovych “was out of power,” and “Mr. Manafort couldn’t pay his bills.”
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12:22 p.m.: Manafort got $16 million loan with help from banker who wanted Trump administration job, prosecutor argues
Prosecutor Greg Andres finished his closing argument by explaining to jurors how Paul Manafort had defrauded Federal Savings Bank to acquire $16 million in loans, largely thanks to the “guiding hand” of the bank’s chief executive officer, Steve Calk, who wanted a Trump administration post.
As he did with the previous loans, Andres showed jurors a numbered list of the lies he said Manafort told to secure the loans.
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“The evidence in this case is overwhelming,” Andres concluded. “It’s a case about how when Mr. Manafort didn’t have money, he lied to get more from bank, after bank, after bank.”
1:52 p.m.: Manafort attorney says defense put on no evidence because case wasn’t ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’
Defense attorney Richard Westling began his closing argument on behalf of Paul Manafort not with specific evidence but broad concepts — presumption of innocence, burden of proof and reasonable doubt.
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He went on to explain that the burden of proof is on the government, and that the defense “made a decision not to put on evidence because… we believe the government has not met that burden.”
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2:02 p.m.: Defense says Manafort had $21.3 million net worth in 2016
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Westling pointed to Manafort’s “talent as a political consultant” and his decades of work on presidential campaigns, spanning from Gerald Ford to Donald Trump. Manafort, Westling said, “endeavored to serve.”
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Manafort’s success, he said, was often based on his capacity to involve others.
“He turned to other people to work together as a team, and had to rely on those people,” Westling said. The defense attorney said that even in his personal finances, Manafort relied on close business associate Rick Gates, his bookkeeper and accountant.
That, Westling said, was “not consistent” with someone trying to commit financial fraud.
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Westling displayed a bank’s credit memorandum, showing that at the end of 2016, Manafort had cash and other financial instruments totaling $8.6 million, and his adjusted net worth was $21.3 million.
“Given this evidence, how can we say he didn’t have money?” Westling asked.
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2:27 p.m.: Prosecutors haven’t shown Manafort had criminal intent, false information not enough, defense argues
Defense attorney Richard Westling asked the jury to question the motives behind the bank-fraud and conspiracy charges against Manafort. It wasn’t the banks that came to the government to report that they had been defrauded and none of the banks reported concerns with Manafort’s loan applications to regulators, Westling said.
“Nobody came forward to say we’re concerned about what we’re seeing here, not until the special counsel showed up and started asking questions” Westling said.
Westling suggested the special counsel “cobbled together” information to “stack up the counts” against Manafort and overwhelm the jury.
And why did the government rely on calling low-level bank employees instead of calling certain key players to testify, Westling questioned. Where was Steve Calk, the Federal Savings Bank CEO who prosecutors say approved a shaky loan in a quid pro quo for a Trump administration job? Or the other members of the loan committee with Federal Savings Bank who also signed off on lending Manafort $16 million?
“It’s for you to determine what that means,” Westling said.
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2:56 p.m.: Defense argues inconsistencies only look like fraud in hindsight
Defense attorney Richard Westling argued that the special counsel scoured thousands of documents and cherry-picked a few inconsistencies that only in hindsight could look like fraud.
He urged the jury to largely ignore all the email evidence, saying that looking back at anyone’s emails can give a wrong impression. “What do those emails mean?” he asked. “Rely on testimony.”
But he also said the testimony of Manafort’s business associate Rick Gates cannot be trusted, and neither can that of Manafort’s former accountant Cindy Laporta.
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3:05 p.m.: Gates ‘lied to you,’ government case fails without him, defense attorney argues
Taking over the closing argument from his colleague, defense attorney Kevin Downing immediately launched into a blistering attack on the prosecution’s star witness: Rick Gates.
Downing said that Gates – who had “signature authority” over some Cyprus bank accounts – stole a “few million” dollars from Paul Manafort, and Manafort was completely unaware because he trusted his deputy and applied little oversight to him.
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After attacking Gates, Downing sought to stress for jurors how complicated Manafort’s taxes were, and how his actions were too transparent to support the idea that he was trying to hide money from the IRS.
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Downing wrapped up his closing argument by again placing the blame on Gates and the others who worked for Manafort.
“Mr. Gates was orchestrating a multimillion dollar embezzlement scheme” and trying to keep it from the accountants, Downing said.
Downing pointed to the testimony of Manafort accountant Cindy Laporta, who had testified that she didn’t trust Gates but didn’t call Manafort to air her concerns.
“If the accountants had picked up the phone, maybe none of us would be here right now,” Downing told the jury before asking them to find Manafort not guilty of all charges.
3:21 p.m.: Prosecutors say defense attorneys violated rulings in closing arguments
After the jury was excused for a break, prosecutor Greg Andres stood up to argue that defense attorneys had violated several judge’s rulings in their closing arguments by suggesting Manafort could have been audited, that he was selectively prosecuted, and that Federal Savings Bank got several hundred thousand dollars when it loaned him $16 million.
Judge T.S. Ellis III agreed with Andres on the first two issues ...
The judge said he would offer extra instructions to the jury, saying that the government is under no obligation to audit someone before prosecution and that they should ignore any argument that Manafort was selectively prosecuted by the special counsel.
4:36 p.m.: In rebuttal, prosecutor says ‘dozens and dozens’ of documents connect Manafort to fraud
In his last pitch to jurors, prosecutor Greg Andres tried to rebut the notion that Rick Gates was to blame for the crimes with which Paul Manafort is charged.
Andres said there were “dozens and dozens” of documents, many of them emails, that Manafort wrote or was copied on, that connect him to the fraud.
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Andres concluded by asserting that the evidence in the case was strong.
“It leads to only one conclusion, and that is that Mr. Manafort is guilty, and guilty as charged,” Andres said.
Judge T.S. Ellis III is now giving the jury instructions before they receive the case to deliberate.
4:55 p.m.: In instructions, judge reminds jury not to consider Manafort’s decision not to testify
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III is currently reading to jurors the instructions on the law they will have to consider as they decide whether Paul Manafort is guilty of the 18 charges he faces.
This is the last step before the case will be given to jurors to begin their deliberations.
Manafort trial Day 12: Prosecution hammers 'Mr. Manafort's lies' in closing argument (Politico)