Paul Manafort's first federal trial will begin with jury selection Tuesday in Alexandria, VA.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as designated by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's official appointment order, has the authority to investigate not only possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia but also other matters that should arise from that investigation.
The government's case against Paul Manafort falls into that second category, and prosecutors likely won't mention the matter of potential collusion. However, as the AP notes, Manafort's role as the head of the president's campaign will be lingering in the background.
Paul Manafort’s financial crimes trial, the first arising from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, will center on his Ukrainian consulting work and only briefly touch on his involvement with the president’s campaign.
But the broader implications are unmistakable.
The trial ... will give the public its most detailed glimpse of evidence Mueller’s team has spent the year accumulating. It will feature testimony about the business dealings and foreign ties of a defendant Trump entrusted to run his campaign during a critical stretch in 2016, including during the Republican convention ...
Adding to the intrigue is the expected spectacle of Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, testifying against him after cutting a plea deal with prosecutors, and the speculation that Manafort, who faces charges in two different courts and decades in prison if convicted, may be holding out for a pardon from Trump.
New information emerged Monday about just how much money Manafort alleged earned from his work in Ukraine.
CNN:
In a filing submitted in Virginia federal court, Mueller's team said they planned to use evidence including "memoranda, emails, and photos reflecting tasks performed" to demonstrate the "full sweep of Manafort's Ukraine work" and that he "was paid tens of millions of dollars in income."
$60 million to be exact.
CNN:
Manafort's attorneys last week fingered over 50 exhibits included on a proposed government list as prejudicial and irrelevant and asked the judge to disallow them from his trial ...
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The indictment against Manafort says $75 million flowed through offshore accounts controlled by Manafort and his former business partner Rick Gates.
Prosecutors on Monday said they need to use the exhibits in question to prove that Manafort earned that much income, which they contend he failed to report on his tax returns. The exhibits also "contain evidence about the identity of Manafort's sources of income in Ukraine, and in particular the oligarchs who instituted the practice of paying Manafort via foreign accounts," according to the filing.
Mueller's team also argued that Manafort's motion would "exclude virtually every exhibit containing the name of several key government witnesses, thereby preventing the jury from hearing evidence that corroborates the witness's expected testimony and demonstrates the witness's credibility."
Prosecutors in Manafort’s case have said they may call 35 witnesses, including five who have immunity agreements, as they try to prove that he laundered more than $30 million in Ukrainian political consulting proceeds and concealed the funds from the IRS.
Jurors are expected to see photographs of his Mercedes-Benz and of his Hampton property putting green and swimming pool. There’s likely to be testimony, too, about tailored Beverly Hills clothing, high-end antiques, rugs and art and New York Yankees seasons tickets.
The luxurious lifestyle was funded by Manafort’s political consulting for the pro-Russian Ukrainian political party of Viktor Yanukovych, who was deposed as Ukraine’s president in 2014.
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While jurors will be hearing painstaking detail about Manafort’s finances, they won’t be told about Manafort’s other criminal case, in the nation’s capital, where he faces charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent and lying to the government.
Nor will they hear about the reason he’s been jailed since last month after a judge revoked his house arrest over allegations that he and a longtime associate attempted to tamper with witnesses in the case. And they won’t learn that Manafort’s co-defendant in the Washington case is a business associate named Konstantin Kilimnik, who lives in Russia and who U.S. authorities assert has connections to Russian intelligence.
Trump and his lawyers have repeatedly sought to play down Manafort’s connection to the president, yet the trial won’t be entirely without references to the campaign.
Mueller’s team says Manafort’s position in the Trump campaign is relevant to some of the bank fraud charges. Prosecutors plan to present evidence that a chairman of one of the banks allowed Manafort to file inaccurate loan information in exchange for a job on the campaign and the promise of a job in the Trump administration. The administration job never materialized.
The trial is expected to last at least three weeks, and a second trial is scheduled to follow starting in September. In that case, Mr. Manafort will face related charges in United States District Court in the District of Columbia.
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Why are there two trials?
Prosecutors filed the tax and bank fraud charges in Virginia, where Mr. 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.
Mr. 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.
Paul Manafort’s Trial Starts Tuesday. Here Are the Charges and the Stakes. (NYT)
Mueller says Manafort earned $60M from Ukraine consulting (CNN)
Manafort trial to focus on lavish lifestyle, not collusion (AP)