a shrewd liar that is how prosecutors are painting president Trump's a former
campaign chairman Paul Manafort today a dramatic kickoff in the first trial from
Bob Miller's Russia investigation a jury of six men and six women listening as
Muller's team outlined its case describing manna far as a con artist who
ran a global scheme to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes
prosecutors say manna fort made 60 million dollars in Ukraine and then he
didn't report it to the IRS they say he had 30 bank accounts in just three
foreign countries which he used in part to store on tax income to spend on
luxury goods like Range Rovers watch costing 21 thousand dollars a fifteen
thousand dollar custom-made ostrich jacket I mean who doesn't need one of
those right the defense hitting back saying Manta
Ford is the victim that he was taken advantage of by the man he trusted most
Rick Gates his right-hand man in Ukraine and his deputy in the Trump campaign the
man afford strategy blame it all on gates the man who flipped against his
longtime boss the man the government describes as the government's star
witness Evan Perez is out front live in Alexandria Virginia and Evan you were
there in the courtroom today the opening statements the first witness what
happened well Aaron it was quite a dramatic day especially by prosecutors
as they began their opening statements by describing manna Ford as quote a man
who believed that the law did not apply to him essentially talking about the
fact that he didn't file income tax or accurate income tax statements for the
years 2010 2011 2012 2013 and 2014 they went through all of his offshore bank
accounts where he apparently according to the prosecutors hid millions of
dollars that were paid by these Ukrainian oligarchs that he was doing
business with they described as you said 30 bank accounts in three different
countries the he owns seven homes including in the
Hamptons in Florida and here in Alexandria Virginia
they said he spent a half a million dollars on fancy clothes twenty-one
thousand dollars on that watch and fifteen thousand dollars on that ostrich
jacket essentially they made it clear that his extravagant lifestyle that's
their words extravagant lifestyle was going to be on trial here because they
said this is what Paul Manafort was using these offshore bank accounts in
Cyprus and in other places to hide the money from the IRS interesting evidence
because it doesn't sound like at least what we heard today that the defense is
going to be actually no we did pay our taxes it sounds like the defense is okay
fine but it's Ric Gates's fault yeah it's kind of a defense of blame it on
that guy right part of it is Ric Gates Ric Gates was his deputy worked closely
with him not only in business in Ukraine but also remember Aaron he was his
deputy working in the Trump campaign as men in fact he stayed on the Trump
campaign after Paul Manafort was fired so blame it on Rick Gates he was the one
who was closely managing these business affairs and blame it on the Ukrainian
oligarchs who demanded that Paul Manafort set up these private secret
bank accounts in in Cyprus in the st. Vincent and the Grenadines to be in
order for him to be able to get paid by these Ukrainian oligarchs that's the
defense in a nutshell it's a kind of an unusual defense they also say that they
they also say that the Paul Manafort met with the FBI in 2014 and he described
these offshore bank accounts he identified them and he also described
that he had gotten paid twenty seven million dollars in doing business with
Ukrainian so we had the first witness already here because this is a what's
known as the rocket docket here in Alexandria Virginia we had the first
witness and so we hear we expect that in the next couple of days going to hear a
lot about the accountants and more details about these bank accounts there
all right thank you very much Evan I mean it's all pretty fascinating and by
the way as Evan says you know he says you met with the FBI and detailed 27
million dollars he was paid well of course the government saying it was 60
so the numbers don't even add up you
know look the judge today made it clear this
trial is not about collusion or Russia but Nate mom snake Paul man affords
trial does go to the heart of Muller's Russia investigation
take this Manta for twas Trump's campaign chairman of course in the inner
circle for the venn candidate Manta fort was in the infamous Trump Tower meeting
with an admitted Russian informant Manta fort reportedly offered to provide quote
private briefings on the campaign to a Russian oligarch and Putin insider and
if his trial isn't going well and he's looking at spending the rest of his life
behind bars he could flip on the president this trial is front and center
on president Trump's mind and Jeff Zeleny is out front with the breaking
details and how Trump is following this trial he'd like us to think he's not
following at all Jeff but that would not be the truth Aaron that's right I mean
there are two different types of strategies here at the White House I'm
told today talking to a variety of people one in public they're trying to
distance President Trump from any of these proceedings say look Paul manta
Ford's business dealings were going were happening long before he became the
campaign chairman and it was the campaign chairman for only a brief
period of time we heard Kellyanne Conway saying today that she was the winning
campaign manager trying to distance and diminish Paul Manafort role but making a
mistake I mean two summers ago in Cleveland at that Republican National
Convention with that Paul Manafort the whole floor fight on the convention
would have been much more pronounced he helped the Republican Party accept
Donald Trump and now I am told that President Trump is watching this these
proceedings very carefully as he was flying down to Florida this evening
where he's going to be holding a campaign rally tonight I'm told he was
watching these uh proceedings on television he also has been asking for
updates from his legal team from lawyers who are following this of course very
carefully so yes it's not about President Trump it's not necessarily
even about the Russia collusion investigation but they are keeping such
a close eye on that here at the White House Aaron of course you know this is
Bob Mahler's first public case here so for the next three weeks they'll say
they're not watching Aaron privately I'm told they are certainly certainly are
because this may be about one thing as you point out but Manta Ford is linked
to a whole lot of other things as well Jeff Zeleny thank you and I want to go
now to the Democratic congressman Adam Schiff of California who's the ranking
member of the Select Committee on Intelligence so of course are part of
the Russia investigation there congressman you know this trial not
about collusion with the Trump campaign and Russia as you know just about an
accused shrewd liar who evaded taxes and brought bought that fifteen thousand
dollar ostrich jacket which I'm sort of obsessed with cuz I don't even know what
I get such a mental image they're saying this has nothing to do with the Trump
campaign is it that simple no it's not that simple and I think if it were you
wouldn't find the president watching it so keenly look this is Donald Trump's
campaign manager who is pointing the finger at his deputy campaign manager
and if he is convicted and as you point out err and he will face substantial
time if he's convicted on these charges he may flip and that would be I think
profoundly concerning to the president we're already hearing conflicting
reports about the president's knowledge and maybe involvement or approval of
that Trump Tower meeting that Paul Manafort sat in on if he is facing time
then he may come clean on what he knows about that meeting but also if Muller
were to be unsuccessful it's an opportunity for the president to further
bash him but I have to say I'm betting on Muller on this these are very
document specific allegations that are I think fairly easy to prove so I mean
yeah when it comes to paying your taxes or not right as you point out right
dockage it should be document driven but you know the ostrich coat the $21,000
watch the fleet of Range Rovers right the list that they're putting out goes
on and on you'd think with all that he would just cooperate but he isn't right
you know unlike other Trump associates who've been charged right it Flynn
Papadopoulos and Manta forts a long time number two Rick Gates I mean is it
possible that mana Ford is not cooperating because he is not guilty do
you even entertain that possibility at this point I really don't entertain that
possibility I think what is going on here is if Paul Manafort even if he
cooperated with authorities he was still looking at a very substantial amount of
time given the weight of these charges and at his age he may have concluded he
doesn't have that kind of time to spend behind bars he's going to go all in for
a pardon he's going to be the last man defending Donald Trump and and bet it
all on a pardon and that may be where at least he's making his appeal which is an
interesting point I want you the judge in the case judge Ellis
he's important and as you remember in May he told Muller's team quote you
don't really care about mr. manna for its bank fraud he basically accused
prosecutors of only caring about manna for because he could lead to Trump's
quote prosecution or impeachment those were the judges words he asked for a
molars mandate he looked at it and he said okay this can go forward so he did
do that but what do you think of him do you think the trial will be fair oh you
know I certainly hope the trial will be fair I was concerned by those comments
because they didn't really go to any of the legal issues it seemed like
gratuitous political commentary which you don't generally expect from a
federal judge the federal judge should look at the law look at the mandate look
at the jurisdiction and all of that was very clear ultimately he ruled the right
way but those kind of political comments I think are concerning
so the first government witness on the stand today as evident presence
reporting it's the rocket docket right they've got a lot of them 34 on that
side they want they want to bang through this it could it could happen not to
three weeks this could be very quick it was Bernie Sanders chief campaign
strategist in 2016 tad Devine he was the first person on the stand he's worked
with manna fort in Ukraine I remember I'm actually telling me about this
during the campaign and being surprised at the time but he did he described his
relationship with manna Ford as friendly said he was impressed by manna fort so
I'm is a hard-working guy you're a former US assistant assistant US
attorney what do you make of that Bernie Sanders former top strategist saying
he's a hard-working guy and impressed by manna for it well I don't know the
details of this but Paul Manafort may be a very hard-working guy and he may have
worked very hard to hide his money and to fail to disclose his taxes and bear
in mind that some of these charges pertain to money-laundering that was
that was going on while he was the campaign manager for Donald Trump so it
it may take a lot of work to get that ostrich coat but that doesn't mean it
was lawful work and it certainly doesn't appear so from the indictment as the
Russian investigation continues and Moeller obviously is very focused on
this the manna fort case right now because this trial is his first but
Facebook announces today that they're shutting down dozens more Facebook and
Instagram accounts believed to be run by Russians and it's sort of confused me
congressman you know you got Facebook they think Mark
Zuckerberg comes and testifies before Congress they shut everything down and
now they're still finding accounts that they need to shut down even now does
that make sense to you it does make sense because the Russians aren't going
to stop and they're not going to be as overt as they were I think in 2016
they're not going to use the same IP addresses out of st. Petersburg we have
seen continuing Russian activity really since the last election and never
stopped and I think we should view what Facebook has disclosed in combination
with what Microsoft disclosed within the week and that is both of these same
vectors that appear in these two Muller indictments the social media Facebook
being lackadaisical or incomplete but but sort of a continued onslaught from
the Russians that that is that am i translating it right yes no I think
that's the case you know we kept getting additional information from Facebook
about advertising or organic content from those original IP addresses from
st. Petersburg but they are going to continue to learn about more as the
Russians move and hide and use other proxies so this is going to continue to
be rolled out to the public and I you know I'm glad that Facebook is doing
this they're gonna have to continue doing it the intelligence community is
gonna have to continue sharing information I hope with the tech
companies when they spot foreign actors and using those platforms as well
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