The Paul Manafort trial enters it’s sixth day with the former Trump campaign manager’s former business associate Rick Gates taking the stand once again. Gates, who was called to the stand just after 4:00 p.m on Monday, is expected to testify for at least three more hours in an Alexandria, Virginia courthouse.
Gates has already testified that he conspired with Manafort from 2008-2015, claiming that he underreported Manafort’s income, lied to Manafort’s accountants and to the FBI.
The trial is the first of Mueller’s prosecutions to reach a jury. But lawyers have made no mention of Trump or possible campaign coordination with the Kremlin, the central question behind the special counsel’s investigation.
Last week, Manafort was accused of amassing “secret income” and falsifying tax returns and using fake loans to pay less in taxes, among other things.
CBS News’ Paula Reid reports that at the start of week 2 of the trial, Gates told the court that he conspired with Manafort to falsify tax returns, knowingly failed to report foreign bank accounts and failed to register Manafort as a foreign agent.
In court on Monday, a retired carpenter, a clothier and a high-end landscaper detailed how Manafort paid them in international wire transfers from offshore companies.
Gates testified that he and Manafort had 15 foreign accounts they did not report to the U.S. government, and knew that was illegal. Gates also admitted he embezzled money from his boss — something Manafort’s attorneys have alleged for months.
Gates is singing like a bird!!
Rick Gates was forced to admit an extramarital affair as Paul Manafort’s defense team attacked his lies, secrets and credibility
The courtroom showdown between Paul Manafort and his former business partner grew painfully personal Tuesday as a defense lawyer hammered Rick Gates, the prosecution’s star witness, forcing him to admit he embezzled money years ago to fund a transatlantic romance.
“There was another Richard Gates, isn’t that right? A secret Richard Gates?” asked Manafort’s attorney, Kevin Downing. Many of Downing’s questions seemed aimed at buttressing his central defense strategy: that Gates, not Manafort, is the real villain, an inveterate liar and thief. Manafort, President Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, is on trial in federal court in Alexandria on bank and tax fraud charges.
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https://s2.washingtonpost.com/94a0b4/5b6a0f25fe1ff616fd9448de/YXdhcmVvZjQxMUBnbWFpbC5jb20%3D/2/10/3a569220054ddfca9b49a25bb24a75b5
https://twitter.com/ShimonPro/status/1026857741246181376
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/1026602176087511041
https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1026903604802867205
https://twitter.com/TheBeatWithAri/status/1026923158123753473
https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/1026904860535468032
Hmmmmm
You know, they are probably right…Gates knows where the Inaugural slush fund went…
“Fronting” is the term for prosecutors asking Gates very early on the stuff that damages him — like him stealing from Manafort and lying to the FBI — to take the sting out of later cross-examination. @MerriamWebster
— QHatSecretMessages (@Popehat) August 6, 2018
“Fronting,” done right, rips the band-aid off. You get the witness to confirm the bad acts/info plainly, directly, and bluntly. Then move on. The other side will come back and dwell on it on cross, but that will seem a re-hash to the jury.
— QHatSecretMessages (@Popehat) August 6, 2018
LMAO!
If Manafort’s defense is that Gates skimmed from Manafort’s undeclared offshore account that’s pretty much the international money-laundering equivalent of calling 911 to report your cocaine’s been stolen. https://t.co/SDndCAelt5
— zeddy (@Zeddary) August 6, 2018