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Former Trump Campaign Chair Goes on Trial

by Masood Farivar

   ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA --

   The tax and bank fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul
   Manafort got underway on Tuesday with the formal process of jury
   selection in the closely watched case

   Several dozen potential jurors were called into an Alexandria,
   Virginia, federal courtroom by the presiding judge in the case, T.S.
   Ellis III.

   The trial, the only one to arise from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's
   investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, is
   widely seen as a test of the probe's heft and credibility.

   Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

   On the surface, the criminal charges against Manafort -- tax evasion,
   failure to report foreign bank accounts and fraudulently obtaining bank
   loans -- are unrelated to the core of Mueller's investigation into
   whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to subvert the 2016
   U.S. national election.

   The charges stem from Manafort's decade-long lobbying and political
   consulting work for Ukraine's former president, Viktor Yanukovych.

   While working for Yanukovych and his pro-Russia Party of Regions
   between 2006 and 2015, Manafort and his former business partner, Rick
   Gates, allegedly earned tens of millions of dollars in fees while
   hiding the income from the Internal Revenue Service.

   To avoid paying hefty taxes, prosecutors say, they set up secret shell
   companies and offshore accounts to funnel their Ukrainian proceeds
   disguised as "loans" to U.S. accounts to buy multimillion dollar
   properties and luxury goods.

   After Yanukovych was deposed in 2014 and their Ukrainian income
   dwindled, Manafort and Gates allegedly came up with another scheme to
   obtain money: the two used their real estate properties in the United
   States as collateral to fraudulently secure more than $20 million in
   bank loans by "falsely inflating" their income.

   In all, prosecutors say, more than $75 million flowed through the
   offshore accounts Manafort and Gates set up.

   Manafort has been in jail since June, when the judge presiding over the
   Washington case revoked his bail for allegedly tampering with potential
   witnesses.

   The special counsel has enlisted as many as 35 witnesses to testify
   against Manafort. They include accountants, financial advisers, tax
   preparers and real estate agents.

   But prosecutors' star witness is likely to be Gates, who worked closely
   with Manafort in Ukraine and later followed him into Trump's campaign
   as deputy chairman.

   Gates was named as a co-defendant in the initial indictment handed down
   against Manafort last October. But when the special counsel hit the two
   men with a second indictment in February, Gates pleaded guilty to two
   lesser counts in exchange for cooperation.

   Manafort has remained defiant, vowing to fight the charges.