President's former aide on trial for bank, tax fraud

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia - Paul Manafort, former chairman of Donald Trump's presidential election campaign team, went on trial on charges of bank and tax fraud on Tuesday.

He became the first member of Trump's election team to face trial on charges arising from the ongoing, wide-ranging Russia probe led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Manafort, 69, has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of bank and tax fraud associated with his lobbying work for the Ukrainian government years before Trump declared his candidacy in 2015.

Before a 12-member jury inside a federal courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, prosecutor Uzo Asonye said in his opening statement that Manafort believed "the law did not apply to him - not tax law, not banking law".

Manafort opened more than 30 bank accounts in three foreign countries to "receive and hide" income, according to Asonye.

Defense attorney Thomas Zehnle blamed it on Manafort's financial team, with his client seated in the courtroom wearing a dark suit, white shirt and tie, his wife sitting behind him.

Zehnle specifically targeted Manafort's longtime business associate Rick Gates, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring against the United States and lying to investigators, and agreed to cooperate with the Mueller investigation.

"This case is about taxes and trust," Zehnle told the jurors. "His trust in Rick Gates was misplaced."

Besides Gates, Mueller's team has named 35 witnesses for Manafort's trial, which is expected to last several weeks. However, prosecutors have said they will not present evidence of collusion at this trial.

On Wednesday, the second of the trial, the political consulting work of Manafort did to earn $60 million in Ukraine is expected to take the spotlight.

The first witness set to be questioned by prosecutors is Daniel Rabin, a political consultant who produced TV ads for Manafort in Ukraine. Rabin will likely be asked to elaborate on the nature of Manafort's work for pro-Russian politicians there.

Prosecutors said their second witness would be an FBI agent, whose name was not disclosed.

Manafort is also facing a separate trial in Washington scheduled for mid-September on charges of money laundering, failing to register as a foreign agent and witness tampering. He has also pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Mueller is looking into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation. Moscow has denied the claim of interference.

He has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people, including several former Trump campaign aides, and three companies since he began leading the probe from May 2017.

Trump has repeatedly called the probe a "hoax" and "witch hunt", while denying any campaign collusion with Russia, with attempts to distance himself from Manafort.

Manafort joined the Trump campaign team in March 2016 and spent about two months working as campaign chairman before resigning over exposure of his Ukrainian lobbying work.

Xinhua - Reuters - Ap

(China Daily 08/02/2018 page12)