First time a senior Trump campaign official has confessed to a crime on the stand.
Gates is now telling the court about his admission that he committed crimes alongside Manafort, to which he pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the federal investigators.
Gates also spoke generally about how he worked for Manafort from 2006 until 2016.
"I believe Mr. Manafort viewed me as an employee of the firm," Gates said.
Even though he met Manafort more than two decades ago at a holiday party, they did not spend time together socially, he said.
www.cnn.com/...
While the government is making the case that Manafort availed himself of every luxury while dodging taxes, the defense argues that it was Gates who masterminded the scheme to funnel Manafort’s money through offshore bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and elsewhere. They hope to persuade jurors that Manafort’s globe-trotting work as a premier lobbyist kept him too busy to mind the store.
All of last week, prosecutors worked to undercut the argument that Gates was the ringleader.
When witnesses took the stand, prosecutors wasted little time emphasizing specific details connected to emails or other correspondence Gates or Manafort had bookkeepers.
Prosecutors routinely identified who signed off on emails displayed in court. Many were signed with Manafort’s initials, PJM. The special counsel’s team also went to lengths to clarify who accountants believed was “in charge” when requests landed on their desks.
The predominant answer, according to every witness who has testified so far, was resoundingly the same: “Mr. Manafort.”
Manafort is now under a lot more pressure to flip.
Defense tried to screw with the timing of witnesses by pimping Gates’s appearance…(Manafort attorney Kevin Downing suggesting during cross examination of an earlier witness that he would be. ).
The defense tactic may have backfired, and the jury now gets even more on suspicious transactions as the prosecution shows the reasons for Manafort’s actions as a response to the defense’s attempt to show that Gates was the real evil genius.
UPDATE: Downing jumped the gun when saying Rick Gates was up next at Manafort trial: instead government has called Paula Liss. She appears to be a Treasury expert dealing with suspicious transaction reports.
Manafort attorney Kevin Downing told U.S. District Judge T.S.Ellis III that he intended to present evidence of the embezzlement when Gates is called to testify, as soon as Monday afternoon.
Downing’s surprise disclosure came during his examination of a Manafort accountant who testified last week that she knowingly filed false tax returns on Manafort’s behalf.
On Monday, Laporta, who was provided immunity against prosecution in exchange for her testimony, told a federal court jury that Gates often provided late or incomplete information when she requested additional material for the preparation of Manafort’s business and personal returns.
“It was difficult to follow,” Laporta said of Manafort’s financial operations. “I relied on Rick Gates ... The information I had was his representation.”
Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to the FBI earlier this year as part of an agreement to cooperate with prosecutors.
Defense attorneys declared during opening arguments last week that they intended to blame Gates for Manafort’s legal troubles.
www.usatoday.com/...
Down the road the more interesting elements are the ones via the RNC:
