Prosecutors cast Manafort as a serial liar in closing remarks

Federal prosecutors painted Paul Manafort as a serial liar in closing arguments Wednesday morning in the tax- and bank-fraud case against the onetime Trump campaign chairman.

“Mr. Manafort lied to keep more money when he had it and he lied to get more money when he didn’t,” prosecutor Greg Andres said from the podium, which had been moved to face the jury.

“This is a case about lies.”

Manafort is facing 18 criminal counts of tax and bank fraud, charges that stem from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. 

{mosads}Prosecutors have spent the last two and half weeks trying to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Manafort hid from the IRS millions he earned from a lucrative career as a political consultant in Ukraine in 31 overseas accounts and filed false documents to obtain bank loans when the work, and ultimately the money, dried up.

Andres said Manafort profited from two schemes that allowed him to avoid paying taxes on more than $15 million by paying U.S. vendors directly for luxury clothes are cars from overseas accounts and by securing more than $20 million in loans by lying about his true income and expenses.

Manafort’s attorneys have focused their defense on his longtime associate Richard Gates, who was indicted alongside Manafort but pleaded guilty to a lesser charges in a deal with authorities.

It was Gates, they said, who controlled Manafort’s money, but they said he “had his hand in the cookie jar.”  

Gates admitted over three days of testimony to embezzling funds from his former employer and having an extramarital affair in London, where he had an apartment. Manafort’s attorneys grilled Gates on the admissions in an attempt to discredit him as a witness.

But Andres fired back on Wednesday. He said Manafort was a mentor to Gates and sought him out as someone who would engage in the same criminal conduct. 

“That wasn’t a cookie jar, it was a huge dumpster of hidden money in foreign accounts,” he said.

Andres asked the jury why the defense asked so many questions about Gates’s affair.

“Was it to distract you?” he asked. 

“Does the fact that he had an affair more than 10 years ago make Mr. Manafort less guilty?”

Manafort’s attorneys will present their closing arguments in the case when the trial resumes after lunch at 1:30 p.m. Their remarks are expected to last about two hours, after which prosecutors will have a chance for rebuttal.

Judge T.S. Ellis III said he will then give the jury instructions, which will last about an hour and a half, before they begin deliberations.