In this file photo taken on June 15, 2018 Paul Manafort arrives for a
hearing at US District Court in Washington, DC. PHOTO | MANDEL NGAN |
AFP
WASHINGTON,
Donald
Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort on Tuesday becomes the
first member of the president's election team to face trial on charges
stemming from the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 vote.
Manafort,
69, has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of bank and tax fraud related
to his lobbying activities on behalf of the former Russian-backed
government of Ukraine.
INDICTMENT
The
indictment was brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, the former
FBI director who is looking into Russian meddling in the presidential
election, but the charges are not connected to Manafort's time as
Trump's campaign chairman.
Selection
of a 12-member jury for "USA vs Manafort" begins at 10:00 am (1400 GMT)
on Tuesday before US District Court Judge T.S. Ellis in Alexandria,
Virginia. The trial is expected to last about three weeks.
Manafort, a veteran Republican political
consultant, served as chairman of Trump's presidential election campaign
for three months in 2016 before being forced to step down amid
questions about his lobbying work in Ukraine.
He
is charged with five counts of filing false tax returns for not
reporting bank accounts he held in Cyprus and other countries in a bid
to hide millions of dollars in income from activities on behalf of
Ukraine's former pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych.
Manafort
is charged with failing to report the existence of foreign bank
accounts to the Internal Revenue Service and bank fraud related to
several multi-million-dollar loans he obtained from various banks.
Prosecutors
plan to produce nearly three dozen witnesses during the trial,
including Manafort's former associate Richard Gates, who is cooperating
with the government after pleading guilty to lesser charges in February.
Five witnesses have been granted immunity from prosecution to testify against Manafort.
32 PEOPLE
Mueller
has indicted a total of 32 people so far in connection with his probe
into whether any members of Trump's election campaign colluded with
Russia to help get the New York real estate tycoon into the White House.
Trump
has repeatedly denounced the special counsel's investigation as a
politically motivated "witch hunt" and denied there was any collusion
with Moscow to defeat Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
While
Gates and others, including former national security advisor Michael
Flynn, have pleaded guilty, Manafort has refused to strike a deal and
has insisted on having his day in court.
Legal experts said Manafort may be hoping to be found not guilty — or holding out hopes of a presidential pardon.
Jonathan
Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University, said the
odds are stacked heavily against the former heavyweight political
operative.
"This is an exceptionally
difficult case for the defense," Turley told AFP. "To quote gamblers in
Las Vegas, he has to run the table.
"Mueller
only has to secure one conviction on one count to put Manafort away for
as much as a decade," he said. "At 69, that must weigh heavily on his
mind."
Turley also said he believes
"jurors are not likely to identify or empathize with Paul Manafort,"
whose lavish spending and lifestyle is outlined in court documents.
MUELLER
"They're going to be seeing a guy who spent half a million dollars just on landscaping," Turley said.
"On
top of that," he added, "the government will bring forth the coup de
grace" with incriminating testimony by Gates, Manafort's former business
partner.
Turley said Manafort may be "playing a pardon strategy."
"Manafort
has remained loyal," he said. "He may feel that he doesn't have much to
lose in going to trial and preserving his chances for a pardon.
"If he cooperates with Mueller, a pardon is going to be substantially reduced in likelihood," he said.
Manafort
has spent the past month in prison in Alexandria outside Washington
after having his house arrest and $10 million bail revoked by a federal
judge for allegedly tampering with witnesses in another pending case.
He
is scheduled to go on trial in the US capital in September on separate
charges brought by Mueller of conspiracy, money laundering and failing
to register as an agent of a foreign government.
Trump reacted to Manafort's jailing in June by describing it as "very unfair."
"Wow,
what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald
Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns,"
Trump tweeted on June 15. "Didn't know Manafort was the head of the
Mob."
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