COURTS/LEGAL/PAUL MANAFORT/ROBERT MUELLER/TRUMP PEOPLE: “An accountant for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort admitted at Manafort’s tax- and bank-fraud trial Friday [8-3-18] that she filed tax returns she thought contained false information and that she may have committed a crime in doing so. Accountant Cindy Laporta said she had a sense that what Manafort and aide Rick Gates told her about funds being transferred into their international political consulting business wasn’t accurate…The admission is the first time a witness has acknowledged knowing involvement in potential wrongdoing during Manafort’s trial, where the longtime lobbyist is fighting charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. Laporta is one of five people on the Mueller’s witness list for whom the government requested immunity. Laporta, who works for Alexandria-based Kositzka Wicks & Company, said she sought the immunity because she was concerned about being prosecuted. Her attorney indicated Laporta would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights if forced to testify without immunity. Laporta said she agreed on 2014 and 2015 tax returns to treat as loans $2.4 million in funds that Manafort’s consulting firm received from offshore businesses, even though she had doubts that they really were loans and got little documentation to back up that claim.”
–Josh Gerstein and Darren Samuelsohn, “Manafort trial day 4: Accountant concedes possible wrongdoing, Manafort’s double life,” Politico, August 3, 2018 5:09 pm