LEGAL/PAUL MANAFORT/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Special counsel Robert Mueller’s star witness, Rick Gates, finally took the stand on Monday [8-6-18], incriminating his former boss Paul Manafort in multimillion-dollar tax evasion, bank fraud and hiding offshore accounts, while also admitting to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars during a decade on Manafort’s payroll. On the fifth day of Manafort’s federal trial in Alexandria, Virginia, Gates said that he took many of his actions at ‘Mr. Manafort’s direction,’ admissions that go to the heart of charges lodged by Mueller against Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman. As he took the witness stand, Gates avoided eye contact with his former boss — even as Manafort stared down his former deputy — and instead looked at the jury, the judge and Mueller’s team of prosecutors. It was the first time the two lobbyist-consultants have been in the same room together since Gates agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s team in February. Gates’ central roles in the 2016 Trump campaign and transition have made him a pivotal witness in Mueller’s ongoing inquiry. But he also was at Manafort’s side as the pair did lucrative lobbying and political consulting work on behalf of a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine years before they signed up with Trump’s campaign.”
–Josh Gerstein and Darren Samuelsohn, “Manafort trial Day 5: Gates sings,” Politico, August 6, 2018 6:46 pm