2016 ELECTION/LEGAL/PAUL MANAFORT/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP PEOPLE: “The evidence against Paul Manafort is ‘overwhelming,’ a prosecutor told jurors during closing arguments in his fraud trial on Wednesday, saying that he hid more than $16 million in income and fraudulently obtained $20 million in bank loans even though, as a trained lawyer, ‘Mr. Manafort knew the law.’ But in a response that drew prosecutors’ ire, lawyers for Mr. Manafort, once President Trump’s campaign chairman, hinted that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, had charged Mr. Manafort to pressure him into cooperating with the inquiry into Russian influence over the 2016 presidential race. On the final day of the trial, the lead prosecutor, Greg D. Andres, cast Mr. Manafort as a bright and highly capable political consultant, steeped in tax law and financial matters and fluent in terms like ‘write-offs’ and ‘distribution’ income. ‘It wasn’t a clerical decision. It wasn’t ‘forgot to check a box,’’ Mr. Andres said. ‘When you follow the trail of Mr. Manafort’s finances, it is littered with lies.’ Over 12 days in court, the prosecution called 27 witnesses and offered 388 photographs, emails and other documents as evidence of a scheme by Mr. Manafort to finance a life of opulence through sustained and sprawling fraud. But in their closing statement, Mr. Manafort’s lawyers implied that the real issue was why he was in the courtroom to begin with.”
–Sharon LaFranier, “Evidence Against Manafort Is ‘Overwhelming,’ Prosecutors Say,” The New York Times online, August 15, 2018