Ex-Trump aide Manafort had 'huge dumpster of hidden money,' jury told
ALEXANDRIA, Va.- Paul Manafort had "a huge dumpster of hidden money" abroad, a prosecutor said on Wednesday, urging a jury to convict US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief on financial fraud charges based more on a paper trail of evidence than on the testimony of a former protege.
Special Assistant US Attorney Greg Andres gave his closing statement in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, where Manafort is on trial on tax and bank fraud charges, along with failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.
The jury is expected to begin deliberating on a verdict on Thursday morning.
The trial is the first to come out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The charges involve tax and bank fraud,not possible collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's campaign for president.
A Manafort conviction would undermine efforts by Trump and some Republican lawmakers to paint Mueller's Russia inquiry as apolitical witch hunt, while an acquittal would be a setback for the special counsel.
The star witness against Manafort was seen as Rick Gates,his former right-hand man, who was indicted along with Manafortbut pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government.
The defense has portrayed Gates as a lying thief who had hishand in the "cookie jar" and was only trying to reduce his ownsentence, noting Gates will be allowed to argue for probationeven though he admitted to embezzling hundreds of thousands ofdollars and being involved in Manafort's alleged crimes.
Andres argued that while Manafort did not "choose a BoyScout" as his associate, Gates' testimony was corroborated byother evidence, including nearly 400 exhibits, and a series offinancial professionals who took the stand for the prosecution.
"The star witness in this case is the documents,Andres told the jury.
"That wasn't a cookie jar," he added, referring to the tens of millions of dollars Manafort held overseas. "It was a huge dumpster of hidden money in foreign bank accounts."
