Paul Manafort's trial begins for tax evasion

P aul Manafort once led a jet-set life, with the most expensive costumes and cars, but now his friends are collecting money for him on the Internet. The legal fees of former campaign manager Donald Trump are getting too high, his bank accounts are frozen according to media reports – that's why a crowdfunding campaign should help. Manafort could go to jail for many years. Only in the process, which begins Tuesday, there are now 32 charges. They focus on bank fraud and tax evasion.

Millions of dollars won by the 69-year-old political advisor, partly through lobbying in Ukraine and bypbading the US Treasury, were sentenced. When Special Investigator Robert Mueller was looking for unfair links with Trump's team in Russia, he did not find it in Manafort – but the network of dubious political and banking links that he found to be sufficient for two separate charges

"Facing Nature The charges and the obvious burden of proof against him make it very realistic that he could spend the rest of his life in jail," wrote the judge TS Ellis, who leads the debates starting today.The jury will initially be selected at the Alexandria Court in Virginia, and then the lawsuit will extend Manafort's commercial life over the past twenty years. years

In addition, if the trial originated in the investigation of the Special Rapporteur Robert Mueller – the alleged cooperation of the Trump campaign with Russia will officially play no role. Prosecutors have already badured Judge Ellis that they would not even talk about this issue. Ellis wants to avoid a politicization of his process in this direction. But even if it should not be discussed at trial: the case of Russia resonates in the background. It can not always be ruled out that the impending sentence could lead the former campaign director to cooperate with Mueller

. Then he was able to shed light on many aspects of the Russian investigation. Manafort, for example, attended a meeting with lawyer Natalia Wesselnitzkaja and other Russians in the Trump Tower in 2016, which Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, reportedly said was approved by the candidate of the time. Manafort could decide to tell Robert Mueller everything he knows. However, it is not clear how this should help in two criminal trials independent of the Russian investigation. In any case, Judge Ellis has repeatedly emphasized his independence and reluctance to engage in a "theater", as he has said.

Unlike Michael Cohen, Manafort Trump has remained faithful to Trump to this day. He could not bring anything to the Russian inquiry: "I have never had anything to do with the Russian government or with President Putin, and nothing has been done about them. other issues, "he told The New York Times last year. His friends also tend to rely on those who believe the president discredits the investigation as a "witch hunt" with their crowdfunding campaign. On their website, they link articles with titles like "Stop Mueller to protect us all".

Four Russian oligarchs financed the work of Manafort

Even though Paul Manafort does not talk to Mueller's Russian investigators: Ongoing Nevertheless, new interesting details appear. After all, he is the highest ranking senior employee of Trump, who has so far been indicted as a result of the investigation. He is also part of the team that has maintained for years the most intense relations with pro-Russian actors in Ukraine. Four Russian oligarchs allegedly financed his work

Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates worked for years in Ukraine to bring the pro-Russian forces to power and keep them there. Manafort advised the elected president in 2010 Viktor Yanukovych. He would have earned $ 60 million. In July 2016, Manafort wanted to offer the oligarchs and friends of Putin, Oleg Deripaska, "private briefings" on the presidential campaign. The offer would have been delivered by the investigation files of Konstantin Kilimnik, another confidant of Putin with the intelligence services. However, the agreement never materialized

. The speculation that Manafort could have used these intense links with pro-Russian forces in Ukraine and with Putin's friends for the Trump campaign never stopped. Manafort has always denied that. He first claimed that he had never met Russian intelligence contact during the campaign, and then had to admit that in 2016, he had met Kilimnik twice more. Because of his work in Ukraine, he finally resigned from his position as Campaign Leader

The process now awaits the testimony of former Manafort partner Rick Gates. He has pleaded guilty to Robert Mueller and has been working with him ever since. Gates should attend the prosecution. Meanwhile, Paul Manafort faces other charges in another Washington trial in September. Because he should have tried to influence the witnesses, he could also be found guilty of judicial invalidity in this second lawsuit.