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Calm, closely involved in the discussions of his lawyers, the former campaign leader of Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, accused of tax evasion and money laundering, attended Tuesday the opening of his trial, the first result of the explosive Russian investigation that poisons the mandate of the US President.
The drawn features and whitened temples of this former influential Washington lobbyist, imprisoned since June, betray his sudden fall in disgrace.
But in the courtroom of Alexandria, near the capital, pbading his hand in his impeccably coiffed lock, taking notes and even giving a smile to the jokes of the judge TS Ellis III, Paul Manafort, 69, seemed to find from his superb former adviser to powerful Republicans and sulphurous foreign rulers.
If the special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who investigated the suspicions of Russian interference in the US presidential election of November 2016, led him to the dock, the crucial question of a possible collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Moscow should not be addressed during this trial.
It is indeed about facts prior to the pbadage of Paul Manafort at the head of the Trump team, between May and August 2016.
– "Justice rendered" –
Mr. Manafort is accused of money laundering as well as tax and bank fraud related to his lobbying activities for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, supported by Moscow, and two pro-Yanukovych parties. Facts for the spring of 2016, explained the judge, and updated by Robert Mueller in the course of his Russian investigation.
Paul Manafort pleads not guilty, the magistrate reminded jurors on several occasions.
After nearly four hours, the twelve jurors – six women and six men – were selected for the trial, which is expected to last three weeks.
Angelique Brickner, a 53-year-old artist, sat at the end of a packed audience hall with her 17-year-old daughter. "I came here because I want to see justice done," she said.
As President Donald Trump's ire crescendo against Mr. Mueller's investigations, this ultra-media trial embarrbades the White House.
Paul Manafort "has no information incriminating the president," hammered Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani on CNN on Monday. Then add, emphasizing the short duration of his pbadage at the head of the campaign: "It's just … four months, they will not start to plot on the Russians".
A handful of anti-Trump protesters gathered early in court, one of the brandished signs mocking the accused's faithful silence: "Trump would not spend a second in prison for you".
Some hope that Paul Manafort will eventually reveal important information for the record. He was present at a meeting between a Russian lawyer, the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in June 2016.
– Hope for a favor? –
Prosecutors are expected to call more than 30 witnesses, including his former partner Richard Gates, who has been cooperating with Robert Mueller since he agreed to plead guilty in February.
Of the 30 or so individuals already targeted by the special prosecutor, a majority of whom are Russians, Paul Manafort is the only American to have refused to reach an agreement with the courts to avoid a trial.
"Manafort remained loyal" to Donald Trump, says Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. He believes perhaps that this trial allows him to preserve "his chances of obtaining a presidential pardon".
"Manafort, with the help of Gates, has laundered more than $ 30 million in revenue," wrote Robert Mueller in his indictment in February. Fraudulent the taxman, the lobbyist "spent millions of dollars in luxury goods and services for himself and his family".
Faced with a jury that is not likely to be moved by the story of his exorbitant expenses, the prosecution "will bring the coup de grace" with the testimony against Richard Gates, the teacher predicts.
– "Severe Punishment" –
Already in danger of spending the rest of his life in prison, Paul Manafort faces a second trial in Washington in September, again in the context of the Mueller Inquiry, which This time he accused, in particular, of money laundering and not having declared his lobbyist services in favor of a foreign government.
He had been imprisoned in June for attempted bribery of a witness. At the time, Donald Trump had denounced a "severe punishment."
Tuesday morning, the US president again claimed on Twitter that there was no collusion and that in any case it was not not a crime. A line of defense used the day before by Rudy Giuliani.
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