The trial begins for the president of the campaign of the former Trump Manafort

WASHINGTON: Paul Manafort prepares to enter a federal courtroom Tuesday: Will former Donald Trump campaign president spend the rest of his life in jail? Or will Special Advisor Robert Mueller be defeated in the first trial of his team since his appointment more than a year ago?

12 jurors will be chosen to answer these questions during the Manafort trial on tax evasion and bank fraud charges at the Alexandria courthouse in Virginia. The jury group will be faced with questions from both sides and US District Judge T.S. Ellis III as they try to eliminate potential biases in what has become a highly publicized and politically divided investigation.

This task comes as the president and his lawyer-spokesman, Rudy Giuliani, intensify their attempts to undermine the Mueller investigation in the court of public opinion and as the president continues to wonder he's going to have a private interview with the prosecutors. The president has criticized Mueller by name over the weekend and continues to refer to the special advisor's investigation into the interference of Russian elections as a "witch hunt" and "an illegal swindle" .

While the main areas of Mueller's investigation are Russia's actions during the 2016 presidential election and all Trump's attempts to impede justice, none of these topics should appear in the Manafort trial. In fact, prosecutors said last week that they were not expecting the word "Russia" to be mentioned.

Instead, the trial will focus on the Ukrainian consultation work of Manafort and will only briefly mention his involvement in the presidential campaign.

Prosecutors have lined 35 witnesses and more than 500 pieces of evidence indicating that they will show how Manafort has earned more than $ 60 million from his Ukrainian work, and then concealed a "significant percentage" of that money from him. # 39; IRS. Prosecutors will also say that Manafort has fraudulently obtained millions more in bank loans, including during his campaign time.

In particular, prosecutors say that they will present evidence that a president of one of the banks allowed Manafort to file inaccurate loan information in exchange for a role. on the Republican campaign and the promise of a job in the Trump administration that never materialized.

At the center of it all, there will be another Trump campaign badistant, Rick Gates, who has spent years working for Manafort in Ukraine and is also accused of helping him falsify the paperwork used to obtain bank loans. Gates, who signed an advocacy deal with Mueller earlier this year, is expected to testify against his former mentor.

Gates should also play a key role in the second Manafort trial scheduled for September. The trial, which is taking place in the District of Columbia, involves allegations that the long-time political consultant acted as an unregistered foreign agent for Ukrainian interests and made false statements to the US government.

Manafort is the only American accused by Mueller of opting for a lawsuit.

The 31 others charged either plead guilty or the Russians are considered unlikely to enter a US courtroom. Three Russian companies were also accused. One of these companies has pleaded not guilty and is fighting the charges brought in federal courts in Washington.