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Paul Manafort's defense team made his message to the jury clearly in his opening statement on Tuesday: Paul Manafort is not your man – Rick Gates, his right arm of long date, is the culprit
"We are mainly here because of one man: this man is Rick Gates," Thomas Zehnle, one of Manafort's lawyers, said Tuesday afternoon [19659002] Gates has reached an agreement with US prosecutors and must testify against Manafort later in the trial. Manafort faces up to 30 years in prison for each of the counts of bank fraud and tax evasion against him.
But Manafort's lawyers, they said Tuesday, will argue that Gates should be the one sitting in Manafort's seat – that he cheated on his boss, who is said, "did not create "or" invented "the idea of creating accounts abroad to pay the personal and professional expenses of Manafort
" Manafort did not deliberately mislead "the Internal Revenue Service when there are signed tax and bank loan documents containing false information. Instead, he placed too much confidence in Gates.
"U.S. citizens are not being sued for errors on their tax forms," Zehnle said. "They are audited."
And if the IRS finds that they have made mistakes, they are able to correct those mistakes and hold responsible anyone who has committed wrongdoing.
US Deputy Attorney Uzo Asonye pronounced the statement opening the prosecution and categorically rejects the idea that Manafort was totally in the dark about his business and his claims. personal finances.
Manafort "constantly issued orders" and "directed" the activities of his associates, including Gates, the allegation alleges
. Manafort had more than 30 bank accounts established abroad in four different countries, including Cyprus and the United States, to conceal a portion of its revenues to the Party of Regions in Ukraine, whose chief, Viktor Yanukovych, Manafort has assisted in the presidency from 2010 to 2014.
Instead of bringing that money back to the United States or declaring it in his tax forms every year at the IRS, Manafort took out loans from American bankers. to pay his personal luxury items, and then directly transferred money to these accounts abroad to repay the loans. In this way, he avoids income taxes.
Manafort's list of luxuries is famous: seven houses, including a $ 200 million property a few kilometers from the court where Manafort is being tried, a $ 15,000 ostrich jacket and hundreds of thousands dollars in antique carpets.
There is "nothing wrong with being successful or being rich in this country," Asonye said. But Manafort continually "lied" for not having to pay taxes, and then, when his income dried up after Yanukovych's collapse in 2014, he "lied" to his bank loan applications, according to the prosecution. [19659002Three-and-a-half-milliontholdershipofthemandofthemindsofVirginidecordedofMortalwortQuatremeofjuriesaresuppliers
Manafort was introduced to the hearing room shortly after nine o'clock in the morning, lacking his usual tan and wearing a black suit, blue tie, and rimless reading glasses [19659002] [ Manafort goes on trial ]
The Manafort trial is the first test of the Justice Department team reunited by the special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III there is more A year to investigate the Russian interference in the 2016 elections the Trump campaign and Russia.
Manafort, president of the Trump campaign from March to August 2016, faces
18 criminal charges in the lawsuit in Virginia and another 14 in Washington later this year.
Prosecutors do not plan to highlight Manafort's work on the Trump campaign. Instead, they will present evidence that he has been trying to hide about $ 30 million of assets in accounts abroad.
[ Trump denies the latest allegations on Manafort, Donald Jr. Interview with the Russians ]
Manafort The Mueller team on Monday accused former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych of rehabilitating its image in the mid to late 2000s, but Mueller's team extracted guilty pleas from Gates and two other Trump campaign defendants. team, Manafort has maintained his innocence since he was charged for the first time in October.
District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III made a stern statement Tuesday morning to the prosecution team to demote his exhibits.
Manafort's lawyers complained that much of the evidence
the prosecutors submitted are not relevant in this case.
Prosecutors originally planned to submit 50 exhibits, 400 pages in
evidence against Manafort.
"I do not want a data dump," said Ellis, referring to a practice in
which prosecutors submit so much evidence to the record that the jurors
do not see or hear about it until they deliberate.
US lawyers must "get a testimony" on every piece of
On Monday, a few hours before the start of his criminal trial, Manafort and his lawyers dropped the appeal of a lawsuit against the Mueller team for being too far from the goal initial mission: to investigate the interference of Russia in justice. Election 2016 and the possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Watch: Pompeo, Menendez Clash on Trump's private meeting with Putin, North Korea to the audience
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