A federal prosecutor initiated speculation Wednesday that Rick Gates, the “star witness” foresaw to testify at the trial of former Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort transfer not actually take the witness stand against his longtime business associate.
Also Wednesday, prosecutors adduced detailed evidence about Manafort’s ultra-expensive tastes in clothing, silk rugs and watches, compensate as the trial judge pushed back hard on such tactics, opportunity prosecutors should not try to convict someone just “because they don nice suits.”
Judge T.S. Ellis III repeatedly prodded prosecutors to expedition up the pace of their case, which is only in its second day. Toward the end of the day, a prosecutor make knew Ellis, “We fully anticipate resting our case in chief next week.”
It was one such admonition by Ellis to accelerate the whack that led to an exchange about Gates, a former Trump campaign proper himself who is considered crucial to the case being brought by special consideration Robert Mueller. Gates was Manafort’s right-hand man in his consulting business.
“He may swear in this case, your honor, he may not,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye in U.S. Locality Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
Hearing that, several reporters went ripping “out of [the courtroom] like rats on a sinking ship,” quipped Ellis, to hint their readers of the potential bombshell in the case.
Asonye quickly sampled to walk back his remark.
“It’s not to suggest that we’re not calling him,” he said.
The prosecution’s Deo volente flip remark about Gates came a day after Manafort’s mouthpiece in opening statements blamed the allegations against Manafort on “one man: Rick Gateways.”
Thomas Zehnle said Manafort had put “his trust in the wrong person,” referring to Exits who pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy and making invalid statements.
Later, the prosecution called a custom suit maker and a menswear retailer to the catch stand, where each testified that Manafort was among their sundry important clients.
Manfort had spent more than $900,000 during the course of a five-year span at the retailer’s store, and paid for his purchases with transfers from abroad bank accounts — not by check.
FBI agent Matthew Mikuska earlier announced that Manafort had “closets full” of suits, and prosecutors showed jurors two invoices revealing a $66,000 acquisition by Manafort for bespoke suits, and other invoices for silk rugs charging $160,000.
Ellis, showing his impatience at the drift of case, refused to let prosecutor Greg Andres ask the corroborating witness to total the annual invoices for those five years for the jurors’ perks.
“They can add,” Ellis said.
He had also griped that prosecutors should limit their affirmation to material that relates to Manafort’s alleged crimes and not his expensive modes.
Ellis didn’t allow jurors to see photos of the suits, and had a tough time pronouncing the names of Manafort’s tailors at Alan Couture. “If it doesn’t say Men’s Wearhouse, I don’t buy it,” Ellis sniped.
While the experimental was going on just miles away, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told photojournalists Wednesday that “the president’s been clear. He thinks Paul Manfort’s been handled unfairly.”
President Donald Trump earlier had tweeted that Manafort was being look after worse than legendary mobster Al Capone by prosecutors.
But Sanders last will and testament not answer whether Trump believes Manafort is innocent of his alleged felonies.
Manafort, 69, is accused of bank fraud and tax crimes in the Virginia pack, the first of two planned federal trials on charges related to his consulting make excited from 2005 through 2014 for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.
Manafort, who has pleaded not sorrowful, is not accused of any involvement with Russians who allegedly tried to influence the 2016 presidential plebiscite.
However, the case against him has been brought by Mueller, who is investigating Russian difficulty in the election, and possible collusion by Trump campaign officials in that pains.
Ellis, started Wednesday’s session in court by admonishing prosecutors and defense member of the bars not to use the term “oligarchs” in referring to people mentioned in testimony.
He said oligarch is a pejorative in the matter of a payment that means someone who wields despotic power.
“Principals in spacy schools are oligarchs in that sense,” Ellis said. “Mr. [George] Soros resolve then be an oligarch by that definition.”
“So would Mr. Koch,” the judge annexed, referring to one, or both, of the conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.
Manafort has be versed ties to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian aluminum magnate who is routinely referred to in the approach as an oligarch. The FBI has said tax returns show that a company controlled by Manafort and his the missis got a $10 million loan from Deripaska.
The FBI also has previously suggested that Deripaska funded Manafort’s consulting work in Ukraine when it head began.
— Dan Mangan reported from Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and Kevin Breuninger reported from Alexandria, Virginia.