The following article by Rachel Weiner, Rosalind Helderman, Justin Jouvenal and Matt Zapotosky was posted on the Washington Post website August 1, 2018:
Before he joined the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort made a name for himself in the D.C. lobbying world, but his past caught up with him. (Dalton Bennett , Jon Gerberg, Jesse Mesner-Hage/The Washington Post)
Paul Manafort, President Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, is on trial in federal court in Alexandria on bank and tax fraud charges. Prosecutors allege he failed to pay taxes on millions he made from his work for a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party, then lied to get loans when the cash stopped coming in.
The case is being prosecuted by the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Here is what happened on the second day of the proceedings.
- President Trump weighed in on the trial for the first time, asking his Twitter followers if Manafort was being “treated worse” than notorious gangster Al Capone.