Tag: Manafort guilty verdict

Trump’s Criminal Ex-Campaign Chair Almost Reached Deal with Robert Mueller — But It All Fell Apart: Report

The following article by Cody Fenwick was posted on the AlterNet.org website August 27, 2018:

Paul Manafort was found guilty on eights counts of federal crimes last week.

Donald Trump, Paul Manafort and Ivanka Trump check the podium at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 21, 2016. Credit: Bill Clark, CQ Roll Call, Getty Images

Only one person targeted by special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation has tried to fight the prosecutors’ charges and taken the case to court: President Donald Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort.

Manafort was convicted last week on 8 counts, including bank and tax fraud. But according to a new report, his legal team actually met with Mueller to discuss to possibility of a plea deal, according to a new Wall Street Journalreport. He faces another set of charges in an upcoming case from the special counsel in September:

The plea discussions occurred as a Virginia jury was spending four days deliberating tax and bank fraud charges against Mr. Manafort, the people said. That jury convicted him on eight counts and deadlocked on 10 others. Prosecutors accused Mr. Manafort of avoiding taxes on more than $16 million he earned in the early 2010s through political consulting work in Ukraine.

View the complete article here.

Lone holdout on Manafort jury blocked conviction on all counts, juror says

The following article by Matt Zapotosky was posted on the Washington Post website August 23, 2018:

This courtroom sketch shows Paul Manafort listening to U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III at federal court in Alexandria. Credit: Dana Verkouteren, AP

A juror in the trial of Paul Manafort said that all but one of the jurors wanted to convict President Trump’s former campaign chairman on every charge he faced — although she criticized special counsel prosecutors as seeming “bored” throughout the trial and said she believed their true motive was to “get the dirt on Trump.”

The juror, Paula Duncan, spoke to Fox News Channel on Wednesday and later to NBC News . She told Fox that jurors “again and again” laid out for the lone holdout the evidence that convinced them that Manafort was guilty. But the holdout, a woman, said she harbored reasonable doubt, Duncan said.

“The evidence was overwhelming,” Duncan said, pointing to prosecutors’ extensive paper trail. “I did not want Paul Manafort to be guilty, but he was, and no one’s above the law.”

View the complete article here.