The bank fraud trial for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort enters its second week on Monday, with the most critical testimony yet expected to unfold.
Rick Gates, Manafort’s former business partner who also served a senior role in Mr. Trump’s campaign, will be taking the stand Monday afternoon. Gates has been a key cooperator for special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, after he cut a plea deal earlier this year. During that plea process, Gates admitted to two felony charges, but when he testifies it will be the first time he’ll detail those crimes face-to-face with his former boss and mentor. Gates is one of 35 potential witnesses prosecutors hope to call to the stand.
The trial, set to resume 1 p.m. Monday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, is the first of Mueller’s prosecutions to reach a jury. But lawyers have made no mention of Trump or possible campaign coordination with the Kremlin, the central question behind the special counsel’s investigation. The judge in the case, T.S. Ellis, has said that he doesn’t think it will need to go longer than three weeks and would like it to wrap up in two.
Last week, Manafort was accused of amassing “secret income” and falsifying tax returns and using fake loans to pay less in taxes, among other things.
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