Paul Manafort joined Donald Trump’s upstart presidential campaign with a long resume and a lot of experience inside what the future president would describe as the “swamp.”
Manafort, 69, has fallen from the top of a campaign that ultimately won the White House to defendant in a criminal trial that begins in an Alexandria, Va., federal courthouse Tuesday morning.
When Trump named him campaign convention manager, Manafort had previously been an adviser to the presidential campaigns of Republicans Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bob Dole. He was also part of the the deep web of lobbyists in Washington, after he opened his own firm in 1980.
“Paul is a great asset and an important addition as we consolidate the tremendous support we have received in the primaries and caucuses, garnering millions more votes than any other candidate,” Trump said in a March 2016 statement, when Manafort was brought in to guide his campaign through what some thought would be a contested Republican convention.
Trump said Manafort, along with his team, would “bring the needed skill sets to ensure that the will of the Republican voters, not the Washington political establishment, determines who will be the nominee for the Republican Party.” The fear among Trump supporters was that his opponents would use their mastery of the rules to deny him the nomination. Manafort was to lead the effort to make sure that did not happen.
Then, in mid-May, Manafort was promoted to campaign chairman and chief strategist before helping to direct the Republican National Convention in Cleveland from July 19-21.
But then came the questions of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, stemming from Manafort’s work with Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Those questions, combined with Manafort’s reported clashes with fellow top Trump official Corey Lewandowski, led to Manafort’s departure from the Trump campaign on Aug. 19, 2016.
Then, in November 2016, NBC News reported that the FBI was making an inquiry into Manafort and his foreign business connections.
Special counsel Robert Mueller took over the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible connections with Trump associates in May 2017. The Associated Press then reported that Manafort was at the center of the probe.
But Manafort was still working abroad with controversial foreign leaders, helping organize the Kurdish independence referendum in Iraq in September 2017, which was opposed by the United States.
But Manafort’s downfall had begun, and in October 2017, he surrendered to the FBI after a federal grand jury indicted him and his business associate, Rick Gates, in Washington on fraud and money laundering charges.
The charges against the two centered around their work in Ukraine and were not related to Trump or his campaign. Manafort pleaded not guilty.
That trial is set to begin in September — but not before Manafort comes to face the federal charges he is battling in Virginia.
In February, both Manafort and Gates were indicted on 32 charges of tax and bank fraud in the Eastern District of Virginia.
A day later, Gates took a plea deal, and less than a week later, Manafort pleaded not guilty.
Now Mueller gets his first trial of their 15-month investigation, when his team, led by Andrew Weissmann, goes on the offensive before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III.
Jury selection begins at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, with opening arguments expected at the United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., later in the afternoon.
The trial is expected to last at least three weeks.
Manafort’s lawyers went through great lengths to get certain evidence tossed and appeared to have almost convinced Ellis the case was outside the scope of the special counsel investigation.
“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud. You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment or whatever,” Ellis told prosecutors in a preliminary hearing in May.
But Ellis issued a June opinion that said “upon further review,” it was clear that Mueller had “followed the money paid by pro-Russian officials” to Manafort, something that fell within his authority.
Federal prosecutors have revealed quite a lot of details about Manafort and the millions he raked in during his time working in Ukraine.
A Monday morning court filing by Mueller showed that Manafort made more than $60 million as a political consultant, the first concrete income amount they have given. Previous court filings by federal prosecutors show the life of luxury Manafort led, with receipts of high-end clothing and cars.
But the trial will likely stop there, focusing on his business dealings and not his time with the Trump campaign.
Federal prosecutors recently told Ellis they are not planning to discuss Russia or any evidence about possible collusion with Moscow and the Trump campaign.
But eyes will be back on Mueller and his investigation, which Trump as president has continually labeled a “witch hunt.”
“Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns,” Trump said on Twitter the day the judge in Washington revoked Manafort’s bail and sent him to jail.
The president also downplayed Manafort’s significance, telling reporters in June: “He worked for me, what, for 49 days or something? I feel badly for some people because they have gone back 12 years to find things.” Manafort worked for Trump for 144 days.
