WASHINGTON
Bank fraud. Tax evasion. Conspiracy. The charges Paul J. Manafort Jr. faces in a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, are largely unremarkable for a white-collar criminal case.
Yet Manafort’s case is anything but normal—starting with the fact that it is scheduled to go to trial at all.
President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman is the first person to stand trial on charges brought by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Jury selection is scheduled to get underway today and is expected to proceed swiftly. Opening statements could start as early as this afternoon.
The charges Manafort faces are mostly not connected to his work for the Trump campaign, and the prosecution has said that it does not intend to present evidence regarding Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election or any potential collusion between the Russians and Trump or his associates.
Still, an unavoidable political subtext accompanies Manafort’s case.
“There’s the special counsel, a very high-profile defendant and the specter of the president hanging over the trial,” said Edward MacMahon, a longtime attorney in Washington, D.C., and Virginia.
The charges stem from Manafort’s role as a consultant for the former Ukranian president, Viktor Yanukovych, and alleged criminal schemes Manafort used to hide the money he earned. In a court filing Monday, prosecutors said Manafort earned more than $60 million from his work in Ukraine.
Manafort funneled his wealth into ostentatious purchases, including nearly a million dollars spent on antique rugs, over half a million dollars to landscape his vacation home in the Hamptons, and millions more for home renovations, men’s clothing and cars, the government alleges.
When Yanukovych was ousted in 2014 and Manafort’s income from that work tapered off, he turned to bank fraud, prosecutors say.
Manafort’s decision to risk a trial on those allegations has surprised legal experts. The vast majority…
