Ex-Trump campaign chair found guilty of tax fraud
The judge declares a mistrial on 10 other charges after jurors fail to reach a unanimous verdict.
Wednesday 22 August 2018 07:34, UK
Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has been found guilty of bank and tax fraud.
He was found guilty of eight out of 18 charges relating to financial crime.
Manafort was convicted of five counts of filing false income tax returns, one count of failing to file a report of a foreign bank account in 2012 and two counts of bank fraud.
Judge TS Ellis declared a mistrial on the 10 other charges after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
The jury deliberated for four days before announcing the verdict at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia.
Prosecutors spent more than two weeks presenting their case as they sought to prove Manafort concealed millions of dollars in offshore accounts from the IRS.
They accused Manafort of having avoided paying more than $16m (£12.4m) in taxes over several years.
They called carpenters, landscapers and clothiers to attest to how Manafort paid for his lavish lifestyle of expensive suits and elaborate properties through offshore wire transfers from shell companies in Cyprus and elsewhere.
It is the first trial victory for special counsel Robert Mueller's team.
The judge declared the court is in recess following the verdicts.
Mr Ellis has not set a sentencing date and has given prosecutors until 29 August to decide whether to retry Manafort on the deadlocked charges.
Mr Trump responded to the verdict, saying he was "very sad" for Manafort.
"This has nothing to do with Russian collusion... This is a witch-hunt and a disgrace," the president said.
US senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the senate intelligence committee, warned President Trump over a possible pardon for Manafort.
"Any attempt by the president to pardon Mr Manafort or interfere in the investigation into his campaign would be a gross abuse of power and require immediate action by congress," said Mr Warner, whose committee has been investigating Russia collusion and the 2016 US election campaign.
This trial is the first of two for Manafort.
He faces a trial later this year in the District of Columbia on charges of conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, making false statements and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Ukrainian interests.
He is also accused of witness tampering in that case.
Former US attorney Harry Litman told Sky News Manafort's guilt means Mr Trump is "as good as having found guilty of campaign finance and wire fraud crimes".
He said the crimes are "really central" to the presidency as they "involved an attempt to exploit and corrupt the the system in order to get him elected in the first place".
However, he said the president is unlikely to face any serious consequences because he has a "firewall" defending him as the house of representatives and the senate are both majority Republican and have not indicated they would turn against the president.
"So far his allies in congress and his minority populist support have not been moved by various scandals that I think would have brought down other presidencies," Mr Litman, who is a Democrat, said.
"If there's a change in congress in the fall elections it becomes somewhat likely he will be impeached, which just means charged and you're not convicted without a two thirds vote in the senate.
"That still seems somewhat unlikely but the impeachment depends on members of his own party taking seriously the crimes with which he's been charged and clearly has committed.
"So far they've been shameful in putting party above country and making a kind of Faustian bargain to let Trump slide to stay in power."