What the "Rick Gates done it" defense means in the Manafort trial

[Bernardo de La Paz]

Manafort's lawyers made an opening statement that they would show that Rick Gates done it all (yeah, right ).

That is an admission that they can't fight the fact that the Manafort money laundering and other charges are really money laundering. Thus they effectively admit that law was broken; just that some other guy did it, not their naive international political operator.

That theory was disproved on the first day when one store manager/owner said he never dealt with Rick Gates.

In other words, Manafort's lawyers don't have a case.

[C_U_L8R]

1. And if the prosecution doesn't call Gates?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Probably means they have a slam dunk case. . . . nt

[empedocles]

6. Or, they could win without Gates

and not have the vulnerable Gates cross-examined.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Yes. My point. Save his revelations for later prosecutions. . . . nt

[empedocles]

4. Major defense preparation/argument/base, might have been blown out of the water

[Jersey Devil]

9. Prosecutors today said they will call Gates, maybe tomorrow (nt)

nt

[Princess Turandot]

12. It sounded as if tomorrow was going to be mostly spent with the accountant...

from the firm that did Manafort's taxes.

[empedocles]

2. Wish the activist Judge Ellis didn't force prosecution's Gates witness hand

Could have been a major prosecution coup.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. I don't think he forced any hand.

He seems about outspoken. For example the Judge said profligate spending doesn't make a person guilty of a crime, but it is true that Judges often ask sharp questions against those they think have the better case so that the case can be made airtight. All the same, this is a jury trial.

[OnDoutside]

16. Is it out of the ordinary for him to deny so much evidence for the prosecution ? Photos etc.

[empedocles]

8. Nice to have a back and forth dialogue

thanks

[Princess Turandot]

10. I'm puzzled as to how they're even planning to spin that 'Gates the embezzler' caused Manafort

to siphon $10+ million in cash from foreign accounts in order to buy himself some very ugly clothes (& more stuff) as he was signing tax returns with far less income. Most embezzlers would want that cash for themselves, I would think!

[Blue_true]

14. You hit the nail on it's head. nt

[PoliticAverse]

11. Based on what I've seen so far they sould go with the "uncontrollable shopping addiction

made him do it" defense.

[Blue_true]

13. I think that the Bookkeeper and the Accountant testimony.

Pinned Manafort's ass to the wall. Jurors have to be complete idiots to believe that Manafort was not pulling all the strings and Gates was just a glorified gofer.

[dawg day]

15. Tax fraud -- can't say, "I didn't know!"

Seriously, if you can spend that amount of money, and you sign a tax return that says you owe "$40K", well, you know you're cheating on your taxes. You can't say, "It's my partner! It's my accountant!"