One of Donald Trump’s right hand men are going down. Paul Manafort, who was the former chairman for Trump’s presidential campaign, is currently awaiting trials in Virginia and D.C. Unfortunately for Manafort, another huge piece of information has just come out about him – and jaws are dropping because it’s coming directly from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Mueller has just reported that Manafort made over $60 million when he was a political consultant in Ukraine – and didn’t report most of it. Bloomberg News reported what the filing said:
The government expects to prove that Manafort earned more than $60 million dollars from his Ukraine work during the period at issue and failed to report a significant percentage of it on his tax returns. No ‘pay stub[s]’ or ‘paychecks’ reflect that income; rather, the invoices and bills submitted by various consultants provide proof on that issue.”
While it’s not yet certain if all of the evidence against Manafort about his work in Ukraine will be allowed in his trial for money laundering plus bank and tax fraud charges, it’s certainly not good. Mueller spoke favorably of digging deeper:
Accordingly, to prove that Manafort earned that much income, the government must be able to show the extent of the work that he performed for Ukraine. And the challenged exhibits— memoranda, emails, and photos reflecting tasks performed—are relevant to establishing the extent of that work. Several exhibits establish that Manafort performed paid work for Ukraine through the entire period of the charged tax offenses (tax years 2010-2014).”
Mueller has also recently drawn attention to the luxurious lifestyle Manafort was living, releasing evidence of the former campaign manager shopping at the House of Bijan, which is known as “the world’s most expensive store.” Mueller also has documents that show Manafort spent over $900,000 at an Alexandria rug store, and purchased several other high ticket items such as a Mercedes Benz SL 550.
As Manafort’s Virginia trial is set to begin tomorrow, this is certainly not a good start to the week for him. This should make Trump nervous as well, as Mueller shows him that no one is above the law.
Featured image via Pete Souza, White House Photographer
