Mean Manafort News Today

Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. Whether a person is too close to the subject of the probe, whether Jeff Sessions would beak be more of a Trump Campaign surrogate who happened to be Attorney General rather than acting as an independent Law Enforcement officer. If sessions didnt recuse after that statement, it would have made him look even more like he was doing trumps bidding. And trump apparently didnt know that making that statement would also as just a genera...

Whether the prosecutors can use photographs of expensive suits as evidence. there were brand names that were greek to this judge. the judge said if it doesnt say mens wearhouse, i dont know it. that got something of a laugh. then what happened did not. were showing you this because it matters legally. judge ellis hinting these pictures of manaforts very fancy suits may never get to the jury. the big curveball came when he starred questioning other evidence that pertained to rick gates. thats man...

Theyre trying to make paul manafort out like hes sean diddy coves and had fancy coats and fancy brands and that legally, theres not the problem. its kind of unfair and what they really have to problem is that there was tax evasion. do you think the judge is hitting that right and fairly? >> i think he is. he does bring it up a lot. id say roughly every hour or two, he makes a comment about manafort is not on trial for being rich or for having a lavish lifestyle or extravagant tastes and the pros...

Cut him off. the prosecutor saying a man in the court did not believe the law did not apply to him and collected over $60 million for his work in a country called ukraine but this man didnt want to report his income so he used foreign bank accounts to funnel and boom, the judge interrupted the evidence you contend will show this? the prosecutor says yes. and judge ellis does a little smackdown. thats the way i would put it. and the prosecutor tried to continue saying to funnel millions of dollar...

The judge does seem to really be riding the prosecution. now, there wouldnt be any reason for him to be riding the defense because the defense at the moment is putting in a few cross-examination questions at the end of each witness called by the prosecution. so its really the prosecutions ball on their side of the field at this point. been the judge is beak limiting the amount of evidence that i think the defense might view as prejudicial. as you mentioned, the issues of the photos or the photos...

Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories.

Justice against the president of the united states. >> so why is this happening now? well, theres a new report that suggests its not just the manafort trial which shows what happens to the defendants who dont cooperate with mueller but also that trump learned within the last day the special counsel will limit the scope of questioning and would like to ask questions both orally and written for the president to respond to. in other words, there is still serious pressure for an interview. according...

Of or only got from the manafort. today we had a strange development of forged invoices a couple of vendors saying that they were being shown invoices with their companys name at the top of the letterhead but that they were not authentic. it appears somebody fortunatelied those as part of the process of getting these bills paid by shell companies can overseas. >> it sounds exhausting to be that shady all the time. but we dont always relate toe what defendants are accused of, innocent till proven...

What he was getting at what i want to avoid somehow to use the term oligarch to mean manafort was being paid by people who are criminals. the only thing we know about them is if they had a lot of money. it has come to have a pejorative meaning. he told them look, find another term to use. almost immediately, not being able to say the word oligarch, thats kind of like a banana peel for the prosecution and ill read from what were learning from this trial. the payments were made on behalf of mr. ia...