Page 3 - Prosecuting Manafort News Today

>> counselor, lets go out to you in los angeles. i get the idea of not putting manafort on in his own defense because then of course the prosecution gets to come at him, and hes got all kinds of vulnerable exposures that could erase the work they did during the trial. what is the defense strategy likely to be during closing statements tomorrow, and do you make it all about the star witnessed who flipped, mr. gates? >> well, they certainly opened on that. they said that during opening that rick g...

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Started ellis questioned the special counsels motives in prosecuting manafort saying you dont really care about mr. manaforts bank fraud, suggesting it was an effort to pressure manafort into providing information he may have on donald trump. >> i think judge t.s. ellis in virginia said it best, hes not a particular figure, he has no skin in this game except the law. >> still, ellis surprised the white house and let the case two forward. ellis was born in 1940 in columbia. he graduated from prin...

Bad choice to join the taliban. long before the manafort trial started ellis questioned the special counsels motives in prosecuting manafort saying you dont really care about mr. manaforts bank fraud, suggesting it was an effort to pressure manafort into providing information he may have on donald trump. >> i think judge t.s. ellis in virginia said it best, hes not a particular figure, he has no skin in this game except the law. >> still, ellis surprised the white house and let the case go forwa...

Rick gates is the man in the middle, the best witness for the prosecution and the person the defense wants to discredit. what did you learn from all of this so far? and throw in the tad devine testimony. >> this is the first time since manafort was arrested and charged in the district of columbia that we have ever heard the nature of hiss defense. now thats a point worth elaborating on for a moment. all the filing so far from his lawyer have been to discredit robert mueller and say he shouldnt h...

Exceeded his authority. the judge made provocative comments, seemed to question robert mueller and the idea of special counsel and why they were prosecuting manafort. couple days ago, judge ellis issued a ruling and roundly ruled in favor of the government and against manafort and decided mueller was perfectly within his authority. i think hes facing an uphill battle in the hearing. one other interesting thing, the search warrants unsealed provided interesting new details how manafort was in deb...

Only reason they were prosecuting manafort for the other crimes was exactly as you stated, chris. >> but that says in the mandate anything that arises in this case they can prosecute. >> i agree with you. but the fact issing. > any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. that judge that 78-year-old judge who was a reagan appointment ought to read the mandate before he rules. i think hes out to lunch. >> i agree with you. >> i think hes going to learn more. im tough on th...

Were going to talk about that and more with my panel right now. cnn political commentators maria c cardona and paris denard joining me. >> good to see you, fred, welcome to d.c. thank you, always great to be here. manafort is maintaining his innocence. is this an issue of pressuring manafort to cooperate, that perhaps there is more? or is there simply about prosecuting manafort? >> i think its pushing manafort to see what he knows. we clearly have seen that this is a very serious effort on behal...

Tony podesta worked for lobbyist and john podesta worked for obama and clinton administrations, why does it seem that any ties with democrats are looked past in terms of the mainstream media but if youre tie today republicans, then you have big problems? >> its remarkable because paul manafort was in partnership with the podesta group on the very issue for which hes being charged by by the mueller people. mueller is prosecuting manafort for improperly lobbying but the podesta group isnt being ch...

>> that was a departure for how they have been talking about him to this point. >> and it was a more forceful defense or attack on those prosecuting manafort. it stood out in both of those ways. i think there is interesting back story on how it came out. it was an e-mail sent to the "wall street journal" reported by another media outlet. they wanted to get it out there, and i think probably it fits into the paradigm where theyre trying to say nice things about manafort that makes him feel good t...