Tonight, day one of the manafort trial. The first of the mueller era. The government argues Paul Manafort thought he was above the law, while his defense team plans to attack the star government witness against him. The president started his day declaring collusion is not a crime, ending his day with red meat for the crowd in tampa, and no talk of russia. He did declare himself the most popular republican ever. And with 98 days until the midterms, facebook announces its found fake accounts designed to further tear us apart, and well show you if they have a familiar look to them. The 11th hour begins right now. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 558 of the Trump Administration, and day one of
the Paul Manafort trial, the first big test for Robert Mueller. It is a trial about taxes and not russia, though russia looms large in the background as it seems to in Everything Else these days. Manaforts being tried in Federal Court in alexandria, virgini
Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. And Donald Trumps name wasnt mentioned today. Robert muellers name wasnt mentioned today. This trial does not have to do with any connection to the 2016 campaign. Nor does rick gates involvement dovetail with what he did in the 2016 campaign, nor his work on the inaugural committee. Its a highly separate trial involving past clients of Paul Manaforts. I think if were reading between the lines, its the prelude to something that is supposed to be bigger. Obviously the prosecutors have a case that theyre bringing here, but it does seem like theyre looking down the road to try to get or compel Paul Manafort to participate in the larger mission, which is the investigation to collusion in the trump campaign. And were all sort of waiting to see what manafort does under this type of pressure. I do agree that the case the defense he is bringing seems highly uncompelling. Basically, he is saying my underli
and donald trump s name wasn t mentioned today. robert mueller s name wasn t mentioned today. this trial does not have to do with any connection to the 2016 campaign. nor does rick gates involvement dovetail with what he did in the 2016 campaign, nor his work on the inaugural committee. it s a highly separate trial involving past clients of paul manafort s. i think if we re reading between the lines, it s the prelude to something that is supposed to be bigger. obviously the prosecutors have a case that they re bringing here, but it does seem like they re looking down the road to try to get or compel paul manafort to participate in the larger mission, which is the investigation to collusion in the trump campaign. and we re all sort of waiting to see what manafort does under this type of pressure. i do agree that the case the defense he is bringing seems highly uncompelling. basically, he is saying my underling did all this without my knowledge. paul manafort is begging the jury to be
he was brought in by prosecutors today to testify about sort of how much money was made, but mainly about how involved manafort was in the effort in ukraine and in some of the financial matters so that it would be more difficult i think for manafort to claim that he was just sort of passively involved here and wasn t paying much attention. devine essentially described manafort as a detailed guy already trying to undercut the potential defense that he was somehow hoodwinked by rick gates or perhaps by his accountants or his tax people into the kinds of activities that got him indicted. cynthia, you re the lawyer here, so i got two more for you. number one is another mechanical question. tell the folks watching why it is that paul manafort, and we ve established he likes him some high-end menswear, is able to wear a suit in court, even though we have seen his booking photo in the green jumpsuit as prisoners wear in that part of the state of virginia. is it courtesy and is it because