A news and interview program, anchored by Erin Burnett. Have Breaking News about President Trumps former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort. His righthand man rick gates face a grueling crossx admitting to an afarks a secret life, and lie after lie about money. And the question now is who will jurors believe, the acued liar Paul Manafort or the admitted Liar Rick Gates . Cara scan nell is outside the courthouse. How did it go for manafort . Well, manafort was really trying to put Rick Gates On Trial today. His Defense Lawyers were Hammering Gates about his lies about his admitted lies to the special counsels office, about false filings and Bank Accounts that gate had done in his own personal life, and really they were putting the focus on whether he embezzled from Paul Manafort. And there was a bit of a jockeying between gates and manaforts Defense Lawyer about where the money came from. Gates was not making many admissions. At various times he said he couldnt recall things whereas on direct examination he had very good memory. But some of the big surprises of the day was manaforts attorney forced gates to admit that he
had had an affair a decade earlier and there were questions about where that money came from, if it was money that he admitted hed embezzled from Paul Manafort. They also were pressing gates on his credibility in general. Whether he was lying. And gates was trying at the end to strike a note of contrition after all the sparring where he said i made a mistake, i regret it clearly, im here to tell the truth, erin. Now, kara, did gates and manafort interact at all today . I know yesterday gates was loath to even make eye contact with his former boss. Reporter today gates when he came into the courtroom his eyes were darting all across the defense table. He was looking over there. Manafort, he was studying documents, he had his glasses on. He was closely paying attention. During crossexamination gates seemed a little more on the defensive. He was speaking to the attorney then. I did not see any eye contact between gates and manafort as
the day unfolded. Were xpth crossexamination to continue tomorrow when court begins. That could go for about an hour, erin. All right, kara, thank you very much. Kara will be in that room again tomorrow. And now lets go to harry sandek, former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. Ann milligram former prosecutor and former new jersey attorney general. And Garrett Grapher author of Threat Matrix inside bob muellers fbi and the war on global territory. The manafort attorney who questioned gates today, he was aggressive and he did a good job. His name is ken down sxug know him. You used to work with him. As he left court today he said, mr. Manafort had a great day. Do you agree . Well, its hard to know to say this is a great day. There was in the morning a lot of very incriminating evidence being laid out. The crossexamination, its never a surprise that the defendant comes right at the cooperating witness. And thats because the government by federal law under our constitution has to provide
a tremendous amount of impeachment material. Sought start of the crossexamination usually involves Something Like what we saw today from kevin downing. So ann, the defense, you know, they forced manafort to repeat that he lied to the special counsel. Lets just be honest here. Because we dont lie. 20 times he met with the special counsel. 20 times. Before they agreed to do a deal. Which means he lied a whole lot to bob mueller before he decided to stop lying to bob mueller. He admitted to stealing from manafort, Helping Manafort cheat on his taxes, said he may have taken money from the inaugust ralt Committee Funds which theres a Brig Brouhaha over where that money went because theres no trail. Lied to his wife, had an affair. On and on. Was it way good idea for gates to go on the stand . I think harrys point is exactly right which is this is like a Roller Coaster. Yesterday you saw just gates on the stand with the prosecutor going through all this evidence. It looks like wow, theres a ton of evidence. Today all you see is a crossexamination where, and we already knew, this gates lied to
the special counsel, gates has already admitted to plaegd guilty to all these crimes. This is the way it goes. Whats important is that at the end of the day this morning you had emails and they were between gates and manafort and theyre all about moving this money to avoid taxes. And you have gates explaining those. At the end of the day the fact that gates lied about things, does that mean hes not telling the truth when you have the physical documents i guess thats the point. Hes almost a cherry on the top but you already have the documents to show it. Its a Roller Coaster to the end when the prosecutor and the government puts all that together. As you look at it in muellers decision obviously to put gates on the stand, you think gates may not have taken such a big hit today. Yeah. I think what he saw actually in the crossexamination was entirely consistent in some ways with the tale that he was telling yesterday on direct examination, that this was that this was sort of a stew of corruption and embezzlement where everyone was stealing from everyone else and sort of everything that he was
testifying to today that he did in some ways backed up the story he told yesterday about the schemes that he was pulling off with Paul Manafort. Harry, to that point, manaforts lawyer spent a lot of time today pounding the table on how gates stole all this money from manafort. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Theres a significant point here that i dont know if everyone watching has realized. Downing said, you know, your colleague, Why Dont You Say Embezzleme Embezzlement . Gates, what difference does it make . We all remember who infamously said that. Downing, why wont you say embezzleme embezzlement . Gates, okay, it was an emezellment from mr. Manafort. He didnt want to say it, but he did it. And obviously that means that manafort didnt know about it. Sew was able to sneak financial dealings to the tune of Hundreds Of Thousands of dollars by manafort. How does that play to the jury . I think thats one of the stronger points that we saw from the defense because it at least raises the suspicion that maybe some of these other crimes that
hes trying to pin on manafort were in fact done by gates without manafort knowing. If manafort didnt know about this, maybe there are other things he didnt know about. I think thats actually a good line of crossexamination because it doesnt just say hey, this is a bad guy. If hes a bad guy, Paul Manaforts partner for all these years was a bad guy. You need to if youre the defense show why hes lying about the crime. So ann, to this point the jurys not just watching gates. Theyre also watching the judge. According to the washington post, at the end of the day today gates said what all of the accountants and bookkeepers and landscapers and mercedesbenz dealers have said, which is that manafort was in charge and he kept a close eye on things. But the judge, judge ellis, interrupted and said, he didnt know about the money you were stealing. Sew didnt do it that closely. Now, this comes from the judge. Obviously, we know this judge reprimanded the prosecution, has repeatedly during the trial. Before the trial he said you guys are using this as a fig leaf, you just want to impeach trump. Will this Behavior Sway the jury . Yeah, it absolutely could sway the jury. By also agree with harrys
point. This is one of the more effective parts of the defense cross today, was just the fact that theres no honor among thieves. Theyre both right . Manafort is sitting there accused of bank fraud and tax fraud and gates is admitting not only to that but also to having stolen money from the person whos having him steal money. Its sort of like this very complex web of deceit. Its pretty incredible. Garrett, were also learning that federal prosecutors tonight are now investigating Michael Cohen, trumps former lawyer, for tax fraud, right . Which is exactly what were talking about with rick gates and Paul Manafort. You now have three people from the trump inner circle during the campaign under scrutiny, charged or have actually pleaded guilty to the charges of tax fraud. Does this mean mueller is zeroing in on the president himself . Well, its hard to say. Obviously the Michael Cohen investigation is by the Southern District of new york. A separate investigation. But where you sort of see these threads come together is rick gates over the last 48 hours has shown how devastating it can be to have a trusted aide, a
trusted adviser, a trusted fixer turn on you. So if youre sort of looking at this investigation right now thinking what could maikel cohen deliver on donald trump given his years of working sort of as, you know, Donald Trumps rick gates, this could be a pretty devastating push if the president faces Michael Cohen turning on him. After Michael Cohen faces serious tax or bank fraud charges, which is what hes been reported to be under investigation for. Because those are very serious charges and, again, charges that can come pretty much with just some Paper Research and indictments. Which harry, gets us to the point if mueller sits down sxint views with the president he said it could be about obstruction of justice. He has explicitly not said, right . Its not about any kind of fraud. But to the point garretts making, that doesnt mean that they may not be looking at that with the president of the United States himself. Because the paper trail may be more important than any interview. Absolutely. And you know, the cooperating witness cant make a case on their own. You would never as a prosecutor just bring a case based on one persons word. You would want to have the Documentary Evidence and then the cooperator is the explainer. He explains how the documents fit, what actually happened. But none of these cases would be makeable just based on one person saying you did it. And of course we should keep in Mind Accountant after accountant and bookkeeper and landscaper theyve all already made the case. And then the documents was sort of the icing on the top. Thank you all very much. Next the Breaking News. Polls about to close in that crucial ohio Special Election. It is a major test for trump before the midterms. The first results are coming in in about 15 minutes. Were going to have that breaking here. John king next out front at the magic wall. And trump backing a controversial candidate for governor in kansas, a man who was out to prove there was massive voter fraud. Will this backfire for trump . And if democrats can pull off a
balderson, who was backed by President Trump, right . That big rally this weekend. Oconnors trying to flip a seat that the gop has held for about 35 years. Inside politics host john king is out front. John, obviously this is a very crucial race, right . And this is the last Special Election. Dem versus republican. That were going to get here before the ultimate test in november. What are you watching tonight . Erin, just the fact that were having this conversation, that were worried about this race tipping, republicans are worried about this race tipping, tells us its a problem for the republican party. This is the district here. Heres the big question. Were going to learn tonight is this a very difficult year for republicans or is this potentially a disastrous year for republicans . As you noted the 12th District hasnt elected a democrat since Ronald Reagan was president ial. What are we looking for tonight . You mentioned the president going out there. Lets start with that. The trump effect. Morrow county is in the tract here. This is pat tiberi. He was the incumbent. He left the seat. Thats why its open in a Special Election. Look how well he did in this largely rural area in 2016. Did the president s visit, does the president urging trump republicans to come out to vote,
does balderson get numbers like this . But its important to note fewer people live here. Look at the smaller vote count. Just 15,000 people back in Morrow County in 2016. Balderson needs to run up the numbers out here. Trump republicans need to come out and vote and they need to vote republican. The next test, as we start moving closer to columbus, not all the way there but delaware county. Yes, you have . Rural areas out here but this is a more affluent exurban area. Trump sometimes turns off those kind of republican voters. Does Troy Balderson run strong, you see how well tiberri ran here with 72 00 almost 73 of the vote. And notice there are more voters here. As you start to get closer to columbus youre in suburban and exurban areas that are more populated. The president has had a problem with these voters at times. This is a key county to watch if this area is close. And then the key is down here. About a third of the district is in the Franklin County part the part of Frank Lipp County that is in this congressional district. This is where trump has been toxic if you look at the Alabama Senate race, the virginia results last year, pennsylvania
18. The closer you get to the city, those close in suburbs, thats where you have your millennial voters, College Educated suburban women who have been turned off by the president , either staying home or voting for the democrats. If this is red tonight, republicans will hold this seat. If this is blue the democrats are in play as we watch this play out. Again, we watch this tug of war within the republican party. The more traditional suburban republicans turned off by the president. The president bringing in new voters into rural areas. Well see that play out tonight, erin. And john, this is also you talk about how this conversation even happening is significant. There has been so much money poured into this race. Were talking about millions and millions of dollars for a Special Election where theyve got to run again in november. Its pretty stunning, right . How much money are we talking about . It is pretty stunning. It is evidence when you look at the the Lopsided Nature Lets Switch Sxwaulz come over here. This is just the outside money. And look how much of it is republican. More than 5. 2 million from may through earlier this week into this district. The democrats have spent a little more than a million. Again, 5. 2 to 1 million. What does that tell you . A democrat, again, has not been elected here since Ronald Reagan was president. The republicans having to flood money into this district from outside pacs trying to save their candidate. It tells you how worried they are, b, how important it is for them ton lose the morale. If republicans lose the seat theres going to be panic in the party its going to make more republican incumbents think im in trouble this year. Thats why pouring in all this money, trying to save a race, erin, that if you went back a few months you wouldnt even think should be close. Incredible. John king, thank you. And johns going to be back with us of course because were awaiting results, as i said, could start coming in here in just about ten minutes. I want to go now to our senior political analyst mark Preston White house Kernt For American Urban Niktsz april ryan, former assistant to george w. Bush scott and former Dnc Communications director maria cardona. April, i want to start with the numbers john just went through. More than 6 million in spending. Its a 51 in favor of republicans who have held the
seat of course for 35 years. Why is this one race so important . Its ohio. Its a battleground state. But most importantly, one of the reasons why its so important, its some of the heartland of america. You have people there who are grassroots, who are in manufacturing. You have all types of communities in the state of ohio. But when you get to this piece, when you have all of this money spent and you have a president going down and you have democrats and ive talked to some democrats in ohio. They said republicans are going to lose. And for this president if that is the case, and theyre saying its not about a blue wave. This democrat from ohio its not about a blue wave. Its about the fact that people are tired of this president s antics, quote unquote. They said its women, white women. They say its independents. And the democrats are energized in ohio. And it didnt help that this president talked about lebron james, you know, last week. Ohio. Thats ohios guy. Lebron james. Mark, its interesting. This point, since Ronald Reagan. This has been a r