The days top stories from around the world, from politics and money, to sports and pop culture. The battle to save lives as President Trump sends a tweet about the fire that baffles even his own staff about the cause of it all. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. In the politics lead, rick gates, former number two on the Trump Campaign grilled right now about the plea deal by Defense Attorneys for former Trump Campaign chair Paul Manafort. Gates describing today in vivid detail of he says manafort engineered an elaborate scheme to avoid taxes. Prosecutors say manaforts own emails show him directing the money to multiple offshore accounts. Now, although conspireing with russia on the 2016 election is not officially on the docket, the sub text of it is looming over the trial. Gates says that manafort gave some control over a bank account in cyprus of a man of a
up until 2012 for consulting work for a ukrainian billionaire. Gates went into detail about how Shell Companies were used to move money into hidden accounts in cyprus. In one instance, according to gates, a payment supported lobbying in the United States. Gates stated that manafort reported some of the payments to u. S. Tax officials as loans. Though they were, in fact, income. Adding that manafort was, quote, trying to decrease his taxable income. Prosecutors demonstrated that manafort directed these activities through emails. There were hundreds of these gates said in court. Adding, quote, typical prak us the wiz mr. Manafort to send me a list of wire requests. Gates admitted that he used information provided by manafort to create invoices or fake amounts of money for wire transfers but the money never actually went to the vendors. Instead, it went to the banks. The purpose of this, according to gates, so that the wire
transfers would not be recorded on u. S. Business records. Nonetheless, on monday the prosecutors elicited testimony from mr. Gates and from one of mr. Manaforts accountants that tied manafort more closely to russia. The accountant Cindy Laporte testified mr. Manafort received a 10 million of deripaska, a Russian Oligarch close to president Vladimir Putin. She said she saw no evidence the loan was ever repaid. Our thanks to jim for that report. Lets talk about this with the experts. Michael, lets start with you. The case is not directly about 2016 election and any alleged russian conspiracy with any americans and in fact the prosecution said theyre not going to introduce evidence about that. And yet, we keep hearing about these politicians in russia that have ties to putin, deripaska,
theres the other klemmnick and alleged to be russian intelligence. I know the judge slaps the prosecutor for introducing it. What do you think they are doing there . I dont think theyre trying to directly introduce this evidence but its relevant to understand how manafort was behaving. Who he owed money to, who he was, you know, the subordinate of as an intelligence matter because i think he joined the campaign in part because of this debt they had to russians, as a way to reingratiate himself with them. This stuff is on the fringes of what theyre Talking About but the heart of the case is tax fraud and bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy. What do you make of this, introducing the stuff that makes it sure sound like Paul Manafort had a lot of ties to and owed a lot to people with strong ties to Vladimir Putin . Yeah. I mean, you know, in a strange
way the topic is not helpful for President Trump at all but in a strange way this trial and what theyre Talking About i think strangely is. Because whats pretty clear is mueller and the team through the Underwear Drawer of Paul Manafort and rick gates and know whats there and brought a whole host of charges and looks like they have a locked down case. Whats not introduced is any sort of Collusion Piece that would suggest that any transfer of funds given to Paul Manafort for any kind of collusion with the russian government and the Trump Campaign and the core of what we are getting at with the mueller investigation. You know, i think in a weird, strange round about way its helpful. Theres a great and interesting story in the Washington Post after joining the campaign manafort sent a message to an employees in kiev about his rising profile and new credibility because he had joined the Trump Campaign and he asked, quote, how do we use it chairman. Chairman. People paying attention may see a witch hunt, a trial, A Guy Named Manafort and a clear headline that will give mueller more credibility i think in the public eye. Maybe not among his core supporters but certainly people waivering in the middle. You never know. It may for people who have Involvement Lead them to come forward with more information so this is just the beginning. It is important to draw a connection between manafort and his what he owes, the financial ties because this is about the money. A russian puppet thats thats who he worked for. Exactly. Thats also important for people to know. Michael, its interesting. This is the prosecutions case right now. The defense is going do get a whack at it, as well. One assumes theyre not going to rest and have to present a case. Would you recommend that Paul Manafort testify . Is that something that you as an attorney if you worked for paul
manafort would want him to do or do you think its too risky . You have to see how the crossexamination of gates goes. What the defense is trying to do here is say, gates is still a liar. He pled guilty to lying. He cheated on his wife. He is a bad actor. And you cant believe anything he says. If they feel that they have established that, then maybe dont put on a defense and argue reasonable doubt to the jury. If it doesnt go that way, they have to make a tough decision about manafort. I think hes vulnerable for crossexamination because the Documentary Evidence here so overwhelmingly shows his hand in the direction of this whole scheme. And you cant put your client at that risk. But theyve really, you know, shot the moon here in not pled pleading to the case in the first instance. Depends on the crossexamination. Jen, manaforts accountant
testified and you had the testimony of gates, as well, about russian billionaire deripaska Loaning Manafort 10 million in 2006 and we know in 2016 manafort according to the Washington Post offered a private briefing to deripaska on the state of the race. Also, this interesting stuff about the guy indicted by mueller. And having some control over one of manaforts accounts in cyprus. Right. Never going to be that president putin having Conference Calls with manafort. Right . Probably going to be an oligarch, somebody with money, close ties to putin, the government doesnt work there like it does work here. All the ties. What is interesting here is i think anybody could have told you that manafort was a corrupt guy with ties to questionable governments before he was hired by the trump team. That wasnt exactly new. That wasnt exactly new. Not surprising. I was joking with josh and
probably Wasnt The Rising Star of the Republican Party either. So the fact that he was hired by the trump team with these russian ties is also something that should raise questions and google. You didnt need a big investigation to know that. Yeah. It was an odd pick. We wrote about it at the time. If the case is no collusion, whatever how we define collusion, but i think we are getting closer and closer to overall the entirety of the information we know now suggests not a lot of innocent meetings with russians and substantial and the treat ovweet over the w were close to collusion and what was the collusion and the extent of it and did donald trump know about it . What was the island . I think we have to be careful to separate because what were seeing right now, no question. Paul manafort. He is a bad guy. Right . Rick gates. Seems to me like he did a lot of bad stuff. But that is not proof that
donald trump has anything other than some questionable Hiring Practices in the campaign. We know that donald trump ran an Unconventional Campaign and an unconventional white house. Kind word for it. Generous. Unconventional. Such a sweetheart. A consequential decision of President Trump, whether to sit for an interview with bob mueller and the repons to the worst wildfires in the state of california. White house aides have a difficult time explaining it. Stay with us. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. And something amazing happens. Thats our inspiration for fancy feast medleys. Wild salmon primavera. Tastes amazing. Also in pate. Fancy feast medleys. Booking a flight doesnt have to be expensive. Just go to priceline. Its the best place to book a flight a few days before my trip and still save up to 40 . Just tap and go. For the best savings on flights, go to priceline. Whenshe was pregnant,ter failed, inlaws were coming, a little bit of water, it really it rocked our world. I had no idea the amount of damage that water could do. We called usaa. And they greeted me as they always do. Sergeant baker, how are you . They were on it. It was unbelievable. Having insurance is something everyone needs, but having usaa now thats a privilege. Were the bakers and were usaa members for life. Usaa. Get your insurance quote today. Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Were the most isolated population on the planet. Hawaii is the first state in the u. S. To have 100 Renewable Energy goal. Were a very small electric utility. But, if we dont make this move were going to have changes in our environment, and have a negative impact to hawaiis economy. 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Will President Trump sit for an interview with special could ns mueller . Theyre closer with an exception. Rudy giuliani telling Washington Post, we have a real reluctance of questions of obstruction. The president s lawyers made clear their concerns about mr. Trump sitting for a face to face interview. Hes always been interested in testifying. It is us, the team of lawyers including me, that have the most reservations about that. Reporter if they have left open the possibility the president will override the objections. The president may decide at the end to not take his lawyers advice. Thats up to him. Hes the president. He makes that decision. Reporter hes also getting input from others during his Working Vacation at his golf resort in new jersey. Including dinner with right wing Media Friends and South Carolina senator lindsey graham. This is an interesting dinner. Melania was there and its a good dinner. Sean hannity and mark levin and me. Really interesting dinner. Reporter many friends warn against talking to mueller. My political advice to the president not to sit down with bob mueller. Reporter yet the president repeatedly says he wants to. I would love to speak. I would love to. Nobody wantings to speak more than me. Reporter so if the president does refuse that interview the question is, is bob mueller going to subpoena the president . Of course, that would be without precedent. It could go to the supreme court. The only real historical precedence from the watergate era, of course. Thats secret recordings of the white house, not a president ial testimony or interview from a special counsel here. So well see by the end of theWorking Vacation if the answer to the question is no, will the president sit down or not . Jake . All right. Jeff zeleny with the president in new jersey. Thank you so much. Lets talk about this with the experts. Michael, you said in the last block were you advising Paul Manafort you would not have him testify. Hes too vulnerable. What about if youre working for President Trump . Who wants to talk according to his public pronouncements. Who says he has pnt done anythg wrong. Purely as a lawyer, i would say, dont talk to mueller. Its too dangerous. You dont have a good enough command of the facts. You lie and therefore its unsafe. But its a political case, too. And its not that easy as a lawyer to say to a political client dont talk because it looks like youre Hiding Something so what i think theyll try to do is negotiate like bill clinton did some type of interview on prescribed
topics for prescribed period of time. Perhaps like with reagan, some in writing and some orally. I think that in the end they have a hard time keeping him out of a conversation with bob mueller. Does this become politically difficult if it does go before the House Of Representatives . Lets say in this game of theoreticals democrats win back the house and some report it goes to the house and something for House Members to vote on. Does it become more difficult for republicans to defend a vote in favor of the president if the president has refused to testify or does it matter . I dont think it matters in this environment. I mean, he if theres no precedent, except for watergate as jeff zeleny just said, living by a different set of rules relating to what republicans will and wont defend so i dont think it matters for those purposes. I think the risk politically even with him testifying and perjuring himself and caught in
lies but under oath is worse. Alan dershowitz defended the president on the charges has said that its not per se a perjury trap, the idea to be lying. Its the idea that he might Say Something that is in contradiction to someone elses memory and accused of perjury. Does that hold water you think . Seems polite. The president gives speeches saying inaccurate things regularly. The odds of saying something false is pretty high. I would question the premise. Hes saying he wants to talk since december. If donald trump wanted to talk to mueller, he would do it already. I think he might want to say i want to talk and not want to talk. Whats interesting, josh, is even some defenders of the president are starting to get a little soft i think in terms of what might have happened. Take a listen to fox news own Andrew Napolitano and talking
about the case and whether theres a potential crime that occurred. If theres an agreement to receive dirt on hillary from the russians, if those agreed at least one took a step then theres the potential crime for conspiracy. He went on to say that doesnt involve President Trump. But since he says he doesnt know about the meeting. Here you have people normally sympathetic voices to the president Talking About, hey, might be something here. I think hes providing the legal analysis here. I think if we take a step back and look at the calculations that go towards whether he speaks with mueller or the team or not, i think not just a calculus on behalf of the president and the mueller team has one to make, too, here because if you are to focus your investigation or your interview entirely on obstruction or false statements, at this point without proving under any circumstance the underlying case that gave rise to this, being
russian collusion, you are in risky political territory and not suggesting you dont follow the law where it leads even to the oval office. I believe you should. However, theres a Political Risk here that you run when you bring an obstruction case, a case that is just about the invest, not about the underlying facts but just about the investigation to the american public. Is that what happened with bill clinton . Bill clinton committed perjury. Look what happened. Right . Huge public backlash. Isnt an interview about obstruction, as well, or obstruction of justice. Right. Two parts, the firing comey being one part which is that whi