As a hotshot global political consultant, Paul Manafort traveled between Kiev and luxury homes in New York, Virginia and Florida.

Why is Paul Manafort risking it all to face Mueller charges in court? Read more

On Tuesday morning in Virginia he traveled about 100 yards, from the Alexandria Detention Center to the Albert V Bryan courthouse, for the first day of his trial on multiple felony charges including tax fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy.



Manafort, a former chairman of the Donald Trump presidential campaign, was jailed in mid-June on suspicions of witness tampering. The trial marks the first court test for special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Trump campaign ties to Russia and related matters, and whose team is prosecuting Manafort.

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Wearing a dark suit, white shirt and blue and white tie, Manafort looked drawn and vulnerable, the sheen of his public persona stripped away, though he remained defiantly good-humoured. Occasionally the 69-year-old put on spectacles or lifted a hand to straighten his hair, the back of which was flecked with grey.

Manafort sat before the judge with two of his lawyers to his left and three to his right. At 11.40am, a hundred minutes into the day’s proceedings, he turned around and offered a confident, reassuring smile to his wife, Kathleen, who sat in the front row of the public gallery.

Manafort ran Trump’s campaign for five months in the spring of 2016. Trump has tried to distance himself from Manafort, saying he “worked with me, what, for 49 days or something?”

On Tuesday morning, the president claimed by tweet that “collusion is not a crime, but that doesn’t matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)”.

But though the trial may touch on Manafort’s communications during the campaign with his partners in the former Soviet bloc, it is not expected to focus on campaign ties to Russia. Manafort’s financial dealings and the luxury lifestyle they afforded are to come under the microscope instead.

At 10am, around 65 potential jurors filed in. US district judge TS Ellis told them: “Nothing you do as an American citizen is more important than jury service.” They answered to individual numbers then swore on oath. Ellis continued: “I am going to start by giving you a brief thumbnail sketch of the allegations by the government in this case.”

These consist of five charges of subscribing to false income tax returns from 2010 to 2014; four charges of failing to file a foreign bank account report to the Treasury from 2011 to 2014; and five charges of bank fraud conspiracy and four charges of bank fraud in 2015 and 2016.

More than once, Ellis impressed on the potential jurors: “He is presumed to be innocent until the jury find otherwise.”

The jury selection – six men and six women, predominantly white – was completed just before 2pm. Manafort rose as the oath was administered to the jurors, who were then advised not to look up the case on the internet or discuss it with anyone. The hearing adjourned until 2.45pm, when opening statements of 30 minutes each are expected.

Despite the gravity of the situation, there were some lighthearted moments. When one potential juror elicited laughter by describing herself as a “recovering attorney”, Ellis played along and said his wife was an attorney for 20 years but was much happier as a high school teacher. Later, the judge said: “I know I’m predictable. My wife says that’s one of my only virtues.”

Manafort did not seem to object to the levity. He sometimes exchanged banter with his lawyers. When his legal team stood to introduce themselves to the potential jurors, he nodded and smiled. But at other, more serious moments he pointed to some text and spoke intensely with the lawyer to his right.

The judge ordered the activation of a device that generates white noise, intended to sound like ocean waves, so that he and both legal teams could vet jurors for potential bias at the front of the room and not be heard by the public gallery. A total of 16 jurors, 12 regular and four alternates, were being chosen.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters await the start of the trial. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Government lawyers submitted a long list of exhibits they expect to use at trial.

The 451 entries included photographs of five residences; consulting agreements; dozens of email chains including with Kiev-based partners; “Ukrainian strategy memos”; travel itineraries; meeting agendas; loan documents; home improvement proposals; photographs of luxury-brand clothing; documents from an oriental rug dealer; a receipt for season tickets to the New York Yankees; photographs of a Land Rover and a Mercedes; landscaping receipts; records from more than a dozen financial institutions; and photographs of an outdoor kitchen and a pergola, a pool house, a private golf hole and pond.

Trump and the White House seemed far away. But outside the courthouse a small gathering of protesters displayed a life-sized puppet of the president and held signs saying “Trump won’t do time for you”, “It’s Mueller time” and “I like your new suit” – alongside a photo of Manafort’s mug shot.

Manafort faces additional charges in district court in Washington DC. The charges carry a maximum combined sentence of 305 years in prison.