Manafort’s Defense Team Accuses Gates of Multiple Affairs

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Lawyers for Paul Manafort accused his longtime deputy Rick Gates of having four extramarital affairs and lying about them, a last attempt by the defense to undermine the credibility of the government’s star witness at the fraud trial of Manafort on Wednesday.

Kevin Downing, the lead lawyer for Manafort, offered no evidence of either the affairs or Gates’ misrepresentation of them, and the judge, T.S. Ellis III, cut off the questioning before Gates could directly respond to the allegations.

The exchange marked a dramatic conclusion to Gates’ testimony against his former boss, which spanned three days in federal court here in the trial of Manafort on bank and tax fraud charges brought by the special counsel.

Gates provided hours of damning testimony against Manafort related to their decade of work together on behalf of Russia-aligned Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs. Gates accused Manafort of deliberately hiding income from the Ukraine work in foreign bank accounts to evade federal taxes, as well as personally directing the falsification of financial statements to obtain bank loans.

The defense had worked to cast Gates, not Manafort, as the driving force behind the financial crimes and questioned his agreement with the special counsel to plead guilty to lying to investigators in exchange for his cooperation.

The key elements of that effort were highlighting Gates’ admitted embezzlement of funds from Manafort’s companies as well his personal integrity, including an affair to which Gates admitted during his testimony Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning, Greg D. Andres, the lead prosecutor for the special counsel’s office, led the testimony back to the affair in an effort to demonstrate that it did not bother Manafort.

Gates testified that he and Manafort had discussed the relationship — which he said occurred more than a decade ago and lasted five months — and that Manafort not only did not fire him but also remained supportive of him. Additionally, Gates said that his wife also was aware of the affair, during which he lived with his paramour in an apartment in London.

Gates testified that he discussed the affair with the special counsel’s office during preparatory sessions for the trial, prompting Downing to ask whether Gates told investigators that he actually engaged in four extramarital affairs.

When Andres objected, challenging the relevance of the question, Downing asserted that Gates may have lied about the number of affairs, which could invalidate his plea agreement, prompting Ellis to call the lawyers to the bench to discuss the matter.

It was not immediately clear whether Downing was accusing Gates of lying to the special counsel’s team before the trial, or lying on the witness stand during the trial. Downing failed to explicitly ask Gates how many affairs he had, which may have limited the effectiveness of the effort to impeach Gates on that point.

It was the second time in the final hour of Gates’ cross-examination that Downing and prosecutors deliberated with Ellis over their lines of questioning. During both intermissions, Manafort, just feet away, glared continuously at Gates in the witness box, his fists perched underneath his chin. Gates kept his gaze fixed on the floor in front of him.

Manafort and Gates had been quite close, with Manafort, 69, serving as both a boss and mentor for Gates, 46. When Manafort was brought on to help run the Trump campaign, he brought on Gates. When Manafort was forced out amid allegations about his work in Ukraine, Gates continued working with the campaign, and then served as the executive director of Trump’s inaugural committee.

Gates pleaded guilty in February to lying to federal authorities and conspiracy to commit fraud but has yet to be sentenced. Under guidelines that the judge is not required to follow, his plea would result in a prison sentence between four years nine months and six years. But as part of his testimony, Gates said prosecutors have agreed not to object if his defense attorney argues that he should receive probation. The most serious of the 18 felony charges against Manafort carry a maximum of 30 years in prison.

The trial is the first by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, who was assigned to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, possible coordination with Russia by the Trump campaign and any other crimes uncovered during his inquiry. As Gates left the stand for the last time Wednesday, he wedged himself out of the small witness box in which he had been seated for hours over the course of three days, walking briskly by Manafort, who attempted one last time to make eye contact with his former protégé. Gates walked out of the courtroom down an aisle, past reporters, disappearing through the same courtroom doors that members of the public used.