Gates testifies he used money embezzled from Manafort to pay for apartment for affair
Richard Gates testified on Tuesday that he used money he embezzled from former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to help pay for costs associated with an affair.
The Washington Post reported that Manafort’s attorneys cross-examined Gates, and asked if he had lived a secret life. Gates then admitted he had an extramarital affair roughly 10 years ago.
Gates, who is considered the prosecution’s star witness, went on to testify that he rented a separate apartment in London for about two months, paid for first-class flights and stayed in luxury hotels using money he embezzled from Manafort.
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He disputed the defense’s suggestion that he spent as much as $3 million on the affair, The Washington Post reported.
Manafort is on trial for an assortment of alleged financial crimes in what is the first major courtroom test for special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
Mueller charged Gates with many of the same crimes as Manafort last year. Gates, who was Manafort’s deputy on the Trump campaign, later pleaded guilty to lesser charges as part of a deal to cooperate with investigators.
On Monday, he took the stand for the first time and testified that he and Manafort committed crimes together, including that he helped Manafort file fraudulent tax returns and conceal overseas accounts.
Manafort’s attorneys have sought to attack Gates’s credibility and frame Manafort as the victim.
Attorneys argued in their opening statements that Gates embezzled from his former associate, and had his “hand in the cookie jar.”
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