ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A day after testifying against longtime boss Paul Manafort, Rick Gates returned to the witness stand Tuesday as the government's star witness in the financial fraud trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman.
Gates walked into a packed courtroom a day after he calmly acknowledged having embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort and said the two had committed crimes together by stashing money in foreign bank accounts and falsifying bank loan documents.
Prosecutors summoned Gates, described by witnesses as Manafort's "right-hand man," to give jurors the direct account of a co-conspirator they say carried out an elaborate offshore tax-evasion and fraud scheme on behalf of his boss.
In early testimony Tuesday, Gates related his role in setting up offshore bank accounts for Manafort, a complex arrangement that was requested by wealthy and powerful Ukrainian businessmen who bankrolled Manafort's political consulting work in the country.
Manafort and Gates were the first two people indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
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