ALEXANDRIA, Va. – An FBI counterintelligence agent Wednesday described last year's early morning raid at the local home of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort where investigators recovered key documents allegedly outlining the routing of millions of dollars from secret foreign bank accounts and falsified loan applications.
Matthew Mikuska, an 11-year veteran agent, told a jury that he was among several agents who descended on Manafort’s Alexandria condominium shortly after 6 a.m. July 26, 2017, and later entered with a previously provided key when Manafort did not answer the door.
Inside the luxury apartment, agents found Manafort waiting by the door and a tranche of documents that allegedly showed a series of wire transfers to a home improvement company and other contractors for extensive upgrades on Manafort's homes in Florida and New York.
Documents depicting transactions related to a home in Brooklyn totaled $3 million.
Prosecutors have alleged that Manafort stashed tens of millions of dollars from his political consulting work in Ukraine in secret foreign accounts, which he then tapped to support an extravagant lifestyle in the U.S.
He also is accused of filing fraudulent loan applications, seeking millions more to secure his far-flung holdings.
The trial, being presided over by Judge T.S. Ellis III, does not deal directly with Manafort's role in the Trump campaign, but on Manafort's business dealings.
Earlier Wednesday, federal prosecutors dug into Manafort’s lucrative Ukrainian political operation, the primary source of about $75 million that flowed through an alleged 30 foreign accounts, most of the located in Cyprus.
Daniel Rabin, a prominent U.S. media consultant, described an eight-year association with Manafort in Ukraine that involved about a half-dozen Americans.
Much of the work focused on the 2010 election of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who since losing power has sought refuge in Russia.
Outlining his extensive work, Rabin recounted about 40 trips to Ukraine between 2006 and 2014 when he helped make 50 commercials to support the Yanukovych campaign.
With Manafort looking on a few feet away, Rabin described his former boss as someone “who demanded a lot of the people who worked for him.”
“He was thorough; he was strict,” Rabin said, adding that he was paid more than $100,000 for his work.
Asked by prosecutors how he was paid, Rabin referred to wire transfers and checks.
“Did you talk with Mr. Manafort about how he was paid,” prosecutor Greg Andres asked.
“I never did,” Rabin replied.
Prosecutor Uzo Asonye caused a brief stir Wednesday when he suggested that the government may not call its star witness and former Manafort business partner, Rick Gates.
Gates, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy and lying to the FBI and has been cooperating with investigators ever since, headlines the list of some 35 prosecution witnesses.
“That’s news to me!” Judge Ellis said, noting an exodus of reporters from courtroom to update their dispatches.
Asonye quickly appeared to backtrack, saying that he did not mean to imply that Gates would not be called. Rather, he said, that the government was continually evaluating its case.
Ellis, meanwhile, has continued to be a force from the bench, repeatedly urging prosecutors to move the case along.
Before Wednesday’s court session, he instructed prosecutors that he would not allow future use of the term “oligarchs.”
The government has used the reference in describing wealthy Ukrainian financiers who allegedly used shell companies to funnel payments to Manafort’s secret foreign accounts.
Ellis said the term was “perjorative,” suggesting that Manafort consorted with “despicable people.”
“Find another term to use,” Ellis ordered.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the trial Tuesday morning via Twitter, saying Manafort worked for him "a very short time."
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KIRO
