Who’s Who in the Paul Manafort Trial

(Bloomberg) -- Here are the players to watch in the courtroom as former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort goes to trial in Alexandria, Virginia, for tax- and bank-fraud charges. A jury of six men and six women was selected and sworn in on Tuesday.

THE DEFENDANT

Paul Manafort: 

• Longtime GOP strategist and international political consultant
• Was campaign chairman for Donald Trump
• Attended 2016 meeting, along with Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner, with Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer who participants were told had dirt on Hillary Clinton
• Charged in Washington with money laundering, acting as unregistered agent for Ukraine and obstruction of justice
• Charged in Virginia with tax and bank fraud

THE JUDGE

Thomas Selby Ellis III: 

• Reagan-appointed federal judge with law degrees from Harvard and Oxford
• Sentenced former U.S. Representative William Jefferson after corruption conviction
• Sentenced John Walker Lindh, an American who helped the Taliban
• Known for his biting sense of humor and long personal stories from the bench
• In one hearing, said Special Counsel Robert Mueller was pursuing Manafort case only to get him to incriminate President Donald Trump

THE PROSECUTORS

Andrew Weissmann: 

• Was chief of fraud section of Justice Department’s Criminal Division in May 2017 when he was assigned to special counsel
• Was FBI general counsel, director of Enron Task Force
• Was federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, investigating organized crime

Greg Andres: 

• Was deputy assistant attorney general in Justice Department’s Criminal Division
• Was federal prosecutor in Brooklyn investigating organized crime

Uzo Asonye: 

• Assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia
• Helped obtain 23-year sentence for CEO of Bank of the Commonwealth

Brandon Van Grack: 

• Attorney in counterintelligence section of Justice Department’s National Security Division, assigned to special counsel
• Helped obtain a 20-year sentence for first hacker charged in support of a terrorist organization

THE DEFENSE LAWYERS

Kevin Downing:  

• Spent 16 years in Justice Department prosecuting tax cases
• Helped lead U.S. crackdown on offshore tax evasion, including probe of UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank
• Helped direct tax-shelter prosecution of ex-KPMG executives

Tom Zehnle:  

• Ex-federal tax prosecutor with three decades of experience in white-collar criminal litigation
• Was a chief in criminal enforcement section of Justice Department’s Tax Division
• Worked at Miller & Chevalier, tax firm that represented Manafort

Jay Nanavati: 

• Ex-federal tax prosecutor

Richard Westling: 

• Ex-federal prosecutor specializing in health-care compliance

KEY PROSECUTION WITNESS

Rick Gates: 

• Was Manafort’s right-hand man in Ukraine
• Pleaded guilty to conspiring with Manafort to defraud U.S. 
• Admitted to working as unregistered agent for Ukraine, hiding offshore bank accounts and making false statements to federal investigators
• Worked on Trump’s presidential campaign as Manafort’s deputy
• Helped plan Trump’s inauguration

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