campaign chairman paul manafort is on trial today. the trial is the first criminal trial in the mueller investigation. it will offer the public a glimpse at the evidence gathered against man fauafort and could serve to squeeze on manafort to cooperate on the broader investigation into russian collusion with the trump campaign. "the subtext whether he knew about russian efforts to influence the election and whether the threat of conviction could lead him to cooperate with special counsel robert mueller weighs not just on the prosecution and the defense, but on the white house, as well." among the americans charge sod far by prosecutors, mr. manafort not only held the highest position in the campaign, but arguably has the deepest connections to russian political forces. then manafort trial commences on the same day that president trump is changing his tune on the question of russian collusion, to the message first trotted out by allies that collusion in and of itself is not a crime. and at this hour, the manafort trial, opening statemen

that's the problem that paul manafort has. i don't really understand how they're going to make the argument that blaming the russian oligarchs for his failure to pay taxes. blaming rick gates certainly is classic defense strategy, which is when you have two partners, one of whom pleads guilty and cooperates against the other, the remaining one on trial blames the person who cooperates. that's certainly what manafort is going to do. it doesn't always work. in fact, it usually doesn't work. but it is a classic and very appropriate defense strategy. gloria, the president's team is trying to distance this entire manafort trial from the campaign, but these ukrainians with whom manafort was working and collected about $60 million, they were very pro-kremlin, pro-putin, pro-russian folks in ukraine. viktor yanukovych, the leader of ukraine at that time, was a close ally of putin's. is that argument going to work? >> well, when he was out of power, the spigot dried up for paul manafort. he wasn't getting all that money anymore. look,

in the first big court test for special counsel robert mueller, former campaign chairman paul manafort goes on trial accused by prosecutors of hiding millions in secret income from taxes. could manafort turn on president trump to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison? >>> russia attacking again? facebook shuts down dozens of pages that it says may have been tied to russians spreading disinformation ahead of the mid term elections. is the kremlin once again targeting u.s. voters? >>> saving general kelly. white house chief of staff john kelly announces that president trump has asked him to stay on until at least 2020. the retired general has been fighting rumors of an imminent departure almost since he took the job. is that job now safe? >>> and kim's new missiles, a new report warns north korea may be building new long range missiles that could pose a risk to the united states. just weeks after president trump pronounced that north korea is no longer a nuclear threat. i'm wolf blitzer, you are in "the situation room" on. . >>> breaking news, the first trial in the mueller inves

paul manafort filed a hopeless appeal to that decision. and today paul manafort finally dropped the appeal and dropped that case entirely. today in a filing in the criminal case that will be heard in federal court in virginia, prosecutors say they can prove the former trump campaign chairman is guilty of tax and bank fraud. they say they can move that he earned more than $60 million working as a consultant on behalf of a russia backed ukrainian political party and hid the money in offshore bank accounts. "the new york times" reports that prosecutors claim that beginning in 2006 he d$2006 he millions of in income that he received from the ukrainian government and the ukrainian oligarchs to promote a pro-russian leader when he fled to russia after a popular uprising in 2014. the funds dried up. they charged that mr. manafort resorted to bank fraud to maintain his lifestyle. >> rudy giuliani said this poses absolutely no threat to the information. >> he has no information incriminating of the president. i know that for a fact. they can squeez

case against paul manafort. but that is just way in which things have continued to go very badly for mr. manafort in court. he sat in court in a rumpled dark green prison jump suit and not called upon to say anything and he didn't say anything. you can't imagine he is happy with how things are going. he continues to lose either in whole or in part every single substantive motion related to his case. today, for example, his lawyers tried to exclude from consideration the nature of the work that manafort did in ukraine when he worked for the pro putin, pro russian strong man president ousted in a popular up rising. manafort's lawyers said that information about who his big client was, that would be prejudicial information and would turn the jury against him. unnecessary to prove or disprove the specific changes that manafort is facing in virginia. the judge considered that argument today at length. there was a lot of back and forth about that, but the judge said no. they said the jurors need to know where paul man

case against paul manafort. but that is just one way in which things have continued to go very badly for mr. manafort in court. he sat there today in court in a rum mr.ed short sleeve, dark green prison jump suit. he was not called on to say anything and he didn't, but you can imagine he can't be happy with how it is going. he continues to lose in all or in part every single substantive motion related to his case. today, for example, his lawyers tried exclude from consideration in his trial the nature of the work that manafort did in ukraine when he worked for that pro putin, pro ukrainian strong man president who was ousted in a pop hard uprising in 2014. manafort's lawyers said whoever that was, that would be prejudice information to the jury. would it turn the jury against him. it would be unnecessary to prove or disprove the charges that manafort is facing in virginia. the judge considered that argument today at length. there was a lot of back and forth about that today but the judge said no. the prosecutors

paul manafort worked for me for a very short period of time. he worked for ronald reagan, john mccain or his firm did, he worked for many other republicans. he worked for me for 49 days or something. a very short period of time. >> still, he was the campaign chairman. his closest aides and attorneys are clearly trying to do the same, which is create as much distance as possible. >> this trial obviously centers on matters that have nothing to do with the campaign. i think even mr. manafort as i read it requested there be in mention of his brief tenure at the trump campaign several years ago. this has nothing to do with collusion, russia, nothing to do with the campaign. >> paul manafort does not know anything, nor could it be possible that he did. he was with him for four months. >> this morning, no comment from the president on paul manafort. he has got the russia investigation on his brain. well, with a tweet. collusion is not a crime, but that doesn't matter because there was no collusion. let's not get ahead of ourselves. the president's cam

so paul manafort did play a role. but we will see them continue to try to down play it. >> and to say that the campaign was entrepreneurial and run in a very entrepreneurial fashion with not a lot of direction from the top would be an overstatement. >> the fact is though, what if this is it, what if this is the only case that really gets anybody? you have the russian military intelligence officers aren't going to come to the united states and be tried. what if it is just manafort and financial crimes and ultimately that is it for the mueller investigation when it comes to anything having to do with the trump campaign? >> i mean certainly if that is from a political end in terms of what would the democrats do, you know, the democrats definitely have to run on something bigger than just russia, russia, russia. you will find lots of democrats across the spectrum who are really pushing for the democrats to have a stronger message than russia. but where there is smoke, there is fire. might not be with plan fomanafo might b

worked with paul manafort for a very long time. so there's a lot more that we don't, that may be fine but i don't know if he just worked with him on the stuff and he was in the room when don jr. was saying i got an email from a kremlin lawyer. >> lawrence: i think that's speculation and americans are getting tired of it. >> harris: president trump is warning lawmakers again that he is willing to shut down the government if lawmakers want step up for funding with the wall and border security so will it shutdown happen and how the fight affect the midterms? plus controversy across the country as some mayors are siding with apologize protesters over law enforcement. whether that is a good move or if they will face backlash, we debate. high protein to help get us moving. and help you feel more strength & energy in just 2 weeks. i'll take that. ensure high protein, with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. ensure® tap one little bumper and up go your rates. with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. what good is your insurance

matter of fact he stayed on the trump campaign after paul manafort was fired. so blame it on rick gates. he was the one who was closely managing these business affairs and blame it on the ukrainian oligarchs who demanded that paul manafort set up these private secret bank accounts in cypress in the st. vincent and the grenadines in order for him to be paid by the ukrainian ole gashes. that's the defense in a nutshell. it's kind of an unusual defense. >> yeah. >> they also say that -- they also say that paul manafort met with the fbi in 2014 and he described these offshore bank accounts. he identified them and he also described that he had gotten paid $27 million in doing business with ukrainians. so we had the first witness already here because this is what's known as a rocket docket here in alexandria, virginia. we had the first witness. we expect in the last couple of days we will hear about the accountants and more details about the bank accounts. >> thank you evan. it's all pretty fascinating as evan says he says he me with the fbi is detailed $27 million t

. >>> paul manafort's trial begins today. a lot riding on the case against the president's one-time campaign chief. >>> and the carr fire in california now chewing up over 100,000 acres. 19 people remain missing in one of the most destructive fires in state history. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm laura jarrett. >> good morning. i'm dave briggs. july 31st. 4:00 a.m. in east. 100 degrees in redding, california as it will be in the next five days. an update on the fire straight ahead. >>> new signs that north korea could be building more missiles. "the washington post" reporting that satellite images show work is under way on the intercontinental ballistic missile in the suburb of pyongyang. if true, the work of the icbms would be a serious blow to the diplomatic efforts between president trump and kim jong-un. for the latest, let's bring in paula hancocks in seoul. what does this latest development mean? >> reporter: dave, even at that time, i think many thought that tweet was slightly premature. what we hear from

i was there when paul manafort was there. paul manafort was a brilliant gatherer of delegates. >> he was the chairman -- >> he was, but he really wasn't jared and the sons and bossy and these other people were really running that. >> note that he was the chairman of the campaign but he really wasn't. here with us to talk about it we welcome barrett berger former u.s. attorney with the eastern and southern district of new york and ken delaney is back with us, nbc news intelligence and national security reporter who will be inside the courtroom tomorrow covering the trial. ken, i would like to begin with a headline from the "new york times" tonight. and it reads russia is not on the docket at manafort's trial but it will be in the air. what would they mean? >> that is well put. one prosecutor said he did not expect the word russia to come up at all in the trial. it is not clear that the jury will be told explicitly that paul manafort worked for donald trump. this is a significant trial, nonetheless. in no small part because pau

and paul manafort has done an amazing job. he is here someplace. where is paul? good. you made it. that is mr. manafort, who by the way is an amazing man. >> curious about gymnastics that he is trying to distance himself. we reported that he lobbiesed for a host of dictators, problematic third world bully types. you didn't have to be in the cia to understand that this could be someone who had skeletons in his closet. but they didn't do that. they brought him out and treated him like a prince. >> here is a guy who is on russian control. the fact that he and trump didn't have a little trash talk about russia alludes me. >> he owed millions of dollars to oleg. at the end of the day, why was manafort invited to the meeting? >> this guy has money in his pocket. he knows something on trump that could spring him from prison. >> manafort was the chairman, he was in the room for meetings that gates was not at. he had more visibility into the finances of the campaign and the trump organization. he could have more value to mueller and his investigators than gates. he could be right out of the

paul manafort. paul manafort's case, mueller has said, he's presenting no evidence of any interaction with the russians whatsoever. this is a case about bank fraud. and money laundering. that's the first case out of the block. >> but there are plenty of other cases involved that have to deal with it. there are 12 russian military processors. >> what is the connection between -- >> papadopoulos. >> papadopoulos was so far in the orbit of this campaign. i can tell you, i was involved in this campaign in a more than just passing way. and papadopoulos and carter page were no longer to be seen. >> i think what people are having a hard time with with is last february of 2017, donald trump said we knew nothing about russia. there was nothing going on there. now five americans have been charged with criminal charges. you have multiple russians charged. a dutch official charged. there's more and r more coming out. this investigation is ongoing. i know it's a favorite talking point of people who support trump

carter page, paul manafort, michael cohen. that these are all the result because we never get the straight story on anything from this white house. republicans on capitol hill in a mess because donald trump won't have a clear message coming to russia. carter page in a mess even on sunday can't tell you a straight story of what russians he talked to and when. michael cohen still has not been fully honest about what he did to suppress information to voters and paul manafort is awaiting trial because he cannot tell the straight story of relationships he had financially with russian oligarchs. they're very deceitful and causing a mess and we'll get out of it. we'll find out the true story but it's a long and painful process. >> david, i think today's made in america day at the white house? is that right? >> just to quote what amanda says. we know from the mueller -- director mueller himself that in the manafort case that they're presenting zero, big goose egg, evidence of collusion with the russians. >> that's accurate, right. >>

, the former ukrainian regime that paul manafort did business with. and then there's a long list of accountants and bankers and realtors, people who helped paul manafort accumulate a lot of property and essentially hide some of his money, according to the government. there's also a bit of a road map of how, according to the government, paul manafort laundered millions of dollars over the years, jim. there is a number of people, including people who sold him his tickets to the new york yankees. his season tickets to the new york yankees. there's the guy who helped sell him his mercedes, $60,000 mercedes. there's a person who runs a landscaping company in long island. this is allegedly, according to the government, where paul manafort spent $820,000 landscaping his mansion in the hamptons. and then there's his purchases from men's clothing stores. there's one man who works for a new york clothing store, where, according to prosecutors, paul manafort spent $849,215, which the government says was essentially used for money laundering. i think at that pric

one of the reasons manafort's team gave was paul manafort's security. now, the judge apparently is not buying this explanation. here's what the judge had to say about that. the professionals at the alexandria detention center are very familiar with housing high-profile defendants, including foreign and domestic terrorists, spies and traitors. all of those defendants were housed safely there alexandria pending their respective trials at the alexandria detention center will presumably be no different. so you see the judge making the move to move paul manafort whether he wants it or not. >> cnn has learned that paul manafort believes he was being treated like a vip. what can you tell us about his time in jail so far? >> that's right. this is what comes from a new filing from mueller's team, essentially saying, look, they can monitor paul manafort's calls while he's in jail. he apparently told one of his associates he feels like he's being treated like a vip in his living area. he has a private bathroom. he has a private shower. he has his own telephone. he

we are awaiting a ruling in the paul manafort case. judge ellis will decide on a request from the former trump campaign chairman's defense lawyers to delay his criminal trial which was supposed to start later this week. manafort will be the first person to go to trial under robert mueller's investigation. the president was focused all morning, and, surprise, it is surrounding the russia probe. trump's false claim that his campaign was vindicated by the release of a highly secretive government document he declassified. this weekend breaking decades of secretive protocol, the doj released a previously classified warrant that was used to request government surveillance of former trump campaign aide carter page. page at the time was under suspicion of acting as an agent for the russian government. the president has been tweeting about it all morning. we are going to spare you the dramatic reading of those tweets. suffice it to say trump is incorrectly using the released information to confuse the public and to try to claim the investigatio

the names of the five potential witnesses in the paul manafort trial. what we know about them and what they could tell the court next. you're watching msnbc. -meg! there you are. did you take a picture of the cake to put on our website? i mean i would have but i'm a commercial vehicle so i don't have hands... or a camera...or a website. should we franchise? is the market ready for that? can we franchise? how do you do that? meg! oh meg! we should do that thing where you put the business cards in the fishbowl and somebody wins something. -meg: hi. i'm here for... i'm here for the evans' wedding. -we've got the cake in the back, so, yeah. -meg: thank you. -progressive knows small business makes big demands. -you're not gonna make it, you're not gonna make it! ask her if we can do her next wedding too! -so we'll design the insurance solution that fits your business. -on second thought, don't...ask that. that fits your business. if yor crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough, it may be time for a change. a

paul manafort's defense team is starting jury selection. they need 12 jurors, four alternates for this trial. expected to last about three weeks. 16 people in the d.c. suburbs who think they can give paul manafort a fair break. there will be plenty of evidence before them put together by the special counsel following the money trail, a long trial with a lot of money. they'll be looking at how paul manafort got that money and what he did and did not do it. hiding 30 million dollar in offshore accounts to avoid pieing taxes. he's pleaded not guilty to all the charnges against him. nbc news justice correspondent is outside district court. let's talk about what we're expecting to see and hear today. the strategy for both sides at this point. >> we're not going to see or hear much because this is jury selection. the judge will be asking individual jurors questions at the bench which we won't hear. these jurors, about 75 or 80 of them are filled out a written questionnaire. most of the kinds of questions you'd ask about potential conflicts have b

paul manafort in court at this hour. kellyanne conway saying it is about paul manafort, not the president. >> i certainly wasn't making money in ukraine or talking to anyone in moscow. that's very clear. this has nothing to do with collusion, russia, nothing to do with the trump campaign. >> bill: peter doocy live from district court in alexandria, virginia. >> the government's case against paul manafort is expected to focus less on allegations of wrongdoing while he was the trump campaign chairman and more on allegations that he cheated on his taxes years before. manafort this morning was taken from jail to the albert v. bryan courthouse in a van for the high-profile proceedings where special counsel robert mueller's team alleges there are $60 million he earned over the years lobbying or consulting for politicians in ukraine that never popped up on a pay stub. the judge in this case, t.s. ellis, has said in the course of these proceedings it is his opinion the mueller team is using the financial charges that have nothin

paul manafort? >> that's a great question, nicolle. tomorrow is the question of jury selection. it will be standard operating procedure the next couple of days and then the government is going to take us through what they allege is paul manafort's scheme. essentially, they say he was paid some 60 to $75 million for his work for this russian-backed ukrainian oligarch and then he ended up evading taxes allegedly and laundering about 30 million of those dollars, buying real estate in the united states and elsewhere. and by the time he got to the trump campaign -- this is what i find significant and interesting -- he was broke, they say, he was in debt and trying to monetize his real estate and suck loans out of it. they allege he committed bank fraud while doing that. but for the context of this whole russia investigation, the reason that's important is because we know from reporting that he was offering one of these oligarchs private briefings about his work for donald trump. and he was allegedly in d

no question, the stakes are high for paul manafort. but you know, they're sky high for robert mueller, as well. this is the first case the special counsel has brought to trial and if manafort is convicted, it would offer a powerful response and take away some of president trump's ability to actually call this an aimless witch hunt. david? >> kyra phillips at the courthouse tonight. thank you. >>> we're going to turn now to the breaking developments in the west at this hour. those deadly wildfires, and tonight, real concern that two major fires could combine as one. at least eight major wildfires now burning across california. firefighters battling those two fires very close together. tonight, the carr fire, a staggering number from that wildfire. more than 1,200 homes and buildings have burned to the ground, and that number is growing.bc's kayna whitworth fr california. >> reporter: tonight, hot, dry california stretching firefighters to their limits. in southern california, crews racing to contain the railroad fire in santa clarita. >

let's focus on paul manafort. shimon was talking about some of the things we're going to see and hear. to wrap it up in a bow for out viewers, i want to show what we know and what we expect. this is the first trial stemming from the mueller probe. it is going to focus on his lavish lifestyle, not possible collusion. in fact, the prosecutors said they're not going to introduce specific russia ties, anything related to that in this trial, but they're going to call 35 witnesses, including rick gates, who was manafort's business partner, deputy campaign chairman for donald trump, and this is just the first trial. so what do you think is the significance for the white house you cover every day? >> i think the significance is as much as everyone at the white house is saying, this has nothing to do with us. paul manafort was not importat. it is important to think back to two years ago, really right now in the summer of 2016. paul manafort was important to donald trump. you know, he likely would not -- mr. trump likely wo

is the alexandria jail unsafe for someone like paul manafort? >> he's a high-profile prisoner, number one, okay? there are no safety and security concerns at this particular facility. this is probably one of the more secure contract facilities that the mar marshal service uses. >> the alexandria has housed zacarias moussaoui. manafort would likely be placed in protective custody with no interaction with other inmates. even though they had previously requested that he be moved, manafort's lawyers now say they want him to stay put, because of the quote, challenges he will face in adjusting to a new place of confinement just before his trial. >> i think he's probably comfortable at northern neck facility, and i think he was trying to somehow figure out to get house arrest involved in his particular confinement now at this point in time. >> that's unlikely, since a judge has already found that manafort violated the terms of his previous house arrest by contacting potential witnesses and revoked his bail. now, paul manafort's lawyers have just respon

what's up at stake for the paul manafort trial? >> what is at stake, paul manafort is facing a serious amount of time in jail if he was convicted. on a larger ramification for this, this is all coming -- none of this is happening in a vacuum. mueller is still continuing his investigation in other parts of russian election interference. as we have seen today, the president ratcheted up his attacks on mueller trying to continue to undermine his witch hunt or hoax. so what it's setting up to be, we'll be having a week or two or three weeks for news coverage that the president will be seeing where mueller and a trial is going on, so it's going to be at t at the forefront of his mind. there's going to be a lot of attention on mueller. >> shepard: how does this trial fit into the bigger picture mueller investigation? >> right, this trial is actually -- what it's handling is tax evasion and bank fraud charges against paul manafort. the way it fits in. manafort is facing two trials. one, this trial is more of a financial trail and one in s

paul manafort is in court in alexandria, virginia today. it's the first trial to result from the russia probe. does it have anything to do with russia? >> this has nothing to do with collusion, russia or nothing to do with the trump campaign. won't replace the full value of your new car? you'd be better off throwing your money right into the harbor. i'm gonna regret that. with liberty mutual new car replacement we'll replace the full value of your car. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty ♪ >> trish: >> trish: the jury is now set. the trial of paul manafort, the former trump campaign chairman, was caught up in the russia probe facing 18 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud. let's go to peter doocy in virginia with the latest for us. hi, peter. >> trish, i was just inside listening to paul manafort's defense attorneys try to make the case that he wasn't trying to hide $60 million in funds that he received from ukrainian politicians with russian ties to consult from the irs. the manafort team argues that he just didn't understand the tax

. >>> paul manafort's trial begins today on financial crimes. a lot riding on the case against the president's one-time campaign chief. >>> and the carr fire in california now chewing up over 100,000 acres. 19 people remain missing in one of the most destructive fires in state history. it looks like triple digit temperatures for the next five days for the folks out there in california. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm dave briggs. >> i'm laura jarrett in for christine romans. there are new signs that north korea could be building more missiles. "the washington post" reporting that satellite evidence is showing that there is work on intercontinental ballistic missiles in the suburb of pyongyang. if true, the work of the icbms would be a serious blow to the diplomatic efforts between president trump and kim jong-un. for the latest, let's bring in paula hancocks in seoul. paula. >> reporter: laura, we are hearing from a u.s. official that the report from "the washington post" is consistent with what is already publicly known. that kim jo

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that's paul manafort right there. one week from tomorrow. the judge also crucially unsealed the names of five witnesses who've been granted immunity to testify, all of whom appear to have worked for financial institutions linked to manafort. one is an employee of the federal savings bank in chicago. and that's significant because it gave manafort a $60 million home loan. as nbc news reported back in february, those loans they gave manafort totaling $16 million may have been part of a quid pro quo deal with the bank president in exchange for a plum job at the white house. and that's important because that puts manafort's case on the doorstep of the trump administration. as the former campaign chairman goes on trial for his ukraine work, we still don't know the outcome of the probe into whether he conspired or colluded with russia to disrupt the election. after all, it was two years ago this week manafort famously and strenuously denied any ties to russian oligarchs. >> so to be clear, mr. trump has no financial relationships with any russian

whatever the reason. >> if manafort ever slips, it will be paul manafort duped me. >> if this is a case with an enormous amount of documentary evidence, money in manafort's accounts, money not paid on your taxes. >> a lot of countries, too. >> money not paid on your taxes. you know, you do not have to be a robert mueller level prosecutor to be able to bring this case and win it. and so for a defense lawyer, there are only a number of techniques that you can use. it's this guy and this guy is a proven liar. okay, that's -- you know, that's an issue. it's a challenge for a prosecutor. he is a proven liar. i didn't realize what was going on. the suite of defenses when a reasonably clear cut case like this is pretty limited. >> i hadn't put that together. their whole defense is to discredit a witness. it's not a witness case, it's a paper case. we've been saying it, it might be more boring than we want it to be because it's just documents. >> all rick gates is there to do -- the best way to use rick gates, questionable, did you sign that? he's there almost as a -- so you can authenticate th

quote, paul j. manafort jr. by and through counsel files this response to the july 10 order relating to his place of detention. in his motion to continue the trial, which means delay the trial, one issue mr. manafort raised was the effect of his detention on the pace of trial preparation. the court attempted to address that by having him relocated to the alexandria detention center. after further reflection, issues of distance and inconvenience must yield to concerns about his safety and more importantly, the challenges he will face in adjusting to a new place of confinement. with these considerations in mind, he respectfully asks the court to allow him to remain in his current place of detention. wherever he respectfully request th that he be moved and permit him to remain there. >> that's like a place, if moussaoui thinks he could be held safely there, paul manafort thinks he could be safely there. the president's campaign chair is asking the judge, please don't move him to this facility. he prefer to stay whe

catherine: paul manafort hasn't cooperated so far. what you're saying he might be persuaded to do so because of this trial if things don'n'work ouout for him.. >> clearly that's just speculation on my part. i'm not the only one saying it. that's what the real connection between this trial is and the broader issue of the president and his campaign. paul manaport hopes to avoid conviction. maybe he hopes and assumes if he is convicted the president will pardon him, that's certainly in the president's power to do so. the leverage that i think mueller is looking for in terms of manaport is the outcome of this trial. another question is, would the president be able to get away with, in political terms, pardoning him if and after he was convicted. would such a pardon be -- would be seen as obstruction of justice? whether obstruction of justice in criminal terms or terms of politics, in terms of him being impeached by a democratic house of representatives. all these pieces will be a lot clearer once his trial is over. catherine: d donald tru

this is one of the things that's gotten paul manafort in hot water, the fact that he did not disclose this lobbying work that he was doing for foreign governments, according to prosecutors. that's how they've been able to bring a number of the charges that he's facing against him. it's also worth noting the special counsel has also brought charges now against kilimnik, saying he and paul manafort are still essentially working together or were earlier this year to try to obstruct justice when it comes to this case. >> joseph, legally, you're an american. you haven't declared this work with a foreign government. you're working with someone closely here who's a russian and has ties to russian intelligence. to be clear, we should note that a lot of russian businessmen have tied to the government while not being full-time, paid employees of the kremlin. from a legal perspective for manafort, how concerning is this? >> it's concerning on a number of levels, both legal and political. so as pointed out, this relationship goes back a lot longer than we had originally anticipated. and it involv

. >> then paul manafort's in jail. >> corporations cheering the president's supreme court pick. and why as besto has trump's face on it. >> i am chris hayes, not even the folks on russia state tv, could not believe the way u.s. president treated american allies today. >> that is the verdict from russian state tv. going back to the soviet union of severing western alliance. after repeatedly blasting nato on twitter, the president kicked things off by publicly insulting america's ally. >> germany is getting 60% to 70% of their energy from russia. and if you tell me if that is appropriate. and it is a bad thing from nato and i think we have to talk to germany about it >> the figure is wrong. germany is totally controlled by russia. germany was controlled by russia half of it, for a long time. look at the face of the aides, according to an actual official statement from the white house press secretary quote, kelly was displeased because he was expecting a full breakfast and there were only pastry and cheese. the president was misrepresenting germany's energy supply. reminding report

ken, what does this mean for paul manafort right now? >> well, right now he's going to the alexandria jail which is going to be a lot harder than the northern neck rural jail 100 miles from here. what's remarkable about this, peter, his bail was revoked in washington, d.c. and when i asked the marshal services that day what normally would happen, he was supposed to go to the washington, d.c. jail which is one of the roughest jails in america. we were wondering how he was going to survive with his thousand dollars suits. he was a vip prisoner, he would be at risk. they moved him to this place in rural virginia. i don't think it's mueller's office givesing him the privileges. he was classified vip prisoner from day one. >> judge elliott in the order denying manafort's request that he not be moved. he says, quote, the professionals at the alexandria detention center are familiar with housing high profile dee e defendants including foreign domestic terrorists, spies and traders and now, betsy, paul manafort as well. >> right. he's joining a

manafort was doing during the trump campaign. >> and paul manafort is asking to have his trial moved? could that happen? >> they have now officially filed papers this afternoon saying they would like this trial to be moved to roanoke, virginia. one of the reasons they cite is that hillary clinton won the alexandria, virginia area. roanoke is trump country. they say alexandria, virginia is inside the beltway. there is a tremendous amount of media interest. one of the things that's happening now is manafort is saying he doesn't want to come to court because it's a two-hour drive for him to come from the jail that he's being held where he's, by wathe way, held in solitary confinement for 23 hours because that's the only way they can guarantee his safety. >> you can't hold trials in jurisdictions based on what the voting breakdown of an individual area is. >> they do cite that in court, in the court filings. >> thank you very much. joining me now, representative ted liu, a democrat who serves on the foreign affairs and judicial committees. congressman, thanks for joining us. kt president

we should expect that paul manafort's team are going to go after rick gates if he testifies, go after him hard and say this guy has lied to accountants, lied to lawyers. lied to the treasury department. and even to fbi agents. so why should you believe him now? so we should expect a very, a rigorous cross-examination of rick gates if he takes the stand to testify against paul manafort. >> what does it say to you that manafort hasn't cut a deal yet? i mean, if it's jury selection next week, seems that window is closed, and stoeecond to that, s it mean he's the biggest fish and perhaps mueller team doesn't want to cut a deal with him because of no real leverage? >> interesting question. haven't heard much about a deal or negotiations with federal prosecutors. seems he prepared to go to trial and assert innocence. part of his defense will probably be he didn't have control over these accounts and didn't have specific intent to defraud the government. so it's curious as to why he hasn't given the mounds and mound of evidence against him, paper evidence. got to be compelling to jurors sitt

but paul manafort has problems anyway. and i wrote this down, you said the conduct -- i call it a egregious conduct, and i am very curious. i know that there were investigations that were going on, but it seems like there was so much out there to get on him with regards to tax evasion. money laundering that we are just now learning about potentially in this trial that i am curious about why it did not happen before? and maybe that would've helped the trump campaign to know that this is not a god that that they want to touch. why not let them know? >> as you point out, i think that this shows how chaotic the trump campaign was back in those months between april when he wrapped up the nomination and just after the convention in the summer, the campaign clearly did not know what manafort was up to, normal campaigns have regular order and would have vented manafort and found some of these things, but they did not, because they were making things up as they went along back then. but to their credit, once they found out the end

paul manafort was his former campaign chairman. this is not something that's coming out of the news. a lot of times in trials i've covered whether it's the jerry san dusky trial or others, defense attorneys have tried to push back the date of the trial. in some cases it's more time to prepare. you have an entire law enforcement agency and then you and maybe two or three other people helping you. it's also to give you an opportunity to push things out of the public mind. other things come up. other instances of particular events come up. other people may get charged. there's all sorts of things that happen along the course of an investigation or just over time that it takes that intense pretrial scrutiny and publicity and takes it out of the populous head and the potential juror's head. in this case, i'm not sure if that's going to work for them. if we're not talking about paul man foert, we're talking about carter page. if not that, something else tied to russia. i don't see the motions typically feel, and -- >> and we're going to

had done for paul manafort. two of them worked at an accounting firm that did his taxes. so they will be testifying. and as you said, the trial was delayed for about a week until july 31st because manafort's attorneys had asked for more time to review information and documents they received relating to rick gates, who as we know, is now cooperating. the former business partner of paul manafort is cooperating with the special counsel. he is set to testify and be a key witness in this trial. paul manafort, who appeared in court yesterday, will be back today. he was wearing a green sort of jump suit, a prison uniform. he'll be back in court today where prospective jurors are set to appear in court. they'll be there with the attorneys and answer questions, a questionnaire that the attorneys are going to agree on for the jurors who will at some point get selected perhaps next week. >> okay. thank you very much. >>> we're back now with joe lockhart, asha and john avlon. as president trump pointed out, this is older st

paul manafort, as you said, could spend the rest of his life in prison. this on bank fraud charges as well as tax evasion charges, a charge of failing to disclose that there were offshore foreign bank accounts. what this comes down to, poppy, is allegations from the government, counsel, that paul manafort got $60 million from ukraine and parked it in offshore banks and didn't tell the tax collectors, the internal revenue service. that's what they are dealing with. it's a case, as you said, that could go on for three weeks, about three dozen witnesses, 18 counts. 18 counts in this indictment. it's clear the special counsel has really gone after paul manafort in this case. the question is, what does he get out of it if he doesn't get a conviction? obviously, there are more questions about the special counsel. back to you. >> thank you for the reporting. ann milgrim is with me, a law professor at nyu. there could always be a last-minute deal. so far, there's not. paul manafort, according to "the new york times," his friends told "the times" he believes he is

the charges against former trump campaign chair paul manafort. what to expect from that trial in two minutes. use the chase mobile app® to pay practically anyone, at any bank? all while creating a masterpiece made of tea leaves? ♪ ♪ yes. but this isn't for just anyone. ♪ ♪ hong yi! it's for the strongest man in her life. ♪ ♪ life. lived red's way. chase. make more of what's yours. it's these new fresh-fx car air fresheners from armor all. each scent can create a different mood in my car. like tranquil skies. armor all, it's easy to smell good. where we're changing withs? contemporary make-overs. then, use the ultimate power handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. who has the upper hand now? start winning today. book now at lq.com. >>> the first trial from the mueller probe starts tomorrow. the trial of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort starts with jury selection tomorrow. the charges include bank and tax fraud based on more than $60 million. prosecutors say manafort earned as a consultant for a russia-friendly

well, because of what paul manafort is doing. i want to in fairness read what he says. in light of manafort's continuing detention and after further reflection his lawyers say issues of distance and inconvenience must yield to concerns about his safety and the challenges he will face in adjusting to a new place of confinement and the changing circumstance of detention two weeks before trial. put this in the broader context of what we'll see if the trial starts on time and the kind of case they have against him which i understand it has paper evidence that's bat for him. >> that's right. i think the trial will move ahead. he has another motion to change the venue to another location in virginia because there are many democrats supposedly in the district where he's going to be tried in alexandria. the fact is that will all be taken care of during the jury voir dire when they pick the jury and question the jurors. mueller has submitted to the judge an extensive questionnaire that will ferret out anybody who cannot be fair and impartial and they ask all kinds of questions t

once the judge issued that order to move manafort, paul manafort responded by saying, actually, never mind. forget that. manafort submitted a new filing to the judge saying, never mind those complaints about my jail cell being too far away, i don't actually want to be moved anywhere else despite what we might have said earlier in our earlier requests. well, now today there's a new filing from the prosecutors, from the special council's office about why paul manafort might want to stay in the remote jail where he has been for the past several weeks. quote, among the unique privileges paul manafort enjoys at the jail are a private self-contained living unit which is larger than other inmates units, his own bathroom and shower facility, his own personal telephone and his own work space to prepare for trial. manafort is not required to wear a prison uniform. he has mentioned that he's being treated like a, quote, vip. manafort also possesses a personal laptop computer that he is permitted to use in his unit to review materials and prepare for trial. the jail has made extra accommodations