who didn t see it coming and make him president of the nra when he wasn t prepared to be. and then only recently with the butina case, did we learn about this fbi raid. and remember, her partner, romantically and politically, was a guy named paul erickson, who was an nra activist. and he had been working with her to infiltrate, penetrate, make connections with people in the nra and other conservative groups. so if she were raided, as she was, one would expect him to know about it and word to start filtering out. which could have caused a tremendous panic within the nra and might have and might have led to anyone being connected with butina, to be scared, i m not sure about an indictment, but to be scared of being caught up certainly exposure. yes. and pete area brunell was
going to do when the when manafort s team gets in the ring, so much of this coverage is what looks bad for him. could you give us any wisdom on what they ll try to do to rebut what josh says has been a tough day? they don t have much of a rebuttal opportunity here. their best argument, the argument that they suggested that they would use in their opening statement is that it wasn t manafort, it was gates. but there was testimony from witness after witness yesterday and today, indicating that manafort was the person who provided them with final details. manafort saw and reviewed every document before it was signed and filed. it will be virtually impossible for them to make that argument. and they ll be stuck, as so many defendants are, simply with arguing that the government didn t present enough evidence to meet its burden of proof and that it s not enough for the jury to think that the defendant might be guilty. that the jury should, in essence, hold the government
back at this trial, everything that happens before the trial is speculation. when we look at what s actually going on this week, this could be the turning point. laporta alleging that in september of 2015, this was when manafort was in financial trouble, she gave him an estimate of the taxes he owed, and she was told manafort couldn t pay it. quote, rick that s rick gates, who s also expected to testify said it was too high. manafort didn t have the money. manafort s solution, laporta testified, was to inflate the amount of a loan which would then reduce on paper his reported income, and thus his income tax, and in turn, what he owed the government. in other words, tax fraud, tax evasion. which, as a professional involved in this business, cindy laporta did understand. so then you have mewer s prosecutor ask, what was your understanding at the time of whether that was appropriate? laporta replies, it s not appropriate. and she confessed she went along with it and helped manafort
be the turning point. laporta alleging that in september of 2015, this was when manafort was in financial trouble, she gave him an estimate of the taxes he owed, and she was told manafort couldn t pay it. quote, rick that s rick gates, who s also expected to testify said it was too high. manafort didn t have the money. manafort s solution, laporta testified, was to inflate the amount of a loan which would then reduce on paper his reported income, and thus his income tax, and in turn, what he owed the government. in other words, tax fraud, tax evasion. which, as a professional involved in this business, cindy laporta did understand. so then you have mahler s prosecutor ask, what was your understanding at the time of whether that was appropriate? laporta replies, it s not appropriate. and she confessed she went along with it and helped manafort falsify those critical documents. i could have refused to file the tax return. that would have exposed the
details. manafort saw and reviewed every document before it was signed and filed. it will be virtually impossible for them to make that argument. and they ll be stuck, as so many defendants are, simply with arguing that the government didn t present enough evidence to meet its burden of proof and that it s not enough for the jury to think that the defendant might be guilty. that the jury should, in essence, hold the government responsible for proving guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. doesn t look like the government is going to have a lot of trouble here, though. right. and that the best they can do is say, if you have any doubt, whether maybe rick gates was actually secretly pulling the strings or any doubt whether paul manafort was actually confused then maybe throw it all away. and i think that speaks to why it s been such a methodical case for mueller s team. my special thanks to joyce and josh. we greatly appreciate it. i will tell you, still ahead, goats can eat your trash. the