HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police fired tear gas early on Tuesday to disperse hundreds of defiant protesters, some of whom had stormed and ransacked the city’s legislature hours earlier on the anniversary of the city’s 1997 return to Chinese rule. Police arrived in a convoy of buses near midnight as about 1,000 protesters, furious at a proposed law that would allow extraditions to China, were gathered around the council building in the former British colony’s financial district in a direct challenge to authorities in Beijing. Earlier, protesters wearing hard hats, masks and black shirts had used a metal trolley, poles and scaffolding to charge again and again at the compound’s reinforced glass doors, which eventually gave. Scores of them poured into the building. Police fired several rounds of tear gas as protesters held up umbrellas to protect themselves, trying to block their advance. Plumes of smoke billowed across major thoroughfares and between some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers. The extraordinary violence marked an escalation in the weeks-long movement against the extradition law, which the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, had argued was necessary but suspended in mid-June after protest marches that drew hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets. Lam called a news conference at 4 a.m. (2000 GMT) to condemn what were some of the most violent protests to rock the city in decades. It was not clear if any arrests were made. Umbrellas, metal barriers, hard hats, water bottles and other debris lay strewn across major roads near the legislative council, known as Legco. Police and work crews removed metal barriers and other blockades from some thoroughfares in a bid to clear them ahead of businesses reopening on Tuesday. Inside Legco, protesters smashed computers and spray-painted “anti-extradition” and slurs against the police and the government on chamber walls. Other graffiti called for Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, to step down, while pictures of some lawmakers were defaced. “HK Is Not China” was painted in black on a white pillar. The government called for an immediate end to the violence, saying it had stopped work on amendments to the suspended extradition bill and that the legislation would automatically lapse in July next year. “This kind of violent behavior affects the core value of the rule of law, and I felt angry and upset about this, and need to seriously condemn it,” Lam later told the media. “I believe the citizens feel the same.” On Monday - a public holiday - the protesters, some with cling film wrapped around their arms to protect them from pepper spray and tear gas, again paralyzed parts of the Asian financial hub as they occupied roads near the government. Riot police in helmets and carrying batons earlier fired pepper spray. Banners hanging over flyovers at the protest site read: “Free Hong Kong.” Lam has stopped short of protesters’ demands to scrap the extradition bill, although she has said the suspension would effectively kill the proposal because of the lawmaking schedule. The Beijing-backed leader is now clinging to her job at a time of an unprecedented backlash against the government that poses the greatest popular challenge to Chinese leader Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. News of the protests in Hong Kong has been heavily censored in the mainland. “The kind of deafness that I see in the government this time around despite these protests is really worrying. The complete disregard for the will of the people is what alarms me,” said Steve, a British lawyer who has worked in Hong Kong for 30 years and declined to give his last name. People are seen inside a chamber, after protesters broke into the Legislative Council building during the anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China in Hong Kong, China July 1, 2019. The banner reads "There are no thugs, only tyranny". REUTERS/Tyrone Siu“If this bill is not completely scrapped, I will have no choice but to leave my home, Hong Kong.” Opponents of the extradition bill, which would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial in courts controlled by the Communist Party, fear it is a threat to Hong Kong’s much-cherished rule of law. The Legislative Council Secretariat released a statement cancelling business for Tuesday. The central government offices, which are adjacent to Legco, said they would close on Tuesday “owing to security consideration”, while all guided tours to the Legislative Council complex were suspended until further notice. Hong Kong returned to China under a “one country, two systems” formula that allows freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, including freedom to protest and an independent judiciary. Beijing denies interfering, but for many Hong Kong residents, the extradition bill is the latest step in a relentless march toward mainland control. China has been angered by criticism from Western capitals, including Washington and London, about the legislation. Beijing said on Monday that Britain had no responsibility for Hong Kong any more and was opposed to its “gesticulating” about the territory. The European Union on Monday called for restraint and dialogue to find a way forward. A U.S. State Department spokeswoman urged all sides to refrain from violence. “Hong Kong’s success is predicated on its rule of law and respect for fundamental freedoms, including freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly,” she said. While thousands of demonstrators laid siege to the legislature, tens of thousands marched through the center of town in an annual handover anniversary rally. Many clapped as protesters held up a poster of Lam inside a bamboo cage. Organizers said 550,000 turned out. Police said there were 190,000 at their peak. More than a million people have taken to the streets at times over the past three weeks to vent their anger. A tired-looking Lam appeared in public for the first time in nearly two weeks, before the storming of the legislature, flanked by her husband and former Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa. “The incident that happened in recent months has led to controversies and disputes between the public and the government,” she said. “This has made me fully realize that I, as a politician, have to remind myself all the time of the need to grasp public sentiment accurately.” Pro-democracy lawmakers and the protest march organizers said Lam had ignored the demands of the people and pushed youngsters toward desperation, despite pledging to listen to people’s demands. Beijing’s grip over Hong Kong has tightened markedly since Xi took power and after pro-democracy street protests in 2014 that ultimately failed to wrestle concessions from China. Tensions spiraled on June 12 when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters near the heart of the city. The uproar has reignited a protest movement that had lost steam after the failed 2014 demonstrations that led to the arrests of hundreds. Slideshow (25 Images)The turmoil comes at a delicate time for Beijing, which is grappling with a trade dispute with the United States, a faltering economy and tensions in the South China Sea. The extradition bill has also spooked some Hong Kong tycoons into starting to move their personal wealth offshore, according to financial advisers familiar with the details. Additional reporting by Reuters TV, David Lague, Sumeet Chatterjee, Alun John, Vimvam Tong, Thomas Peter, Jessie Pang, Felix Tam, Sharon Lam, Donny Kwok, Joyce Zhou and Twinnie Siu in HONG KONG, Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON and Foo Yun Chee in BRUSSELS; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Nick Macfie and Peter CooneyOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort authorised a secret media operation on behalf of Ukraine’s former president featuring “black ops”, “placed” articles in the Wall Street Journal and US websites and anonymous briefings against Hillary Clinton.The project was designed to boost the reputation of Ukraine’s then leader, Viktor Yanukovych. It was part of a multimillion-dollar lobbying effort carried out by Manafort on behalf of Yanukovych’s embattled government, emails and documents reveal. The strategies included:• Proposing to rewrite Wikipedia entries to smear a key opponent of the then Ukrainian president.• Setting up a fake thinktank in Vienna to disseminate viewpoints supporting Yanukovych.• A social media blitz “aimed at targeted audiences in Europe and the US”.• Briefing journalists from the rightwing website Breitbart to attack Clinton when she was US secretary of state. Manafort’s Ukraine strategy anticipated later efforts by the Kremlin and its troll factory to use Twitter and Facebook to discredit Clinton and to help Trump win the 2016 US election. The material seen by the Guardian dates from 2011 to 2013.Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, has indicted Manafort on multiple counts. Manafort is accused of “laundering profits” from his lobbying work in Ukraine, carried out over a period of a decade for Yanukovych and his political party.Mueller also accuses Manafort of hiring retired European politicians to lobby on behalf of Yanukovych, and paying them more than €2m (£1.74m, $2.45m) via offshore accounts.The documents reveal another surreptitious operation to influence international opinion. In 2010 Yanukovych defeated his rival Yulia Tymoshenko in presidential elections. The following summer Ukrainian prosecutors arrested Tymoshenko and put her on trial. This provoked severe criticism from the Obama administration and the EU, which accused Yanukovych of locking up Tymoshenko for political reasons.In 2011 Manafort approved a clandestine strategy to discredit Tymoshenko abroad. Alan Friedman, a former Wall Street Journal and Financial Times reporter, based in Italy, masterminded this project. Friedman has previously been accused of concealing his work as a paid lobbyist. Also involved were Rick Gates, Manafort’s then deputy, and Konstantin Kilimnik, another senior Manafort associate who the FBI believes has links to Russian military intelligence.In July 2011 Friedman sent Manafort a confidential six-page document titled Ukraine - A Digital Roadmap. It laid out a plan to “deconstruct” Tymoshenko via videos, articles and social media. Yanukovych deferred to Manafort, who gave the project the go-ahead, sources in Ukraine’s former government say.Friedman’s proposed operation was ambitious. It included producing anonymous videos attacking Tymoshenko and comparing the opposition leader to a drunk Boris Yeltsin. “The social media space offers great opportunities for guilt by association,” Friedman wrote in the document.He continued: “We know that video exists of Tymoshenko uttering some of her outrageous claims in court … The video can be floated into the social space to reinforce the impression that she is at best reckless and unstatesmanlike and at worst malicious, defamatory and antisemitic.”Twitters users, including “those ‘known’ to us”, could retweet hostile content. The “roadmap” included a website, blogposts and “blast emails”, sent out to a “targeted audience in Europe and the US”. One section was called “Black Ops”. It said: “This could include Wikipedia page modification to highlight [Tymoshenko] corruption and trial and modify the tone of the language being used.”Friedman worked with Eckart Sager, a one-time CNN producer. Emails show they liaised closely with “Paul”, who in turn briefed Yanukovych’s chief of staff, Serhiy Lyovochkin. Lyovochkin declined to comment. He appears in correspondence as “SL”.“He was under the radar,” one source said of Friedman. “Alan kept a low profile. Without Paul’s authorisation Alan would never have got a contract with the [Yanukovych] government.”Friedman’s company FBC Media was retained on a “rolling contract”. It was paid around €150,000 every three months, sources in Kiev suggest. The money was deposited in an offshore account in Seychelles, they allege. Often the payments were late, prompting Friedman to complain, they add.Contacted by the Guardian, Friedman said these earnings were “declared”. He confirmed his company worked for Ukraine from late summer 2011 on what he called “a public relations and country profiling project”. He said: “It was not a secret or covert plan. We had PR people proposing interviews and features to newspapers very openly.”He said its goal was to promote the Ukraine government’s then policy of moving closer to a partnership agreement with the EU. “Our aim was to keep a steady communication going in favour of dialogue between Brussels and Kiev. That was our message.“We never supported a pro-Moscow stance and had already ended our relationship when the Ukrainian president abandoned closer ties with Europe.”Asked whether he had registered with the US Department of Justice, Friedman said he had never worked as a lobbyist for Ukraine. He added: “I never registered as a foreign agent because I never was one. “I was a communications guy, doing PR media strategy work in Europe for a client, like dozens of London PR companies that work for a variety of governments.” The documents show Friedman reported directly to Kiev. In spring 2012 he told the foreign minister, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, he had “generated dozens of positive op-eds/interviews/articles for print and TV” and “disseminated positive news stories” to nearly 2,000 publications.Key to this strategy was a fake thinktank, the Center for the Studyof Former Soviet Socialist Republics (CXSSR), set up with Manafort’s backing. Friedman used it to publish dozens of positive stories about Yanukovych, many of them authored by a “Matthew Lina”.Lina’s comment pieces criticising Tymoshenko and Obama’s state department ran on the conservative US website RedState. Friedman told Manafort his editorial team ghostwrote an article by Yanukovych published by the Wall Street Journal.He claimed credit for a Tymoshenko profile written by the Journal’s Matthew Kaminski. Kaminski said Friedman was never a source, “or even someone that as far as I can remember I had any contact whatsoever with”.In April 2012 Friedman sent another “highly confidential” two-page document to Manafort. It set out plans to launch a “special website” entitled The Tymoshenko Files. The site would purport to belong to Inna Bohoslovska, a Ukrainian deputy and Tymoshenko critic.In fact, Friedman would “discreetly prepare, implement and maintain” the site, the document said. It would include “ghost-penned” blogs and “a quasi-novella serialisation”. Asked about the website, Friedman said he had never written “any content”.Emails seen by the Guardian show a regular pattern of interaction between Manafort, Friedman, Gates, Kilimnik and Ukrainian officials. Gates, who went on to work with Manafort on the 2016 Trump campaign, wrote several messages. In February Gates admitted conspiracy and lying to the FBI, and agreed to cooperate with Mueller.At the time Kilimnik was the Russian manager of Manafort’s Kiev office. Kilminik is understood to be “Person A” in Mueller’s latest indictment, filed last week. It says the FBI believes Kilimnik has ties to Moscow’s GRU spy agency, and adds that Gates was aware of this. Kilimnik denies a connection. Friedman confirmed he had met Manafort and Gates but said he had done so “because the client asked me to”.Manafort’s media operation included attacks on Clinton. In October 2012 Gates emailed Manafort and Friedman, flagging a piece written by the journalist Ben Shapiro. The Breitbart article criticised Clinton for her public support of Tymoshenko, who had recently made an electoral pact with the far-right Svoboda party.The article cited a Jewish “leader” who accused Clinton anonymously of creating a “neo-Nazi Frankenstein”. Gates wrote: “Gentlemen – Here is the first part of a series of articles that will be coming as we continue to build this effort. Alan, you get full credit for the Frankenstein comment.”The alleged use of offshore accounts is likely to interest the FBI. Manafort is accused of concealing more than $75m earned from his work in Ukraine. Yanukovych’s attempts to woo western leaders ended in October 2013 when he accepted a bailout from Moscow. He fled to Russia after anti-government protests. In 2015 Friedman wrote an authorised biography of Silvio Berlusconi. Manafort continued to work for Yanukovych’s party up until he joined Trump’s campaign. Manafort denies wrongdoing and has said he will fight Mueller’s charges. Topics Viktor Yanukovych Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko Robert Mueller US politics Europe news

In the early hours of Saturday, the police and government officials raided a small nightclub in Kuala Lumpur.The venue, Blue Boy, was known to be popular with the LGBT community, but for years had been relatively left alone by the authorities. Until the weekend. Twenty men were detained and ordered into counselling for “illicit behaviour” by the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department of Malaysia (JAKIM).Government minister Khalid Samad later released a statement on the motivations behind the raid. “Hopefully this initiative can mitigate the LGBT culture from spreading into our society,” he said.It sent a clear signal to the LGBT community. Thilaga Sulathireh, co-founder of trans rights group Justice For Sisters, says: “We are under attack in an unprecedented way.” Just two days before the raid, a trans woman was brutally beaten on the street in Seremban while seven others watched. The attack left her with broken ribs, a broken backbone and a ruptured spleen.In the same week, a sharia court ordered a lesbian couple to be caned after they were caught having sex in a car, the first time in years such a punishment had been handed out in Malaysia. The judge said it was “a lesson and reminder to not just the two of you, but the members of society”.The general election in May has been celebrated for ushering in a new era, but the new government’s first 100 days in power have been marked by increased discrimination, harassment and violent hate crime against the LGBT community.Homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, and there is no anti-discrimination law encompassing sexual orientation and gender identity. Thilaga says what she described as “state-sponsored homophobia and transphobia” has heightened the climate of fear and resulted in increased discrimination over the past three months.“We are also seeing a lot of shrinking spaces for LGBT people – offline, online, everywhere,” says Thilaga. “This level of aggression is new and the situation is becoming really alarming. We are hearing a lot of cases of people in the community feeling depressed and suicidal and not feeling safe using public facilities or even going out in public spaces.”The previous government led by Najib Razak was vocally homophobic and used sodomy laws to slander and lock up political opponent Anwar Ibrahim for almost a decade. Now in opposition, politicians including those associated with the Islamic party PAS, have amped up anti-LGBT rhetoric further.It is a tactic aimed at gaining popularity and putting the new government in a difficult political position, forcing them to clarify their stance on an issue seen as a poisoned chalice. Deputy prime minister Wan Azizah has said privately LGBT people should have equal rights so long as they keep their “practice” behind closed doors and do not “glamourise their lifestyle”.Others have been more forthright in their public condemnation. The minister for religious affairs, Mujahid Yusof Rawa, has said the government would “take proactive measures to curb the growing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender issues, and help them to return to the right path and lead a normal life”. The deputy minister for public affairs, Dr Lee Boon Chye, stated last week that LGBT people have an “organic disorder”.The first public victim of the push was Numan Afifi, who is gay and an LGBT rights activist. He was appointed press secretary to the minister of youth and sports in July but had to step down within days in response to an opposition campaign.“I always anticipated there would be some backlash to my appointment but I didn’t expect it to happen in the first week, and we weren’t prepared for how fierce it would be,” says Numan. “Trans women are now reporting to us they are being harassed by their employers, some were forced to cut their hair suddenly or dress differently.” Numan’s resignation was only the beginning. Also in July, authorities organised a seminar for 300 school counsellors, teachers and government officials which focused on ways to avert and “cure” LGBT behaviour. Then, in August, the minister for religious affairs ordered the portrait of two prominent LGBT rights activists, Nisha Ayub and Pang Khee Teik, to be removed from a public art exhibition. He also announced a regulator would be set up to monitor LGBT activity online. The opposition women’s minister said last week LGBT people should be banned from teaching in nursery schools, and a campaign to boycott businesses run by trans people is gaining momentum.Charles Santiago, a politician from the ruling coalition, has been one of the few to stand up for the community. “These are citizens of our country, they are part of the Malaysian family and they cannot be discriminated against,” he said.The campaign of hate, he said, “was likely to get worse”. Topics Malaysia LGBT rights Asia Pacific news

Gates has told associates he had hoped for outside assistance from a legal defense fund, but deep-pocketed GOP donors have shown little interest in helping either Gates or Manafort cover their legal fees, two sources said.Once a plea deal is in place, Gates would become yet another known cooperator in Mueller's sprawling probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. It would also increase the pressure to cooperate on Gates' co-defendant Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, who has pleaded not guilty to Mueller's indictment and is preparing for a trial on alleged financial crimes unrelated to the campaign. Gates pleaded not guilty on October 30 alongside Manafort.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - The jury in the bank and tax fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort ended its third day of deliberations on Monday without reaching a verdict. The judge said the jury would reconvene on Tuesday morning. The case is the first to go to trial stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, although the charges largely predate Manafort’s five months working on Donald Trump’s successful campaign. Manafort faces five counts of filing false tax returns, four counts of failing to disclose offshore bank accounts, and nine counts of bank fraud. If convicted on all the charges, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. A conviction would undermine efforts by Trump and some Republican lawmakers to paint Mueller’s Russia inquiry as a political witch hunt, while an acquittal would be a setback for the special counsel. In a break with convention, Trump weighed in on the trial on Friday, calling the case against Manafort at the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, “very sad” and lauding his former associate as a “very good person.” On Monday, Trump accused Mueller’s team of “enjoying ruining people’s lives” and trying to influence the elections in November when Republicans will try to hold on to control of Congress. “Mueller’s Angry Dems are looking to impact the election. They are a National Disgrace!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Trump’s tweet was in reference to a New York Times report that White House Counsel Don McGahn had cooperated extensively with Mueller. Before dismissing them on Friday, Judge T.S. Ellis reminded the jurors, who are not sequestered, to refrain from discussing the case or investigating it on their own during the weekend. Defense attorneys Kevin Downing (R), Thomas Zehnle (2nd R) and Richard Westling (L) walk at the end of the third day of jury deliberations in the trial against Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman who is facing bank and tax fraud charges, in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S., August 20, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua RobertsSome legal experts expressed concern, however, that jurors might still see Trump’s comments - inadvertently or otherwise. Another headline from Friday that could grab the attention of jurors concerned Ellis’ disclosure that he had received threats related to the trial and was being protected by U.S. marshals. The jury was not present when he made those remarks. “In a high profile case, the general assumption is that some outside information may accidentally reach a jury, despite jurors’ best efforts to avoid relevant news,” said jury consultant Roy Futterman. “Given the judge’s statement, the jurors may reasonably assume that they may be at some risk, which may change the tenor of their deliberations, perhaps raising tensions or speeding things up.” On Thursday, the jury asked for a definition of “reasonable doubt” and clarification on the law governing the reporting of foreign bank accounts, but it did not ask any similar questions on Friday or Monday. Shanlon Wu, who represented Manafort’s former protege Rick Gates before he pleaded guilty in February and cooperated with the prosecution, said the lack of questions might bode better for the prosecution than the defense. Slideshow (8 Images)He said it suggested “they were working hard and working well together, and there was no dissension.” “I think that’s a good sign for the prosecution,” Wu said. Still, he said he saw a chance of acquittals on the four counts of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts, citing the jury’s technical question on Thursday about the ownership and control threshold requirements for such disclosures. Reporting by Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld in Alexandria, Va.; Writing by Alistair Bell and Tim Ahmann; Editing by Bill Trott and Peter CooneyOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Defense attorney Kevin Downing is photographed as he walks to the Federal Courthouse on the third day of jury deliberations in the trial against Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman who is facing bank and tax fraud charges in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S., August 20, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - The jury in the bank and tax fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort ended its third day of deliberations on Monday without reaching a verdict. The judge said the jury would reconvene on Tuesday morning. Reporting by Warren Strobel; writing by Tim Ahmann; editing by Eric BeechOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager is under increasing pressure to cooperate with criminal prosecutors investigating the campaign’s alleged collusion with the Kremlin following reports that his chief lieutenant will testify against him.Several US media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and CNN, reported that Rick Gates, a former campaign aide and lobbyist, has struck a deal with Robert Mueller, the special counsel, and will testify against Paul Manafort, his longtime business associate, in exchange for leniency.Gates has appeared to be a relatively minor figure in the Trump/Russia probe. But if he were to plead guilty to criminal charges connected to his earlier work as a lobbyist for a pro-Kremlin party in Ukraine, including allegations of money laundering, it would set off a chain of events that could bring Mueller’s investigation deep into the White House.Trump has denied that his campaign ever colluded with the Kremlin. This weekend, in the wake of a new indictment by prosecutors on Friday against 13 Russians who allegedly engaged in a sophisticated plot to support Trump’s campaign on social media and disparage his rival, Hillary Clinton, Trump emphasised that there was no evidence that the alleged Kremlin plot had swayed the results of the election.The reports of Gates’ possible cooperation come after prosecutors stated in court on Friday that they had unearthed additional evidence of criminal activity by Manafort.Experts say any deal with Gates would only be struck if investigators were confident he had valuable testimony to offer on a more senior figure in their ongoing inquiry.The two developments – the alleged additional evidence of wrongdoing and Gates’s possible testimony – could give Mueller and his team additional ammunition to force Manafort to cooperate in their inquiry or face a potentially tough prison sentence if he is found guilty of the crimes he has been charged with.If Manafort were to cooperate in the probe it could potentially offer Mueller’s team a wealth of new information about the inner workings of the Trump campaign and any possible interactions with Russian officials.The news raises questions about what Gates might have to offer to prosecutors. Both Manafort and Gates were indicted last October for alleged crimes that pre-date their work for the campaign and did not involve any allegations of wrongdoing involving the Trump campaign or Russia. Both pleaded not guilty to the allegations, including money laundering and failing to register as lobbyists for foreign powers.But legal experts have speculated that Mueller, the former FBI chief who is leading the Trump/Russia probe, has continued to investigate both men. The Guardian reported in December that the FBI asked officials in Cyprus for financial information about FBME, a defunct bank used by wealthy Russians that has been accused of serving as a money launderer by US financial regulators. FBME has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.FBME said that neither Manafort nor Gates, nor any companies associated with them, has ever banked at FBME.Manafort served relatively briefly as Trump’s campaign manager. He resigned from the campaign in August 2016 following media reports that raised questions about his former work as a lobbyist for pro-Kremlin forces. On the day he resigned, Manafort opened a shell company that received $13m in loans from two businesses with ties to Trump, according to media reports. Manafort also had business ties to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is close to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. On Friday, new court documents filed by prosecutors alleged that bail documents submitted by Manafort had revealed new alleged criminal conduct involving bank fraud. Prosecutors said that Manafort had obtained a mortgage on a property using fake profit and loss statements, which overstated his income by millions of dollars.According to the Los Angeles Times, Gates’s revised plea is expected to be presented in court in Washington within the next few days. Citing unnamed individuals with information about the case, the paper reports that Gates has said he would testify against Manafort and would receive a “substantial reduction in his sentence”. While the sentence will not be spelled out in court documents, he is expected to serve about 18 months in prison under the terms of any cooperation deal, according to the Los Angeles Times report.Two other former campaign officials, Michael Flynn and George Papadopolous, are already cooperating in the criminal investigation after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI. Topics Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Trump administration Russia Donald Trump Europe news

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - The jury in the trial of Paul Manafort will deliberate for a third day on Monday on whether to convict the former campaign chairman for U.S. President Donald Trump on 18 counts of bank and tax fraud and failing to disclose overseas bank accounts. FILE PHOTO: Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort departs from U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, U.S., February 28, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File PhotoManafort, 69, has pleaded not guilty. The trial is taking place in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. Half the counts involve bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy, which carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for each count. The five tax fraud counts carry three year maximums, while the four counts related to the disclosure of his foreign bank accounts have a maximum sentence of 5 years each. In total the statutory maximums suggest a possible prison term of up to 305 years, although Manafort would, if convicted, likely face far fewer years based on federal sentencing guidelines. Three experts polled by Reuters gave estimates ranging from 7 to 12 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Here is a summary of the charges and related testimony at trial: FALSE TAX RETURNS - FIVE COUNTS Manafort is charged with five counts of signing off on and aiding in the production of false tax returns, one count each for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. Prosecutors say Manafort indicated on the returns that he did not have bank accounts in foreign countries even though he controlled 31 accounts in Cyprus and elsewhere overseas, and underreported his earnings in order to limit his taxable income. Michael Welch, a revenue agent for the Internal Revenue Service, testified that Manafort did not report $16.5 million of business income on his tax returns between 2010 and 2014. Welch also said that a $900,000 payment from overseas was improperly reclassified as a loan in 2014 to reduce Manafort’s taxes. An accountant for Manafort, Cynthia Laporta, testified that Manafort and Rick Gates backdated and doctored documents, including to reclassify the $900,000 payment as a loan, a move which cut Manafort’s taxes by half a million dollars. Gates testified that he had lied to Laporta and to the bookkeeper to hide the overseas bank accounts and reduce Manafort’s taxes. Manafort’s lawyers pinned the blame on Gates, suggesting Manafort was eligible for an “embezzlement deduction” on the money stolen by Gates. They also said that such tax issues would normally be rectified through a civil IRS audit, although the judge told the jury that the government was not required to explore a civil remedy before bringing a criminal tax case. Statutory maximum: 3 years prison for each count. FAILURE TO REPORT FOREIGN BANK ACCOUNTS - FOUR COUNTS Prosecutors charged Manafort with four counts of failing to report so-called Foreign Bank Account Reports, or FBARs - one count for each year from 2011 to 2014. Generally, U.S. citizens are required to submit an FBAR report annually to the Treasury Department if the aggregate value of their foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 during the 12-month period. Prosecutors say Manafort did not submit FBARs even though he had control over 31 bank overseas bank accounts, mainly in Cyprus and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Paula Liss, a Treasury Department agent, testified that there were no FBAR filings by Manafort or his businesses between 2011 and 2014. The government put into evidence a series of emails showing Manafort directing payments out of the accounts, countering the defense’s argument that Manafort might not have signature authority over some of those accounts. Morgan Magionos, an FBI forensic accountant, walked the jury through her tracing of the wire transfers from the overseas accounts, which she said showed the accounts were controlled by Manafort either directly or indirectly via his agents in Cyprus. Manafort’s lawyers sought to sow doubt over whether Manafort willfully broke the law. “Any idea that has been given to you by the United States government, the Office of Special Counsel that this stuff is straightforward and simple, it is just not true,” Kevin Downing said in his closing statement. Statutory maximum: 5 years prison on each count. LOANS FROM CITIZENS BANK - THREE COUNTS Prosecutors charged Manafort with bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy related to a $3.4 million loan in March 2016 from Citizens Bank, a Rhode Island-based lender, secured by a condominium in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan. Manafort was also charged with one count of bank fraud conspiracy related to an attempt to get a separate $5.5 million loan from the bank on a brownstone in Brooklyn, which did not materialize. Melinda James, a mortgage assistant at Citizens, testified that Manafort did not disclose a mortgage on the brownstone when applying for the loan on the Soho condo. Under cross-examination she acknowledged that it was Gates, using a dated insurance declaration, who ultimately misled her following a series of contradictory exchanges on the matter. James also said that Manafort indicated the Manhattan condo was a second residence, when it was listed for rent, an apparent attempt to get a lower interest rate on the loan. Taryn Rodriguez, a loan officer assistant at Citizens, testified that Manafort did not disclose an existing mortgage on the brownstone when he was applying for the $5.5 million loan on the property. Rodriguez said she discovered the mortgage by researching a New York City database of property records. Statutory maximum: 30 years prison on each count. LOAN FROM BANC OF CALIFORNIA - TWO COUNTS Prosecutors charged Manafort with bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy for submitting a false statement of assets and liabilities, among other misleading information, to secure a $1 million business loan from Banc of California in 2016. Gary Seferian, a senior vice president at Banc of California, testified that his bank gave Manafort the $1 million loan to rehabilitate and flip properties in the Los Angeles area, in part based on a financial statement for DMP International showing a profit of $4.4 million for 2015. In reality, prosecutors said, DMP International’s profit was less than a tenth that amount. When Seferian was asked what he would have done if he had known DMP’s profit statement had been inflated, he testified, “I would have stopped the application and spoken to my legal department about it.” Statutory maximum: 30 years prison on each count. LOANS FROM THE FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK - FOUR COUNTS Prosecutors charged Manafort with two counts of bank fraud and two counts of bank fraud conspiracy related to two loans worth $16 million from the Federal Savings Bank, a small Chicago-based lender, in late 2016 and early 2017. Prosecutors say Manafort, along with Rick Gates, provided doctored profit and loss statements to the bank to get the loans, among other misleading information. Federal lent Manafort $9.5 million against his estate in the Hamptons, an enclave for the rich on the eastern tip of Long Island, and $6.5 million against the Brooklyn brownstone. Dennis Raico, a former salesman at the bank, testified that the bank’s chief executive, Steve Calk, personally approved the loans and expedited them while seeking Manafort’s help getting a cabinet post in the Trump administration. Calk was named an advisor to the Trump campaign but never received a cabinet post. James Brennan, an executive at Federal Savings Bank, corroborated Raico’s account. Brennan testified that bank president Javier Ubarri initially rejected the $9.5 million loan but that Calk overruled him. “It closed because Mr. Calk wanted it to close,” Brennan said of the loan. Manafort’s lawyers sought to get the charges related to the Federal Savings Bank loans thrown out, arguing that any inconsistencies in information supplied by Manafort to the bank was not material and that the bank had been made aware of the “true status” of Manafort’s financial situation. Judge T.S. Ellis rejected that motion, saying the jury should decide. Statutory maximum: 30 years prison on each count. Reporting by Nathan Layne in Alexandria, Virginia; Editing by Peter Cooney and Daniel WallisOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - The jury in the bank and tax fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort ended its third day of deliberations on Monday without reaching a verdict. The judge said the jury would reconvene on Tuesday morning. The case is the first to go to trial stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, although the charges largely predate Manafort’s five months working on Donald Trump’s successful campaign. Manafort faces five counts of filing false tax returns, four counts of failing to disclose offshore bank accounts, and nine counts of bank fraud. If convicted on all the charges, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. A conviction would undermine efforts by Trump and some Republican lawmakers to paint Mueller’s Russia inquiry as a political witch hunt, while an acquittal would be a setback for the special counsel. In a break with convention, Trump weighed in on the trial on Friday, calling the case against Manafort at the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, “very sad” and lauding his former associate as a “very good person.” On Monday, Trump accused Mueller’s team of “enjoying ruining people’s lives” and trying to influence the elections in November when Republicans will try to hold on to control of Congress. “Mueller’s Angry Dems are looking to impact the election. They are a National Disgrace!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Trump’s tweet was in reference to a New York Times report that White House Counsel Don McGahn had cooperated extensively with Mueller. Before dismissing them on Friday, Judge T.S. Ellis reminded the jurors, who are not sequestered, to refrain from discussing the case or investigating it on their own during the weekend. Defense attorneys Kevin Downing (R), Thomas Zehnle (2nd R) and Richard Westling (L) walk at the end of the third day of jury deliberations in the trial against Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman who is facing bank and tax fraud charges, in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S., August 20, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua RobertsSome legal experts expressed concern, however, that jurors might still see Trump’s comments - inadvertently or otherwise. Another headline from Friday that could grab the attention of jurors concerned Ellis’ disclosure that he had received threats related to the trial and was being protected by U.S. marshals. The jury was not present when he made those remarks. “In a high profile case, the general assumption is that some outside information may accidentally reach a jury, despite jurors’ best efforts to avoid relevant news,” said jury consultant Roy Futterman. “Given the judge’s statement, the jurors may reasonably assume that they may be at some risk, which may change the tenor of their deliberations, perhaps raising tensions or speeding things up.” On Thursday, the jury asked for a definition of “reasonable doubt” and clarification on the law governing the reporting of foreign bank accounts, but it did not ask any similar questions on Friday or Monday. Shanlon Wu, who represented Manafort’s former protege Rick Gates before he pleaded guilty in February and cooperated with the prosecution, said the lack of questions might bode better for the prosecution than the defense. Slideshow (8 Images)He said it suggested “they were working hard and working well together, and there was no dissension.” “I think that’s a good sign for the prosecution,” Wu said. Still, he said he saw a chance of acquittals on the four counts of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts, citing the jury’s technical question on Thursday about the ownership and control threshold requirements for such disclosures. Reporting by Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld in Alexandria, Va.; Writing by Alistair Bell and Tim Ahmann; Editing by Bill Trott and Peter CooneyOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China demanded the United States “dispel obstacles” to improving military ties and stop slandering it, amid growing tensions over trade, Taiwan, the South China Sea and U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of China meddling in the upcoming U.S. election. Trump on Wednesday accused China of seeking to interfere in the Nov. 6 U.S. congressional elections, saying that Beijing did not want him or his Republican Party to do well because of his pugnacious stance on trade. The two countries are already embroiled in an acrimonious trade war and have continued to butt heads over a list of sensitive issues including the disputed South China Sea and self-ruled Taiwan, armed by Washington but claimed by Beijing. On Saturday, China summoned the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and postponed joint military talks to protest Washington’s decision to sanction a Chinese military agency and its director for buying Russian fighter jets and a surface-to-air missile system. Defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang told a monthly briefing that the United States should take steps to improve military relations and expressed China’s firm opposition to “provocative” U.S. air force flights over the South China Sea, after U.S. B-52s flew in the vicinity of the waterway this week. He even hinted a planned visit to the United States later this year for Defence Minister Wei Fenghe could be in doubt. “The United States is to blame for the present problem, so the United States must immediately correct its mistakes, and withdraw the so-called sanctions to dispel obstacles that interfere in the healthy development of relations between the two militaries,” Ren said, when asked about Wei’s trip. Beijing has also denied a request for a U.S. warship to visit Hong Kong, the U.S. consulate in the Chinese city said on Tuesday. Ren said he had no further information on that. Adding fuel to the flames, China was angered this week when the United States approved the sale of spare parts for F-16 fighter planes and other military aircraft worth up to $330 million to Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province. Speaking at a separate briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated a denial of Trump’s accusation that Beijing is trying to influence the U.S. congressional elections in November. “We advise the United States to stop this unceasing criticism and slander of China,” Geng said. “Stop these wrong words and deeds that damage bilateral relations and the basic interests of both countries’ peoples.” Trump also said on Twitter on Wednesday that China was “placing propaganda ads” in U.S. newspapers, referring to a Chinese government-run media company’s four-page supplement in the Sunday Des Moines Register promoting the mutual benefits of U.S.-China trade. Asked about the tweet, Geng said that such advertisements by foreign media were commonplace and allowed by U.S. law. “To say that this regular cooperation is China’s government interfering in the U.S. elections is totally far-fetched and without foundation in facts,” he said. The military spat and election accusation have worsened a relationship already poisoned by the Sino-U.S. trade war. FILE PHOTO: Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang attends a news briefing in Beijing, China May 25, 2017. China Daily via REUTERSChina’s commerce ministry said it was “ridiculous” for the United States to think that pressure could force concessions from China, sparked by Trump’s blaming China for stealing U.S. intellectual property, limiting access to its own market and unfairly subsidizing state-owned companies. “I want to stress that bullying and maximum pressure will not scare China and will not cause China’s economy to collapse,” ministry spokesman Gao Feng told reporters. Gao was answering a question about comments by former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who last week told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post that Trump planned to make the trade war “unbearably painful” for Beijing and would not back down. Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Christian Shepherd; Additional reporting by Yawen Chen and Se Young Lee; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Nick MacfieOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - The jury in the bank and tax fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort ended its third day of deliberations on Monday without reaching a verdict. The judge said the jury would reconvene on Tuesday morning. The case is the first to go to trial stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, although the charges largely predate Manafort’s five months working on Donald Trump’s successful campaign. Manafort faces five counts of filing false tax returns, four counts of failing to disclose offshore bank accounts, and nine counts of bank fraud. If convicted on all the charges, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. A conviction would undermine efforts by Trump and some Republican lawmakers to paint Mueller’s Russia inquiry as a political witch hunt, while an acquittal would be a setback for the special counsel. In a break with convention, Trump weighed in on the trial on Friday, calling the case against Manafort at the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, “very sad” and lauding his former associate as a “very good person.” On Monday, Trump accused Mueller’s team of “enjoying ruining people’s lives” and trying to influence the elections in November when Republicans will try to hold on to control of Congress. “Mueller’s Angry Dems are looking to impact the election. They are a National Disgrace!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Trump’s tweet was in reference to a New York Times report that White House Counsel Don McGahn had cooperated extensively with Mueller. Before dismissing them on Friday, Judge T.S. Ellis reminded the jurors, who are not sequestered, to refrain from discussing the case or investigating it on their own during the weekend. Defense attorneys Kevin Downing (R), Thomas Zehnle (2nd R) and Richard Westling (L) walk at the end of the third day of jury deliberations in the trial against Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman who is facing bank and tax fraud charges, in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S., August 20, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua RobertsSome legal experts expressed concern, however, that jurors might still see Trump’s comments - inadvertently or otherwise. Another headline from Friday that could grab the attention of jurors concerned Ellis’ disclosure that he had received threats related to the trial and was being protected by U.S. marshals. The jury was not present when he made those remarks. “In a high profile case, the general assumption is that some outside information may accidentally reach a jury, despite jurors’ best efforts to avoid relevant news,” said jury consultant Roy Futterman. “Given the judge’s statement, the jurors may reasonably assume that they may be at some risk, which may change the tenor of their deliberations, perhaps raising tensions or speeding things up.” On Thursday, the jury asked for a definition of “reasonable doubt” and clarification on the law governing the reporting of foreign bank accounts, but it did not ask any similar questions on Friday or Monday. Shanlon Wu, who represented Manafort’s former protege Rick Gates before he pleaded guilty in February and cooperated with the prosecution, said the lack of questions might bode better for the prosecution than the defense. Slideshow (8 Images)He said it suggested “they were working hard and working well together, and there was no dissension.” “I think that’s a good sign for the prosecution,” Wu said. Still, he said he saw a chance of acquittals on the four counts of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts, citing the jury’s technical question on Thursday about the ownership and control threshold requirements for such disclosures. Reporting by Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld in Alexandria, Va.; Writing by Alistair Bell and Tim Ahmann; Editing by Bill Trott and Peter CooneyOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Hong Kong police have come under criticism for charging protesters in a mass transit station in Yuen Long, where some were resting or preparing to leave after clashes with police on Saturday.In scenes that protesters and critics said were reminiscent of an attack on commuters by suspected triad gangs last week, police fired tear gas and rushed into the station shortly before 10pm. The team, a special tactical unit, pepper sprayed and beat people with batons, causing panic. Some protesters attempted to fight back with fire extinguishers. Bloodied gauze and drops of blood could be seen on the station floor.The criticism comes as the city prepared on Sunday for its third consecutive day of mass civil dissent, following Saturday’s rally in Yuen Long and an 11-hour-sit-in at the Hong Kong airport on Friday.Hong Kong’s hospital authority said late on Saturday that 23 people had sought medical help, two in a serious condition. Police have arrested 11 people on suspicion of various charges including unlawful assembly, possession of an offensive weapon, and assault.Images have begun circulating online of the elite tactical squad rushing into the station next to photos of a group of men in white who stormed the same station the previous Sunday. The suspected triads had chased commuters, some of whom were protesters returned from an anti-government demonstration that day, beating them with wooden and metal rods.“In action there was no difference,” said Simon Cheng, 34, a Yuen Long resident. “But psychologically it is worse because they are government approved and have deadly force,” he said.In a press briefing in the early hours of Saturday, the police said protesters were throwing fire extinguishers from a bridge at officers below. “We entered the station and got the scene under control,” said senior superintendent Yolanda Yu Hoi-kwan of the police’s public relations department.Officers were also criticised for using tear gas in residential areas of Yuen Long, including near nursing homes. Liu said the police had fired near residents but no such homes were affected. “We also reminded elderly homes to shut their windows,” she said.Hong Kong has been plunged into political crisis as citizens have taken to the streets every weekend for almost two months to demonstrate against their government.Demonstrators prepared on Sunday to hold a rally in central Hong Kong to condemn the police, who critics say have used increasingly heavy-handed tactics on protesters. Organisers had originally planned to march from central Hong Kong to a western district, where police had fired tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters last weekend.The police did not grant a permit for the march – the second time authorities have rejected a protest request – following a ban on the Saturday rally in Yuen Long. On Sunday, one of the organisers of the Yuen Long rally, Max Chung was arrested by police on suspicion of inciting an illegal assembly. Protesters fear authorities will adopt this line more in the future.“It is very likely they are going to abolish the freedom of assembly. So we are asking people to come out because it may be the last time that we are going to have a peaceful and lawful protest in Hong Kong,” said one of the organisers of the rally.“I’m sure that people are exhausted. It’s already been two months since the first protest ... but I guess people are not going to give up or rest until we legitimately have freedom and democracy,” she said. “It will be a long way to go but everyone in Hong Kong will do what it takes.” Topics Hong Kong China Protest Asia Pacific news

(Reuters) - Prosecutors for Special Counsel Robert Mueller urged a federal judge in Virginia on Friday to impose a strict prison sentence for President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, after a jury last year convicted him on eight counts of bank and tax fraud. In their sentencing memo filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, prosecutors said Manafort, who is 69, deserves between 19.6 and 24.4 years in prison and a fine of between $50,000 and $24 million. “While some of these offenses are commonly prosecuted, there was nothing ordinary about the millions of dollars involved in the defendant’s crimes, the duration of his criminal conduct or the sophistication of his schemes,” prosecutors said in the memo. “Manafort did not commit these crimes out of necessity or hardship,” they said. “He was well-educated, professionally successful and financially well off. He nonetheless cheated the United States Treasury and the public out of more than $6 million in taxes at a time when he had substantial resources.” Friday’s court filing in Virginia came just days after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that Manafort had breached his plea agreement in a parallel case by lying to investigators despite a pledge to cooperate. That finding earlier this week by Judge Amy Berman Jackson in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia could have a direct impact on how Manafort is sentenced in the Virginia case. Judge T.S. Ellis in Alexandria, Virginia, had planned to sentence Manafort on Feb. 8, but he later postponed that until after Jackson’s ruling, saying it “may have some effect on the sentencing decision in this case.” Manafort was one of the first people in Trump’s orbit to face criminal charges as part of Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to tilt the 2016 presidential election in his favor. Trump has denied colluding and called the probe a witch hunt, while Russia has denied meddling in the election. None of the charges Manafort faced related directly to Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. In the Virginia case, prosecutors accused Manafort of hiding from U.S. tax authorities $16 million he earned as a political consultant for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, money he used to fund an opulent lifestyle. Later, when his lobbying work started to dry up following the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, prosecutors said Manafort began lying to banks to secure $20 million in loans to keep his lifestyle afloat. After almost four days of deliberations, a 12-member jury found Manafort guilty on two counts of bank fraud, five counts of tax fraud and one charge of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. In September, Manafort pleaded guilty in a parallel case in Washington to attempted witness tapering and conspiring against the United States, a charge that covers conduct including money laundering and unregistered lobbying. As part of that deal, he pledged to cooperate with the Justice Department. However, prosecutors later said they had caught Manafort in several lies and wanted to tear up the agreement in a move that could cause him to face a much stiffer prison sentence. FILE PHOTO: Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort arrives for arraignment on a third superseding indictment against him by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on charges of witness tampering, at U.S. District Court in Washington, June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst//File Photo/File PhotoEarlier this week, Jackson ruled there was a “preponderance” of evidence that Manafort lied on three different topics, including his communications with his former business partner Konstantin Kilimnik, who prosecutors say has ties to Russian intelligence and helped Manafort try to obstruct justice. Kilimnik has denied such ties. Specifically, Jackson found that Manafort lied about his interactions with Kilimnik including about the sharing of polling data on the Trump campaign and their discussions over a “Ukrainian peace plan,” a proposal that envisioned ending U.S. sanctions on Russia - long an important objective of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government. Prosecutors have said these lies are “at the heart” of their investigation into potential collusion, according to a transcript released last week. Reporting by Sarah Lynch and Nathan Layne in Washington; Editing by David Alexander and Leslie AdlerOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges. Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges. Mr. Cohen admitted that Mr. Trump had directed him to arrange payments to two women during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep them from speaking publicly about alleged affairs with Mr. Trump. Additional ReadingAnatomy of a Crime: Sex, Hush Money and a Trump Fixer’s Guilty PleaCohen Implicates President Trump. What Do Prosecutors Do Now?David Pecker, Chief of National Enquirer’s Publisher, Is Said to Get Immunity in Trump InquiryPaul Manafort was found guilty on eight of the 18 charges brought against him. Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, was convicted on Tuesday of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. A member of the jury said there was a single holdout who forced a mistrial on the other 10 charges that Mr. Manafort faced. Mr. Trump praised Mr. Manafort on Wednesday for refusing to “break” and cooperate with federal prosecutors.Additional ReadingNews Analysis: Cohen and Manafort Are in Deeper Legal Trouble. Mueller Could Benefit.Takeaways From the Conviction of Paul ManafortWhat’s Next for Manafort and Cohen?President Trump lashed out at Attorney General Jeff Sessions. ImageJeff Sessions said that as long as he was the attorney general, he would not be influenced by politics.CreditBridget Bennett for The New York TimesWith Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea and Mr. Manafort’s conviction minutes apart on Tuesday, Mr. Trump’s efforts to dismiss the criminal investigations engulfing his administration were crippled. The president’s lawyers have urged him to avoid considering pardons until the inquiries are over. Mr. Trump lashed out on Thursday at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, blaming the Justice Department for the investigations, and then he urged Mr. Sessions on Friday to look into “corruption” on the “other side.” Mr. Sessions returned the reprimand on Thursday with a rare statement of defiance, warning Mr. Trump not to intrude on federal law enforcement. Andrew Wheeler, the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, signed a plan on Monday to weaken the regulation of coal-fired power plants. It’s a long-anticipated overhaul of Obama-era rules that environmentalists criticized as a retreat from efforts to counter climate change. It could also enable some of the United States’ dirtiest remaining coal plants to be refurbished and keep running without modern pollution controls. A Trump administration analysis revealed Tuesday that the new rules could lead to as many as 1,400 premature deaths annually by 2030 because of an increase in the extremely fine particulate matter that is linked to heart and lung disease. Additional ReadingTrump’s New Pollution Rules Still Won’t Save the Coal IndustryFact Check: Trump’s False Claims About Coal, the Environment and West VirginiaTrump Put a Low Cost on Carbon Emissions. Here’s Why It Matters.In Congress, more fraud charges, Brett Kavanaugh’s looming confirmation and John McCain’s announcement.Representative Duncan Hunter was indicted on Tuesday by a federal grand jury in San Diego on charges that he and his wife used more than $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for personal expenses and filed false campaign finance records. (Here’s an explanation of the indictment.)Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings are set to begin Sept. 4. Despite his assurance on Tuesday to Senator Susan Collins of Maine that he believed the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was “settled law,” Democrats have demanded more information about his work for President George W. Bush and with the independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton.On Friday, Mr. Trump abruptly canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s planned trip to North Korea, citing a lack of progress in denuclearization talks. The announcement came a day after Mr. Pompeo announced a special envoy to handle negotiations with the North and to accompany him next week.In other diplomacy efforts, bilateral trade talks between the United States and China restarted this week. But it ended on Thursday with little sign of progress as Washington moved ahead with additional tariffs.Additional ReadingNew U.S. Sanctions Target Russia for Defying Rules on North KoreaU.S. Criticism of ‘Suspected’ Nuclear Sites May Derail Talks, North Korean Media WarnsArmy Recommends Silver Star for Captain Criticized in Deadly Niger AmbushPrimaries, special election results and preparation for the November midterms.Vital Kremlin informants have largely gone silent ahead of the November midterm elections, leaving American spy agencies in the dark about what Russia’s intentions are. The Democratic National Committee reported that a suspected hacking attempt this week on its voter database was a false alarm, as the unusual activity was a test to determine the organization’s security.

Yahoo Groups will end in December The soon-to-be released Analogue Pocket will allow users to revisit their favorite childhood games; "Despacito" tops Vevo's most-watched video list. 0:51

Mr. Fitzgerald, then a United States attorney in Chicago, was appointed as a special counsel by James B. Comey, then the deputy attorney general, after Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from the investigation. Mr. Comey also delegated his supervisory powers as the acting attorney general to Mr. Fitzgerald, permitting the prosecutor to take major investigative steps “independent of the supervision or control of any officer of the department.”By contrast, after Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey in May from his subsequent job as F.B.I. director and Mr. Rosenstein appointed Mr. Mueller as special counsel, Mr. Rosenstein invoked the regulation — meaning he retained supervisory control.At the time, some Democrats greeted that arrangement with suspicion. They worried that Mr. Rosenstein — a Trump appointee who had helped with Mr. Trump’s firing of Mr. Comey by writing a memo criticizing Mr. Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation — would keep Mr. Mueller on a short leash.During a June hearing, for example, Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, pressed Mr. Rosenstein to instead create a more independent special counsel who could oversee himself, like Mr. Fitzgerald.“Are you willing to do as has been done before?” she demanded.Mr. Rosenstein demurred. While noting that Mr. Bush could have fired Mr. Fitzgerald for any reason — so working under the regulation gave Mr. Mueller greater protection — he also said there were other complicated legal issues that led him to his decision. (One of the complexities may have been that Mr. Mueller was not a current Justice Department employee at the time of his appointment, unlike Mr. Fitzgerald in 2003, so Mr. Mueller most likely could not have been delegated attorney general supervisory powers, Mr. Katyal said.)The anxieties of that period make it all the more striking that, 10 months later, Mr. Mueller’s team is stressing his subordination to Mr. Rosenstein to repel Mr. Manafort’s attack.Still, several specialists cautioned that Mr. Mueller’s subordination could revert to a weakness if Mr. Trump were to fire Mr. Sessions or Mr. Rosenstein, putting someone else in charge of the special counsel.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced on Thursday by a U.S. judge to less than four years in prison - far shy of federal sentencing guidelines - for financial crimes uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis imposed the surprisingly lenient 47-month sentence on Manafort, 69, during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, in which the veteran Republican political consultant asked for mercy but expressed no remorse for his actions. Manafort was convicted by a jury last August of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. Ellis disregarded federal sentencing guidelines cited by prosecutors that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison. The judge ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million. Manafort, brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair because of a condition called gout, listened during the hearing as Ellis extolled his “otherwise blameless” life in which he “earned the admiration of a number of people” and engaged in “a lot of good things.” “Clearly the guidelines were way out of whack on this,” Ellis said. Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the U.S. government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine’s former pro-Russia government. After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket. The judge also said Manafort “is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.” The sentence was even less than the sentence recommended by Manafort’s lawyers of 4-1/4 to 5-1/4 years in prison. “These are serious crimes, we understand that,” said Thomas Zehnle, one of Manafort’s lawyers. “Tax evasion is by no means jaywalking. But it’s not narcotics trafficking.” Related CoverageManafort's luxurious life nowhere in sight at sentencingTimeline: Big moments in Mueller investigation of Russian meddling in 2016 U.S. electionLegal experts expressed surprise over the sentence. “This is a tremendous defeat for the special counsel’s office,” former federal prosecutor David Weinstein said. Manafort’s sentence was less than half of what people who plead guilty and cooperate with the government typically get in similar cases, according to Mark Allenbaugh, a former attorney with the U.S. Sentencing Commission. “Very shocking,” he said. Ellis, appointed to the bench by Republican former President Ronald Reagan, called the sentence “sufficiently punitive,” and noted that Manafort’s time already served would be subtracted from the 47 months. Manafort has been jailed since June 2018. Manafort’s legal troubles are not over. He faces sentencing next Wednesday in Washington in a separate case for two conspiracy charges involving lobbying and money laundering to which he pleaded guilty last September. Legal experts said the light sentence from Ellis could prompt U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to impose a sentence closer to the maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, and order that the sentence run after the current one is completed rather than concurrently. Jackson was appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama. Before the sentencing, Manafort expressed no remorse but talked about how the case had been difficult for him and his family. Manafort, who opted not to testify during his trial, told Ellis that “to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.” He described his life as “professionally and financially in shambles.” The judge told Manafort: “I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct.” Manafort, with noticeably grayer hair than just months ago, came into the courtroom in a wheelchair holding a cane, wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words “Alexandria Inmate” on the back. It was a far cry from Manafort’s usual dapper appearance and stylish garb. During a break shortly before the sentence was handed down, Manafort turned around and blew his wife, Kathleen, a kiss. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort appears for sentencing in this court sketch in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S., March 7, 2019. REUTERS/Bill HennessyThe case capped a stunning downfall for Manafort, a prominent figure in Republican Party circles for decades who also worked as a consultant to such international figures as former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Yanukovych. Ellis had faced criticism by some in the legal community for comments he made during the trial that were widely interpreted as biased against the prosecution. Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors, told them to stop using the word “oligarch” to describe people associated with Manafort because it made him seem “despicable,” and objected to pictures of Manafort’s luxury items they planned to show jurors. “It isn’t a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending,” Ellis told prosecutors during the trial. Prosecutor Greg Andres urged Ellis to impose a steep sentence. “This case must stand as a beacon to others that this conduct cannot be accepted,” Andres told the hearing on Thursday. Jackson ruled on Feb. 13 that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Mueller’s office by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe including his interactions with a business partner they have said has ties to Russian intelligence. Manafort is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have pleaded guilty, while longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty. Trump, a Republican who has called Mueller’s investigation a politically motivated “witch hunt,” has not ruled out giving Manafort a presidential pardon, saying in November: “I wouldn’t take it off the table.” “There’s absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia,” Kevin Downing, another Manafort lawyer, said outside the courthouse. The Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, quickly accused Downing of making “a deliberate appeal for a pardon” from Trump. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said after the sentencing: “I believe Manafort has been disproportionately harassed and hopefully soon there will be an investigation of the overzealous prosecutorial intimidation so it doesn’t happen again.” Slideshow (6 Images)Mueller is preparing to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a report on his investigation into whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction and Russia has denied U.S. intelligence findings that it interfered in the 2016 election in an effort to boost Trump. Manafort worked for Trump’s campaign for five pivotal months in 2016 that included the Republican National Convention where Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, three of them as campaign chairman. Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Andy Sullivan and Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Eric Beech and Makini Brice; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Peter CooneyOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

US President Donald Trump's ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort has been given a 47-month prison sentence for fraud.He was convicted last year of hiding millions of dollars of income earned by his political consulting in Ukraine. The charges stem from an inquiry into alleged Russian election meddling in the 2016 US elections.None of Manafort's charges relate to allegations of collusion with Russia. Mr Trump has always denied the charge, describing the inquiry as a witch hunt.The 47-month sentence is far shorter than what was recommended by US Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller.Mr Mueller is thought to be finishing up his 22-month investigation, which has dogged the Trump presidency.Manafort, 69, is due to be sentenced in another case next week related to his illegal lobbying.His sentencing marks a spectacular downfall for a Republican political guru who advised four US presidents, including Mr Trump, and foreign leaders.Manafort: Trump's former campaign chairManafort - who will receive credit for time served - must also pay $24m (£18m) in restitution and a $50,000 fine. He addressed the court on Thursday evening in Alexandria, Virginia, saying "the last two years have been the most difficult of my life". "To say I am humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement," he added, asking the judge to be "compassionate".He described his life as "professionally and financially in shambles".Judge TS Ellis said he was surprised that Manafort did not "express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct".The formerly dapper lobbyist - who entered the court wearing a green prison jumpsuit and in a wheelchair - was impassive as he learned his fate. The Trump-Russia saga in 250 words What does the special counsel do? America's most mysterious public figure Judge Ellis said sentencing guidelines cited by prosecutors calling for between 19.5 and 24 years in prison were "excessive" compared to sentences for similar crimes."The government cannot sweep away the history of all these previous sentences," he said. "Clearly the guidelines were way out of whack on this." He added that Manafort had lived an "otherwise blameless" life where he "earned the admiration of a number of people".Many Democrats have reacted to the sentence with disappointment.US Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president, said Manafort had "led far from a 'blameless life'".Meanwhile, ex-CIA Director John Brennan described it as "an extraordinarily lenient sentence... Paul Manafort has a demonstrated track record of criminal, unethical, unprincipled behaviour."Others have contrasted Manafort's sentence with those convicted of other crimes, arguing that the US legal system is lenient on white collar crime.One lawyer highlighted how his client was offered between 36 and 72 months for stealing $100 (£76).He added that he was "not advocating for worse treatment for all", but wished his clients would get the "same treatment as the privileged few".News website USA Today points out that, in the district where Manafort was sentenced, those convicted of fraud are normally jailed for an average of 36 months. Legal experts have also pointed out that Judge Ellis has a history of criticising mandatory minimum sentences - including those for drug and gun crimes - as he believes judges should have more discretion over jail sentences. What might 'Mueller report' look like? Five big things Mueller is looking at A jury in Alexandria, Virginia, convicted Manafort last August of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failing to declare a foreign bank account.The judge, however, declared a mistrial on 10 other fraud-related charges.Manafort was indicted for hiding $55m in offshore bank accounts in Cyprus, money he was paid as a political consultant for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians.Prosecutors say Manafort failed to pay more than $6m in taxes, as he funded his opulent lifestyle, including a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket and a luxury renovation of his mansion in the Hamptons. Manafort served three months as Trump's campaign chairman until August 2016, when he was forced to resign over his previous work in Ukraine. He was the first former Trump aide to be arrested in the special counsel investigation, in October 2017.Who's who in the Russia-Trump inquiry?His legal team has previously said he suffers from debilitating foot pain resulting from gout as a result of his incarceration.Manafort's bail was revoked for alleged witness-tampering and he has been held in solitary confinement for nine months.When news of the solitary confinement first emerged it caused controversy, with commentators describing it as a form of "torture".Manafort's lawyers acknowledged that the solitary confinement was put in place to guarantee Manafort's safety, but argued that he should not have been detained at all.They said Manafort was "locked in his cell for at least 23 hours per day" and could not adequately prepare his defence.Mr Mueller said Manafort had enjoyed privileges in solitary confinement including "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 workspace to prepare for trial."According to court filings submitted by Mr Mueller's team, Mr Manafort said on monitored phone calls from jail that he was "being treated like a 'VIP'".Manafort has not been charged with anything related to the special counsel's investigation into an alleged Russian plot to influence the 2016 US presidential election. Manafort's lawyers had argued that the charges were outside the special counsel's remit. However, Democrats point out that a Washington DC judge last month backed the special counsel's contention that Manafort lied about his contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, an aide alleged to have ties to Russian intelligence.In February, Manafort's lawyers inadvertently revealed in a court filing that their client had shared polling data about the 2016 Trump campaign with Mr Kilimnik.The president's critics also highlight that Manafort was present at a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between campaign staff and a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer promising "dirt" on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.Trump's biggest headache might not be MuellerDuring sentencing the judge noted that the charges do not relate to alleged Russian meddling, leading to Mr Trump to claim vindication in a tweet mischaracterising the judge's remarks.Manafort is due to be sentenced next Wednesday in another case brought by the special counsel, this time in Washington DC. He pleaded guilty in September to two felony counts - conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice - related to his lobbying. He also agreed to co-operate with the special counsel inquiry in a deal for a possible lighter sentence. However, just two months later that plea deal collapsed as investigators said Manafort had repeatedly lied to the government. He faces a maximum of 10 years in the case.President Trump, who frequently denounces the Mueller investigation, has not ruled out granting a presidential pardon to Manafort.He said in November: "I wouldn't take it off the table."The special counsel is expected soon to submit his report to US Attorney General William Barr.The political world is feverishly anticipating findings on whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia, or if Mr Trump unlawfully sought to obstruct the inquiry. Mr Trump has denied collusion and obstruction and Russia has denied election interference.Five other Trump aides have been charged in connection with Mr Mueller's investigation.None have been indicted with criminally conspiring to subvert the 2016 election.Former campaign staff Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have all pleaded guilty.Long-time Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Enlarge this image Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, arrives at federal court in Washington, D.C., in June. Aaron P. Bernstein/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Aaron P. Bernstein/Bloomberg via Getty Images Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, arrives at federal court in Washington, D.C., in June. Aaron P. Bernstein/Bloomberg via Getty Images Updated at 9:30 a.m. ETPaul Manafort's attorneys argued to a federal court on Monday that their client is not a hardened criminal and shouldn't be sentenced too harshly.The former campaign consultant to President Trump is already facing up to 24 years in prison for conviction on tax and bank fraud in Virginia. Now a judge in Washington, D.C., will decide how much time Manafort should serve after he pleaded guilty last year to charges of conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice.As NPR's Carrie Johnson has reported, that plea encompassed a range of illegal activity including "avoiding taxes, lying to the Justice Department, [and] failing to register his lobbying work for a political party in Ukraine. And then there's the witness tampering after Manafort was already indicted."Manafort faces up to five years for each of the two counts of conspiracy. In a sentencing memo to the judge, Manafort's attorneys asked for leniency. They said he has only committed low-level crimes, for which he has already paid considerable penance."Manafort has been punished substantially, including the forfeiture of most of his assets," his attorneys wrote. "In light of his age and health concerns, a significant additional period of incarceration will likely amount to a life sentence for a first time offender." Manafort will turn 70 on April 1.Prosecutors for special counsel Robert Mueller last week told Judge Amy Berman Jackson, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, that Manafort "brazenly violated the law" when he chose repeatedly to commit tax fraud, launder money and violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act by not documenting which foreign party he was working with and how much he was earning.But Manafort's attorneys argued that he had been caught up in the highly politicized environment surrounding possible ties between Trump and Russia. Attorneys emphasized there was no evidence that Manafort was involved in any collusion with Russia. At its core, they said, this is a "mundane" case about someone who didn't properly document his income. "The Special Counsel's attempt to portray him as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts before this Court," Manafort's attorneys wrote. Law Jury Finds Paul Manafort Guilty In Federal Tax And Bank Fraud Trial Because Manafort was found guilty last year of tax fraud in Virginia, one question before the court now is whether his sentence in D.C. should run at the same time as the Virginia sentence, or consecutively. Federal guidelines mandate that Virginia's sentence must be between 19 and 24 years. A consecutive sentence imposed by the D.C. judge could extend that by another 10 years. Defense attorneys say that sentence would be unfair and unnecessary."The prosecutions brought against Mr. Manafort have devastated him personally, professionally, and financially. The charges and intense negative media coverage surrounding them have destroyed his career," they wrote. Attorneys also noted Manafort's physical deterioration since his incarceration. "Although Mr. Manafort downplays his physical health challenges for his family and friends, the reality is he is not the relatively healthy man he was prior to his incarceration."His attorneys added: "There is no reason to believe that a sentence of years in prison is necessary to prevent him from committing further crimes."According to Politico, both of Manafort's prison sentences will be set next month. Judge T.S. Ellis III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is scheduled to sentence Manafort next week; Jackson will sentence him on March 13.

By Feb. 2, 2018 5:30 am ET YouTube said it is planning changes to give users more context for videos promoting conspiracy theories or state-sponsored content, the latest effort by an internet giant to clean up its platform amid criticism over its role in spreading misinformation. YouTube said starting Friday it would label all videos coming from what it identifies as state-funded broadcasters, a category that would include even the U.S.’s Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS. The step is significant in part because YouTube has been a major conduit for... To Read the Full Story Subscribe Sign In