The jurors in Manafort’s trial over bank and tax fraud charges began deliberations on Thursday and are expected to return Friday.
US Congressman Ted Lieu said in an interview on Thursday that US President Donald Trump should be impeached if he pardons former campaign manager Paul Manafort.
“I believe pardoning Paul Manafort would be grounds for impeachment,” Lieu told CNN on Thursday. “Whether Republicans would act on that, I don’t think they would.”
Manafort, 69, has pleaded not guilty to tax evasion and bank fraud charges based on allegations that he hid income from the US Internal Revenue Service that was earned working for a Ukrainian political party.
Last week, Richard Gates, a key witness in former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s case, admitted in the court that he was involved in criminal activity and committed crimes with the defendant, NBC News reported.
Gates also worked on the Trump campaign with Manafort and faced many of the same charges as Manafort for allegations of lobbying on behalf of the Ukrainian government without registering as a foreign agent.
In October, US Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted Manafort on banking and tax-fraud and money laundering charges related to the work he did in Ukraine from 2006 to 2014.
In early August, Donald Trump said that he didn’t know who was treated worse, mob boss Al Capone or his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Trump also emphasized that his former campaign manager Paul Manafort worked for him only for a short period of time.