Real estate was obvious place for Mueller to look for Russia links
Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, leaves the Federal District Court in Washington on May 23. Credit: AP / Jose Luis Magana
New York is a global city, and Paul Manafort is known as a globe-trotting influence peddler.
Nobody, therefore, seems surprised that Manafort's overseas business led federal investigators, once on his trail, to his New York real estate.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, assigned to explore Russia's role in the 2016 race, could not have — even if he'd wished — avoided peering into the business of Donald Trump's former campaign chairman.
Manafort, after all, made a lot of money in recent years as an operative for a close ally of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, and quit the Trump campaign after certain allegations about the relationship were publicized.
So in a Virginia courtroom last week, Manafort listened to testimony in his trial on charges of bank and tax fraud that focused on his real estate loans.
Witnesses testified Friday about how Manafort listed and occasionally rented his condo in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood on Airbnb — although claiming to a bank it was his "second home."
On Thursday, Citizens Bank loan officer Taryn Rodriguez said Manafort applied for a $5.5 million construction loan on a house in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn — without disclosing he already borrowed more than $1 million against that property.
Big expenses related to Manafort's home on Jobs Lane in Bridgehampton also came up in the testimony of his former associate, Rick Gates.
Houses in Arlington, Va. and in Florida also came into play in the prosecutors' narrative.
Still other trappings of Manafort's place in upper-echelon New York came into focus in the proceedings.
At issue on Friday in testimony about the money flow was how Gates paid for prized New York Yankees season tickets.
There was an American Express business card statement showing three different charges for the premium tickets in Feb. 2016 — two for $99,000 and one for $10,000, according to The Washington Post.
Movements of money by wealthy people and entities from around the world into property — especially real estate, especially in New York — have emerged as fertile ground in various law-enforcement investigations.
Where this leads politically beyond the allegations against Manafort and Gates, his associate-turned-prosecution-witness, remains anyone's guess.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
