Ice Miller LLP: Insights

Tim Belevetz Quoted in The Washington Post: "Paul Manafort Trial Day 3: Bookkeeper Testifies About Oversees Accounts, Cash Flow Problems, Unpaid Bills"

Timothy Belevetz was quoted in The Washington Post article, "Paul Manafort Trial Day 3: Bookkeeper Testifies About Oversees Accounts, Cash Flow Problems, Unpaid Bills"

The article included:

A prosecutor suggested Wednesday that Richard Gates, Paul Manafort’s former business partner who pleaded guilty in the case, might not testify. The comment stunned those in the courtroom who had expected Gates to be a star witness.

But a former prosecutor from the Eastern District of Virginia said he would not read too much into the remark.

“I would be shocked if they didn’t” call Gates, said Timothy Belevetz, who is now a partner at the firm Holland & Knight. “If you’ve got a witness who’s really going to be testifying about something that no one else will — transactions, conversations, emails that no one else can put into context — you’re going to want that person to testify.”

Belevetz said that Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye’s comment should be understood in context: he was being challenged on the need to enter a piece of evidence that another witness would testify about later. Belevetz said Asonye did what any prosecutor would in “preserving his options.”

“What’s he going to say? ‘You’re right, your honor, I’ll discontinue this line of questioning?'” Belevetz said.

Belevetz said there’s no reason to believe defense attorneys’ plan to put all blame on Gates would have any impact on prosecutors.

“That’s of course what the defense would do,” he said. “That’s criminal defense 101.”

Belevetz also said he did not think the judge’s aggressive interventions to limit evidence of Manafort’s lavish spending would rattle prosecutors.

Click here to read the full article.