Already a healthy line at the federal courthouse in Alexandria at 7:10am -- expecting a crowd for closing arguments in Paul Manafort's trial. On yesterday's events: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil… After arguments, the jury will get final instructions, and then deliberate. Stay tuned 
We're out for the lunch break. We just finished the government's closing arguments (they'll also get time for rebuttal after the defense makes its presentation.) The theme: Paul Manafort "lied to keep more money when he had it, and lied to get more money when he didn't."
Prosecutor Greg Andres' presentation lasted about an hour and 40 minutes. We saw a lot of exhibits, but I wanted to note the first two documents he displayed before getting into all that, because they seemed to sum up what the govt contends represents the most damning evidence
First, he showed an email that Manafort sent in 2010 directing thousands of dollars in wire transfers from an account in Cyprus to a home construction contractor in the US. On the screen, Andres highlighted the part of the email where Manafort called it "my" account
The govt argues these types of emails, and docs about the flow of money from Ukrainians --> overseas accounts --> US vendors, shows Manafort had foreign bank accounts he failed to report, and that he used millions from these accounts to pay expenses and didn't report it as income
Second, Andres showed a doc known as a profit and loss statement, listing net income for Manafort's business in 2016. The govt argues this was one of several fabricated docs that Manafort submitted to banks to secure loans, along with other false information/misrepresentations
Manafort's bookkeeper prepared P&L statements, but testified that she didn't prepare this 2016 P&L that Andres showed the jury that was sent to a bank. The bookkeeper had noted that the document had typos (dated "SEPTEMBE" for instance) and formatting differences
The jury saw emails between Manafort and Rick Gates re: converting the 2016 P&L from a PDF to a Word doc and sending it to Manafort. The version that gets sent to the bank — the govt called it a "fake" — lists a lot more income than the version that Manafort's bookkeeper prepared
Speaking of Rick Gates: Andres addressed the credibility attacks made by Manafort's lawyers — that Gates couldn't be trusted (he pleaded guilty to crimes, stole from Manafort, had extramarital relations, etc.). Andres said the jury didn't need to trust him or even like him
Andres said the jury should test what Gates said against the testimony from other witnesses and information in the documents the jury saw, and then decide if he could be believed on a particular subject. Manafort was Gates' mentor, Andres said, including on how to commit crime
At the rate we're going, there may not be much time, if any, for the jury to deliberate today. We'll pick up again at 1:30pm. The defense will get up to 2 hrs to present. Govt will get ~20 minutes for rebuttal. And then the judge estimated needing up to 1.5 hours to instructions
And recall that the judge usually takes an afternoon break, and tries to recess for the day by around 5:30pm. Stay tuned
We are done for the day. I'll have more soon on closing arguments by proseucotrs and the defense. The jury instructions took more than an hour and a half. The judge then excused the four alternates, and said the jury would begin deliberating first thing tomorrow
Day 12: Closing arguments -- Manafort as a lying criminal mastermind, versus Manafort as a delegator who was too trusting of those around him buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
