It was not immediately clear if the jurors’ question suggested that they had reached a verdict on 17 of the 18 counts of bank and tax fraud brought against Mr. Manafort, a former campaign chairman for President Trump. During the trial, prosecutors built a case that Mr. Manafort hid millions of dollars in foreign accounts to evade taxes and lied to banks repeatedly to obtain $20 million in loans. The trial is the first stemming from the inquiry led by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into Russian interference in the 2016 election. It did not touch on Russia’s efforts to influence the election or on whether Mr. Trump had sought to obstruct the investigation. But it is the first test of the special counsel’s ability to prosecute a case in a federal courtroom amid intense criticism from the president and his allies that the inquiry is a biased and unjustified witch hunt.

Source: New York Times August 21, 2018 15:58 UTC