Saunders: Just how costly will Manafort be to Donald Trump?

It’s irrelevant. Gates is Manafort’s former right-hand man who was indicted along with Manafort in October 2017, but later agreed to plead guilty and testify against his old boss as part of a deal that should reduce, and possibly eliminate, a prison sentence that threatened to span decades.

The jury has seen Gates as an accomplished liar and professional cheat. Prosecutor Greg Andres walked Gates through a series of fraudulent maneuvers that he orchestrated to avoid paying taxes. Gates also admitted to skimming money from offshore Manafort accounts.

Colossally bad judgment

But Gates looking shifty doesn’t make Manafort appear pure. In the long run, the most damaging testimony from Gates had to do with Manafort Inc.’s depleted finances after Yanukovych fell from power. According to the feds, as Manafort advised Yanukovych and other Ukraine entities from 2006 to 2015, $75 million flowed into the big-spending political consultant’s offshore accounts — and Gates helped launder more than $30 million of that.

But when Yanukovych fled, the money went away. In 2015, Gates testified, “We had zero clients.” Rather than sell one of his many homes, Manafort went on the hunt for big loans by whatever means it took get to get them.

Then, like a deus ex machina in an ancient theater production, Donald Trump appeared on the political stage. Manafort agreed to advise Trump without pay, as he clearly saw an opportunity to cash in on his work for Trump over time.

Through a Kiev staffer, the Atlantic reported, Manafort sent clippings of stories about his political work for Trump to a Russian oligarch — this isn’t a courtroom, I can use the word “oligarch” — to whom Manafort owed millions. Manafort asked, “How do we use to get whole?”

Conservative journalists have chronicled ties between Moscow and the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. Most notably the DNC and Clinton campaign bankrolled the unverified “dossier” compiled by a former British intelligence officer who repeated dirt fed by Russian sources.

But if everyone’s hands are dirty, does that mean no one’s hands are dirty?

Trump frequently notes that Manafort served as his campaign chief for only a brief time, a mere three months. But given Manafort’s reputation for advising strongmen who oppose U.S. interests, that’s three months too long.

As a candidate, Trump boasted that he’d hire “the best” people to run his government. But first he hired the worst guy — a politico who made his fortune advising corrupt strongmen — to steer his campaign. So even if there was no collusion, there was colossally bad judgment. And there is a price to pay for bad choices.