You're reading: RFE/RL: Manafort declines to testify as his trial nears end

U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has declined to testify in his own defense and his lawyers rested their case in his trial on tax evasion and bank fraud.

The decision not to call witnesses on August 14 clears the way for closing arguments on August 15 in the first trial to emerge from U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

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