. >> one person, rick gates. >> rick gates. >> why all of trump world is worried about rick gates. plus, 98 days out, facebook says another round of election sabotage is underway. and the trump official who says his warnings about the psychological damage of separated families was ignored. >> good evening, from new york, i am chris hayes. paul manafort is a shrewd liar so says the prosecution in the opening statement in the trial. opening statement and even the testimony of first witness hours ago, paul manafort facing 18 counts. bank fraud, tax evaluation, and conspiracy charges. work with should note which predated his duties on the campaign of donald trump. manafort a man who attended the infamous trump towers meeting. that man paul manafort faced the first of two trials today. in his opening statement prosecutor part of mueller's team portrayed manafort as greedy, a shrewd liar and three bank accounts in three countries. the evidence shows he placed himself and his money above the law and every year he lied. filed false tax returns, committed bank fraud, lied about his property

and we know that rick are available in september and october of 2016. he had talked to constantin kalymnik, i'm probably getting the name wrong, with the russian spy agency. he's denied it, that's information that the prosecutors are getting that the jury won't hear. of course the trial can't mention russia, but these are things they're using perhaps for future indictments. >> that's important to note. this is not a trial about russia or president trump. this is a trial about, you know, tax evasion and bank fraud and these allegations against manafort. you also can't ignore the fact that rick gates and paul manafort were integral to the trump campaign for the presidency. i mean, if you look back at this august, 2016, interview that kellyanne conway, the counselor to the president did with pbs. listen to what she said -- >> campaigns are for combining the messages, the data operation, all of which is coming into place. i have to credit manafort and gates for putting so much of that together. >> assuming it's not a crime to unwittingly hire at least alleg

rick gates may not testify later said he didn't mean to suggest that rick gates would not. so you have a little bit of double speak there occurring in the court. fascinating development and we don't know what it means. >> okay. joe johns, thank you. let's bring in shimon prokupecz who can help us explain what it may or may not mean. rick gates, long time right-hand man to paul manafort, both in business and in the trump campaign, i should say, was and has been somebody who the prosecution was relying on, frankly, to take down manafort and to convict him. if he does not testify, what does that say about the prosecution's case? >> that means they believe in their case and their case is likely much stronger than we think and that they don't need rick gates to make their case. i think what happened in this case, and this is where the quite honestly.nd of screwed up- when they went with their opening statement and try to pin everything on rick gates. they were the ones that introduced rick gates into this trial. not the prosecutors. prosecutors don't ever promise something to a

it's all hanging on rick gates. if manafort's defense is rick gates embezzled millions of dollars and orchestrated this fraud, perhaps he has some evidence because we haven't seen any yet. >> we've heard them make that pitch publicly to say it was rick gates who master mindimind of this. that doesn't seem plausible given the facts before us right now that manafort was the one clearly raking in millions of dollars, who had these expensive tastes and lifestyle, who was signing things on the dotted line. but as you say, it's possible they could have some evidence to the contrary. what might that look like? >> well, gates was a partner, he was a protege of manafort. he clearly had a lot of authority within the firm an he was dealing personally with this accountant, cindy laporta and giving her instructions on how to perform certain tasks and account for things. downing was just making the point that often the accountant is the last to know if there was fraud. the person giving the accountant the information has a lot of

so rick gates is their own witness. they're doing a direct exam of rick gates. in that direct examination, prosecutors walked him through something we previously had not known about paul manafort's work in the soviet union. this is from the transcript. you testified earlier about payments from ukrainian businessmen to mr. manafort. did that include payments for policy work? it did. what time of policy work did he do in the ukraine? an, when victor was elected president, manafort entered into a policy contract. we describe it as policy advisory in the sense of once he was elected, he was elected on a platform of issues so manafort worked the local officials there to help implement the policy initiatives based on those campaign promises. question from the prosecutor waffle there an agreement for a two-year policy contract? or payment over a two-year period of time? well, it was, it started out potentially once the president was elected, it was on an annual basis. the belief was it would be for the duration of the tenure. in terms of two years, what were the materi

rick gates carries a lot of weight. i think that his testimony and the information he shared with prosecutors is so significant that i even think that indirectly he had a role in the breakdown of the story on the trump tower meeting this weekend because when the fbi puts on witnesses they have to release fbi interview statements. and it seems that there may have been some further information behind the scene regarding some key discussions that took place before the trump tower meeting with don jr. which might have triggered a little bit of a change of heart from the president there are putting don jr. in jeopardy. i think the bottom line is that mr. gates is a significant witness that changes the dialogue and the narrative for many witnesses that are involved in this case. >> reminding everyone, gates was the third person in the trump orbit to cop a plea, he and flynn and papadopoulos cooperated. >>> let's move along. let's talk about the legal implications. we were just talking about the trump tower meeting. the legal

rick gates knows a lot. he and paul manafort were the center stage at the republican national convention. rick gates traveled with donald trump on the campaign trail. when paul ma that fort got pushed out in august 2016, rick gates stayed. he was there through the election and beyond. rick gates was the second-highest ranking official on donald trump's inaugural committee. he probably heard rick gates referred to as manafort's deputy, but that doesn't do rick gates justice. rick fwaelts kn gates knows a l paul manafort. he might know more about donald trump. rick gates was right there when paul manafort was in a mad scramble for cash right before mana not suddenly offered his services to donald trump for free, and rick gates stayed inside trump world long after manafort hit the exits. meaning rick gates, arguably, knows a whole lot about the central question of what really went down between the trump campaign and russia. which explains why eye witness accounts inside the manafort trial made it look like a hi

who is rick gates in the grand scheme of the investigation? >> when you listen to the testimony and what you're hearing is a guy who is directly involved in almost every part the paul manafort's business. that's clearment in this -- clear. in this testimony, he's revealing emails, messages sent to him, to paul manafort, to ukrainians. it is going to be hard for the defense in this case to refute the documents. you can go after witnesses all you want. it seems like the prosecution at least to this points has a lot of other evidence, documents certainly that are going to bolster their case. you know, in the grand scheme of things, also when you think about rick gates and what he was to the presidential campaign, right, he was involved in that. so he knows almost every aspect probably of paul manafort's professional life, his political life. and again, you know, what was revealed yesterday was that he has met with prosecutors some 20 times. so we really don't know exactly everything that rick gates has told him about paul manafort's life. we know

rick is right.ouldn't all be about trump not when this is about john mccain even in a point of contrast. on a personal note, mccain was a fighter. i respected that. he gave me a hard time sometimes. he didn't like some of the questions. i respected that, too. i have also been where his family is right now. i know the pain and the fear that they will never be able to replace. i have no solve. there is no remedy that i know of for the senator's passing. as was told me when my father was gone, someday, not today or tomorrow, but someday you're going to think about the senator, your husband, your father, your friend and a smile will come to your face before a tear will wet your eye. and i do pray that that day comes sooner than later. thank you for watching tonight. cnn tonight will take up our coverage with don lemon right now. >> i know you know it is not about me. i lost my father, lost my step father. i can only imagine what megan mccain is going through right now. i just hope that one day their sad

rick gates has all sorts of credibility issues. he lied to investigators about his deals with the ukrainians so all of that is going to help the defense and i'm sure knowing this defense team there is going to be other indications of -- issues with his credibility, perhaps other bombshells that are yet to come under cross-examinati cross-examination. this is typical of what prosecutors do, they get everything that may be negative out ahead of a cross-examination obviously so that it doesn't appear like they're hiding anything. but the idea -- we couldn't believe it when we heard yesterday that rick gates said that he had been stealing, essentially, from paul manafort, making up expense reports. that is going to help the defense. >> laura, do you believe that this testimony that we got yesterday and more of to come this morning from rick gates ups the pressure and the heat on manafort to take the stand? >> it does. you'll have documents to corroborate the testimony of rick gates to say this is largely documented. either you had $3 m

including rick gates. the idea that somehow this is floating out in the ether somewhere in orbit far away from the central focus of this investigation is just not true. those lines of investigation are open. and this is a man who has shown himself willing to do some fairly dodgy work for people supported by the kremlin abroad in the ukraine. and that's one reason why he's standing in court today. >> and this is just the beginning and again, one of two trials. the first of two trials for paul manafort this summer. so this is -- and the first one as far as the russia investigation. listen, there's -- they have to go a long way, as you said. there's a long way to go, and april, the judge's name is ts ellis. he banned any mention of president trump, russia or collusion from the courtroom. i mean, that may be, but the trial is no doubt weighing on this white house. >> it is definitely weighing on this white house, don. from my sources, they're saying the white house is very concerned. they are trying to huddle

you be better, rick.e sure you lower yourself. >> i'm not lower yourself. >> you are. you're talking about my brother not thinking america is exceptional. >> he said it. >> he said it, he was wrong and he corrected it. god forbid our president try it, god forbid you try it. >> i think donald trump corrected himself quicker on this mccain situation. quicker than your brother did. >> hold on a second. did you hear the president say he was sorry for disrespecting john mccain? did you ever hear him say he was sorry for lowering the staff and putting it back up? have you ever heard him apologize for anything, rick santorum? >> all i can tell you -- >> no, yes or no, have you ever heard the president apologize for anything. >> no, i haven't. >> i don't know where we're at -- >> no. >> we're where it matters. >> john mccain deserves a better dialogue than we're having. >> that's because we decided to politicize john mccain's death. >> you started it, rick, so let's chill. >> it doesn't have to be about right or

interestingly, given all the fireworks around rick gates' testimony, greg andres did not mention rick gates until almost an hour into his closing argument. really what he said was the star witness was not rick gates but he actually said, the star witness is the documents. and he only spoke for about five minutes on rick gates, and really just focused on the documents. we did not see any of the photos of the extravagant wealth. in fact andres at one point said that manafort is not himself on trial here because of his wealth. he's on trial because he committed all of these crimes. and it was a very sort of methodical, i think that's the right word, it was a calm and measured approach to the evidence in this case. the jury did seem quite attentive, nodding at times with andres, very focused on the screens where he was laying out really what is devastating documentary proof showing that paul manafort himself, and not rick gates, was intertwined with all of the criminal activity that was charged in this case, andrea. >> and that of course is perhaps to try to take the sting out of those co

they blamed rick saccone.'t work here they have 89 days to figure out a new playbook. >> dana: whoever wins, these two in this race tomorrow, do these same two people run again in november. >> yes. >> three months from now? >> yes. >> how much money might that cost? >> well, go ahead. >> i was going to say republicans will be right in there. you know that. >> to be honest, in the general, this probably doesn't get much attention. like you said, this is much bigger than any one election. in november, it's one of 100. right now this is going to set the narrative. this is going to dictate fundraising. -- >> dana: can we talk about this race corey bush. 41-year-old pastor and single mother. she is challenging lacy clay in missouri's first district. running on progressive platform. medicare for all. abolishing ice. $15 minimum wage. she says she does not call herself a dlis. if elected first black congresswoman. what kind of recruiting has the dccc done here for a district like this and does she virginia chance of

his name is rick, and he's lyn and valery's dad.s the gardens for tours in 1971, with a big assist from his wife, lorraine. >> my mom really took it from that whole derogatory, caveman type of thing into, like, "wow, look at what he created here." did they charge admission? >> yes. it was like $3 or something. >> was it a profit-making business? >> you know,it sustained itself. >> when giuseppe dies in 1973, rick inherits the land with his brother, joe. they keep the gardens open to the public. lyn and valery, now teens, guide tours. the sisters leave home after high school, while over the years, urban sprawl encroaches on the area. what was once farmland has become packed with gas stations and strip malls. to build roads, more of the gardens are gobbled up by the government. >> through eminent domain, they took out a beautiful entrance, and the highway 99 was built. they had to fill in, in order to build the freeway through there. >> worried the gardens might just disappear, rick and joseph get the remaining 10 acres designated a s

and rick gates said yes. then he wanted ask him questions about what he may have said regarding other investigations. because they're attacking rick gates' credibility. there's no doubt that paul manafort's attorney probably has a good idea of the kind of cooperation rick gates has been providing because he has certain statements that the special counsel had to give him. he may have some idea of what that investigation is. you know, maybe that's why he wanted to bring it out. who knows. certainly rick gates is a key part of this investigation for the special counsel. >> and to that point, if you're the president's legal team or anyone else, roger stone, whose fre friends are being called before the grand jury right now, the idea that rick gates is still cooperating, stuff that involves 2016 or forward looking, windshield not rearview mirror. if you're watching this from the outside and if you're team trump and trying to say this is isolated, precampaign, so paul manafort turned out to be a bad hire, not a nic

and that certainly holds true for rick gates. should mention he also pleaded guilty to lying to federal prosecutors that is something you can expect the defense to bring up when they have their chance to question him. one final note i would make, anderson, is there you had paul manafort at the defendants table. about ten feet away was rick gates facing 90 degrees to him. rick gates did not make contact with paul manafort. but paul manafort sitting there with his arms crossed did not let his gaze leave the face of rick gates as he was making these claims. he was not happy. he was very stressed. you could sense some anger in his eyes as he was watching rick gates give this testimony against him. >> wow. and more from gates tomorrow. jim sciutto, thanks very much. i want to bring in our legal team, former federal prosecutor jennifer rodgers and another former federal prosecutor, cnn analyst renato mariotti. renato, you said rick gates was the most important gates in the manafort trial by far. there was an accountant in the last coup

rick gates was very loyal. paul manafort of all things he thought could go wrong during the investigation, it wasn't rick gates turning on him. the reality is we don't know where this is going to go. in terms of credibility you see the way that the prosecution is going. manafort is very roughed up. you will have rick gates potentially coming in and laying on thick a lot of details that are going to be filling in blanks about either how greedy he was, how willing he was to go with people like donald trump to ukraine for a pay day. >> april, you heard evan. we are not seeing any -- no sadness or contrition but a lot of engagement whether with actual exhibits or the computer in front of him from manafort. >> that's the piece. people want to see that you have some kind of remorse or what have you. it doesn't play well in the court of public opinion when you see your items and you have no regard either way. the bottom line is we'll see what happens how he reacts when rick gates takes the stand. that will be very int

if they don't call rick gates, why night be? >> there's two reasons. the idea he may have tried to backtrack is important. the reason the prosecutor said they may not call rick gates is because judge ellis, known for intervening and inserting himself into the questioning and making sure it's an expeditious proceeding is trying to tell him why are you asking those questions? if you call rick gates it will be irrelevant and the prosecutor has every right to build his case the way he sees fit and not hinge his case on one witness. the other reason is now after opening statements the prosecution is well aware of the defense's strategy. that they're going to do a he said/he said game and rely on the jury believing that the person who is the informant, the cooperator for the government is not a credible person so they've taken a lot of air out of those sails by saying you better rethink your strategy, this is a document-heavy case and we may not ever have to call rick gates so your he said/he said credibility issue may never come to play. >> the rocket docke

fox news spotted rick gates at the courthouse a short time ago.anybody knows manafort's secrets, the analysts say, it's rick gates. gates admitted lying to the fbi and then cut a deal to cooperate in special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. our peter doocy is live at the courthouse alexandria, virginia just outside the district. peter? >> shep, a clean-shaven rick gates is here. he is the witness that just last week the judge, t.s. ellis, said the mueller team needs if they are going to prove a conspiracy charge against paul manafort. now, rick gates is also seen as critical because they do believe that he has the most intimate knowledge of his former business partner paul manafort's alleged financial crimes. the witness prior to gates, who is on the stand right now, former manafort accountant cindy laporta just testified now gates was the one sending her fraudulently drafted financial forms that would eventually serve the purpose of lowering paul manafort's tax bill. she al

they plan to lay out their defense really discrediting rick gates. rick gates, of course, was the deputy to paul manafort when paul manafort was the campaign chairman for the trump team. and rick gates was charged with the exact same things paul manafort was. he, though, has since pleaded guilty to lying. he is cooperating with the special counsel's team. the defense team, though, is taking that saying that rick gates is all to blame here. they're saying he is the one who stole and embezzled money. they're saying he's the one who lied. and now they're trying flip this on the government. rick gates will be the government's star witness, but the defense team is saying how can he be your star witness? rick gates is an admitted liar and he is now cooperating with the government. >> what's next for the trial? what happens tomorrow? >> just day one, we've already seen a lot. but day two we're expecting that the prosecution will be calling two more witnesses. we expect another democratic consultant who worked with paul manafort. we're also expecting to hear

rick gates has pleaded guilty to two counts. the defense team has said they plan to use rick gates' testimony against him to discredit him. to say rick gates was the embezzler and flipped on manafort to help himself. interesting development there. prosecutors called a flurry of witnesses, including an fbi agent who is part of the pre-dawn raid of paul manafort's condo last july. he talked about the hundreds of documents they seized and the loan applications with paul manafort's name on it. there were a number of witnesses called to represent paul manafort's lavish lifestyle. one employee from a high-end men's clothing store in manhattan. he talked about paul manafort being one of the top five clients. they expect to call more vendors to the stand today. this is a fast-moving trial. prosecutors told the judge they expect to wrap the trial next week. dave. >> jessica, thank you. cnn -- >>> jessica, thank you. cnn has learned that tsa is planning to eliminating screening at 150 airports. they also say the proposal would come with a

they don't need to call rick gates. in fact i don't think they are going to call rick gates. if you look at the prosecutor's opening, it is not traditional popping where the prosecutor says i am calling x witness and i want you to know about his background. he lied to us. he lied on his taxes, but the real issue is whether he is telling you the truth and you are going to tell you that what he tells you is corroborated. they didn't say that. >> to pre butt what defense is going to say about this guy. >> right and in addition mueller has a good reason not to call rick gates. he has to turn over what is called impeachment material which means he has to provide to the defense all of the witness statements that were made by rick gates. the last thing he wants to do is turn over statements that gates has made about the conspiracy between the trump campaign and the russians. on top of that, prosecutors like me used to like to try really lean cases. the less evidence you put before the jury, the better you are because every time you call a witness, there are pluses and minuses. and i

pete: i think by teed, rick. -- we tied, rick. rick: is this a lefty?, go ahead. [laughter] you guys! >> okay, now here, take this -- pete: go for it, abby. >> you're right-handed, right? abby: yes. rick: this is what is beautiful about bass pro shops and cabela's, anybody can go in there. >> there you go. so all in one motion, you're downing to lock elbow in -- you're going to lock this elbow in. no, no, right here. [laughter] take these two fingers, put them here like this. abby: got it, got it, got it. >> you can start with that first if you want to go to grip. but when you release, you've got to let go like this. a. abby: got it. okay. okay, i got it. >> you got it? you sure? whoa, whoa, whoa, you've got to extend it all the way -- no, come all the way back. >> there you go. pete: better than anybody! abby: you guys were yelling at me! [laughter] >> that is awesome. abby: i downplay it, you know? ed: bass pro shops.com, a bella's -- cabela's.com. pete: anyone can learn. they're telling us move on. florida senator bill melson says the state's -- nels

they also talked about rick gates.course, that's paul manafort's former right-hand man who has since flipped. he has pleaded guilty. he is now cooperating with the special counsel. and the prosecutors really on the other hand up to it. they said look, rick gates might not be a boy scout, as they put it, but they said the function of rick gates was to really corroborate all the evidence that was right there in black and white, right there in the documents. they said don't believe all of these bad things that the defense team is saying about rick gates. really, take rick gates' testimony, match it up with the documents, and we believe we've proved our case. >> they were pointing out the importance of the documents. the defense, though, was again trying to go after rick gates? >> in fact, at one point, defense attorney kevin downing turned to the jury and said point-blank, he said rick gates has been lying to you. the defense team was trying to flip this staying only reason rick gates has cooperated with prosecutors is to

the star witness rick gates described how he and manafort hit the money in elaborate ways. deputy ca manager is cooperating with special counsel robert mueller. cross examined bdathe defense and put under pressure. the court cases not directly about of the truck campaign cooperatedith russia. washington is gripped by the proceedings. following the twists and turns, she joins me now. wh did rick gates say about how he and manafort tried to hide thist money fro u.s. tax authorities? listening to authorities, it was a laundry list oopfinancial imety that he says paul manafort and himself were responsible for. rick gates pleaded guilty to most of the charges, hot talked abouhe says manafort made him fake invoices to channel money three different sources. and also loan agreements as well. how they channeled a lot of their income through offshore bank accounts, and reminding viewers th this relates to before they joined whe truck camphen they work as unregistered political lobbyist. including the formerkrainian pro-russian president viktor yanukovych. aggressivelynse examined ric

you can't trust rick gates, because he took a plea.h the prosecution, as eric just mentioned, one of the accountants testifying last week also got some immunity before she testified on the stand. you're a former u.s. attorney. how did you think about that going into a trial like this one? >> this comes up in virtually every trial, where the government is using cooperating witnesses. people who could have been charged as part of a conspiracy or with other crimes but who instead cooperate, provide the government with evidence and then go on to testify against their former partners in crime. so the government handles this in a couple of different ways. but one of the most important ones is to corroborate the testimony from these now cooperating witnesses with either documentary evidence or with testimony from other witnesses that tends to back them up. and juries have a great ability to sense the truth here. one of the issues that juries are charged with is determining when a witness is credible. and prosecutors will try to give the juror

rick gates is the prosecution's star witness.spent today detailing, sometimes tediously, how he and manafort committed these financial crimes. gates testified how manafort directed him to lie about his income and fake company records. now, manafort's defense team is in the middle of cross exam eng gates, trying to convince jurors that gates who is cooperating with prosecutors to reduce prison time can't be trusted. we heard president trump's name come up, the campaign came up because the jury saw evidence that manafort tried to leverage his connections on the trump transition, aka, his friendship with rick gates to curry favor with one of his lepders. joining us nbc news tis correspondent pete williams and mimi rocca from the southern district of new york and msnbc legal analyst. i think she gets to stay dry by contract. anyway, people, let me start with you. the rain storms were in between. i know gates is being cross examined. in the hours of the prosecution, if you were to say what was the -- probably the most damning testimon

in that e-mail, trfrt says to rick gate, rick, we need to discuss steve calk for secretary of the bank. paul, steve cauk was the bank ceo whose little bank in chicago gave giant loans to paul manafort between election day and inauguration day. we learned during the course of manafort's trial that those loans were actually the biggest loans forever made by this little bank and the bank has apparently lost nearly 12 million on those loans thus far. steve calk reportedly overruled overt objections from other people who worked at the bank opposed to giving manafort these loans but calk was the bank ceo and major shareholder and he intervened personally to make sure manafort would get account money. that game up while gates was on the stand. he was saying we have to consider this guy for secretary of the army. now we've got this. this is also from the trial. more evidence introduced by the prosecution. this is another e-mail exchange involving paul manafort. it's also right after the election. a few days after the e-mail to rick gates. november 30th, 2016. and this piece of evidence showses

you can say rick gates is the worst person on earth, the tax returns are lying. bank applications are full of lies. and the defense had nothing to say about that. this case is a complete mystery why it went to trial. >>>. >> the fact that the defense didn't put any witnesses on the stand, they are not going to put manafort, but did it surprise you they didn't put anybody? >> it's usually the case that the defendants put their case in through the cross-examination of the government's witnesses. it is also usually the case that defendants get convicted. especially in federal court and especially in the northern district of virginia and rocket docket where it's a pro prosecution jury pool upwards of 90% get convicted. in a case like this, i don't see the choice the jury has. >> it does seem smart for the prosecution and the obvious thing to do is put your faith in the documents. if you don't believe rick gates, fine, he may be unreliable, but the do you means alone are enough. >> especially in federal court, they use cooperators all the time. the defense attorneys s

feet away from manafort at the defendant's table staring at rick gates, rick gates avoiding the gazeuting attorney but manafort staring at him with arms crossed a as gates listed a series of alleged crimes that gates said he performed along with manafort at the direction of manafort including setting up 15 foreign bank accounts that they deliberately kept hidden from u.s. authorities to avoid taxes, filing fake tax returns of course to avoid taxes. also things we did not know about prior to his testimony today including gates admitting that he stole money from manafort to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars by filing false expense claims. so a whole series of things there. and the key, gates saying not only did manafort know about it, not only did we do it together but gates saying that he did these things with manafort to rather under manafort's direction, don. >> listen, rick gates is expected to take the stand tomorrow and be cross examined by manafort's attorneys. how do you think the defense will counter gates' testimony? >> they'll come at him really hard, and this is

"there's another rick gates, a secret rick gates in london," the defense asked. gates admitted the affair and said his wife was aware of it. >> so, let's get to jon karl with us live tonight from washington. and jon, the defense really trying to paint rick gates as a liar here, but gates himself saying in that courtroom he's trying to take responsibility for what he did? >> reporter: in a dramatic moment, david, gates told the court, quote, "i'm here to tell the truth. i'm here to take responsibility." and then, he added that paul manafort had the same opportunity, the implication is, of course, that he did not take it. >> jon karl leading us off. jon, thank you. >>> we're also tracking the dangerous heat and massive flight disruptions at this hour on both coasts. more than 400 flights canceled so far. thunderstorms triggering ground stops in baltimore, d.c. and at the airports right here in new york. and in the west at this hour, flight disruptions, as well, because of low visibility from wildfire smoke. and tonight here, a frightening milestone now from califor

paul manafort's right hand man rick gates.k on the witness stand in the one-time trump campaign chairman trial on tax and fraud charges. the stakes are high for the white house. manafort and his deputy know a great deal of what went on behind closed doors during key months of the 2016 campaign. yesterday, gates admitted under a grant of immunity he committed crimes alongside his former boss and against him as well. cnn has more from the federal court in alexandra, virginia. >> reporter: rick gates took the stand in the showdown we have been waiting for as gates testified for 45 minutes. during that time, manafort stared him down sitting seats away from him. he averted manafort's gaze. he was asked by prosecutors if he committed crimes. gates said he had. he explained he helped manafort file false tax returns and fed 15 overseas accounts used as part of the alleged crime. gates offered a twist. saying he defrauded manafort, his mentor and long-time boss. he had stolen several hundred thousands dollars from him by inflating his

earnings continuing next week, options traders smell a bargain in one name in particular it's time to ricks and make more the action begins right now. >> and we start tonight with a raging retail rally taking a breather today still more than 20% from its 2018 low and on track for its best year since 2013 and could get hotter next week when a handful of speblt retailers report could see a 9% move in oorg direction, best buy, tiffany, ulta priced at pretty big moves. mike, are you looking at lulu. >> i am. this has long been on what i call the holly index, one of my wife's favorite brands for sure. i've observed the popularity in terms of using it as casual wear remains intact but the stock has had -- she has bought me some items because there is now increasingly men's products available at lululemon. the question a lot of people probably have, the stock has had a very large run trading at a big premium to other retail names. that might be deserved though. and i think there are ways that we can look to play the stock going into earnings which is implying a more than 9% move using those eleva

the rick gates testimony is going to be the key. >> rick gates. he could testify as early as today.he is the key star witness working with the prosecution -- prosecutors on this. if he doesn't testify today, it would be early next week. what do prosecutors need from him if all the documents are already telling the story? >> right. the documents are going to show that the government, for tax purposes, didn't have all the information, the banks, for loan purposes didn't have all the accurate information, the documents are going to show that. what the documents aren't going to show necessarily is that paul manafort knew that the information that was being supplied was incomplete or false. that's going to be key to prove. it's going to be that that rick gates is potentially going to be able to supply. rick gates worked with paul manafort. he worked with him closely. i expect he will testify that paul manafort knew what was being submitted to the government, knew what was being submitted to the banks. >> we know that the defense is basing their argument on rick gates as well, putting the

>> rick gates being -- rick gates the admitted liar. >> in terms of plea agreement with the government point of time about lying. he was charged with conspiracy against the united states, as well. you have an issue of who do you believe? this remains a very document heavy case. the reason that the prosecutors led with the trump -- forgive the pun -- is accountant. there's information of somebody allowed this accountant to say i'm going to facilitate a fraudulent transaction. the letter and the documentary proof. now you have the person that knows the true intent. have you had conversations with paul manafort before? is he truly ignorant of everything right now? is this a viable and believe scapegoat? probably not. >> gates is probably going to go to prison no matter what but under a plea agreement, a judge could give him less time with substantial assistance to mueller and a liability in a way for the prosecution because the defense is going do say he is lying to get a lighter sentence. >> the defense will use that. every defendant would. however, as a prosecutor, i don't know any pros

the idea to shimon's point, this isn't really about rick gates. it's about the paper, the financial documents and crimes we detailed to you. prosecution a tad nervous the defense did a good job undermining rick gates? >> they just decided to bloody up the guy they believe to be the prosecution's star witness, rick gates. what we're seeing from prosecuti prosecutor, we're acknowledging you may not like this guy and think he engaged in plenty of unsavory activities but look how his story lines up with everything else we've shown you. the documents that were falsified. the bookkeepers, the accountants that you've heard from. this is a big test for the special counsel. in part because this is just paul manafort's first trial. hes also facing a second trial in another jurisdiction. if they're unable to get a conviction here, that's going to be a huge plblow to them. they're trying to see whether jurors look at rick gates as a credible witness. we know he's a witness in this case. we know he could be a witness yet again in manafort's next case but we do

bob mueller's star witness rick gates, trump's former

. >>> paul manafort's lawyers grill the prosecution's star witness, painting rick gates as a cheater and a thief who cannot be trusted. >>> firefighters gained some ground on the largest wildfire in california history. the battle is far from over. >>> as promised, the trump administration ramps up the trade war with china, slapping new tariffs on $16 billion worth of imports, chemicals, electronics, here we go. good morning and welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm phil mattingly in for dave briggs. it's wednesday, august 8th, 4:00 a.m. if you're still waiting for johnson county returns in kansas, we have a fresh two hours of news. >> awesome! >> all right, in ohio's 12th district is any indication, a blue wave may be coming in november. the special election that many considered a bellwether for the midterms, the race between republican troy balderson and democrat danny o'connor is still too close that call this morning. an encouraging outcome for democrats in a deep red district, no matter how it plays out in the end. there are still over 8,000 outstanding provision

rick gates was manafort's protege, and today,

the governor, rick scott who is running for u.s. senate, made a decision to cut $700 million from the water management budget and we have lake okeechobee in the state, which is the second fresh water lake in the nation. he is dumping billions of gallons of water, 15,000 gallons of water a second out of the lake. it is flowing into the gulf of mexico. with that algae in that water, it's hitting the red tide and it's like gasoline to a fire. so voters here today are pointing a finger -- blame at politicians for enhancing a natural occurrence. this is somewhat one of those voters had to say. >> it's a hybrid of naturally occurring events and manmade events. full-blown water crisis from stem to stern and it's all man made. this can be cured by a few strokes of the pen. >> by politicians? >> you blame politicianings? >> i totally blame politicians. >> and so that is the backdrop for those who are not only running for governor but the governor of this state, rick scott who is running for u.s. senate. now, the republican gov, rick scott, s

rick gates replying to that saying, i'm taking responsibility now. i'm trying to make a change but the defendant attorney pressing and pressing repeatedly during that exchange. rick gates has said he has spoken with the special counsel's office sum 20 times. the focus today really from gates is a accounting for providing details on the criminal scheme that he says he and paul manafort developed together. tonight star witness rick gates back on the stand admitting during a harsh cross-examination to having an extra marital affair a decade ago but denying accusations by paul manafort's lawyer that he was embezzling money in order to fund his affair and what the defense attorney referred to as a secret life in london and elsewhere. gates also testified today that two weeks after donald trump's election, paul manafort recommended that his banker steven call become secretary of the army. caulk allegedly loaned manafort money under false details. gates said how broke manafort was when he joined the trump team. manafort's consulting firm had no clients then

manafort's lawyers tried to shift the blame to his former business partner, rick gates.ted press" notes, the defense team has already signaled it will paint gates as an embezzler and liar who took advantage of manafort and flouted the law with his boss' nong. the bookkeeper testified that she communicated with rick gates on business expenses from time to time, but manafort alone handled his personal expenses. this week we expect to hear from rick gates, who is now the prosecution's star witness, but will he be a reliable one? "the washington post" reports to prove manafort is a liar, prosecutors will rely in part on gates. someone with a long track record of lying. even when gates met with prosecutors in february to try to win a plea deal, he lied. to get an agreement, gates had to admit to that lie. joining me "washington post" national security reporter develin barrett. he is the author of that piece in "the post." back with us, former u.s. attorney joyce vance. what should we expect this week? >> i think this is going to be where both sides go pretty hard at each othe