Manafort lawyer: 'So many lies' Gates can't keep up

In blistering and aggressive questioning aimed at undermining the credibility of the government's star witness, a defense lawyer accused the protege of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of being immersed in "so many lies" he can't remember them all and demanded to know how a jury could possibly trust him.

Defence lawyer Kevin Downing began his cross-examination of longtime Manafort deputy Rick Gates by confronting him on his own lies to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, an extramarital affair and hundreds of thousands of dollars he admitted to embezzling from his former boss.

Downing also ventured into territory the two sides in Manafort's fraud trial have mostly avoided: discussion of Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

The charges are not related to Manafort's work with the Trump campaign.

The questioning was aimed at shifting blame from Manafort onto Gates, a fellow Trump campaign aide who pleaded guilty in Mueller's investigation and agreed to cooperate with investigators by testifying in the financial fraud trial.

"After all the lies you've told and the fraud you've committed, you expect this jury to believe you?" Downing asked incredulously.

Gates said he did, but the defence lawyer wasn't satisfied.

He scoffed at the idea that Gates had repented for his actions, noting that prosecutors have said they won't oppose his bid for probation and getting him to acknowledge he had not repaid the money he had taken from Manafort.

After Gates described his theft as "unauthorised transactions" instead of embezzlement, Downing prodded him to use the latter term and Gates ultimately relented, saying, "It was embezzlement from Mr. Manafort."