https://www.gq.com/story/paul-manafort-trial-menswear
ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN TATEM
Donald Trump's former campaign chief—and his taste in clothes—are on trial.
Besides potentially being involved in a massive conspiracy to undermine our country's democracy—the jury is, literally, still out—Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort has also allegedly shelled out millions of dollars for preposterous clothes. They're two sins Manafort will have to answer for when the time comes.
And that time seems to be approaching quickly: Manafort, indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for crimes like tax evasion and bank fraud, is now facing trial. In a story about the trial today, NBC News wrote that Manafort is "likely" to lose. More interestingly, many of the alleged crimes Manafort committed seem to involve an addiction to menswear with gaudy pricetags. Let's run through what we know, starting with the most recent. We already knew that Manafort had a taste for expensive clothing—the initial indictment included details that he spent $1.3 million on clothes—but we're learning more as the trial progresses.
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Today, Maximillian Katzman, the former manager of New York City luxury menswear store Alan Couture (the store is now closed and calls to the number listed for the business is disconnected) testified in court that Manafort was one of the store's "top five" customers. According to Katzman, Manafort spent "more than $929,000 on suits between 2010 and 2014." One of these purchases included four suits and two trousers for $15,195.
