As the trial of Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman on money laundering charges starts, prosecutors are playing up Manafort’s luxurious lifestyle, which they argued was funded by a “secret income” from lobbying in Ukraine. As CNN reports, federal prosecutor Uzo Asonye called attention to Manafort spending money on several homes, expensive cars, watches, and a $15,000 jacket made from an ostrich.
The ostrich suit is only a drop in the bucket. When Manafort was first indicted last October, it was announced that he spent more than $1,369,655 on clothes over the last decade. As GQ reported:
The former Trump campaign chairman’s shopping spree is broken down into dozens of purchases made from 2008 to 2014, at a “men’s clothing store in New York” and a “clothing store in Beverly Hills, California.” That’s a whole lot of power suits. How many? Let’s do a little math. The indictment has corporations associated with Paul Manafort spending $849,215 at that New York City shop. The Italian tailoring house Kiton, just about the fanciest non-Savile Row suit-maker in the world, charges nearly $8,500 for an off-the-rack number at Neiman Marcus. Manafort would have had to buy 100 similar suits, all from the same New York store.