Paul Manafort’s Shopping Sprees Hit Home

Of all the damning details in the Justice Department indictment accusing Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager, and Rick Gates, a campaign adviser, of money laundering and tax fraud, the one that seems to have caught the imagination of many is the approximately $1.3 million Mr. Manafort spent during two shopping sprees in New York and Beverly Hills. The indictment does not specify where he spent the money — the establishments are identified only as “Vendor E: Men’s Clothing Store in New York” and “Vendor H: Clothing Store in Beverly Hills, California” — nor what he bought, though The New York Times reported in September that during a raid of Mr. Manafort’s home over the summer, F.B.I. officers took many photographs of his “expensive suits.” And though the shopping entry in the indictment is merely one expense among many, after property, improvements to properties and antiques, it is the largest. It is also the most broadly accessible. Which may be why it has got everyone in a tizzy. “Manafort’s clothing tab: $1.3 million” read the Politico headline. “Fancy Suits at Center of Ex-Trump Campaign Chief Charges,” The Associated Press cried. Clothes may maketh the man. But they can also bringeth him down. Indeed, at least when it comes to politics, fancy clothes or even just an unseemly focus on clothes have been a stand-in for (at best) bad character and (at worst) corruption for years. Read more at The New York Times.