Why Manafort's trial matters for Trump even if it has nothing to do with Russian collusion

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort will enter a federal courtroom in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday for his criminal trialonbank and tax fraud charges the first member of the president's inner circle to face offwithspecial counsel Robert Mueller's team.

Although the charges have nothing to do withMueller's primary goal of investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential electionincludingpossible collusion with the Trump campaign, the stakes are extremely high for both the president and the special counsel.

Winning a conviction against the first person to go on trial in Mueller's probe wouldstrengthen the former FBI director'sresolve and his team's credibilityas President Donald Trump assails his inquiry as a politically motivated "witch hunt," legal experts say.

An acquittal, on the other hand, could be seen as a win for Trump as he continues to try to undermine the work of Mueller's team of prosecutors.

Here is what you need to know about Manafort's trial.

What this trial is about:

Manafortis accused of 32 counts of financial offences, includingbank fraud and tax evasion, tied to hisalleged laundering of more than $30 million.

The court documents say Manafort and his right-hand man, former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, served as "unregistered agents" representing the interests of Russia-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych for several years "at least" between 2006 and 2015. Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, after which prosecutors say Manafort used money from his American real estate "as collateral to obtain loans," securing more than $20 million by lying about his income and debts.

Prosecutors say Gates and Manafort earned millionslobbying Washington and other Western capitals on behalf ofUkraine,and that the pair "engaged in a scheme to hide income from the United States authorities."

Manafort is alleged with Gates's help to have hidden his income as loansand in offshore accounts, all while using his "hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income," including the purchase ofmultimillion-dollar properties and extravagant suits.

Why this matters to Trump:

The prospect of Manafort being found guilty on all charges could mean he spends the rest of his life in prison. That fact could compelsomeone previously or currently close to thepresident who knows of any illegal activity to come clean or act as a co-operating witness if they have information relevant to Mueller's Russia probe.

"Everything about acriminalprosecution is meant to frightenguiltyparties into co-operating with the federalgovernment," former federal prosecutor Alex Little said. "That's not a bad thing. It's the way our system works."

Manafort was present during the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting that was set up after a Kremlin-linked lawyer offered up dirt on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to members of the Trump campaign. If he chooses to enter a plea agreement and offersinsider information, Mueller might want details about the sit-down, including whether Trump approved it.

A conviction of the chairman of Trump's presidentialcampaign would be damning, even if it didn't lead to any new investigative breaks for Mueller, Little says.

Plus, an American public that sees a positive public display of how the special counsel's team is handling themselves"will make it much more difficult for Trump to smear these prosecutors in the way he has previously."

If there's an acquittal, however, that likely hurts the Mueller probe in the court of public opinion, fuelling calls for his investigation to wrap up and,in an extreme scenario,emboldening Trump to fire the special counsel. Other targets in the probe might also feel less pressure to co-operate in exchange for immunity.

"To the extent that public opinion affects the Mueller probe, he'll then have to ask himself whether he needs to change course," saidBarakCohen, a former federal corruption prosecutor. "It calls into question the credibility of the probe."

Who will testify:

Mueller has released a list of 35 potential witnesses he couldcall to the stand, including Gates, who is currently a key co-operating witness in Mueller's investigation.

His testimony will be significant for "helping to explain how the puzzle pieces all fit together," Little said, particularly as Gates worked so closely with Manafort.

"The fact there's a co-operating witness who's going to tell the jury an inside story is critically important. It's difficult in the context of white-collar crime to commit a crime yourself; it's more often a group of people working together for bank fraud, mortgage fraud, tax evasion," he said. "When you can have a corroborating witness give testimony and corroborate it with documents that are otherwise unexplainable, you get a powerful case.

Prosecutors working with Mueller dropped nearly two dozen criminal fraud charges against Gates, who reached a plea deal.

Manafort's tactics:

Manafort is also facing charges ofacting as an unregistered foreign agent under theForeign Agents Registration Act, as well as conspiracy to commit money launderingand making false statements, but those will be heard in a second trial, scheduled for September in Washington, D.C.

Manafort was given the option to consolidate both trials into one. Instead, he opted for a two-trial strategy that allows him to firstface a jury in Virginia, where he lives and where there's a better chance of findingjurors more sympathetic to Trump.

The trial was supposed to start last week, but his lawyers secured a delay.

The requests to postpone could be a sign he's worried, some legal experts have said.

Little's theory isManafort may be hoping Trump will pardon him, "and just wants to delay, delay, delay until Trump feels comfortable doing that."

Manafort had beenunder house arrest, wearing two ankle bracelets to monitor his whereabouts for both of hiscriminal trials. But in June, his bail terms were revoked and he was jailed to await trial after it was alleged that he tried to contact and sway two government witnesses by phone. Federal prosecutors accused him of witness tampering after the witnesses revealed text messages to the FBI.

What else to watch for:

The Virginia trial is expected to last at least two weeks. Cohen will be watching for how the jury perceivesthe government's case, and how the public responds to the evidence Mueller puts forth.

A jury that takes a long time to deliberate might be hung up on legal technicalities, "but it might suggest that [they feel] that Mueller is overreaching" by going outside his original mandate,he said.

As for Little, he'smost interested in whether the president will try "keeping his mouth shut" about the case.

"Will he live-tweet his reaction to this trial?" he said. "I've got my odds on that one."