ALEXANDRIA, VA —The government’s witness list for the trial of Paul Manafort in Virginia will be filed publicly by the end of this week, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis ordered Tuesday.
The order came in a brief hearing where the judge distributed the juror questionnaires ahead of the trial, which will begin July 31.
Uzo Asonye, a lawyer for special counsel Robert Mueller, noted that typically prosecutors did not publicly reveal their witnesses ahead of time.
“This isn’t a typical case,” Ellis said.
Already, the names of five witnesses for whom Mueller granted immunity have been made public. At a hearing Monday, the prosecutors said they expected to call 30 witnesses, though Tuesday they said they were working with the defense to shrink that list, so to shorten the length of the trial, which is expected to last three weeks.
Also at Tuesday’s hearing, Mueller prosecutor Greg Andres revealed the government’s plans to call witnesses from the IRS, the FBI, and FinCEN, an oversight agency at the U.S. Treasury.
Manafort is facing charges of bank fraud and tax fraud in Virginia. He has pleaded not guilty in the case, as well as to the seperate set of charges Mueller has brought against him in D.C.
At Tuesday’s roughly 30-minute hearing, Ellis thanked the 70 or so potential jurors in the Alexandria courtroom and stressed that jury service was a “cardinal” civic duty.
A “tiny” piece of good news he had for the jurors who were selected was that they would be supplied free lunch every day.
“Don’t look for the Baked Alaska on the menu,” he said, while assuring them that the food would be “palatable.”
Legal minds find it implausible Manafort can escape convictions for at least some of the charges against him, in two different courts. Going to trial instead of pleading leads me to believe he thinks otherwise.
A couple years ago I would have thought it unlikely citizens could conduct an armed takeover of a Federal wildlife facility, doing a lot of damage to both the buildings and protected archaeological treasures. Only then to be found not guilty by a jury in the face of a mountain of evidence attesting to their guilt.
Would it surprise me if Manafort walked? Not in the least. Caucasian justice is conducted on a different playing field than other forms of justice.
"At Tuesday’s roughly 30-minute hearing, Ellis thanked the 70 or so potential jurors …"
Seems like a lot. How many will actually serve? And are they watched carefully? For their own safety and/or to make sure no one tries to make a deal with them?
I’m trying to understand the rationale for publicizing the witness list–particularly in a case in which any potential witnesses will potentially be exposed to enormous public scrutiny and pressure, including the ominous scrutiny of the White House and its media empire, and the risk of wrongful influence and defamation is far from negligible. I can’t think of any rationale. It would be good to get reporting on the judge’s stated reasons. Otherwise I’ll be drawn to the conclusion that this dude Ellis is a show pony who loves the circus.
You mean, Ellis = Ito (the judge in the O.J. trial)?
Golden Throne rage-tweets in 3…2…1…