Special counsel Robert Mueller — in a court filing Thursday that both highlighted and disputed some of the media coverage his case against former Trump campign chairman Paul Manafort has attracted — requested that jurors in the trial scheduled next month in Virginia fill out written jury questionnaires to ensure “that this case is tried before an impartial jury.”
“The nature and scope of the publicity surrounding this matter raises a substantial danger that potential jurors may already have formed opinions about the defendant’s guilt or innocence, may have developed views about the Special Counsel’s investigation, or may otherwise be affected in their ability to consider the case impartially,” Mueller told the court.
His filing cited media reports that were critical of Mueller as well as those critical of Manafort.
A footnote disputed reports that the FBI’s July 2017 raid on Manafort’s home in Virginia was a no-knock search.
The footnote also highlighted a remark made by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson at Manafort’s pretrial detention hearing in a separate case in Washington last week, in which she scolded journalists for reporting that an unredacted court document published mistakenly to the court docket by a court employee was a purposeful leak by Mueller.
“The reporting, at times inaccurately, comments on the nature of the evidence collected in the case or activities of the parties,” Mueller said in Thursday’s filing.
Mueller’s proposed questionnaire asks many standard questions about a potential juror’s background, as well as questions tailored to the allegations in the case, including questions about a potential juror’s ties to Ukraine.
Manafort has been charged in Virginia with bank fraud, tax fraud and failure to report foreign bank accounts. He’s also facing charges in D.C. pertaining to alleged money laundering and failure to disclose lobbying work he did on behalf Ukraine. He’s pleaded not guilty in both cases.
Question #1:
Who do you believe is a more effective advocate for truth and justice, Sean Hannity or Lou Dobbs?
If you answered Question #1, please put your pencil down.
Why not seek out Fox viewers? Most have probably never heard the name Manafort. He was only part of the campaign for like 3 minutes anyhow.
Sweet…and one can only hope that they are made to sign them under the penalties and pains of perjury, because I’d bet my left pinky toe that even with a survey, there will be Trumpbots who are willing to lie their asses off to get on that jury and exonerate this fucker. I don’t envy them the lengthy voir dire this is going to require…such a tedious, miserable process.
Faux News will be running with this soon, saying it’s all part of a conspiracy to hand-pick liberal/Dem anti-Trump jurors, when in fact having jurors fill out a form survey is pretty standard and having them fill out a more intense one is obviously sometimes necessary in important publicized cases.
Oh oh. Pick me for the jury. I don’t have an opinion about that lying sack of… No. Really.
Why does the suggested query ask about you/spouse military service, with dates of service?