Members-Only Article
The Manafort trial judge has a lot of thoughts on how the prosecution should be framing its case, and it’s emerging as an early theme just halfway through the second day of trial.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis told prosecutors Wednesday that he doesn’t want them using the word “oligarch” to describe the rich, Putin-linked Russians and Ukrainians with whom Manafort had dealings. On Tuesday he pushed Uzo Asonye, a member of the Mueller prosecution team, to get to the point when Asonye detailed Manafort’s lavish lifestyle. It “isn’t a crime to have a lot of money,” the judge observed in front of the jury.