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The Manafort defense team is said to be concerned about the bias of the jurors because of the political commitment and familiarity of the media coverage of the inhabitants of the region.
But Jackson ruled that they were not giving enough reasons for not finding impartial jurors. The jury selection process began on Tuesday when more than 120 potential jurors visited the courthouse to fill out a 50-question form on their personal background and experiences. In two weeks, the lawyers and the judge will individually interview some of these potential jurors before selecting 12 people and three substitutes.
Manafort had also tried unsuccessfully to move his previous criminal trial to Virginia, where a jury had found guilty of eight counts against Roanoke.
At the Washington District Court hearing Wednesday, the legal teams of the Special Council Office and Manafort provided a lot of details on what will happen during the month, including witnesses they might call. They met with the judge in charge of lobbying and money laundering cases abroad for about two hours on Wednesday.
Manafort did not attend the hearing.
Manafort's plan
The defense team said it could call the stand of FBI agents who participated in the Manafort investigation. The officers would be able to testify if the investigation had ended before the Justice Department appointed Robert Mueller special advocate, and if Manafort had been "targeted" by him, said the lawyer of the defense, Kevin Downing.
Manafort's lawyers said they would like to shape their arguments around the idea that the special advocate's office has sued Manafort unfairly and because of political motives. "Paul Manafort is here because he's the Trump campaign manager," Downing pleaded Wednesday. "We find that other entities in other companies have not been prosecuted," Downing added, citing other lobbyists "treated differently from Mr. Manafort".
Prosecutors of the special council say that this is not correct because the investigation of Manafort began before the appointment of Robert Mueller and, even so, the idea should not be taken into account for to know if Manafort is guilty of the crimes.
The judge replied that, at least for the moment, she agrees.
"You are failing to plead in front of the jury the argument that you have presented to the press and now to me," she told Downing, pointing out the statements that he made there a few months. l & # 39; case.
At the last trial of Manafort, the defense team told the jury that the special council office would not have lodged a complaint against Manafort when he had not been president of the campaign of President Donald Trump. They did not call any witnesses to testify on behalf of Manafort during this trial.
The defense team said Wednesday it could also call an expert witness to talk about money laundering and international banking.
The case of the prosecution
Overall, prosecutors' statements at the hearing showed on Wednesday that they planned to review the overseas banking disclosure charges that they had described at the time of the hearing. last trial. Some witnesses they call may rehearse the case of prosecutors brought before the Virginia court, with some modifications.
According to the defense team and the prosecutors at the hearing, they seem to be on the verge of bringing the accounting experts of the firm Manafort and its former accountant Heather Washkuhn to the test. Prosecutors also plan to re-examine the testimony of some vendors from where Manafort has purchased luxury goods and services, said Mueller team prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, although prosecutors acknowledged that this part of the trial would be much more limited than in Virginia. The custom-made animal skin jackets and landscaping of the Hamptons flowerbeds have become notorious pieces of the financial fraud case.
As the DC case deals with lobbying violations themselves – not just financial decisions related to lobbying work – prosecutors told the defense team that they could call several lobbyists to testify, said the defense team. This includes people related to the law firm Skadden Arps – which means that a former White House advisor could be on the witness list – and the lobbying firms Podesta Group, Mercury, Edelman and FTI. A list of witnesses is not yet available for the case.
Prosecutors will present a case in Washington more thoroughly than at the last trial. They hope to use thousands of documents – rather than a few hundred – as proof in their case. They intend to further explain Manafort's lobbying activities for Ukrainian politicians in the United States, such as Manafort's attempt in 2012 to reject a congressional resolution condemning former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych for the imprisonment of his rival Yulia Tymoshenko.
Jackson has not yet decided whether prosecutors could call a foreign lobbying lawyer, Melissa Laurenza of Akin Gump's law firm, to testify against her client Manafort. Another federal court judge in DC has already ordered Laurenza to provide information to prosecutors as they are preparing the grand jury indictment against Manafort and Rick Gates.
Rick Gates back on the stand?
Jackson asked prosecutors directly Wednesday: Gates, former MP for Manafort, will he testify again?
"We do not know yet," Weissmann told the court.
What Gates does and what the two legal teams can ask him is a major problem that Jackson assesses before the trial.
Jackson told the defense team on Wednesday that they could not ask Gates to talk about his "secret life", which meant extramarital affairs, as they did in Virginia's lawsuit. And she told prosecutors to tell her that he would not be obliged to provide information about her affairs, she said. "I do not think it's relevant to his credibility," Jackson said Wednesday.
Under oath in the Virginia courtroom, Gates admitted to having a mistress in London and hijacking Manafort. Following the trial, one juror stated that the jury found Gates so unreliable that he had entirely put aside his testimony, taking into account Manafort's guilt. The defense team at the Virginia trial had tried to pin many of Manafort's fraudulent activities on Gates. The jury was not able to make a decision on 10 bank charges in the Virginia case.
Another question is how the defense can suggest that Gates worked with the special board office. The two legal teams will not be able, during the DC trial, to refer to the ongoing investigation into collusion with Russia, an investigation in which Gates continues to help. And the defense team can not ask Gates for the content of his conversations with Mueller, the judge said.
At the hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors said that a broader investigation was continuing.
"The aspects of the meetings are numerous [between prosecutors and Gates] it was not part of the case in front of your honor, "Weissmann told the court on Wednesday.
The lawyers involved in the Manafort case will be back in court on September 12 to discuss other legal issues before the trial.
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