Prosecutors advise witnesses in Manafort trial: Avoid the T-word (Trump)
Source: ABC News
By MATTHEW MOSK, JOHN SANTUCCI TRISH TURNER
Jul 31, 2018, 4:12 AM ET
Prosecutors preparing witnesses for the upcoming trial of President Donald Trump’s one-time campaign chairman Paul J. Manafort are advising them to avoid mentioning Trump’s name, ABC News has learned.
The case against Manafort, brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Eastern District of Virginia, is focused solely on allegations that the former Trump adviser had committed a range of financial crimes, from tax evasion to bank fraud, that have no direct tie to his campaign work. Manafort has pleaded not guilty.
The guidance to witnesses comes in response to an order from United States District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who agreed with Manafort’s defense team that invoking the defendant’s ties to the Trump campaign could unduly influence jurors. The panel will be picked from residents of the Democratic-leaning Northern Virginia suburbs, which voted heavily against Trump in 2016. Jury selection is scheduled to start Tuesday.
Solomon L. Wisenberg, a veteran criminal defense attorney not associated with Manafort's defense, believes prosecutors are complying in hopes of derailing any attempt by Manafort’s defense team to argue that they are using politics to prejudice the jury. "The defense doesn’t want to be prejudiced by association with Trump," Wisenberg opined. "With a northern Virginia jury, they know they may not be kindly disposed to the president."
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/prosecutors-advise-witnesses-manafort-trial-avoid-word-trump/story?id=56925241
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Federal judges are fast movers. Tobin said this jurisdiction is not known as the rocket dockett for nothing and if 3 weeks is the consensus estimate for trial length it'll be 2! 
