Manafort trial Day 14: Jury expected to head home without verdict

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico


By DARREN SAMUELSOHN and JOSH GERSTEIN 08/17/2018 10:37 AM EDT Updated 08/17/2018 03:03 PM EDT

Jurors in Paul Manafort’s trial are expected to end their second day of deliberations Friday without reaching a verdict.

The 12-person jury sent a note Friday afternoon to U.S. District Court T.S. Judge Ellis III asking to leave at 5 p.m. because one of the jurors had an event to attend that evening.

Manafort is facing 18 counts of bank and tax fraud in the first case special counsel Robert Mueller has brought to trial as part of his wide-ranging probe of 2016 Russian election interference.

Ellis said he would ask the jurors what time they would like to reconvene on Monday morning.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/17/manafort-verdict-latest-news-updates-783089

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Jury In Manafort Trial Will Wrap Up For The Day At 5PM ET

By Alice Ollstein | August 17, 2018 3:01 pm

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The jury in the Paul Manafort bank and tax fraud trial asked the court to be dismissed at 5 p.m. ET Friday because one of the jurors has an event later in the evening.

Judge T.S. Ellis granted the jury’s request. Ellis will bring the jury back at 4:50 p.m. ET before formally dismissing them for the day.

Lawyers for both the defense and prosecution —as well as Manafort himself — were present in the courtroom as Ellis read the note. Reporters rushed back into the courtroom upon news of the new note.

There will be no deliberations over the weekend.

When Ellis brings the jury back into the courtroom he will ask when they want to resume deliberations on Monday.

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/jury-in-manafort-trial-will-wrap-up-for-the-day-at-5pm-et

[nycbos]

1. One tweet said

"Let the wild speculation begin." Don't deliberations of this sort take longer than two days?

[lagomorph777]

14. A jury can study a thousand pages of complex financial documents in 2 days, right?

[rainin]

2. And no juror will turn on the TV, the radio, or the internet for the whole weekend.

Believe me.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

3. I'd say no. More time to contaminate the jury pool. jurors swore to do their duty.

This isn't a job, it's our duty as a civilian to our fellow man. Finish the job. Unless someone just had a heart attack...it shouldn't end. Keep them locked in. Finish it. Only 340 million peoples eyes are on you. You can rest on Sunday. What if the jurors have the paid guy on the ropes and he's going home to get direction? Last night for someone to make the bag job. That's why juries are sequestered. Is nothing sacred anymore? I have an important appt.....we need to go home. Rocket Docket remember?? Rocket Docket until...it isn't. Judge really screwed up having his little pow wow with them. gods only knows what he said.
*****Always remember...Dons sister was a federal judge until she retired. Way too risky to do this. Rocket docket. Rocket docket. No room for error. A weekend off? omg.

[MarcA]

7. Its not a job - It's involuntary servitude n/t

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

9. They have a duty. Weekends off aren't in the lexicon generally

of such critical cases, Id think. But what the hell do I know? Im commenting on a board.
TAKE the WEEKEND off...the rest of us dont need any sleep this weekend right? The future of America depends on this beginning trial in a lot of ways. How the president will react. The evidence going into the next trial. Throwing the masses a bone. etc. Folks are tired....i get it. So are Americans who work 2-3 jobs. Federal juries are prepared for this stuff. I wonder if the judge intimated in his little dissertation, that taking the weekend off to get their heads "straight" would be a thing he'd allow? Just like a blind meeting w putin, we'll never know until they are done w it.

[MarcA]

12. We should be thankful that there is a Judge who will treat jurors as humans

and not as lightning rods for the legal system as some do. I would say its good
they are not being treated like they are accused of some crime, but the accused can
at least apply for bail.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

16. I expect a little more in the biggest trial of the year but, I hear what you're saying.

I just disagree. Have a good weekend.

[MarcA]

17. Thank you. You have a good weekend too. n/t

[WePurrsevere]

4. With a trial this high profile why isn't the jury sequestered and...

is it normal for a judge to ask the jury what time is good for them?

[sprinkleeninow]

8. I have a frikken event tonite.

judgie: "Oh hay y'all, what time would be convenient for y'all to reconvene Monday?"

juree: "Uh, yer honur? We deliberated, took a vote, and we ain't comin' back. See ya l8r bye."

[WePurrsevere]

23. Yeah, basically this. What judge runs their court...

like it's a pleasure cruise? Are they TRYING to have a mistrial? If they've been threatened who by, Trump admin, a Cult45er, Russia, who? It's so unlike anything I've seen with a low profile, no less a high profile, case. Maybe this is his (and the jury's) way 'out' so the buck can be passed?

[sprinkleeninow]

30. If this goes haywire, I hope it's not a precursor to or omen of future

judicial outcomes.

I'm sorry, but I have never.

You know when you get an unsettling feeling inside like your intuition is telling you something?

Sure, it may be for naught. I simply do not like what I'm hearing. 🤔



💙🇺🇸🌊

[WePurrsevere]

39. I'm going to hope for the best...

Knowing that truth may run into road blocks along the way but eventually the truth comes out and prevails. Hopefully that's quickly because the tensions are building in this country and if the truth doesn't come out and shift the vast majority to the same side and drive the ignorance and hate still existing back into the depths of the swamp it crawled out of soon we could potentially see a type of second civil war.

"You know when you get an unsettling feeling inside like your intuition is telling you something?" Oh yes, I'm very familiar with it. I've learned (most of the time, lol) to listen to my own intuition because the majority of the time it's been correct. IME whether one views it as a gift from some divine source or our having evolved to have this as a method of survival from the time we crawled out of the primordial ooze, it's a good idea to tune into it and tune out the 'noise' that tries to drown it out.

[sprinkleeninow]

41. Wise words! 🤗

We all have each other and perhaps an unknown multitude of others who do not engage politically, but are not of the 'stupid' breed and are just watching quietly what is unfolding. I need to believe this will be resolved when 'truth shall prevail' as you have expressed.

Tensions are building. Another poster put forth the word dénouement. Another offered that, prior to that is the climax, which is what feels is nearby. What that consists of I do pray and spiritually call it resolved, legally and non-violently.There is a stronger sense of something coming soon as others too are receiving in their depths.

[DeminPennswoods]

5. Earlier in the trial, the jury asked if they could have a

birthday cake for one of their fellow jurors. One of the MSNBC legal beagle commentators said the proscecutors would be thrilled to hear that because it showed them the jurors were bonding and getting along.

I'd say the request to leave early is a sign along the same lines, that the jurors have bonded with each other. I'd further speculate it means a much smaller chance of a hung jury.

[lagomorph777]

15. Thanks for the encouragement!

[Honeycombe8]

22. Good points. You're probably right....

although it's possible that only some of them have bonded.

[DeminPennswoods]

25. You can't discuss the case with the other jurors

when you're in the jury room waiting out whatever delay in the proceedings. Unless all the jurors just want to sit around and stare at each other, you have to talk about something(s) unrelated. What else is there except talk about yourself/family or work?

[Honeycombe8]

26. I've been on several juries. There's not a whole lot of talking, except...

except when going out to lunch or during lunch. At least it was for us. In the room, there's a hesitancy to be too chit chatty.

But at one trial, in the room, we were all seated around the huge conference table, except for one man, who stood and sat in one corner, away from the table and away from us. I and others would ask him if he wanted to join us at the table. He said no, he was fine where he was. He stayed there the whole time. He rarely spoke, but did say a thing or two a couple of times. Strange. We were unanimous in our verdict, though. It was a white collar crime case. Guilty. Counterfeiting money, so it was a pretty sure thing. But we wanted to be sure, since we knew he'd be going to prison. The judge was angry that we were taking so long. Frankly, we had to take that long because the prosecutor was terrible at presenting his case.

[MaryMagdaline]

28. Thank you for that account of your experience

The prosecutor in Manafort trial would have had more time to tie everything together had the judge not rushed them. Jury might be taking the amount of time that is required to go through everything.

Can’t believe your judge was mad. Geesh

[Honeycombe8]

31. I know.We were dumbfounded. We have a question...and he REALLY got mad about that.

He called us all in and said, "I told you all not to make this a drawn out thing or ask too many questions." Seriously. I guess he thought it was a slam dunk.

It was a tight case, but we wanted to go thru the defense's defenses & make sure...he did have some defenses. AND guess what we found? There were two stacks of money. The indictments listed the serial numbers for all the bills. Guess what? One of the indictments for one of the stacks - the serial numbers were wrong. So that count was dropped! The little lady who thought to check the serial numbers was a little, short, chubby older lady...very sweet & quiet. Bless her heart.

This wasn't the guy's first offense. We weren't supposed to consider the sentence, but we knew he'd be going to prison for a looooong time, so we wanted to be very careful.

The prosecution was all over the place, though. He didn't cover things in an orderly way, which left us confused and asking each other why he was asking about this or that...was that important? What was that about?

It was a federal felony white collar crime, so I guess somewhat similar to Manafort's, but not big time. The Judge was embarrassed when that question we asked, that he was angry about, was, "Are the serial numbers on the indictment important?" LOL.

[MaryMagdaline]

36. That's very Capra-esque

Makes me feel good about my fellow citizens. Jury duty really is a sacred trust.

[DeminPennswoods]

29. Funny story

Our jury was sent out of the courtroom due to a sidebar near midday. After the sidebar concluded, the judge, lawyers, court officers all took their lunch break and completey forgot about us in the jury room.
After awhile, we all thought we'd been in there a awful long time and debated what to do. Finally one brave soul went to the door to listen, then opened it a crack to look out, only to see on an empty court room.

[Honeycombe8]

32. Too funny! That made me laugh out loud.

The FORGOT about you? That's too funny. That shows you who they thought was important.

[DeminPennswoods]

40. They did

Of course, once they realized it, they were embarassed and the judge apologized to us. I think we got donuts brought to us the next day.

[MaryMagdaline]

37. Unbelievable!

[MaryMagdaline]

27. That's how I see it, too

[spooky3]

6. I don't see anything wrong with this or any reason to worry. There are a lot of

charges to consider, and Ellis did the jury no favor by refusing to allow the exhibits to be matched with the relevant charges. That is going to require a lot more time and probably engender some confusion and arguments that could have been avoided.

There is no point in demanding that jurors give up even more of their lives for multiple weeks than what they are already giving. That would make people even LESS likely to be willing to serve on juries in the future and come up with more ways to escape jury duty. There is business time next week in which the jurors can work.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

10. I hope you're right.

[spooky3]

11. Me too. When I was called for jury duty last spring, the judge told us

Last edited Fri Aug 17, 2018, 11:23 PM - Edit history (1)

that the trial would likely last about 2 weeks, with more than 50 witnesses to be called. She said she was committed to respecting everyone's schedules and obligations, and that we would NOT be held later than 5:30 pm at the latest each day. Obviously that trial was not in the league of Manafort's, but there really is no reason to do otherwise, unless maybe if there is a chance that one more hour later on a given day would provide some huge benefit. That's not the case here--I'm sure they are going to need more time to pore through all the damn exhibits and make sure everyone is heard.

I think that if they were inclined to acquit, they would have done that yesterday. How much time did OJ's jury need--a couple of hours?

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

19. Gosh...OJ...whew. Long time ago. The glove didn't fit heh heh.

I understand what you're saying. If theres a lot of stuff to go over they usually bring in cots, food etc after the jury gets the case but hell, I have no tv so i don't know exactly whats NORMAL these days. Just seems like they'd WANT to get it done as well. The whole problem with these folks is they are using mob tactics all along. I assume that being so, we can assume the mob would try to influence the jury at every turn. Seems like 12 people wandering around the weekend wouldn't be prudent.

[spooky3]

20. but they have already "wandered around" every night since the trial began

and last weekend. The judge told them from the beginning not to discuss the case with anyone, not to research or read anything about it online, etc.

I think this part of the process has been perfectly normal. I don't think the cots, etc., is typical. There was no way they were going to be able to finish going through everything in an extra hour or two. Better to let everyone go home and come back fresh Monday.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

21. Right on.

[Honeycombe8]

33. True. It's a good sign if they take the time to go through the documents.

It will take some time. Lot of documents, and they're complex documents and a subject some of the jurors are probably not familiar with.

I'm dying to know WHO is on that jury. The jury was picked pretty fast, as I recall. This is Virginia. Not sure what jury panels normally consist of there.

[spooky3]

34. 65% of Alexandria residents have a bachelor's degree or above.

Only 18% of Alex. voters supported Trump in 2016.

[Honeycombe8]

35. Well, that's good. Thanks. High educated percentage. nt

[Renew Deal]

13. The jurors need executive time on Monday and will only deliberate from 11AM-12PM

Very presidential

[MaryMagdaline]

38. They'll tweet their verdict 5:00 am Tuesday

[DoctorJoJo]

18. I See a Hung Jury. After all, Lara only needs to buy ONE for $180K/year.

[Bonheur]

24. Not happy with this...

Why do I feel like he will skate? The jurors should be sequestered!!