Prosecutors, attorneys for the defense and the judge in Paul Manafort’s upcoming trial are working out the last details, including possible immunity for five witnesses and a change in schedule.
The former Trump campaign chairman is awaiting his jury trial in the federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, due to begin on July 25, in jail in Alexandria. He faces 18 charges of bank fraud and foreign bank account allegations and a guilty verdict would mean a lifetime imprisonment for him.
Manafort was recently jailed for alleged witness tampering, after losing his bail in a separate criminal proceeding, CNN informs.
Meanwhile, special counsel Robert Mueller asked the judge that five unidentified witnesses in Manafort’s trial be granted immunity, meaning their testimony couldn’t be used against them in later court cases. Their names are kept secret to avoid “undue harassment,” a proposal from the prosecutors said. Granting them immunity means that witnesses cannot invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and thus avoid answering certain questions.
Manafort and his lawyers also had their request to move proceedings to Roanoke denied, Judge T.S. Ellis said. Manafort had argued he couldn’t have a fair trial in Alexandria because of anti-Trump sentiments among people in the Washington area. People around Roanoke, he argued, would be less politically charged against him.
But Ellis said that wouldn’t be the case once a jury was selected because they would be drawn from all people living across Northern Virginia, including areas with more conservative voters.
“It would be inappropriate for courts to move trials around the country in cases of this sort until a district could be found where a defendant’s political views were shared by at least as many persons in the district as those with contrary views,” Judge Ellis wrote.
He has not yet made a decision whether to postpone Manafort’s trial as requested by him.
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