Manafort trial Day 8: Judge concedes fault after Mueller protest, Airbnb exec takes the stand
This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by DonViejo (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).
Source: Politico
The federal judge overseeing the Paul Manafort trial conceded Thursday morning that he made a mistake in chastising special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors a day earlier in front of the jury.
Addressing the jurors before prosecutors called their first witness of the day, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis said he “may well have been wrong” on Wednesday when he slammed the Mueller team for allowing an expert witness from the IRS to remain in the courtroom while other witnesses were testifying.
Typically, witnesses aren't supposed to hear anyone else's testimony in a trial so they don't influence each other, but Mueller’s team got Ellis’ permission during the trial’s opening arguments last week to have the IRS agent in the court on a regular basis.
<snip>
Mueller’s team has been frustrated by repeated slapdowns from Ellis during the Manafort trial — now in its eighth day. Before court started on Thursday morning, they filed a written motion to formally protest how they had been called out over the IRS witness.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/09/paul-manafort-trial-day-8-judge-ellis-769889
It may be time for the Gov't to request a mistrial over the judge's repeated and continuing criticism over the Prosecution attempts to put on their case and doing it in front of the jury. It is hard to un-prejudice a jury.
= new reply since forum marked as read
... even though he's not trying the case himself. Rosenstein and Mueller both know that there won't be a second chance on this case, and they have to get it right. It seems the judge is doing his best to eff-it-up for everybody.
