Thread by @BBuchman_CNS

Update on the #ManafortVerdictWatch
When jury returned, Ellis read from the Sawyer instructions.
“Let me express a few thoughts to you – this case, like all cases is important and if you fail to agree on a verdict, the case is left open and undecided,” Ellis said.
(1/9)

Any future jury would be selected in the same manner they have been chosen, he added.
“There’s no reason to believe that a more suitable jury would be able to decide this,” Ellis said.
(2/9)

In the course of deliberations, Ellis urged jurors not to hesitate when reexamining their views and encouraged them to examine their questions with “candor and frankness.”
(3/9)

“In conferring with each other, each of you should pay respect to views of the other…. If there is a doubt in your mind, you must ask if it is a reasonable one?” Ellis said.
(4/9)

“You’re not partisans. You are judges in this case,” Ellis said. “You may be leisurely in your deliberations and take all the time that is necessary.”
(5/9)

*Before the jurors came in*, Judge Ellis asked the attorneys if they had any objections to the instructions he was prepared to give. The special counsel’s team did not but defense attorney Kevin Downing did.
(6/9)

Downing suggested that perhaps jurors be given a new form with a third option of “hung” as to each count.
“They shouldn’t be misled to think a hung jury is not appropriate,” Downing said.
Ellis then asked prosecutor Greg Andres for his take.
(7/9)

Andres told the judge he wished to see the jurors continue deliberating.

Separately:
Judge Ellis also very lightly reprimanded reporters in the courtroom for scurrying in and out at the slightest hint of any juror developments.
(8/9)

“I appreciate your desire to run out and bring the news. If you wish to remain, I ask you remain. But you may also go to the overflow room where you can run in and out, that way you won’t have a disruptive effect.”
(9/9)