Biggest news from the Manafort pretrial conference is that Judge ABJ says she is not inclined to grant his motion to change venues. That is unless he proposes Hawaii (she was kidding). If they can't seat a jury she says she'll revisit the matter.
For now she says defense attorneys failed to present a legal basis to transfer. The jury pool's supposed political leanings (DC voted more than 90% for Clinton) don't cut it at this point.
Also, ABJ will exclude most evidence related to Manafort's role in the Trump campaign, but will allow prosecutors to say he was still w/the campaign when press reports about his Ukraine work emerged that informed some of his alleged false statements in foreign agent filings.
But she wants the parties to work together on either a stipulation or jury instruction on that matter. ABJ outright granted a defense motion to exclude mention of his conviction for bank and tax fraud in Virginia, which she said is "entirely irrelevant here."
Any mention of the Virginia trial during witnesses questioning needs to be couched in general terms, ABJ said, i.e. as a prior court proceeding. So no overt references to the Virginia trial. As for the gov. motions, ABJ will hold off ruling on whether defense can raise issue...
...of selective/vindictive prosecution until defense has an opportunity to further brief on the relevance. Defense says they want to raise the issue to refute the accusation that Manafort concealed foreign accounts from the US gov. ABJ says that can't be used as a "back door"...
...to question why the gov. didn't take civil action or audit Manafort previously. Defense wants to argue that the only reason Manafort is being tried is because he was President Trump's campaign manager - that plenty of other companies escaped prosecution for similar omissions.
ABJ said defense can say Manafort's tax preparers kept records of foreign accounts, but can't go further than that. ABJ also held off ruling on whether Manafort was personally responsible for reporting foreign bank and financial accounts for his companies.
Prosecutors said they do not know yet whether Rick Gates will testify in the DC trial. Jackson says if he does take the stand his extramarital affairs have no place in the proceedings and can't be addressed, particularly not to question his credibility.
Finally, ABJ said the parties need to agree on a definition of oligarch if they are going to use the term during trial. Next week the parties will meet again to haggle over what exhibits can be introduced. (End)
