Ex-Trump campaign chief Manafort rebuked by judge for public comments

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman was reprimanded by a federal judge Wednesday for speaking publicly in violation of her gag order in his criminal case.

The rebuke of Paul Manafort came as he pleaded not guilty to the latest charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigators.

Manafort appeared at the federal courthouse to enter a formal plea to a second indictment accusing him of acting as an unregistered foreign agent and directing an international money-laundering conspiracy stemming from his political work in Ukraine.

It was his first court appearance since his codefendant and longtime business associate, Rick Gates, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Manafort had previously pleaded not guilty in the case, but the latest indictment, which mirrored the charges filed against him last October, required him to formally enter a second plea. Manafort also faces charges in Virginia accusing him of tax evasion and bank fraud.

During the hearing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson set a Sept. 17 trial date for Manafort and reprimanded him for making a public statement last week about Gates’ plea. She said his statement violated an order she put in place early in the case, which bars Manafort, the prosecution and witnesses from making public statements that pose a “substantial likelihood” of prejudicing potential jurors.

“I can certainly understand the impulse to not let that go by without asserting your innocence,” Jackson told Manafort, referring to Gates’ plea and “hundreds” of news articles about it. But it can’t happen again, she said, or she could hold him in contempt.