Manafort wants to move his trial

Attorneys for Paul Manafort are asking to have his coming money laundering and conspiracy trial moved from Washington, District of Columbia, to Roanoke, Va., arguing his fraud convictions in Alexandria, Va., this month worsened pretrial publicity in the nation’s capital.

In court filings Wednesday, his defense team also claimed a more pro-republican jury, as they believe would be found in Roanoke, would decide his case more fairly. That repeats an argument the Manafort defense made, and lost, in asking to move his Virginia case out of Alexandria.

The defense for President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman told a federal judge in the District. Manafort “has become an unwilling player in the larger drama” between Trump and special counsel Robert Mueller III and asserted that nowhere are potential jurors more biased against him than in the District because of its partisan makeup and saturation of political news.

“This may be the rare case where a juror’s predisposition may directly tie to their vote in the last presidential election,” Manafort’s attorneys wrote, arguing “it is not a stretch to expect” voters for Trump would look less favorable on Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

Jury selection in Manafort’s trial in the District is set to begin Sept. 17 with openings to start Sept. 24.