Manafort wants trial moved, says Alexandria too liberal

Attorneys for Paul Manafort asked a federal judge to move his fast-approaching criminal bank and tax fraud trial from Alexandria to Roanoke, Virginia, saying a more Republican-friendly jury would decide his guilt or innocence more fairly.

President Trump’s former campaign chairman’s prosecution has “become theatre in the continuing controversy” surrounding the president and his election, defense attorneys argue, and as a result, “It is difficult, if not impossible, to divorce the issues in this case from the political views of potential jurors.”

“It is not a stretch to expect that voters who supported Secretary Clinton would be predisposed against Mr. Manafort or that voters who supported President Donald Trump would be less inclined toward the Special Counsel,” attorneys Kevin Downing, Thomas Zehnle and Jay Nanavati wrote in a 10-page motion to change venue.

Manafort’s trial is set to begin in federal court in Alexandria on July 25. The charges relate to his work for a pro-Russian political party in the Ukraine, and stem from the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidentilal election. He faces related charges in federal court in the District of Columbia.

Judge T.S. Ellis III raised the possibility of a venue change to Roanoke or Richmond at a hearing last week, when Manafort’s attorneys suggested leaks of information about the case had poisoned any potential jury.

Downing had suggested the case could be dismissed or delayed; Ellis said neither would happen.

The federal courthouse in Alexandria is located inside the Capital Beltway and draws from a Northern Virginia jury pool whose voters heavily favored Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, by nearly 2-to-1, the defense notes.

By contrast, the Roanoke area of the western district of Virginia favored Trump over Clinton by nearly the opposite, 63 to 37 percent.

Because many in rural Virginia lack broadband internet access and the media market is much smaller, Manafort’s attorneys argue that potential jurors around Roanoke have not been saturated with news about the case, as northern Virginians have.

Manafort’s lawyers observed that President Trump himself added to their concern, when he tweeted that his former aide got a “tough sentence.”

ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, arrives at federal court in Washington on June 15. His trial is slated to start July 25.