Manafort trial jury to talk for fourth day
No note for judge, no indication that any verdict is close.
ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Jurors in the Paul Manafort trial ended their third day of deliberations Monday without reaching a verdict on 18 counts of bank and tax fraud against President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman.
Jurors will return to court Tuesday morning after weighing the evidence for more than eight hours. They deliberated until the judge dismissed them at 6:15 p.m. after they extended their day by about an hour.
Jurors had no notes on Monday and give no indication of how close they are to a verdict. After court, Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, said the defense was encouraged.
Deliberations resume at 9:30 a.m. in Alexandria.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III conferred with lawyers twice Monday morning at sidebar conferences away from the public. It’s not clear what was discussed.
Manafort sat at the defense table during both discussions.
Before the first sidebar Ellis told lawyers: “We do not have a question at this time. If you need to communicate anything with me, you may come to the bench.” Earlier, the judge spoke with the lawyers, right after he had welcomed the jurors. A court security officer was present at both sidebars.
The judge had said he would make transcripts of the sidebars public after the trial, with the exception of the jurors’ names and any discussions that would involve Mueller’s investigation of the Trump campaign.
Upon welcoming the jurors, Ellis noted the absence of Greg Andres, the lead prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller, and said he hoped he wasn’t ill. Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye said Andres was fine, but didn’t say why he wasn’t in court. On Friday, Ellis revealed he had received threats and was concerned for the “peace and safety” of the jurors after the high-profile case concludes. As a result, he rejected a request from a media coalition to release the jurors’ names after the verdict.
“I’ve received criticism and threats,” Ellis said Friday as jurors deliberated. “I can imagine they would, too. If you told jurors at the advance of this trial that their names would be public or at the outset of this trial that their names would be public, I might see some requests to be excused.”
He said he was surprised by the public attention the trial has garnered.
“I had no idea that this case would excite these emotions,” Ellis said. “I mean, it’s obvious to the people who were here at the beginning that I did not understand how this case would be perceived by members of the public and the press.”