CNN: On Monday Judge T.S. Ellis who is overseeing the Paul Manafort trail on charges of conspiracy against the U.S. and money laundering, among other things, granted immunity to five witnesses, their names are, James Brennan, Donna Duggan, Conor O’Brien, Cindy Laporta, and Dennis Raico. CNN explains that court filings do not show details as to what each witness will be testifying about.
Judge Ellis also postponed the hearing for one week, setting the start date to July 31st, 2018, though CNN reports that jury selection will start this week as scheduled.
The Jury will consist of sixteen people, including four alternates, none of the potential jurors, will be asked who they voted for, Judge Ellis said, “Of course people can be fair and impartial no matter who they voted for.”
The delay was requested by Manafort’s legal counsel who said Manafort needed more time to review some 120,000 documents including images that had been taken off devices belonging to Manafort’s former business partner Rick Gates.
Uzo Asonye, a prosecutor working for special counsel Robert Mueller, argued that the majority of information obtained and turned over, were photos and notes from Gate’s devices, not emails, stating, “I’m just not sure what looking at pictures is going to do for their case.”
Judge Ellis explained that simply because the prosecutors weren’t going to use it, doesn’t mean the material is not usable for defense.
This is a developing story more to follow when information on the witnesses is publicly available.
