Prosecutors from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team can use evidence from a 1980s Department of Justice review of Paul Manafort’s lobbying activities in the former Trump campaign chairman’s upcoming Washington, D.C., trial, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The same federal judge also pushed back Manafort’s trial date to Sept. 24.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson approved the use of the roughly 30-year-old report, which prosecutors argued is proof that Manafort was long aware of the disclosure requirements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. He is charged with failing to register as a foreign agent under the FARA.
In court papers, Mr. Mueller’s team argued the 1980s review discovered 18 instances of lobbying and public relations activities that Manafort should have disclosed. They said the report’s content prompted Manafort to resign as director of a federal agency in 1986. The report directly rebuts claims by Manafort’s attorneys that he was unaware of the foreign lobbying disclosure rules. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]Attorneys working on the upcoming Washington, D.C., trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort expect that trial to last three weeks and explore more deeply his lobbying work in Ukraine.
The Washington Post reports that prosecutors have entered 1,500 possible exhibits into evidence and say they will closely examine the extent of Manafort’s lobbying for pro-Russia causes in Ukraine.
Manafort’s trial, set to begin Sept. 17, is his second after receiving eight guilty verdicts on counts he faced in a Virginia trial that ended this week. The trial resulted in a mistrial on 10 additional verdicts.
The former Trump aide, 69, pleaded not guilty to the charges, which stem from accusations that Manafort hid millions made for lobbying work in foreign bank accounts which he used to fund a lavish lifestyle in the U.S. The charges resulted from special counsel Robert Mueller‘s ongoing investigation. – READ MORE
[contentcards url=”https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/aug/28/paul-manaforts-dc-trial-pushed-back-evidence-1980s/” target=”_blank”]