Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s request to move his trial from Alexandria, Va., to Roanoke, Va., was rejected by a federal judge Tuesday.
Manafort and his attorneys argued the trial should be moved due to the “saturation of the D.C. media market” and the “level of education and political leanings of the jury pool,” according to Tuesday’s ruling.
“The mere fact that a case has drawn substantial media attention does not, by itself, warrant a change in venue,” U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis said in the ruling.
Ellis noted that Manafort is “not entitled to a presumption that an Alexandria jury cannot be impartial,” as he noted the Eastern District of Virginia jury pool is “selected from cities and counties throughout Northern Virginia, a large geographic area that has a population of approximately 3,000,000 people.”
“Second, although the press coverage in defendant’s case has been extensive, the reporting has been national in nature and is not unique to this geographic area,” Ellis asserted, also noting there is not evidence to conclude that members of the jury are biased at this point.
Manafort and his associate Rick Gates were indicted by a federal grand jury last fall on 12 charges related to the work they did in Ukraine before joining Trump’s campaign, and were hit with a 32-charge indictment in February for federal tax and bank fraud allegations.
Gates pleaded guilty, but Manafort has yet to do so.
The trial is expected to start this month and is the first trial resulting from special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing Russia probe to determine if the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin during the 2016 election.
[Also read: Robert Mueller offers immunity to five potential witnesses in Paul Manafort trial]
