ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The jury weighing Paul Manafort’s future reached no verdict after a third day of deliberations Monday.
Jurors began their private discussions just after 9:30 a.m. upon gathering in the ninth floor courtroom in the federal courthouse in Alexandria and ended their day of deliberations just after 6:15 p.m.
Kevin Downing, one of Manafort’s defense attorneys, said they believe it’s a good sign for Manafort that deliberations will continue and a verdict has yet to be rendered.
U.S District Judge T.S. Ellis III has repeatedly reminded the six men and six women that they are not to discuss or research the case with anyone, doing so at the beginning of the day’s deliberations and at the end. He urged jurors to put the trial out of their minds.
The jury was not sequestered over the weekend, likely making it difficult for them to avoid coverage of the trial following a bevy of tweets from President Trump attacking special counsel Robert Mueller. Just two hours before jurors met Monday morning, Trump called Mueller and his team a “group of Angry Democrat Thugs” and said they are a “National Disgrace!” He told reporters Friday the trial involving Manafort is “sad” and called his former campaign chairman a “very good person.”
Manafort faces 18 counts of tax and bank fraud, and his trial is the first stemming from Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Over a span of three weeks, the 12-member jury heard testimony from 27 witnesses and viewed 388 exhibits from prosecutors.
Mueller’s team alleges Manafort concealed millions of dollars he earned for political consulting work in Ukraine in 31 foreign bank accounts and underreported his income to the Internal Revenue Service.
While Manafort made millions of dollars for his political and policy work for Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions, the government says that changed after Yanukovych was forced from power in 2014. It was after Yanukovych’s ouster that prosecutors say Manafort began lying to banks in order to secure millions of dollars in loans.
Manafort’s lawyers argue that Manafort was not engaged in any sort of scheme to conceal income, saying it was his former protege, Rick Gates, who lied and stole from Manafort to enrich himself.
Jury deliberations in Manafort’s trial began Thursday morning, and jurors presented Ellis with a list of four questions before recessing on the first day.
Among those queries were the definition of “reasonable doubt” as well as for clarification on the law for reporting foreign bank accounts. Jurors ended Friday’s deliberations a bit early — one juror had an event to attend — but with no questions.
