Alexandria, Va. — A jury of six men and six women was selected for the trial involving former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who faces 18 counts of bank and tax fraud.
Manafort’s trial, the first stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, kicked off Tuesday morning at a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va. Federal prosecutors and Manafort’s attorneys will make their opening statements later Tuesday afternoon.
In addition to the 12 members of the jury, four alternates — three women and one man — were chosen.
The jurors were not addressed by their names and instead referred to by a number. Judge T.S. Ellis III, who is presiding over the trial, said the names of the jurors will “remain under seal.”
Protesters gathered early in the morning outside the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District is Virginia while a host of camera crews set up outside.
During a pre-trial conference before jury selection began, prosecutors for Mueller and lawyers for Manafort gathered to discuss more than 50 pieces of evidence that Manafort’s team wanted to block the jurors from seeing.
The items at issue include emails and memos that members of Mueller’s team say “prove the precise manner in which Manafort worked in Ukraine.”
[Related: The rise and fall of Paul Manafort]
Manafort’s lawyers asked Ellis last week to bar the jurors from seeing the pieces of evidence that may be introduced at the trial.
Federal prosecutors revealed in a court filing Monday that Manafort made more than $60 million for his work in Ukraine and “failed to report a significant percentage of it on his tax returns.”
The dispute remained unresolved, though, as Ellis told the parties to apply three outlined principles to each exhibit in question and narrow the number contested.
Jury selection, meanwhile, began with a pool of 65 prospective jurors.
At the outset of the process, Ellis summarized the 18 counts Mueller filed against Manafort and introduced the lawyers representing the Justice Department: Greg Andres and Brandon Von Grack. Also appearing alongside Mueller’s team was Uzo Asonye of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Nine prospective jurors informed the judge they either had dealings with the Justice Department — for which Mueller’s prosecutors work — or knew people who worked at the agency.
None of them, however, said this relationship with the Justice Department would hinder their ability to hear the evidence and render an impartial verdict.
Several times throughout the jury selection process, Ellis reminded those who were called to potentially serve that Manafort pleaded not guilty and was presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Manafort, wearing a black suit, sat alongside his lawyers for the morning, looking back at one point to wink at his wife.
Manafort’s trial is the first stemming from Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
He faces 18 counts of tax and bank fraud.
