Paul Manafort wants to move trial from DC area to Roanoke

Manafort is also facing charges in Washington, and has pleaded not guilty in both.

According to Manafort’s defense team: “Nowhere in the country is the bias against Mr. Manafort more apparent than here in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.”

“From the outset, a significant portion of the media coverage has focused on Mr. Manafort,” they wrote.

Manafort’s lawyers even cite a footnote from the judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who said in a recent filing: “Given the investigation’s focus on President Trump’s campaign, even a blind person can see that the true target of the Special Counsel’s investigation is President Trump, not defendant, and that defendant’s prosecution is part of that larger plan.”

“Unsurprisingly, then, the nation’s attention remains fixed on Mr. Manafort’s trial,” wrote the lawyers. “This controversy continues to engender strong partisans on both sides of every issue. As a result, it is difficult, if not impossible, to divorce the issues in this case from the political views of potential jurors.”

Manafort’s lawyers say that it is “not a stretch” to say that voters who supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would be “predisposed” against Manafort or that voters who supported Trump would be “less inclined toward the Special Counsel.”

“Notably, however, voters in the Alexandria division voted 2-to-1 in favor of Secretary Clinton. This split is more balanced in Roanoke, located in the Western District of Virginia,” they argue.

They also cite the media, which substantially covers the Manafort case more in the Washington area than in Roanoke.

[Related: Paul Manafort spends 23 hours a day in solitary confinement]