A federal judge ruled Monday that the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will be delayed until next week, and won’t start Wednesday as prosecutors hoped.
Manafort is facing 18 charges in the Eastern District of Virginia, brought against him by special counsel Robert Mueller. They include money laundering, bank fraud and tax evasion, and he has pleaded not guilty.
On Monday, an attorney for Manafort, Kevin Downing, argued that the defense needed more time to receive roughly 120,000 pages of documents they had received only in July. Part of that production included 49,000 pages of financial records kept by Manafort’s bookkeeping company, NKSFB.
[Also read: Robert Mueller’s evidence list against Paul Manafort reveals a life of luxury]
Downing argued that the defense team had only received it on July 6, and needed more time. The judge overseeing the case, TS Ellis III, agreed and said the jury will now be picked on July 31, allowing the trial to begin.
Uzo Asonye, an attorney for Mueller’s team, argued unsuccessfully that Manafort’s team already had the financial records after his previous lawyers sorted through them last summer to pick out what was covered by attorney-client privilege.
Manafort’s trial is the first arising under Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Asonye said the government plans to call 30 witnesses for the trial, expected to last two to three weeks.
Mueller’s team had previously requested immunity be granted to five witnesses who would have otherwise pleaded the fifth.
The witnesses’ identities were revealed Monday afternoon, and all of them are from financial institutions: Donna Dugan, James Brennan, Connor O’Brien, Cindy Laporta and Dennis Raico.
