05-06-2018, 11:13 AM
Court Case Updates
Mueller's prosecutors faced challenges from Federal judges in two of their cases this week.
1. Manafort Case
![[Image: manafortpaul_071816gn.jpg]](http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/blogs/manafortpaul_071816gn.jpg)
The judge in the tax fraud and money laundering case against former Trump Campaign Chief Paul Manafort expressed his opinion that Mueller's federal prosecutors were levying the charges in U.S. Federal court because the prosecutors are attempting to squeeze Manfort into flipping on Trump.
The judge didn't suggest that there wasn't plenty of evidence to justify the charges. However, he did say that he hasn't seen evidence to indicate that the alleged crimes are connected to Russian interference and wondered aloud why Trump attorney Michael Cohen's criminal case was referred to NY state courts and Manfort's was not referred to state court.
Judge Ellis also complained that the bulk of that August scope authorization memo he received was highly redacted. He told Mueller’s office to take two weeks to consult with U.S. intelligence agencies to see whether they would sign off so that he can personally review a sealed, unredacted version of the memo.
So, we should know later this month whether Manafort will be prosecuted by Mueller's team or instead will be prosecuted in state court.
Ref: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-t...cle_inline
(continued)
Mueller's prosecutors faced challenges from Federal judges in two of their cases this week.
1. Manafort Case
The judge in the tax fraud and money laundering case against former Trump Campaign Chief Paul Manafort expressed his opinion that Mueller's federal prosecutors were levying the charges in U.S. Federal court because the prosecutors are attempting to squeeze Manfort into flipping on Trump.
The judge didn't suggest that there wasn't plenty of evidence to justify the charges. However, he did say that he hasn't seen evidence to indicate that the alleged crimes are connected to Russian interference and wondered aloud why Trump attorney Michael Cohen's criminal case was referred to NY state courts and Manfort's was not referred to state court.
Judge Ellis also complained that the bulk of that August scope authorization memo he received was highly redacted. He told Mueller’s office to take two weeks to consult with U.S. intelligence agencies to see whether they would sign off so that he can personally review a sealed, unredacted version of the memo.
So, we should know later this month whether Manafort will be prosecuted by Mueller's team or instead will be prosecuted in state court.
Ref: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-t...cle_inline
(continued)