Posted on 08/03/2018 9:13:48 AM PDT by mandaladon
Paul Manafort‘s third day on trial over charges of bank fraud and tax evasion was cut a bit short on Thursday after government attorneys made the same mistake twice in a row.
The last witness called to the stand was J. Philip Ayliff, a certified public accountant (CPA) at Paul Manafort’s long-serving tax-preparation agency, Kositzka, Wicks and Co. (KWC), of Richmond, Virginia. As time inched along during the last witness’s testimony, nothing of particular interest seemed to be occurring at all.
Ayliff was mostly providing foundational testimony regarding the basic functions of a tax-preparation company. Prosecutors then moved on to specifics and attempted to “publish” one of Manafort’s e-file forms. Judge T.S. Ellis III‘s weariness all but amazed the courtroom as he denied the request–complete with an actual and pronounced finger-wag–before shouting:
No! You move it along!
(It probably hadn’t helped matters that court had just minutes ago returned from a lengthy recess due to the prosecution calling Ayliff out of the witness order provided to both the court and the defense. But as Judge Ellis noted yesterday, he has “a long memory.”)
Composing themselves again, the prosecution moved slowly forward before asking Ayliff to define the term “financial interest.” Ayliff began to answer the question but was immediately cut off by Ellis who noted that Ayliff was not a noticed expert. The defense then belatedly objected, prompting a quick and sarcastic dressing-down from the judge–but it was again the prosecution’s turn for scorn.
(Excerpt) Read more at lawandcrime.com ...
My guess: Mueller’s team is going to manipulate this into a mistrial and try their luck with another judge.
They have nothing but they have to drag it out while Mueller buys the Jury
The Mueller circus continues...
“I’m not in the theater business,” Judge T.S. Ellis asserted during jury selection in Paul Manafort’s financial fraud trial. “You have to be better-looking for that.”~~~~~~~I like this judge...
Yup. I wonder how many jury members are getting 20 years of parking tickets screened - by the FBI
Calling a prosecution witness out of order provided to the defense and the judge is a big NO-NO................
What criminal boob lawyers. The ultimate disgust comes from the taxpayers paying these degenerates for their perfidy.
I haven’t been following the trial closely. But I wouldn’t read too much into this. Dustups like this happen all the time and it may be of little or no importance to the final outcome.
I think Ellis would lean against Mamfort’s defense and for conviction if Mueller was not so manifestly abusing the process. But he sees how shitty DOJ is consistently acting and he does not want it in his court.
Mueller to continually play the Justice Main corrupt process — he won’t give it up.
Mueller=pettifogger.
This could very well be a dog-and-pony show to convince our side that when Manafort gets convicted we have to accept it.
I could be wrong...but I had the same feeling when Christopher Wray was appointed as FBI director.
Wow. However did an anti-Trump case even get put on this judge’s docket? He is ready to declare a mistrial and have the prosecution thrown in jail.
These are the tippy-top legal professionals in the country. Stupid mistakes and willful ignorangce is not going to score.
I tend to agree, but you might find willing nature to find one or two charges to declare guilt, a good portion not guilty, and the rest are a hung jury situation. For Mueller, if all he gets is one or two guilty situations, then it won’t amount to much.
Don't get too invested in Manafort being innocent of money laundering and tax evasion.
He may very well be guilty of those things.
” If he claims to be keen on Mueller’s game, why didn’t he just dismiss the case? ...I could be wrong.”
Not sure what legal school you attended but judge’s don’t get to dismiss cases on a whim before a jury.
Remember the Rodney King verdict? The prosecution was unable to get a conviction on the greater charge, so they just filed a lesser charge and got on with their circus in a different venue. They got their conviction and their riot both.
Mueller judge shopped from the start.
That is, not only was Ayliff not an expert and not a noticed expert as necessitated by the Federal Rules of Evidence–but his testimony had the potential to derail an already-agreed-upon definition of the term(s) in question. This, Ellis said, could have “confused or clouded” things for the jury.
—
It’s almost as if the Mueller team is simply going thru the motions of a trial. Like they didn’t actually expect to have to go to trial. It’s all very odd. Bringing up extraneous details like the ostrich coat? WTF?
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