In every trial, time schedule breaks are mostly outside the control of the parties. A judge’s private schedule, a schedule of a juror that a judge wants to accommodate, a juror getting back from a lunch break late, a witness that is late, a witness that goes “dumb” about how long to talk, ad infinitum. Lawyers try to time the breaks to their advantage, but don’t always succeed. I heard a report that cross-ex will begin on Monday. Personally, I think that favors Manafort as the jury will be fresh and the lawyers will have the entire weekend to hone the precise questions they want to ask. They are writing the script this weekend. Of course, it would have been important to lodge an objection or skirmish late on Friday in order to create doubt in the jurors minds over the weekend. The show will begin on Monday. Brace yourself for the fireworks. Just my $0.02.
gwjack
Good points GW.
I think it was a tactic by the prosecution to leave the idea soaking in the heads of the jury over the weekend gambling that they will look at any cross examination with skepticism. It may or may not work.
The defense’s advantage is that they study the witness’ testimony, and other facts that they know and develop a good cross-examination blueprint without tipping their hand. BTW, her reason for allegedly changing the record seems flimsy when a sophisticated person like her knows that tax crime is involved. There should be business records to support everything she said, and I am thinking there is not, otherwise she would not have been granted immunity.
Ty for the info.