"This was supposed to have been a slam-dunk, if not for that damn judge!"
No. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Manafort was supposed to flip on Trump so this trial wouldn’t be necessary. Manafort called his bluff, like the Russian company a few months ago.
And when Manafort said, ‘I’ll see you in court’, Mueller had to throw one of his rookies at it so he could blame it on an inexperienced lawyer instead of a weak case.