Manafort Trial Likely to Go Into Next Week
Jurors asked judge to be released at 5 p.m.
The trial of former Donald Trump presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort is likely to go into next week after the judge announced that jurors asked to leave Friday at 5 p.m.
Jurors asked shortly before 3 p.m. Eastern time that they be allowed to leave so one of them could attend “an event,” Judge T.S. Ellis III said. The announcement suggests that the jury is not close to reaching a verdict on the 18 bank fraud and tax evasion charges Manafort is being tried on.
Earlier Friday, Ellis said he would not honor a request from news organizations for information on jurors, citing death threats that he has gotten.
The jury reconvened Friday morning after deliberating for about seven hours on Thursday. At the end of the day Thursday, they sent a note to Ellis asking questions on the requirements for people to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts and asking the judge to redefine “reasonable doubt.”