Politics

Mueller gets more time to decide whether to retry ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort on deadlocked criminal counts

Key Points
  • A federal judge on Thursday gave special counsel Robert Mueller extra time to decide whether to seek a retrial for former Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort on 10 criminal charges that jurors were unable to reach a verdict on last week.
  • Judge T.S. Ellis gave Mueller one week after the judge rules on Manafort's post-trial motions to make his decision on a retrial.
  • Manafort was convicted of eight other tax crimes and bank fraud charges in that case in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
This courtroom sketch shows Paul Manafort listening to U.S. District court Judge T.S. Ellis III at federal court in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018. 
Dana Verkouteren | AP

A federal judge on Thursday gave special counsel Robert Mueller extra time he had requested to decide whether to seek a retrial for former Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort on the 10 criminal charges that jurors deadlocked on last week.

But exactly how much time Mueller will have remains to be seen.

Manafort was convicted of eight tax crimes and bank fraud charges in the case in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

Jurors reportedly deadlocked by a vote of 11-1 in favor of conviction on the remaining 10 charges against the 69-year-old Republican operative.

Mueller originally had until Wednesday to decide whether to retry Manafort on those counts or to have them dismissed.

But on Wednesday, he asked Judge T.S. Ellis for additional time to make that decision, citing the fact that Manafort's defense team had yet to file post-trial motions. Ellis' ultimate rulings on those expected motions could affect Mueller's decision on whether to go to the trouble of trying to convict Manafort of the deadlocked charges.

In his order issued Thursday, Ellis noted that Mueller has not objected to the request by Manafort's lawyers to extend the deadline for filing post-trial motions. That deadline will now be around Sept. 20.

The judge said Mueller would have until "one week after this Court has ruled on any pre-trial motions filed by the defendant" to decide whether to seek the retrial.

Jury selection for Manafort's trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. is scheduled to start Sept. 17, with opening statements set to begin a week later. Manafort is charged with money laundering, failing to register as a foreign agent and witness tampering.

Both that case and the one in Virginia relate to consulting work that Manafort did for pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine in the years before he joined President Donald Trump's campaign in 2016.

Manafort has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

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