The federal judge overseeing the Paul Manafort trial took another shot at special counsel Robert Mueller's team Thursday afternoon.
The prosecution spent about 40 minutes Thursday afternoon questioning a bank employee about Manafort’s unsuccessful effort to get a $5.5 million construction loan on a Brooklyn brownstone, only to have Judge T.S. Ellis III suggest that the issue was unworthy of such extensive discussion at the trial. Notably, Ellis made the remark with the jury present.
“You might want to spend time on a loan that was granted,” the judge scoffed as prosecutor Uzo Asonye sat down after concluding his questioning of Citizens Bank employee Taryn Rodriguez.
That prompted Asonye, who had sat down, to jump back up.
“Your honor, this is a charged count in the indictment,” the prosecutor said.
“I know that,” Ellis shot back.
All of this in front of the jury.
If this is the first criminal trial that you've ever followed you will be shocked to learn that judges are supposed to refrain from comment on the evidence! Judges can actually get in TROUBLE doing that. By, like, the LAW, it is the JURY that is the judge of the facts, the judge is the judge of the LAW. The jury is instructed to apply the law as the judge gives it them to the facts as they find them and render a verdict if the facts they find prove a violation of law the judge gives them beyond a reasonable doubt. I know, crazy right? Well, that's the fucking law that we've had going back to, Oh, the common law in England.
We can expect another motion tomorrow like the government filed today. It's just too much and Ellis' curative instructions are too little. But who knows the effect of this on the jury. I tell you in the trial that I watched my first year as a lawyer the judge was every bit as biased against the government as Judge Ellis is here and damned if the jury didn't convict that guy.
The tense exchange was just the latest example of Ellis making comments that could lead jurors to question the prosecution's case or its tactics in the tax- and bank-fraud trial that opened last week.
-Politico
The prosecution spent about 40 minutes Thursday afternoon questioning a bank employee about Manafort’s unsuccessful effort to get a $5.5 million construction loan on a Brooklyn brownstone, only to have Judge T.S. Ellis III suggest that the issue was unworthy of such extensive discussion at the trial. Notably, Ellis made the remark with the jury present.
“You might want to spend time on a loan that was granted,” the judge scoffed as prosecutor Uzo Asonye sat down after concluding his questioning of Citizens Bank employee Taryn Rodriguez.
That prompted Asonye, who had sat down, to jump back up.
“Your honor, this is a charged count in the indictment,” the prosecutor said.
“I know that,” Ellis shot back.
All of this in front of the jury.
If this is the first criminal trial that you've ever followed you will be shocked to learn that judges are supposed to refrain from comment on the evidence! Judges can actually get in TROUBLE doing that. By, like, the LAW, it is the JURY that is the judge of the facts, the judge is the judge of the LAW. The jury is instructed to apply the law as the judge gives it them to the facts as they find them and render a verdict if the facts they find prove a violation of law the judge gives them beyond a reasonable doubt. I know, crazy right? Well, that's the fucking law that we've had going back to, Oh, the common law in England.
We can expect another motion tomorrow like the government filed today. It's just too much and Ellis' curative instructions are too little. But who knows the effect of this on the jury. I tell you in the trial that I watched my first year as a lawyer the judge was every bit as biased against the government as Judge Ellis is here and damned if the jury didn't convict that guy.
The tense exchange was just the latest example of Ellis making comments that could lead jurors to question the prosecution's case or its tactics in the tax- and bank-fraud trial that opened last week.
-Politico
