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Judge rejects Manafort’s attempt to throw out some charges

Greg Nash

A federal judge delivered a setback to President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Friday by refusing to throw out some of the criminal charges against him.

Manafort’s legal team had argued in a Washington, D.C., court that he was being charged twice for the same offense of lying to federal officials. Manafort maintained that the stacking up charges could negatively influence a jury against him, The Associated Press reported

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, however, said in a ruling Friday that any harm or prejudice Manafort could face would be handled by giving the jury “proper” instructions, according to the AP.

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The judge dismissed the motion from Manafort without prejudice, meaning he can revisit it after his trial in the case, which is scheduled for September, the AP noted.

The decision came the same day that U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said he’s pushing back Manafort’s trial on tax crimes and bank fraud in Virginia because a member of Ellis’s family is having a medical procedure. 

The start date for the trial in federal court in Alexandria has been postponed from July 10 to July 24.

Manafort is facing federal charges in the two courts of money laundering, tax and bank fraud, and failing to register as a foreign agent when he did lobbying work in Ukraine.

The allegations were uncovered by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, which is investigating ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia during the 2016 election.

The charges against Manafort are not tied to his work on the Trump campaign and some of the alleged crimes predate the election by several years.

Tags Donald Trump Donald Trump presidential campaign Paul Manafort Paul Manafort President Trump Robert Mueller Robert Mueller Trump-Russia probe

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