While much of the country is focused on what verdict may emerge in the current Paul Manafort trial, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team is preparing for the next one.
CNBC:
... Mueller has given lawyers for ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort "well over 1000 proposed exhibits," or pieces of evidence, which prosecutors want to show jurors at Manafort's next federal criminal trial in Washington, D.C., a court filing revealed Thursday.
That number of exhibits dwarfs the fewer than 400 pieces of evidence Mueller's team of prosecutors introduced at Manafort's ongoing trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Manafort, 69, a longtime Republican consultant, is scheduled to next go on trial Sept. 17 in Washington, where he is accused of money laundering and failing to register as an agent for a foreign government. Charges accusing him of trying to tamper with witnesses were lodged in June, months after the original case was filed.
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Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who will preside over the Washington trial, had given Manafort's lawyers and Mueller until next Monday to file a joint pretrial statement. That statement would detail their respective lists of proposed exhibits, list their expert witnesses, give an estimate of how long their respective cases will take to present to the jury, and propose jury instructions.
But in their filing Thursday, Manafort's lawyers asked Jackson to give them another week on that task.
Jackson later Thursday gave them just four extra days — until Aug. 24.
The judge also said in an order that she "encouraged" Mueller "to review the exhibit list closely with an eye towards streamlining the presentation of its case."
Manafort's lawyers, in their request for more time, cited the current Virginia trial, noting no one knows when the jury may return a verdict.
Defense lawyers also noted the trial in Virginia "has not allowed" them enough time to confer with Mueller's team about the joint pretrial statement that is due next week.
This is the second time Manafort's team has requested an extension of that deadline. Jackson previously had asked both sides to submit their statement on Aug. 1.
However, the defense may be running out of extensions.
Jackson previously has said she would be opposed to postponing the start of the trial beyond Sept. 17.