The start of the jury selection process got underway this week for Paul Manafort's upcoming DC trial, and potential jurors received a list of people associated with the case, offering a sense of the scope of what the government has prepared.
The roster, released on Wednesday as part of a questionnaire distributed to potential jurors in the case, includes witnesses likely to testify at Manafort’s trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent, money laundering and obstruction of justice.
However, a top prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller cautioned at a court hearing that the list includes many people who are not expected to testify but whose names may come up in documents or in other witnesses’ testimony.
Many of the figures on the list are connected to law, lobbying or public relations firms that worked on campaigns Manafort organized to promote the interests of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, his Party of Regions or related political groups in Ukraine.
The questionnaire includes 17 people from the Podesta Group, 13 connected to Fact Based Communications, nine affiliated with Mercury, seven with law firm Skadden Arps, two with FTI Consulting and one from Edelman. Podesta Group shut down last year. London-based FBC entered liquidation in 2012.
Manafort's defense wants to argue their client is being treated differently than other lobbyists because of his role as Trump's former campaign chairman, but the court may prohibit it.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson seemed inclined not to allow Manafort’s lawyers to make a direct selective-prosecution argument to the jury at the trial, which is set to begin later this month. However, Downing said documents related to the case would make plain the unusual treatment his client received.
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The questionnaire calls the roster a “partial list” of people connected to the case and asks potential jurors whether they “have any personal, family or business connection of any sort” with those listed. Potential jurors were summoned to the federal courthouse in Washington on Tuesday to complete the questionnaire, which was not made public until Wednesday.
Jury selection is expected to begin on Sept. 17, but some in the jury pool could be excused based on their written answers before then. Those whose answers require follow-up will be questioned one by one in private, the judge has said. Opening arguments in Manafort’s trial are set to begin Sept. 24.