As part of Paul Manafort's plea deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller that allowed Manafort to avoid a second trial in Washington, DC, the government agreed to drop the 10 deadlocked counts leftover from his Virginia trial in August should he cooperate sufficiently.
However, Judge T.S. Ellis III, who presided over the Virginia case, says the government should either drop or relitigate the charges now in keeping with usual court procedure.
As part of [Manafort's] agreement to plead guilty to related crimes in federal court in the District, Manafort admitted guilt to those 10 charges as well.
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In exchange, prosecutors said they would dismiss the remaining counts at Manafort’s sentencing or when his cooperation with the government is complete — whichever comes later.
Ellis, who has a reputation of being tough on attorneys and who repeatedly clashed with prosecutors during the Manafort trial, said in an order issued Tuesday that the timing goes against norms in the Eastern District of Virginia.
“In this District, the government’s decision to retry a defendant on deadlocked counts is always made in a timely manner and sentencing occurs within two to no more than four months from entry of a guilty plea or receipt of a jury verdict,” he wrote. “This case appears to be no different from any other case in which the defendant is cooperating and that cooperation is expected to extend beyond a scheduled sentencing date.”
In those cases, he said, the government must decide whether to file a motion at sentencing asking for the cooperation to be considered, or file a motion after sentencing asking the judge to cut the cooperator’s prison term.
The deadlocked counts, he said, should be dismissed or retried now.
Judge Ellis set a hearing date for October 19th.
Judge T.S. Ellis orders hearing on ‘highly unusual’ timing in Manafort plea deal (WaPo)