The criminal trial of President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his business partner, Rick Gates, will likely not start until September at the earliest — putting it extremely close to the 2018 midterm elections.
On Friday, special counsel Robert Mueller filed papers asking for a trial date of May 14.
At a status conference Tuesday morning in Washington, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson declined to set a trial date, instead scheduling another status conference for potentially setting a trial date for Feb. 14.
Jackson also set a hearing on April 17 for the first round of motions from both the defense and the prosecution.
Manafort and Gates have both been charged with multiple counts stemming from Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include money laundering, tax evasion, and a failure to disclose foreign lobbying.
Both Manafort and Gates are under house arrest. According to reports, Gates could be formally released as soon as Tuesday afternoon, and one of Manafort’s attorneys said his client had difficulty fulfilling the requirements to be granted release.
Andrew Weissman, a lawyer for Mueller, indicated the team plans to ask for Manafort’s civil lawsuit against the special counsel be dismissed as early as February.
Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, said he will have “an answer in a couple of days” on if he thinks Jackson should handle both the Mueller indictment and the civil lawsuit cases.
