By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
A jury will reconvene Friday morning after failing to reach a verdict during its full day of deliberations in the fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Just before the jury said it wanted to go home at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, the panel asked Judge T.S. Ellis to clarify the meaning of “reasonable doubt,” the threshold for acquittal. The judge clarified that the prosecution must prove their case beyond “doubt based on reason,” not “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The jury also asked three other questions, including the legal requirements to disclose foreign bank accounts and the definition of “shelf” companies.
Ellis provided no insight, except to say the jury should rely on their “collective recollection.”
The jury will reconvene at 9:30 a.m. Friday to determine whether Manafort is guilty of 18 counts of tax and bank fraud, which prosecutors said the Republican consultant committed to indulge in an excessive lifestyle that included more than $6 million on seven homes, $820,000 ons manicure the lawns, a $21,000 black titanium and crystal watch, a $15,000 ostrich jacket and an $18,000 python jacket.
If convicted, Mueller could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The jury’s decision in the first trial brought forward by special counsel Robert Mueller carries a lot of weight for special counsel Robert Mueller and President Trump, who has long complained that the investigation is a “witch hunt” designed to force him out of office.
Whatever the case, Manafort faces a second trial in several months on money laundering charges, and prosecutors are expected to have even more evidence in that case.
