Paul Manafort, Rick Gates back in U.S. District Court, trial expected in the fall
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his former business associate Rick Gates appeared before Judge Amy Jackson in U.S. District Court on Tuesday for another hearing - a trial date has not yet been set for the two. Manafort and Gates were both indicted in October as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Their status hearing Tuesday was to address their terms of confinement and to set schedule for motions and a trial date. On Friday, Mueller's team filed papers asking for a trial date of May 14. Its status report last week said that they a substantial portion of the discovery process has been completed.
However, because the overwhelming amount of material in the special counsel's discovery, not all of the parties have had time to go through it all. Walter Mack, one of Gates' attorneys said at the hearing, "We are the least prepared of anyone here." The prosecution is expected to release more discovery on Tuesday as well. Because of increasing delays, Judge Jackson does not expect a trial date until September or October of 2018. The government thinks it needs a total of three weeks to try its case.
During the hearing, the government also brought up the civil action that Manafort is bringing against Mueller and the Justice Department, arguing that not only does the dispositive motion give him the opportunity in this venue to have his issues heard, if he does go through with it, it also makes sense for both cases to be heard by the same judge.
According to a complaint filed early January in federal court, Manafort is suing Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Manafort complains that Rosenstein didn't have authority to appoint Mueller as special counsel, which occurred after Mr. Trump fired James Comey as FBI director. Manafort argues that the appointment was an "abuse of discretion" and therefore, anything resulting from Mueller's investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election should be deemed null and void.
Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing suggested Tuesday that the civil complaint isn't asking that the indictment be dismissed. Jackson responded that she was "not entirely sure how you say what you just said," since both counts of the civil complaint are about the indictment and the appointment of the special counsel.
Jackson also addressed Gates on Tuesday about his comments he recorded that were shown at a fundraising event for his legal defense fund. She said her main issue was the journalists were invited to this party, in which he appeared to be supporting Burkman's personal opinions regarding that special counsel.
"If the press is going to be invited...," Jackson suggested, adding in a warning, "big red flag."
Burkman released a statement in response to Jackson some time after the hearing, saying she "continued her one-woman crusade against free speech."
"She warned the defendants against criticizing the special counsel in any way and warned against using surrogates to criticize the special counsel," said Burkman, adding, "Who in the world is Judge Jackson to tell anyone they can't use a surrogate? Is this Germany, 1943?"
This was the most recent status hearing for Manafort and Gates since they were warned by Judge Amy Jackson in December not to speak to the press as the case moves forward.
The judge has previously reminded both Manafort and Gates of the gag order she put in place. She had warned Manafort in December about an op-ed he helped draft to defend his reputation in Ukraine. Jackson reprimanded the two, as well as their lawyers, saying that the "case will be debated in court, not the press."
The teams present on Tuesday agreed to have their next status conference on February 14 to further work out schedules.
CBS News' Clare Hymes contributed to this story.
