WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (all times local):
4:25 p.m.
President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was handed a setback Friday as a judge rejected his attempt to throw out some of the criminal charges against him.
Manafort had argued that he had been charged twice for the same offense of lying to the government and that the piling up of the charges could prejudice a jury against him.
But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson says in a ruling that any harm to Manafort at this stage in his criminal case could be handled by “proper” jury instructions.
Jackson dismissed Manafort’s motion without prejudice, allowing him to revisit it after his trial, scheduled for September.
In addition to the lying charges, Manafort is accused of acting as an unregistered foreign agent and carrying out a money-laundering conspiracy.
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2:20 p.m.
A federal judge in Virginia has delayed the trial of President Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III says in an order Friday that he’s pushing back Manafort’s trial on tax evasion and bank fraud charges because of a medical procedure involving a member of Ellis’ family. Manafort’s trial is now scheduled to begin July 24.
The judge is considering Manafort’s challenge of special counsel Robert Mueller’s authority.
Manafort argues that Mueller shouldn’t have been able to prosecute him because the charges don’t stem directly from Russian election interference. Prosecutors have countered that Mueller was specifically authorized to investigate Manafort for financial crimes and his political work in Ukraine.
A judge in Washington has rejected Manafort’s argument in his separate criminal case there.
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