Mark Wilson/Getty Images List offers glimpse of looming Manafort trial Dozens of lawyers and lobbyists appear on a roster that jurors were given of figures with ties to case.

A newly released list of people “associated with” the upcoming trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort offers a fresh indication of how broadly the legal showdown could sweep through Washington’s law and lobbying establishment.

The roster, released on Wednesday as part of a questionnaire distributed to potential jurors in the case, includes witnesses likely to testify at Manafort’s trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent, money laundering and obstruction of justice.


However, a top prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller cautioned at a court hearing that the list includes many people who are not expected to testify but whose names may come up in documents or in other witnesses’ testimony.

Many of the figures on the list are connected to law, lobbying or public relations firms that worked on campaigns Manafort organized to promote the interests of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, his Party of Regions or related political groups in Ukraine.

The questionnaire includes 17 people from the Podesta Group, 13 connected to Fact Based Communications, nine affiliated with Mercury, seven with law firm Skadden Arps, two with FTI Consulting and one from Edelman. Podesta Group shut down last year. London-based FBC entered liquidation in 2012.

None of the names on the list are shocking, but some point to undisclosed aspects of the Mueller probe. Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, appears in the questionnaire along with three former European officials previously linked to Manafort’s Ukraine-related lobbying effort: former Prime Minister Romano Prodi of Italy, former Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer of Austria and former President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland.

Cavusoglu has not been previously connected to the Manafort case, but he served as president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2010 to 2012, a period just before Manafort began organizing outreach to former European officials in an effort to promote Yanukovych’s interests. Cavusoglu also served as an election observer in Ukraine in 2012.

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At a court hearing Wednesday, an attorney for Manafort indicated plans to try to put the law, lobbying and public affairs firms at the center of the upcoming trial by arguing that the former campaign chairman is the victim of an unfair double standard and was singled out because of his connection to Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

“These are all folks that were treated very differently by the [Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act] office and the Office of Special Counsel than Mr. Manafort,” attorney Kevin Downing said. “You can’t exclude the politics. Mr. Manafort is here because he was Trump’s campaign manager.”

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson seemed inclined not to allow Manafort’s lawyers to make a direct selective-prosecution argument to the jury at the trial, which is set to begin later this month. However, Downing said documents related to the case would make plain the unusual treatment his client received.

Also on the list of people “associated with the case”: Akin Gump attorney Melissa Laurenza, who lost a legal battle last year to invoke attorney-client privilege to avoid testifying about her handling of Manafort’s FARA filings; consultant Sam Patten, who pleaded guilty last week to failing to register for Ukraine-related work he did to influence the incoming Trump administration last year; Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni; and a slew of vendors who sold Manafort home renovations, home theaters, pricey suits, luxury vehicles and other items he allegedly bought with untaxed proceeds from his Ukraine work.

The questionnaire calls the roster a “partial list” of people connected to the case and asks potential jurors whether they “have any personal, family or business connection of any sort” with those listed. Potential jurors were summoned to the federal courthouse in Washington on Tuesday to complete the questionnaire, which was not made public until Wednesday.

Jury selection is expected to begin on Sept. 17, but some in the jury pool could be excused based on their written answers before then. Those whose answers require follow-up will be questioned one by one in private, the judge has said. Opening arguments in Manafort’s trial are set to begin Sept. 24.

A separate trial on other tax- and bank-fraud charges, also brought by Mueller’s office, ended last month with a jury in Alexandria, Virginia, convicting Manafort on eight counts and deadlocking on 10 others.

