The Latest: Manafort lawyers want no talk of link to Trump

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The Latest on legal motions in the criminal case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (all times local):

9:10 p.m.

Attorneys for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort want a judge to bar any mention of Manafort’s connections to the president at his Virginia trial.

Manafort’s lawyers filed their motion Friday in federal court in Alexandria ahead of next month’s scheduled trial. Manafort is charged in Virginia with hiding millions of dollars from the IRS he earned advising Ukrainian politicians. He faces a separate indictment in Washington.

In court papers, Manafort’s lawyers argue that because Manafort’s alleged crimes occurred before he ever served on President Donald Trump’s campaign, any mention of Manafort’s connections to Trump are irrelevant.

The judge in the Virginia case questioned prosecutors sharply at a hearing last month about whether Manafort’s alleged misconduct is sufficiently connected to special counsel Robert Mueller’s mandate to investigate the Trump campaign.

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3:20 p.m.

Prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller’s office want to bar former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort from arguing at his Virginia trial that he’s a victim of vindictive prosecution.

Mueller’s lawyers filed their motion Friday in federal court in Alexandria ahead of next month’s scheduled trial. Manafort is charged in Virginia with hiding from the IRS tens of millions of dollars he earned advising pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine. He faces a separate indictment in Washington.

Prosecutors also want to bar Manafort’s lawyers from telling jurors that the government investigated Manafort years ago only to decide against pursuing the case. Prosecutors say that assertion is untrue.

The Virginia judge questioned prosecutors’ motives sharply at a hearing last month, suggesting they are trying to get Manafort to “sing” against the president.