Paul Manafort‘s trial on tax evasion, bank fraud, money laundering and other charges is set to start in about a month. | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Mention of Trump campaign may be off the table at Manafort trial

The former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and special counsel Robert Mueller have finally found something they can agree on.

Mueller‘s prosecutors and Manafort‘s defense team filed separate motions with a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday asking to block lawyers at an upcoming trial for the longtime lobbyist and political consultant from mentioning his stint at the helm of the Trump campaign in 2016.


The requests came in court filings spurred by Manafort‘s looming trial next month on charges of tax evasion, bank fraud and failing to report overseas bank accounts.

Mueller’s team went first, asking U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis to prevent Manafort‘s defense from arguing to jurors that he was targeted for prosecution because of his role in Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

“Manafort should … be precluded from arguing that he has been singled out for prosecution because of his position in the campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump, or otherwise asserting that he has been selectively prosecuted by the Special Counsel’s Office,” Mueller’s team wrote.

Prosecutors noted that Manafort never filed a legal motion asking for the case to be dismissed on selective-prosecution grounds.

“Courts have consistently held that claims of selective (or vindictive) prosecution must be presented to the court before trial and cannot be argued to the jury,” the government filing said. “The government’s reasons for initiating a prosecution have nothing to do with whether the evidence at trial proves the elements of the charged offenses, which is the sole question that the jury must answer.”

Manafort‘s defense followed up a short time later with an even broader motion asking to bar any discussion at all of the defendant‘s role in the Trump campaign, as well as all mention of Mueller‘s mandate to investigate potential collaboration between Trump‘s team and Russia.

“Evidence or argument relating to Mr. Manafort‘s work for then-candidate Trump’s campaign in 2016 or the Special Counsel’s investigation of the campaign’s alleged collusion with the Russian government is wholly irrelevant to whether Mr. Manafort’s personal income tax returns were false, whether he willfully failed to file reports of foreign accounts, and whether he conspired to commit, or committed, bank fraud,“ Manafort‘s attorneys wrote.



The defense lawyers’ motion also evinced concern that their client could become the victim of anti-Trump bias among potential jurors.



“There is a very real risk that the jurors in this case — most of whom likely have strong views about President Trump, or have likely formed strong opinions as to the well-publicized allegations that the campaign colluded with Russian officials — will be unable to separate their opinions and beliefs about those matters from the tax and bank fraud matters to be tried before them in this case,“ Manafort‘s lawyers added.

Mueller’s team is also looking to sideline several arguments that Manafort’s defense has leveled in pretrial litigation, including claims that Mueller has exceeded the scope of his mandate as special counsel and that his office has filed charges that ordinary Justice Department prosecutors passed up prosecuting years ago.

“Any such argument would be misleading to the extent it suggests that the Department ceased investigating Manafort before the appointment of the Special Counsel and had decided not to bring charges against him,” the prosecution wrote. “It would also not make a fact more or less true. Instead, it would again invite jurors to consider impermissible factors.”

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Ellis, the judge in the Virginia case, has yet to rule on Manafort’s motion arguing that Mueller went beyond his legal authority in bringing the case.

Manafort also faces another case brought by Mueller in federal court in Washington, charging him with money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent in connection with his lobbying related to Ukraine.

Manafort‘s team asked on Friday that prosecutors be barred from making any mention of the Washington case, including new charges that the veteran lobbyist tampered with witnesses by trying to coach them about their testimony. Those allegations led the judge there, Amy Berman Jackson, to revoke Manafort‘s home detention last week and order him jailed. The defense also wants to keep jurors in the Virginia case from knowing that Manafort was jailed.

“The fact that Mr. Manafort‘s bail package was revoked and that he was remanded to jail poses a substantial danger of unfair prejudice; specifically, that at least some jurors in this case will be likely to view Mr. Manafort as someone who is already in jail because he must have violated the law and that, therefore, it is more likely that he is guilty of the charges against him in this case,“ the defense attorneys wrote.

The trial in the Virginia case is set to open in about a month, on July 25, with the D.C. trial set to follow on Sept. 17.

