Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing asked for permission for his client to be dressed in street clothing both on Friday and at all subsequent court appearances, rather than a dark green prison jumpsuit. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo Legal Judge orders Manafort to court in prison clothing A Mueller prosecutor also says the special counsel’s office is ready for the judge to schedule Manafort’s sentencing date.

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected Paul Manafort’s request to wear a professional suit during a hearing later this week about his sentence, noting the former Trump campaign chairman is now a felon who has lost the right to wear street clothing in all his court proceedings.

“This defendant should be treated no differently from other defendants who are in custody post conviction,” U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III wrote in a sharply worded order. The decision and its tone signal Manafort may be facing a very different environment when he returns Friday to the same Alexandria, Va., courtroom for a hearing to discuss his ongoing cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller and to begin the process of setting a sentencing date.


Ellis oversaw Manafort’s trial in August and has summoned the longtime GOP operative, his lawyers and Mueller's prosecutors back to the courthouse to resolve a series of questions surrounding the special counsel’s plan to dismiss deadlocked charges against Manafort only after he’s finished cooperating in the Russia probe.

Ahead of the hearing, Manafort attorney Kevin Downing had asked Ellis for permission that his client be allowed to dress in street clothing on Friday and at all subsequent court appearances, rather than a dark-green prison jumpsuit.

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But Ellis denied the request. In a brief footnote, the judge explained that while Manafort was allowed to wear street clothing during his trial as part of his right to due process, he’s now been convicted by a jury on multiple counts for filing false tax returns, failing to register his foreign bank accounts and bank fraud and also pleaded guilty in a federal court in Washington, D.C., to other criminal charges.

“Thus, defendant is no longer presumed innocent of the multiple criminal courts he stands convicted of, and therefore is not entitled to appear in street clothing at court proceedings,” Ellis wrote.

Friday’s hearing will be Manafort’s first time back to the Alexandria courthouse since a jury convicted him on eight counts in August while failing to reach a verdict on 10 other charges. Ellis has said he wants to discuss a part of the plea agreement stipulation in which Mueller has pledged to seek the dismissal of the outstanding charges in Virginia upon the completion of Manafort’s “successful cooperation.”

In a two-page order last week, Ellis called the arrangement “highly unusual” for the federal district court in Northern Virginia where a government makes decisions to retry defendants on deadlocked counts “within two to no more than four months from entry of a guilty plea or receipt of a jury verdict.”

Addressing Ellis’ concerns, Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann in a Wednesday filing said the special counsel’s office is ready for the judge to schedule Manafort’s sentencing date. Weissmann added that Manafort’s lawyers and the government were open to the deadlocked counts being dismissed at Manafort’s sentencing or when Manafort is finished with his cooperation, leaving the decision up to Ellis.

“To the extent the court seeks immediate action on the outstanding counts, the government does not oppose their dismissal without prejudice,” Weissmann wrote.

Manafort has met multiple times with Mueller’s prosecutors as part of the plea deal, and the special counsel and the former Trump campaign aide’s lawyers face a separate Nov. 16 deadline to file their first joint status report on his sentencing with the federal judge in Washington overseeing the case.

