The decision from U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson would put Paul Manafort (pictured) on trial at the height of the midterm campaign season. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Judge sets Sept. 17 trial date for Manafort on Mueller charges Move could put former Trump campaign chairman on trial at height of midterm election season

A judge in Washington on Wednesday set a Sept. 17 trial date for former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort on charges from special counsel Robert Mueller, including money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent.

The decision from U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson would put Manafort on trial at the height of the midterm campaign season, a potentially unwelcome distraction for Republicans as they try to maintain majorities in Congress.


Manafort also faces the prospect of another trial in Alexandria, Virginia, on a separate indictment Mueller's team obtained earlier this month accusing the veteran lobbyist and political consultant of 18 counts of tax and bank fraud. Manafort is scheduled to be arraigned in that case on Friday. No trial date has been set there.

During the brief hearing Wednesday morning at which Jackson scheduled the Washington trial, Manafort stood before the judge and entered a formal "not guilty" plea to a revised indictment in the D.C. case that effectively transfers to Virginia some charges related to offshore bank accounts.

Jackson also scolded Manafort and his team for a statement his spokesman issued Friday maintaining his innocence despite the guilty pleas tendered earlier that day by his longtime aide, Rick Gates, who is now cooperating with Mueller's office.

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The judge said the comments appeared to run afoul of the order she issued in November limiting public statements about the case by lawyers involved and by the defendants.

"I can understand the impulse to not let that go by without stating your innocence, [but] in issuing that statement about the prosecution, I believe it's contrary to the order," said Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama.

Jackson said she wasn't going to take action in response to last week's statement but warned she would if there were further violations.

Manafort defense attorney Kevin Downing indicated that he believes Jackson's order and a 1991 Supreme Court precedent it cited do not authorize a complete blackout of all comments by the parties in a criminal case. The defense lawyer said, as he's suggested before in court, that he plans to file a motion to clarify the order.

The order's language does not appear to bar all public comments by the parties and lawyers but only those "that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case."

However, Jackson noted that she offered both sides the opportunity to object to her order last year and neither did. "I'll read anything you file," she said.

During Wednesday's hearing, the judge also expressed some concern about "overlap" between the Washington case and the Virginia one, although she said ultimately the burden of two successive trials is likely to fall most heavily on the defense.

"It seems the government is setting itself up to put on the same evidence twice in different courtrooms," Jackson said. "There's a risk of inconsistent [rulings] on the motions and evidentiary rulings and jury findings."

Ultimately, though, Jackson said she didn't view the parallel cases as a big problem. "The burden is at its least on the courts. We can handle two trials," she said.

Prosecutor Greg Andres stressed that Mueller's team gave Manafort the option to face a single case in Washington on all the charges, but Manafort declined to waive his right to have the tax charges brought in Virginia, which is where he lived when he filed the tax returns at issue.

Jackson predicted the case in Virginia will move along rapidly in a court known for hosting what many lawyers call a "rocket docket."

"You'll have a trial date soon there," she said.

As Manafort sat at the defense table Wednesday, there was much more room than at past sessions. It was the first public court hearing in the case at which Gates and his legal team were absent.

At the outset of the hearing, the judge expressed her condolences to Manafort about the death of his father-in-law last week.

Jackson has rejected a couple of offers by Manafort to secure his release from house arrest by pledging properties to secure the $10 million bail. But the former Trump campaign chairman thanked the judge for allowing him to travel to Long Island earlier this week to attend wake, funeral and burial services for his father-in-law, Joseph Bond, who died Saturday at age 89.

"I appreciate the court's indulgence," Manafort said just before his arraignment Wednesday.

