Meanwhile: Judge Ellis pimp slaps Honest Bob's Manafort trial AGAIN, ends court early

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Paul Manafort‘s third day on trial over charges of bank fraud and tax evasion was cut a bit short on Thursday after government attorneys made the same mistake twice in a row.

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Static filled the courtroom as the longest bench conference of the day ensued. Upon returning to Ayliff’s testimony, the jury learned that the issue had been deferred until Friday–if ever. Then, Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye asked about another term of art contained on federal tax forms.

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Judge Ellis, who was already standing by this point, advised Ayliff to wait and announced the court would recess early. After the jury left, Ellis took a few minutes to tell the press and public all about the bench conference. As it turns out, not only was Ayliff a non-noticed witness being asked to give the equivalent of expert testimony, but the prosecution and defense had already agreed on what the term “financial interest” meant. Moreover, this agreement was provided on a proposed–and approved–jury instruction. That is, not only was Ayliff not an expert and not a noticed expert as necessitated by the Federal Rules of Evidence–but his testimony had the potential to derail an already-agreed-upon definition of the term(s) in question. This, Ellis said, could have “confused or clouded” things for the jury.

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When prosecutors addressed Manafort's relationship with Ukrainian "oligarchs," he told them to knock it off. Prosecutors are inferring that Manafort associates himself with "despicable people and therefore he's despicable," he said. "That's not the American way." Descriptions of Manafort's $15,000 ostrich-leather jacket, the $6 million in cash he put toward real estate and his $900,000 in purchases at a New York boutique also left the judge unimpressed. He may not like fancy-pants lawyers, but fancy pants in America are not against the law. "The government doesn't want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, do they?" Ellis asked. "Let's move on."

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