TPM’s resident Roanoke attorney here. To answer your question, the city of Roanoke is an island of blue amid a sea of red in SW Virginia as a whole. The jury pool would include some of those red areas, but most jurors would still be from either the small urban area or the surrounding (purplish) suburbs. If I’m Mannafort, I suppose that raises the chance of the one hold-out juror I need (compared to a DC jury), but as the prosecution has pointed out, it’s not like the pretrial publicity is any different here.
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Any judge worth her salt wouldn’t entertain this shit. If it’s obvious to any of us here, it’ll be even more obvious to the judge. Virginia is the only other state Manafort’s lawyers can consider outside possibly New York where some of the money may have been floated for his wire transfers and other dirty dealings. (Just a guess) I’m just spitballing here but this move to a new venue will be categorically rejected.
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Actually, Clinton got 90.9% of the DC vote while Trump got 4.1%.
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Judge Berman said pretty much the same thing yesterday in court. She reasoned that Manafort’s publicity has been nationwide, not limited to D.C., and that the jury questionnaire and voir dire will address biases. I don’t see this being an appealable argument for Manafort after he loses his second court battle. I guess his attorneys need to look like they’re trying to defend him.
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If geography is the rationale, (since politics is NOT something the court really wants to acknowledge), how about San Francisco, CA. 3000 miles away and great restaurants !!
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And I want to move to beachfront property.
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Stand corrected the article I read apparently updated the info.
Didn’t they ask for the first trial to move to Roanoke as well?
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‘’…has become an unwilling player in the larger drama…’’
He was such an unwilling player in the drama that preceded the election that he was willing to work for free, foregoing millions in fees.
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It’s blatant forum shopping.
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Roanoke is 56 miles away from Lynchburg, Home to Liberty University.
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I hear you.
Manafort’s lawyers have been forum shopping from the start. It is apparently one of the only strategies they’ve got.
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Anything to disrupt. Anything to delay. Anything to tamper with witnesses. Anything to counter-sue.
Wouldn’t you think an “innocent man” would be eager to get to trial, and be proved not guilty?
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Where is the money for his defense coming from? Are his assets either frozen or not-to-be-disclosed? Did the lawyers get a huge payment up front? Are they being paid by someone whose interests may differ from manafort’s?
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I really hope Mueller recharges him for the mistrialed 10 counts and asks that the retrial be moved to Roanoke.
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I’ve visited. It’s a nice town. Lots of old money. But didn’t feel overly right-wing to me.
However:
The racial makeup of the city is about 70% White, 27% African American
But, Presidential election data: (Reagan was last time it went R)
Still, better for them than DC’s
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This again? Jeez, get some new material to keep us interested.
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Today is the deadline for his decision, I believe.
Haven’t heard anything. But I’d bet there’s only a 20% chance he retries.
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Having a client that is guilty as sin must really limit the defense strategies one can choose from.
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O I agree - it is just about all they have to work with.
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