Judge T.S. Ellis III called an unexplained five-hour recess this morning at Paul Manafort’s trial. He set the time for reconvening, and then was 1/2-hour late returning. Then when he called for the Prosecution to call its next witness, Attorney for the United States, Andres reminded him he hadn’t yet called back the jury.
1/2-hour late. Forgot to call the jury.
And he STILL hasn’t informed anyone as to the reason for the recess….
Alexandria, Virginia (CNN)After a nearly five-hour delay, the prosecution in Paul Manafort's trial called its first witness of the day on Friday afternoon, with the lengthy delay still unexplained in the courtroom.
Judge T.S. Ellis returned to the courtroom at 2:22 p.m. ET, more than a half hour after they were scheduled to reconvene. After conferring with attorneys for the prosecution and defense briefly, Ellis said: "Mr. Andres, you may call your next witness."
Prosecutor Greg Andres reminded him the jury still needed to be brought in.
The courtroom erupted in laughter. There's has been no word from Ellis or the attorneys about the reason for the long delay.
This, after his forgetting about an agreement the Prosecution made for one of their witnesses. Chiding them wrongly for allowing their witness into the courtroom before being called. Prosecution also was forced to file a motion for comments the Judge made to the jury, which were opposite to facts of the government’s case.
Is he buckling under the pressure of an extremely high-profile case?
Is he losing his mind?
What gives?
Even Fox News is wondering what’s up with this judge:
Napolitano: Judge in Manafort Trial Showing an 'Extraordinary Bias' Against the Government
'I'm not happy with this judge.'
"He's making too much of the case about him and he's showing an extraordinary bias against the government."
He said if Ellis feels that negatively about the prosecution, then he should keep those feelings to himself or he shouldn't be on the case.
"The jury can't be happy with this judge because of the snide, snarky comments," Napolitano said.
See more from the judge in the clip above, including his thoughts on the testimony of Rick Gates, a former business partner of Manafort.
And these Napolitano comments were made TWO DAYS ago.
Yesterday Judge Ellis was forced to apologize for his treatment of the Prosecution team.
Judge T.S. Ellis admitted he was "probably wrong" for scolding prosecutors during the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. CNN's
Kara Scannell reports.
I hesitate to call race into this situation, but Attorney Andres is an African-American. Could this have anything to do with his behavior?
Also, remember that initially this judge rebuked the Prosecution for even bringing these charges to trial
Today, Judge T.S. Ellis III gave a smackdown to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecution team in its case against former Trump campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who was indicted in connection with the Special Counsel’s probe for conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, being an unregistered agent of foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, and false statements.
During a hearing today, Judge Ellis suggested that Mueller’s team lied about the scope of the investigation, and seek “unfettered power” as part of a play to unseat the President.
“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort,” said Judge Ellis. “You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever.”
Additionally, Judge Ellis demanded the unredacted “scope memo” that congressional Republicans have sought.
