Judge in Manafort case chides lawyers over sealed filings
WASHINGTON — The judge presiding over the criminal prosecutions of two of the men charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation chided lawyers Wednesday for the number of sealed filings they’ve made, and said she was determined to set a trial date soon to keep the case moving forward.
Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump, and his business associate Rick Gates were in federal court on Wednesday for a routine status conference. Both were indicted in October on charges related to lobbying work on behalf of a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party. They have pleaded not guilty.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that while she understood the need to protect certain information, such as bank account numbers and names of family members, she thought the lawyers had been “overdoing it” with the amount of filings being made under seal and out of public view. She ordered that several filings in the case be added to the public docket in at least redacted form.
“The fact that this case is of significant public interest is not a reason to seal things,” the judge said. “It’s a reason to unseal things.”