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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Judge in Manafort trial has a sharp wit, sharp tongue |
| 2018-08-03 |
| WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ "I’m not in the theater business," Judge T.S. Ellis asserted during jury selection in Paul Manafort’s financial fraud trial. "You have to be better-looking for that." Objection, Your Honor. The trial of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman has plenty of drama and it’s coming from the judge. Easily exasperated, and with a sharp wit, the U.S. district judge called out attorneys for both sides this week when he heard they’d been rolling their eyes, apparently at him. The judge judged their expressions to mean, "Why do we have to put up with this idiot judge?" Privately, lawyers who have appeared before him say Thomas Selby Ellis III likes to be seen as the smartest person in the courtroom, not a huge leap for a judge. With his Princeton-Harvard-Oxford education and experience spanning consequential cases in an era of war and terrorism ‐ "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh’s among them ‐ Ellis is known to cut lawyers down to size, sometimes subtly, sometimes not so much. That’s what happened when Justice Department attorney Michael Dreeben, a legend in legal circles, appeared at a pre-trial hearing in the Manafort case. As soon as Dreeben began making his arguments for the prosecution, Ellis cut in ‐ "Would you spell your name for the record?" That’s not a question he asks others appearing in his Washington-area Eastern District of Virginia court. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #2 Hack AP writer can't say anything else so he focuses on trivia to dis da' Judge,,, |
| Posted by: magpie 2018-08-03 17:45 |
| #1 And the AP comes to the defense of Mueller. Heaven forbid a judge should require him to actually make a legitimate case. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2018-08-03 17:02 |