Phantom of the Courthouse: Manafort trial is Trump-free zone

Donald Trump is the phantom of U.S. District Courtroom 900.

His name has rarely been uttered during the two-week trial of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. References to his campaign and administration have slipped in only through carefully scrubbed exchanges. The Trump name has been so studiously avoided that when the trial judge said "Mr. Trump" during a morning hearing Thursday, courtroom spectators jumped

This is the first major courtroom test of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian contacts with the Trump campaign. But the president's absence is strictly intentional. All sides have feared that too much Trump could prejudice the jury somehow — and they don't know which way — in a case that has little to do with the most polarizing figure in American politics.

Mueller's team, Manafort's attorneys and U.S. District Judge T. S. Ellis III all took actions — either before trial or during proceedings in the historic Alexandria courthouse — to erase almost all mentions of the president.

"There is a very real risk that the jurors in this case — most of whom likely have strong views about President Trump, or have likely formed strong opinions as to the well-publicized allegations that the campaign colluded with Russian officials — will be unable to separate their opinions and beliefs about those matters from the tax and bank fraud matters to be tried before them in this case," Manafort's lawyers said in a June filing.

Trump's absence from the trial also has much to do with how the special counsel's team has built its case and the way Manafort's lawyers responded.

The prosecution's massive cache of Manafort-related emails and financial documents — and the witnesses that prosecutors put on —were largely designed to establish a narrative that Manafort's crimes were of his own making and committed long before he took over Trump's campaign in April 2016.

In any case, the trial does not involve allegations of Russian election interference or possible coordination with the Trump campaign. But the president has been watching it closely as he seeks to publicly undermine Mueller's probe. In recent weeks, Trump has blasted out tweets minimizing Manafort's campaign role and comparing him — sympathetically — with mobster Al Capone.

Manafort's attorneys, too, have mostly steered clear of Trump references, preferring to go after the prosecution's star witness, Rick Gates — who also worked for Trump — and chip away at the government's hundreds of emails, tax documents and financial records.

The trial's Trump sensitivity held to the end. In closing arguments, defense attorney Richard Westling listed all of the Republican presidents and national candidates that Manafort had advised to show his bona fides as a "highly regarded political consultant."

They included "Trump" but said no more about him.

So it was no surprise Thursday morning when courtroom spectators waiting for Ellis to send jurors to deliberate on Manafort's fate suddenly looked up, startled.

Ellis had addressed a well-coiffed man in a dark suit sitting in a back row about a routine criminal case.

"Mr. Trump."

For a moment, as spectators swiveled around, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Trump, no relation, had the courtroom's rapt attention.

Then, grinning, he answered the judge's question.

President Trump's role — or lack thereof — in the case has been an issue from the outset.

In a filing last June, the defense had submitted a formal motion asking Ellis to prohibit any evidence concerning "Manafort's or the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with the Russian government." Prosecutors agreed to limit their references to the Trump campaign but said they wanted to make reference to it during testimony concerning Manafort's bank fraud charges.

"We'll try to do it in a discreet way, but it's hard to take out those facts, if not impossible," prosecutor Greg Andres said during a later hearing. Ellis agreed to restrict references to Trump, but gave prosecutors leeway to carefully use them in the bank fraud evidence.

At trial, prosecutors flashed an image on courtroom wall screens of a note between Manafort and Gates documenting a 2013 meeting and a request to leave a group of tickets "for Trump."

The reference was never explained in testimony.

Defense lawyers also ventured into Trump territory as they tried to sting at prosecution witness Gates. Lawyer Kevin Downing asked whether Mueller's investigators had interviewed Gates about his role in the Trump campaign.

That prompted an immediate objection from prosecutors and a sidebar conference with Ellis.

Associated Press writer Matthew Barakat contributed to this report.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).

Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.

That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.

In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.

Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.

In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.

“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.

Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.

It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.

“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.

It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.

While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.

“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.

Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.

Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)