LEGAL/PAUL MANAFORT/ROBERT MUELLER/TRUMP PEOPLE: “A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, has granted the request for five witnesses to testify with immunity in the criminal trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. US District Judge T.S. Ellis is also ordering special counsel Robert Mueller’s team to tell Manafort’s team the nearly 30 witnesses it is going to use in the trial. In addition, Ellis delayed the start of the trial, originally scheduled for Wednesday [7-25-18], to July 31…The five witnesses granted immunity are: James Brennan, Donna Duggan, Conor O’Brien, Cindy Laporta and Dennis Raico. Court filings do not provide details as to what each will be testifying about. A large portion of Monday’s [7-23-18] hearing was dedicated to discussing a ‘data dump’ of tens of thousands of pages of documents over the past month by the government. Manafort appeared in person at Monday’s hearing, wearing a green jumpsuit with a rumpled collar. Attorneys for Manafort said that they needed more time to review some 120,000 pages of documents, including documents and images taken from electronic devices belonging to Manafort’s former business partner Rick Gates, that were “at the heart of the issue” in the case. Prosecutors pushed back and said most of the documents were actually images and notes from Gates’ devices — not emails.”
–Evan Perez, Marshall Cohen and David Shortell, “Judge grants immunity for five witnesses in Manafort case; trial delayed until July 31,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, July 23, 2018 5:00 pm