Former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and his business partner, Rick Gates, are set to have their first appearance in court Thursday in front of a judge appointed by former President Barack Obama.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson will preside over the federal court case concerning charges against Manafort and Gates including money laundering and conspiracy. She was appointed to the court in 2011 and has ties to Democrats.
Like Obama, Jackson graduated from Harvard Law School. She donated $1,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 Democratic presidential campaign and dismissed a lawsuit brought against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in May by relatives of victims of the 2012 Benghazi attack.
Jackson ruled that Clinton did not grant access for the attack by communicating through her private email server and also said the former secretary of state did not defame the victims’ families in the aftermath.
“Her actions – communicating with other State Department personnel and advisers about the official business of the department – fall squarely within the scope of her duty to run the Department and conduct the foreign affairs of the nation as Secretary of State,” Jackson wrote in a ruling.
Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty to multiple federal charges including conspiracy against the United States in court Monday.
Manafort and Gates were indicted in a federal court on 12 counts, including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States, and making false and misleading statements. The two pleaded not guilty in front of U.S. District Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson Monday afternoon.
The conditions for the release of Manafort and Gates will be home detention with daily reporting to law enforcement. The two were also be forced to surrender their passports. (RELATED: Manafort And Gates Plead NOT Guilty)
The indictment related to the core of Mueller’s Russia probe, which began in May when the former FBI director was appointed special counsel, does not mention Trump’s name once. Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to investigate Russian interference in the U.S. election, as well as any related issues, including possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.
Jackson will be the one to make the final decision on what happens to Manafort and Gates and will be seeing the two for the first time Thursday.
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