Odd counsel Robert Mueller is asking a judge to grant immunity from prosecution for five aptitude witnesses whose testimony Mueller wants to compel at the upcoming federal black hat trial of former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort, agreeing to a court filing Tuesday.
If the five unidentified people are not granted invulnerability — and compelled to testify against Manafort — they would either repudiate to take the witness stand or refuse to answer questions by citing their Fifth Change right against being forced to incriminate themselves, according to Mueller’s walk in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
Mueller has also asked Justice T.S. Ellis to seal from public view the court motions enumerating the witnesses’ identities.
“The five individuals identified in the motions at issue are third carousals who have not been charged in this matter, and who have not been identified publicly with the crate,” Mueller’s team argued in a filing asking for that sealing non-sequential.
“Disclosing the motions would reveal those individuals’ involvement in the review and the trial, thereby creating the risk of their undue harassment.”
Prosecutors also averred that the witnesses could suffer “reputational harm” if their put of Fifth Amendment protection and grant of immunity were to be revealed publicly.
“Sealing is also felicitous because the information contained in the motions could lead to reputational wrong,” prosecutors wrote.
Mueller’s team noted that if the individuals do declare at Manafort’s trial, their identities would become public.
Mueller is beseeching Ellis to give the witnesses what is known as “use immunity,” which would restrain prosecutors from using their testimony as evidence against them in a bad case, other than one in which they are accused of perjuring themselves in that information. The special counsel is not asking for so-called transactional immunity for the witnesses, which inclination give them protection from being prosecuted ever for the points mentioned in their immunized testimony.
Manafort’s trial on charges that list bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and tax crimes is due to open July 25 in Alexandria court.
That case, and another impending federal case against him in Washington, D.C., both relate to consulting and lobbying plan Manafort did on behalf of pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.
A spokesman for Mueller declined to expose on the motion seeking immunity for the five witnesses.
Manafort’s lawyer Jay Nanavati did not without delay respond to a request for comment.
Manafort, 69, is currently being over b delayed without bail in a jail in Alexandria. His $10 million release treaty was revoked by another federal judge last month after Mueller accused him of troublesome to tamper with potential witnesses.
After his scheduled trial in Alexandria, Manafort is set to go on ass in Washington on Sept. 17.
— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Tucker Higgins