The Justice Department and Roger Stone’s attorneys stay in a standoff over whether or not jurors ought to be proven a clip from “The Godfather, Half II” through the longtime Donald Trump associate’s upcoming trial.
At challenge is a four-minute scene from the 1974 film by which a character named Frank Pentangeli backtracks from giving Congress damning testimony concerning the Corleone crime family.
Stone referenced the film scene to a key witness who was about to seem earlier than lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. That makes it a “important part” of the Justice Division’s case charging Stone with lying to Congress and obstruction of justice, the federal government stated in a filing on Thursday.
The division earlier this summer time had asked U.S. District Courtroom Decide Amy Berman Jackson for permission to point out the film scene throughout Stone’s trial, which is scheduled to start out Nov. 5 in Washington and last at the very least two weeks.
But Stone’s legal professionals objected, and during a pretrial listening to final month maintained that the clip might prejudice the jury into making connections between the defendant and the Mafia. Jackson acknowledged their level and urged each side to seek out an various.
In Thursday’s five-page submitting, the Justice Division stated these talks didn’t go properly. Stone’s attorneys rejected a plan that might have involved jurors being learn a jointly written assertion describing the scene. As an alternative, they stated, the movie should come up provided that witnesses talked about it in the course of the trial.
“Within the government’s view, this confirms the significance of enjoying the brief scene for the jury,” the Justice Department prosecutors advised Jackson. “That scene performed a direct part within the very obstructive acts charged on this case.”
A breakdown in talks over the “Godfather” scene puts the difficulty back earlier than Jackson, who's scheduled to hold another pretrial convention in the future before jury choice begins on Nov. 4.
Article originally revealed on POLITICO Magazine
Src: DOJ, Roger Stone at odds over showing ‘Godfather’ clip during trial
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