and josh, where do we leave the relationship between this judge, this very unique judge appointed by president ronald reagan, and the prosecutors? strained is how we leave it. and it seems both sides were allowing their emotions to be seen more publicly today or at least their feelings of each other as the trial came to a close. a lot of the proceedings today almost everything outside the presence of the jury except for a very brief moment really where manafort s lawyer confirmed that they would not put on any evidence, and did that in front of the jury. even today the lead prosecutor on this case, greg andres and the judge went back and forth once again about comments the prosecution thinks the judge made that they believe may have undercut their case. and the judge actually sort of mocked the prosecution saying, oh, that really hurt the government in a sarcastic tone about one of the statements he made, which seemed to go
and the answer is does he have something special up his sleeve? the answer is clearly no. it really was an overwhelming case and it s so strong on paper. the best line of the day, greg andres, the star witnesses here are the documents. the evidence to all observers, anyone who s watched it from the beginning, is overwhelming. and i think the only possibility there wouldn t even be more than one or two holdouts. that is the best hope now, however, for manafort. there s just there s just no possible road to acquittal. interestingly, rudy giuliani seemed to suggest last night that robert mueller s team has not gotten back on giuliani s proposal and the scope for a presidential sitdown because they re waiting for the manafort trial to end. here s what he said on cnn. are you any closer to having a deal with mueller to sit down? no.
honor. to which the judge says, that really hurt the government, didn t it? mr. andres says well, i. the judge says, never mind. never mind. then the transcript reflects a pause in the proceedings. the judge is like, have you ever done that? the one prosecutor goes gulp. the other one in the back goes yeah, your honor, you did. whether he. oh, that really hurt you? there s been all there will wringing of hands and legal fighting over this judge in the manafort case inserting himself in dramatic fashion into the trial. that devolved today in the final day of wrangling before the case goes to the jury tomorrow devolved into the judge i think having a sort of sarcastic outburst this never mind, never mind outburst at the prosecutors today. at least that s how it reads. was it like that exactly in person? joining us is josh gerstein, senior reporter at politico in
national security and justice report for nbc news, and daniel goldman, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, now an msnbc legal analyst, both outside the courthouse. first to you, dan goldman, let s talk about the argument from the prosecution. how did they do, what was the jury s response? how would you size it all especially? absolutely, andrea. in about an hour and 45 minutes, prosecutor greg andres very meticulously and persuasively led the jury through the boatload of documentary evidence. interestingly, given all the fireworks around rick gates testimony, greg andres did not mention rick gates until almost an hour into his closing argument. really what he said was the star witness was not rick gates but he actually said, the star witness is the documents. and he only spoke for about five minutes on rick gates, and really just focused on the
he handles his courtroom in a district court that is known for actually being very aggressive about ensuring that cases move very quickly. i think what we re seeing really is much more about the personalities that happen in any given trial. the primary issue is the law and the evidence. this is a case, in which if anyone s crying in that courtroom, it should be paul manafort. betsy woodruff, you know the ins and outs of this team well. that exchange with mueller s prosecutor reflects some of the tensions, as maya says, the prosecutors want to be in command. what did you make of both that moment and what else we ve learned today, and the manafort strategy of trying to undermine rick gates. the friction between greg andres, the prosecutor involved in that exchange and the judge is instantly. andre has stepped away from a lucrative private practice gig to get on board with the mueller team. he s one of a number of prosecutors who walked away from