A US judge has delayed the criminal trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort until next week, and made public the identity of five witnesses granted immunity to testify.
US District Judge TS Ellis III also said the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller must provide a list of about 30 witnesses to lawyers for Manafort, who had sought a delay in his criminal trial scheduled to start on Wednesday on bank and tax fraud charges.
Manafort, a longtime Republican operative and businessman, is a target of Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 US election. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial was scheduled to start on Wednesday in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. It involves 16 counts, including bank and tax fraud and failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.
According to court filings unsealed by Ellis on Monday, Mueller had requested immunity for Dennis Raico, Cindy Laporta, Conor O'Brien, Donna Duggan and James Brennan.
The Manafort charges largely pre-date the five months Manafort worked on the Trump team in 2016, some of them as campaign chairman.
None of the charges relate to possible coordination with Russian officials by members of the Trump campaign, which is part of Mueller's investigation. The Kremlin denies election interference and Trump denies collusion.
Manafort faces a second criminal trial in Washington in September on related charges, including witness tampering, in connection with lobbying work he performed for the pro-Russia Ukrainian government. His lawyers have argued they need more time to prepare for both cases.
Mueller's probe has led to multiple indictments and several guilty pleas from other Trump associates, including Rick Gates, a former Trump deputy campaign chairman who worked with Manafort. Alex Van der Zwaan, a lawyer who once worked closely with Manafort and Gates, has also pleaded guilty and has been sentenced.
