Meet the Judge Presiding Over the Manafort and Gates Case
By Andrew M Harris
Paul Manafort, his business partner, head back to courtroom
Judge has ruled on Benghazi, Fast-and-Furious, Jackson Jr.
When ex-Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and his business
partner, Rick Gates, appear in court Thursday, it will be their first
appearance before the judge who’ll preside over their money laundering
and conspiracy case: a Harvard Law School graduate appointed by
President Barack Obama.
In
just six years on the bench, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has
a record on hot-button issues that might cause President Donald Trump’s already overheated Twitter feed to burst into flames.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson
Photographer: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo
Earlier
this year, for instance, she dismissed a lawsuit filed by the parents
of two of the four Americans who died at the U.S. compound in Benghazi,
Libya in 2012, seeking to hold Trump’s election opponent Hillary Clinton
responsible.
And four years ago, she sided
with the Obama administration request and put on hold a lawsuit by
House Republicans demanding papers related to former Attorney General
Eric Holder’s botched Fast-and-Furious gun-tracking operation.
That said, she also declined to dismiss the suit and, last year, rejected an executive branch privilege claim and directed delivery
of the documents. She also sentenced former Illinois congressman Jesse
Jackson Jr., a Democrat, to 30 months in prison after he pleaded guilty
to charges arising from his misuse of campaign funds.
Release Terms
A
Baltimore native born in 1954, Jackson served as District of Columbia
federal prosecutor, where she received a commendation for her work on
murder and sexual assault cases before going into private practice.
She’s been a partner of criminal defense lawyer Plato Cacheris at the
firm now known as Trout Cacheris & Janis, and of one-time U.S.
Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, when both were at Venable LLP.
As
a defense lawyer, Jackson defended former Louisiana Congressman William
J. Jefferson, who was sentenced in 2009 to 13 years in prison for
bribery. Last month, he was ordered freed from prison after a judge
tossed out seven of 10 charges against him. She defended a man accused
of one of the largest mortgage frauds in Virginia history -- he got
seven years in prison after pleading guilty -- and she represented
Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and other banks in a financial fraud
class-action lawsuit.
Judge Amy Berman JacksonPhotographer: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo
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