“The jury in the criminal tax and bank fraud trial against one-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort signaled in a note to the judge Friday afternoon they are unlikely to reach a verdict before the weekend,” The Hill reports.

“In a note to Judge T.S. Ellis III, the jury said they would like to finish at 5 p.m. because one of the jurors has an event they would like to attend. Ellis said he will bring the jury back in the courtroom at 10 minutes to 5 p.m. to ask what time they would like to reconvene on Monday.”

“Defense attorneys for Paul Manafort rested their case on Tuesday without calling any witnesses or having the former Trump campaign chairman testify in the trial where he is accused of bank and tax fraud,” Reuters reports.

“At the same time, the judge overseeing the trial rejected Manafort’s motion to throw out the 18 charges against him.”

Politico: “Closing statements will begin Wednesday, with jury deliberations to follow.”

Yahoo News: “As the trial of President Trump’s former campaign chairman resumes today, it appears prosecutors from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office have decided not to call three seemingly key figures. The absence of these witnesses offers intriguing hints about potential ongoing investigations and additional prosecutions that could yet take place.”

“A verdict in Paul Manafort’s Virginia trial could come as early as this week, but it will hardly be the last word on his fate. A conviction would threaten to jail Manafort, 69, for the rest of his life. But he would have the option to appeal — or hope for a politically explosive pardon from President Trump,” Politico reports.

“Even if a jury acquits the former Trump 2016 campaign chairman on the tax and bank fraud charges that special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors have detailed out over the past two weeks, Manafort is hardly out of the woods.”

“Most notably, the longtime GOP operative still faces a second federal trial slated to begin in mid-September in Washington. And that case, accusing Manafort of money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent while lobbying for the government of Ukraine, could be even more challenging.”

“Paul Manafort’s criminal trial on bank- and tax-fraud charges, speeding along for nearly two weeks, came to a mysterious halt Friday morning as the federal judge and lawyers for both sides huddled out of earshot of the public,” Politico reports.

“Rumors swirled through the ninth-floor courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, about what the delay could mean — from a looming guilty plea from the former Trump campaign manager, to Judge T.S. Ellis III conceding his second mistake in two days, to an issue with the jury — but there were no clear answers.”

Update: CNN reports the trial has resumed after a five hour delay.

“The federal judge overseeing the Paul Manafort trial took another shot at special counsel Robert Mueller’s team Thursday afternoon, even after conceding earlier in the day that a criticism he leveled at prosecutors on Wednesday was erroneous,” Politico reports.

“The prosecution spent about 40 minutes Thursday afternoon questioning a bank employee about Manafort’s unsuccessful effort to get a $5.5 million construction loan on a Brooklyn brownstone, only to have Judge T.S. Ellis III suggest that the issue was unworthy of such extensive discussion at the trial. Notably, Ellis made the remark with the jury present.”

Federal prosecutors prosecutors in the criminal trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said that they might not call Manafort’s former business associate Richard Gates to testify, The Hill reports.

Said Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye: “He may testify in this case, he may not.”