U.S. judge apologizes to prosecutors in former Trump aide Manafort's trial

The rare apology by U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis surprised observers in his Alexandria, Virginia courtroom, who have watched the judge repeatedly criticize the government's handling of the case while giving leeway to Manafort's lawyers. "But like any human, and this robe doesn't make me anything other than human, I sometimes make mistakes." Ellis had chastised prosecutors for allowing IRS agent Michael Welch to be in court before he testified on Wednesday, saying he did not like witnesses present before taking the stand. When I exclude witnesses, I mean everybody." Prosecutors had told Ellis he had approved having Welch and other expert witnesses attend the proceedings, a point they repeated in a court filing on Thursday asking for a "curative instruction" to the jury to set the record straight.

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