Mueller expects case against Stone to take five to eight days in court

Special counsel Robert Mueller expects it will take five to eight days for the government to present its case at trial against Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Trump.

Mueller and U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu told federal District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in a new filing Friday that’s how long they expect it to take to prove their case. They said their calculation includes time for the defense to cross-examine witnesses. 

{mosads}Stone, who was arrested on Jan. 25 on charges stemming from Mueller’s Russia investigation, will get an opportunity to call witnesses of his own, which would add time to the trial, but he is not obligated to do so. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of obstructing a congressional inquiry, witness tampering and making false statements. 

The special counsel’s office said the estimate does not include evidence, if any, introduced by the defense after the government rests its case.

Mueller’s office is jointly prosecuting the case with the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Marando told Jackson last month that the government likely won’t be ready for a trial until sometime this fall given the amount of evidence in the case, which prosecutors have referred to as “voluminous and complex.” 

Jackson agreed on Feb. 1 to give the parties more time to prepare for trial and ordered both sides to return to court for a status conference in the case on March 14.