Lev Parnas heads to court this week, but he's concerned that the media will make him look bad. The problem, however, is that it wasn't the media, it was Parnas speaking to the media on camera.
Politico's Josh Gerstein uploaded the court documents explaining they would like potential jurors to be asked a series of questions that could help lawyers understand whether they have seen or read media about him, including his own interviews with CNN, MSNBC and others.
"There have been two prior criminal trials of defendants with highly publicized connections to former President Donald J. Trump," the documents explain with citations. "In both, as explained more fully below, the courts recognize the elevated risk of juror bias in a high profile, politically charged case and sought to mitigate that risk by employing a written juror questionnaire."
"This case is being tried in a political climate that makes the use of a questionnaire essential. It is well-documented that political polarization in the United States is at extreme levels. Members of opposite political affiliations are more likely to harbor distrust and animus towards each other," the letter also claimed.
The exhibits are littered with citations from the New York Times, New York Post and Wall Street Journal. It cited over 124 articles at the Times, including one that spoke to Parnas.
The exhibits go on to cite a Times interview Parnas gave to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, "which the author remarks 'his dramatic interview on the eve of Trump's impeachment trial shouldn't be taken seriously. That's because much of what he says has been corroborated, and because the very fact that a person like Parnas was carrying out high-level international missions for the president shows how mob-like this administration is.'"
