Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean said Wednesday he believed Paul Manafort's trial will proceed this month despite recent developments, including his being moved to a federal prison in Northern Virginia to be closer to his lawyers.
"I don't see that happening," Dean, who served from 1970 to 1973 and was implicated in the Watergate scandal, told CNN's Ana Cabrera about any possible trial delay. "I think they've lost a little credibility with these motions.
"The judge wants to get it moving," he said. "I think it is going to go forward.
"I haven't seen so far a really compelling reason that the judge would delay it. I think they know that.
"So, I think they're going full steam ahead."
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said Tuesday that Manafort would be relocated to a jail in Alexandria, Virginia, where he is scheduled for trial later this month.
Manafort's lawyers argued in a filing later Tuesday that their client should remain at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia, about 70 miles south of Washington.
They cited concerns about his safety and adjusting to a new jail so close to his trial date.
Manafort has been held at Northern Neck after a judge revoked his house arrest last month.
"I think Paul Manafort must have liked the present location he's in," Dean told Cabrera. "While it is a two-hour drive or more for his attorneys to get there, he's accustomed to it now — and it is not a bad place to be.
"It's a relatively new facility, it's much better than the place in Alexandria," added Dean, 79, who served his reduced federal prison time for his Watergate crimes at a U.S. Army post outside Baltimore.
"I think that's why they kiboshed the move when the judge was willing to make it, and they lost credibility with the judge — and he went ahead and made his decision."
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