Fitzgerald

MEMORANDUM **

The United States appeals the district court’s grant of a new trial to John C. Fitzgerald. We affirm.

“[A] court of appeals will only rarely reverse a district judge’s grant of a defendant’s motion for a new trial, and then only in egregious cases.” United States v. Alston, 974 F.2d 1206, 1212 (9th Cir.1992); see also United States v. Kellington, 217 F.3d 1084, 1094-95 (9th Cir.2000). “Our role is limited to determining whether the district court clearly and manifestly abused its discretion.” Alston, 974 F.2d at 1212 (quotation marks and alterations omitted).

The district court’s conclusion that a new trial was warranted due to the admission of extrinsic evidence concerning Jesse Cota and the Tax People was not a clear and manifest abuse of discretion. Fitzgerald’s credibility was of central importance to his defense. The Cota evidence had no direct link to the crime with which Fitzgerald was charged, was admitted without prior notice, and was used to impeach Fitzgerald and two character witnesses. It was particularly powerful because Cota’s alleged activities, like Fitzgerald’s, concerned tax fraud. “There can be no conviction for guilt by association,” United…