A district court judge declared a mistrial on all eight counts in the trial of former Jack Abramoff lobbying associate Kevin Ring today after jurors said in a note to the judge that they were "totally blocked" and could not come to a verdict on any charge.

Judge Ellen Huvelle asked the jury foreman if any amount of time would change the jury's deadlock. "No, your honor," he responded.

Huvelle said earlier today that she would be declaring a mistrial on seven of the eight charges after jurors said in a note that they were deadlocked on those charges. But the judge asked the jury to return to deliberations on the final charge after jurors said they were no longer unanimous on a verdict for that count, though they had claimed to have reached unanimity on it earlier in the week.

After about two hours of additional deliberation, the jury remained deadlocked on the eighth charge, a count of honest services wire fraud that involved the wife of former Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., who had been employed by Abramoff's lobbying team.

The court will now begin hearings to determine if and when the case will be retried. Immediately after Huvelle declared a mistrial, attorneys for the prosecution and defense met with the jury to learn some details of their deliberations. Based on that information, the prosecution may decide not to retry Ring if the jury was near acquittal, or Ring may decide to take a plea deal with the government if the jury was near conviction.

Huvelle said that a retrial will likely not begin until at least January. The defense argued that the court should further delay a retrial because of pending Supreme Court cases that could affect the honest services wire fraud statute, among other concerns.

"I think it would be a mistake" to rush to an immediate retrial, Ring's attorney, Andrew Wise said.