Paul Manafort Is Going To Jail Pending His TrialA federal judge made the decision after the special counsel's office accused President Donald Trump's former campaign chair of attempting to tamper with potential witnesses in his criminal trial.
June 15, 2018, at 10:50 a.m.
Paul Manafort was ordered jailed pending his trial — a decision a federal judge made after the special counsel's office accused President Donald Trump's former campaign chair of attempting to tamper with potential witnesses in his criminal trial.
US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson announced the ruling in court Friday. Manafort was immediately taken into custody. He appeared calm. He was led to a nonpublic area behind the courtroom, turning to briefly wave at his wife before going back.
Jackson found that in light of the new allegations from special counsel Robert Mueller's office that Manafort and his longtime associate Konstantin Kilimnik had repeatedly attempted to call and text two former business associates starting in February — an effort that one of those associates told an investigator he understood to be an effort to "suborn perjury — she could not craft release conditions that she thought would be sufficient to protect the community. Manafort did not pose a physical danger, she said, but he presented a danger to "the administration of justice."
"I cannot turn a blind eye to these allegations ... You have abused the trust placed in you six months ago," Jackson said.
Jackson denied a request by Manafort's lawyer to put her order on hold to give the defense an opportunity to appeal her decision, a request that special counsel prosecutor Greg Andres opposed. Jackson said she was concerned that in light of her order, Manafort's risk of flight had just "multiplied."
Jackson rejected a request by Manafort's lawyer to consider imposing a clearer "no contact" order covering his communications going forward in lieu of incarceration, arguing he had "largely" been in compliance with her pretrial release conditions until now.
"This is not middle school. I can't take his cell phone," Jackson said.
Jackson chastised Manafort for his behavior in the case over the previous months, noting it was not the first time she had to address his compliance with her rules. Earlier in the hearing, she had pointed to a previous incident in which prosecutors accused Manafort of violating Jackson's order against making public statements prejudicial to the case, citing his role in editing an op-ed that ran in a Ukrainian newspaper about his case. Jackson did not find him in violation of the order, but warned him to be careful going forward.
The judge said she was troubled that Manafort seemed "to treat these proceedings as just another marketing exercise."
Before the ruling on his detention pending trial, Manafort pleaded not guilty to the latest superseding indictment in his case — which added charges of obstruction of justice relating to the witness tampering allegations. Manafort already had been facing charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering conspiracy, failing to disclose to the US government the extent of his work on behalf of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and other Ukrainian entities, and making false statements.
Jackson then heard arguments on whether Manafort should be able to stay out of jail pending trial.
Lawyers from the special counsel's office said they didn't believe there were any conditions that could assure the court Manafort would comply with orders if he is released again, saying he engaged in a "sustained campaign." Manafort's lawyer argued there should just be a more clear "no contact" order added to the conditions of his release pending trial.
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