‘Manafort trying to avoid house arrest’
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort offered to post more than $12 million in real estate and life insurance assets and to limit his travel in a bid to avoid continued house arrest, according to court documents.
Manafort and associate Richard Gates had pleaded not guilty to a 12-count indictment by a federal grand jury on charges including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the US and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government.
In the Saturday court filing, Manafort offered to limit his travel to New York, Washington and Florida. He also pledged life insurance worth about $4.5 million as well as about $8 million in real estate assets, including a property on Fifth Avenue in New York that was identified by some media outlets as an apartment in Trump Tower.
FIRED OVER ‘CONFLICTS’
President Trump, in a television interview to be aired on Sunday, said he fired Manafort to avoid “potential conflicts” with “certain nations.” “We found out something about (how) he may be involved with ...certain nations,” he told Sharyl Attkison’s syndicated television show Full Measure. “There was a point at which we just felt Paul would be better off, because we don’t want to have many potential conflicts.”