Manafort released over coronavirus fears
Ex-Trump campaign chief confined at home
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been released from prison and is now in home confinement as the coronavirus pandemic spreads in the federal corrections system.
Todd Blanche, one of Manafort’s attorneys, said the 71-year-old was released Wednesday morning. Manafort is serving a combined sentence of 71⁄2 years in prison from two criminal cases that resulted from the special counsel investigation of Russia’s election meddling in 2016.
Manafort was convicted in Virginia for a scheme to defraud banks and taxpayers out of millions of dollars he had amassed through illicit lobbying. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges of not disclosing his lobbying work and tampering with witnesses in a related Washington, D.C., case.
Last month, Attorney General William Barr announced a plan to expedite the release of vulnerable prisoners to home confinement as infections and fatalities mounted.
“Given the speed with which this disease has spread through the general public, it is clear that time is of the essence,” Barr said then.
Barr asked Bureau of Prison officials to grant home confinement based on factors including prisoners’ age and vulnerability to COVID-19, their conduct in prison, and the crimes for which they were convicted.
Last month, Manafort’s attorneys asked prison officials to release him to home confinement, saying his age and health conditions put him at “high risk” of a COVID-19 infection.
“It is imperative that Mr. Manafort be transferred to home confinement immediately in order to minimize the likelihood of Mr. Manafort contracting or spreading the potentially fatal disease,” attorney Kevin Downing wrote.
Manafort’s attorneys said their client would serve his confinement with his wife in a three-bedroom apartment in northern Virginia. Transferring Manafort there “will not increase – and would likely decrease – his risk of contracting the potentially fatal disease,” they said. They said Manafort, who was forced to surrender assets estimated to be worth more than $20 million because of his crimes, would be “able to support himself financially during home confinement.”
Manafort suffers numerous health conditions that could make him more vulnerable to the coronavirus, including high blood pressure, liver disease and respiratory illness, his attorneys said. He takes 11 daily prescriptions to treat those conditions. The lawyers said he was hospitalized for a heart condition in December and had the flu and bronchitis in February.
In a court filing last month, an official said the Bureau of Prisons is prioritizing inmates who have served 50% of their punishment. Officials are also prioritizing inmates with short prison sentences: those who have 18 months or less left and have served 25% of their time.
Manafort has served only about 25% of a 47-month sentence and was scheduled for release in November 2024. The prison where he was held also isn’t among the facilities where Barr said officials should prioritize releasing inmates. But prison officials have wide discretion over who is granted home confinement.
Since late March, 2,471 inmates have been designated for home confinement, the Bureau of Prisons said.
As of Wednesday, 2,818 inmates and 262 staffers have been infected with COVID-19 across the federal prison system. Fifty inmates have died. The pandemic has not reached the low-security prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania, where Manafort was held. His attorneys said it’s only a matter of time before the infection spreads in the facility.