CELL, PAUL
Judge cites new obstruction charges
ia is slated to start next month.
President Trump on Friday both defended and attempted to distance himself from his former campaign chief.
“I feel badly about a lot of it because I think a lot of it is very unfair,” Trump said. “I feel a little badly about it. They went back 12 years to get things that he did 12 years ago.”
Manafort is charged with running the money laundering scheme from 2006 through 2017.
The President also falsely claimed that the beleaguered strategist only worked on his campaign for 49 days.
However, Manafort ran the Trump campaign for 144 days — from the end of March through mid-August in 2016.
Most of the charges against the President's erstwhile campaign captain relate to his work for Russian-friendly politicians in Ukraine.
In the latest superseding indictment, filed earlier this week, prosecutors claim Manafort and former business associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, obstructed justice when they “knowingly and intentionally” attempted to push witnesses off testifying truthfully in the forthcoming trials.
Trump again backed Manafort in a tweet Friday afternoon — incorrectly referring to his being jailed as a “sentence.”
“Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort,” Trump wrote. “Didn't know Manafort was the head of the Mob. What about Comey and Crooked Hillary and all of the others? Very unfair!”
Trump's lawyer, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, balked at Manafort's pretrial incarceration.
"I don't understand the justification for putting him in jail. They haven't proved anything that warrants that," the former federal prosecutor said. "You put a guy in jail if he's trying to kill witnesses, not just talking to witnesses."
Nick Gravante, a New York-based white-collar criminal defense lawyer with Boies, Schiller and Flexner, said it was near impossible to understand why Manafort would think it was OK to discuss his case with anyone even remotely related to the special counsel's investigation.
"Any criminal defense lawyer who defends someone like him should have told him, ‘Do not discuss this case with anyone,' ” Gravante told the Daily News. “That's what you hire a lawyer for. If he's out there doing it on his own accord I'm sure it's contrary to his lawyers' advice, because I can't believe they wouldn't have instructed him to not discuss this.”
Manafort has maintained his innocence throughout the pretrial process and pleaded not guilty to the latest charges. But his longtime business partner and Trump campaign aide Rick Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators in February.
Mueller has been tasked with investigating Russia's attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election in Trump's favor and whether any Trump associates coordinated with the Kremlin.
Two other Trump campaign associates — George Papadopoulos and former national security adviser Michael Flynn — have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Charges have also been brought against 13 Russian nationals, three Kremlinlinked companies, a California man and a Dutch lawyer.