Manafort sent to jail before trial

WASHINGTON — A federal judge revoked Paul Manafort’s bail and sent him to jail Friday to await trial, citing new charges that Manafort had tried to influence the testimony of two of the government’s witnesses after he had been granted bail.

Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, had posted a $10 million bond and was under house arrest while awaiting his September trial on a host of charges involving money laundering and false statements.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said Manafort could not remain free, even under stricter conditions, in the face of new felony charges that he had engaged in witness tampering while out on bail.

Trump, in a tweet Friday, defended Manafort and criticized Jackson’s decision.

“Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns,” 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!”

In a superseding indictment filed last week, the prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert Mueller, claimed that Manafort and a close associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, had contacted two witnesses earlier this year, hoping to persuade them to testify that Manafort had never lobbied in the United States for Viktor Yanukovych, the proRussia president of Ukraine.

The government alleges that Manafort violated the law by failing to report those lobbying efforts to the Justice Department and by lying to federal authorities about his activities. Manafort