Manafort faces NY charges, more jail time

WASHINGTON: New York prosecutors filed mortgage fraud and other charges against Paul Manafort (pic), Donald Trump’s former campaign chief, just minutes after he was sentenced to an additional 43 months in prison in another case.

Manafort, 69, who appeared in court in a wheelchair due to gout on Wednesday, is now facing a total of 7.5 years in jail after going before two federal judges for tax crimes, bank fraud and conspiracy charges.

Trump has previously dangled the possibility of a pardon for Manafort, who headed his White House bid for two months in 2016, but the president said on Wednesday that he has “not even given it a thought.”

“I do feel badly for him,” he added. “I think it’s a very sad situation.” Trump could pardon Manafort for the array of federal crimes he has been convicted of, but he would be unable to do anything about a potential conviction in New York state, where the latest charges were brought.

“No one is beyond the law in New York,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in announcing the 16-count indictment of Manafort.

Manafort’s prosecution is one of the most high-profile cases stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether any members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

Trump seized upon Manafort’s sentencing by Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington to claim it had been “proven again today” that “there was no collusion” between anyone on his election campaign and Moscow.

But Jackson, in sentencing Manafort for conspiracy charges, did not say the case had proven there was no collusion – she merely said the question of collusion was “not presented in this case.”— AFP