CY’S END RUN
Charges Manafort amid fears of Don pardon
The Manhattan district attorney charged Paul Manafort with a slew of mortgage fraud charges Wednesday immediately after his federal case wrapped up with a mild prison sentence — an aggressive effort to make sure the disgraced Republican operative faces prison time even if President Trump tries to pardon him.
Minutes after Manafort’s latest sentencing in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, DA Cy Vance Jr. unsealed an indictment slamming the former Trump campaign chairman with 16 counts of mortgage fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records.
The 11-page indictment charges Manafort orchestrated a massive self-enrichment scheme between December 2015 and March 2016, in which he used his former Howard St., SoHo, loft and other properties to illegally obtain at least $4 million in loans. Manafort had help from at least six unnamed co-conspirators, according to the court papers.
Trump has broad executive power to pardon whomever he wants for federal crimes, such as the ones Manafort were convicted of in Mueller’s investigation into possible election collusion between Russians and Trump associates.
However, the President cannot pardon state crimes, like the ones Vance charged Manafort with.
Sources familiar with Vance’s thinking told the Daily News that the mortgage fraud indictment serves as a fire wall to make sure Manafort faces justice in the event of a presidential pardon.
Trump has not explicitly said he will pardon Manafort but has frequently praised his former campaign chief for not cooperating with federal authorities, calling him a “brave man” who refused to “break.”
But Trump was more cautious following Manafort’s sentencing.
“I have not even given it a thought as of this moment,” he told reporters at the White House when asked if he is considering pardoning Manafort.
Vance’s announcement came on the heels of District of Columbia Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentencing Manafort to 43 months in prison on charges of money laundering and obstruction, in addition to the 47 months he had already been slammed with in a separate fraud case in Virginia.
Manafort unsuccessfully begged Jackson for compassion.
“Please let my wife and I be together. Please do not take away any longer than the 47 months,” the 70-year-old convicted criminal said. Jackson wasn’t convinced. “There is no good explanation that would warrant the leniency requested,” Jackson said, stressing it’s “hard to overstate” the seriousness of Manafort’s lies and crimes.
The Manhattan DA’s indictment against Manafort was the result of an investigation Vance’s office started in March 2017.
Vance specifically noted the alleged crimes strike “at the heart of New York’s sovereign interests.”
“No one is beyond the law in New York,” Vance said.
Duncan Levin, who used to serve in the Manhattan DA’s office as its asset forfeiture chief, said it’s indisputable Vance’s indictment is at least partially meant as a warning shot to Trump.
“The possibility of a pardon is clearly somewhere in the mix,” he said. “I think when the possibility of a pardon is dangled out there so often, it played some role in the decision.”