Paul Manafort’s legal problems keep going from bad to worse
The legal problems of Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, have been going from bad to worse. The 70-year-old Manafort is already serving seven and one-half years in federal prison, but when he appeared in a courtroom in New York City on Thursday, June 27, he was fighting separate accusations and entered a “not guilty” plea to mortgage fraud charges. And if he is ultimately convicted, there is a possibility that Manafort could end up with even more prison time.
The mortgage fraud charges Manafort pled “not guilty” to were not federal charges, but rather, charges in New York State and were part of an indictment by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. And the fact that Vance is prosecuting Manafort at the state level is important.
In 2018, Manafort’s federal prosecution and trial in Alexandria, Virginia were a result of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Manafort was never accused of criminally conspiracy with Russian government officials, and when Mueller wrapped up his investigation earlier this year, he concluded that the 2016 Trump campaign’s interactions with Russians — although questionable — never reached the level of a full-fledged criminal conspiracy. But Mueller’s team found a mountain of evidence of tax and bank crimes on Manafort’s part, and he was convicted on multiple counts last year.
Trump has made it abundantly clear that he considers the Russia investigation a joke and believes that Manafort never should have been prosecuted in the first place. And there has been much speculation among legal analysts on whether or not Trump will grant Manafort a presidential pardon for his federal crimes — which he has the power to do.
Trump, however, does not have the power to pardon Manafort at the state level, and Vance’s prosecution of Manafort is a New York State prosecution — not a federal prosecution. In Manhattan, Manafort has been indicted on 16 counts, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office alleges that the long-time Republican Party operative gave false information when applying for residential mortgages in 2015, 2016 and early 2017.
Another subject that legal analysts have been debating is whether or not the indictment in New York State might constitute double jeopardy. Manhattan prosecutors have insisted that there are no double jeopardy problems in their indictment, asserting that there is no overlap between their charges and the charges Manafort has battled at the federal level. But Manafort’s attorneys are expected to challenge his New York State prosecution on double jeopardy grounds.
How much longer Manafort will remain in prison remains to be seen. If Trump pardons him at the federal level but he is convicted on multiple counts in New York State, he could still end up spending a lot of time in prison — although it would be a state prison in New York State rather than the federal facility in Pennsylvania where he is presently being held.
On the other hand, if Trump pardons Manafort at the federal level and he is acquitted in New York State, it isn’t out of the question that he could be free in a few years. But Vance isn’t the only prosecutor in New York State who has been thinking about Manafort: New York State Attorney General Letitia James (a Democratic firebrand who has been vehemently critical of Trump and his allies) is obviously keeping a close eye on Vance’s case against Manafort. And for now, Vance’s office is going full speed ahead with its prosecution of President Trump’s 2016 campaign manager.
