Paul Manafort Is Going to Jail

Trump reacted angrily—and incorrectly—to the news.

Bill Clark/Congressional Quarterly/Newscom via ZUMA Press

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman is going to jail.

A federal judge ordered Paul Manafort on Friday to stay behind bars after special counsel Robert Mueller accused Manafort of witness tampering, the latest charge in a laundry list of allegations resulting from his lobbying in Ukraine on behalf of a pro-Russian politician.

Manafort is still awaiting trial in Washington on charges that include federal conspiracy and money laundering. Prosecutors allege that his undisclosed lobbying was part of a scheme to launder more than $30 million.

Manafort has not been sentenced. Yet, Trump tweeted the following shortly after his former campaign chairman was ordered to jail:

The judge’s decision marks a stunning fall for the longtime Republican power broker, who was hired by the Trump campaign in March 2016 to help corral delegates for the eventual Republican nominee. After a power struggle with Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager, Manafort assumed the reins of the campaign before departing in August 2016 amid revelations of his foreign entanglements.

Mueller’s team said in court filings that between 2006 and 2015, Manafort advised former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia after the Ukrainian revolution in 2014.

US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson did not specify when Manafort would need to report to prison or where he would be held. Her order came “after Manafort had been asking to post a $10 million bond and end seven months of home detention,” according to the Washington Post.

Jackson said in court that she was required to show that Manafort posed a danger before ordering him to stay in jail. Even though she did not believe Manafort posed a violent threat, she said he met the legal requirement regardless. “The harm in this case is to the administration of justice,” she said. “The harm is to the integrity of this court.”

The judge rejected a request from Manafort’s attorneys for him to remain under house arrest but refrain from using electronic devices. (Manafort is accused of witness tampering by phone and text.) “This is not middle school,” she said. “I can’t take away his phone.”

Manafort has been confined to his home, but on June 4, Mueller accused him of attempting to sway witnesses into lying for him in court.

Dan Friedman contributed reporting to this story.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate