President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, is being held in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours per day, according to his legal team.
Manafort is currently serving time in Virginia for violating his house arrest contract after it was suspected he was witness tampering in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered the motion after deeming Manafort ill-equipped to handle the parameters of his probation. Prosecutors working for Mueller wrote that Manafort and one of his associates “repeatedly” contacted two witnesses in an effort to influence their testimony. The outreach efforts occurred after Manafort was placed on house arrest.
“Manafort’s obstructive conduct … instills little confidence that restrictions short of detention will assure Manafort’s compliance with the court’s orders and prevent him from committing further crimes,” the filing states.
Manafort will stand trial in Washington, D.C. for several felony charges in two federal cases. He has pleaded not guilty.
For his part, Trump – per usual – takes exactly no blame for Manafort’s situation.
“Well, I feel badly about a lot of them, because I think a lot of it is very unfair,” the 45th President of the United States said outside the White House in June. “I mean, I look at some of them where they go back 12 years. Like Manafort has nothing to do with our campaign. But I feel so – I tell you, I feel a little badly about it. They went back 12 years to get things that he did 12 years ago?”
Trump continued, “You know, Paul Manafort worked for me for a very short period of time. He worked for Ronald Reagan. He worked for Bob Dole. He worked for John McCain, or his firm did. He worked for many other Republicans. He worked for me, what, for 49 days or something? A very short period of time.”
With friends like these…