If former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has been lying to prosecutors in the hopes of securing a pardon from President Donald Trump, he will be in for a nasty surprise should such an event ever come to pass.
Bloomberg is reporting that New York state prosecutors have “put together a criminal case against Paul Manafort that they could file quickly if the former chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign receives a presidential pardon.”
According to Bloomberg’s sources, attorneys working for New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. have uncovered potential tax fraud crimes committed by Manafort that they could choose to prosecute should Manafort ever be released from prison by Trump.
Vance’s office started investigating Manafort in March 2017, two months before Robert Mueller was even appointed as special counsel and even longer before Manafort was indicted for tax fraud, conspiracy against the United States and other charges.
Bloomberg says that Vance’s prosecutors have found evidence of “evasion of New York taxes and violations of state laws requiring companies to keep accurate books and records,” although there is some worry that some of these charges could overlap with charges leveled by Mueller, which could constitute double jeopardy.
“Vance’s office has identified several areas where it believes Manafort can be charged with state offenses without triggering double jeopardy protections,” the report claims. “For example, New York law allows defendants who have already been convicted of evading federal taxes to be charged with the same conduct as it applies to state taxes. As a part-time resident of New York, Manafort has some exposure.”
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