President Donald Trump’s former 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort may be facing even more charges. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is seeking to reinstate charges of mortgage fraud it previously dropped.
“The Manhattan DA’s office argued, according to court filings, that the state’s double jeopardy law contains an exception that would allow the case to proceed,” ABC News reports, noting that the case had been “dismissed in December due to its similarity to earlier federal charges.”
But according to court documents the Manhattan DA’s office believes there is a legal means to prosecute Manafort anyway.
“[The statute] permits a successive prosecution where the offenses in the second prosecution contain different elements and the defining statutes were designed to prevent very different kinds of harm or evil than the offenses in the first prosecution,” the court document states.
Manafort was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison, but is now serving in home confinement due to concerns over the coronavirus.
Earlier Thursday Trump 2016 campaign CEO Steve Bannon, was indicted on fraud charges.