President Donald Trump’s former campaign chief Paul Manafort was indicted on Tuesday for mortgage fraud and other felonies in New York, less than an hour after a Washington judge extended his federal prison sentence to more than seven years.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance unveiled 16 state felony charges against Manafort, which could not be pardoned by Trump in the event of convictions as they are state-level rather than federal indictments.
“No one is beyond the law in New York,” Vance said in a statement.
“Following an investigation commenced by our office in March 2017, a Manhattan grand jury has charged Mr. Manafort with state criminal violations which strike at the heart of New York’s sovereign interests.”
The announcement came almost immediately after Washington District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Manafort in the second of two federal cases brought against him by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Berman dismissed most of Manafort’s claims of contrition to boost his previous sentence, in a Virginia court last week, by 43 months to 90 months, a heavy punishment for the 69-year-old veteran Republican and international political consultant.
That sentence came amid widespread speculation that Trump could pardon Manafort for remaining loyal and not providing any evidence damaging to the president during the two-year Mueller investigation.
But a conviction and sentence on the new charges in New York, for mortgage fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy, could bring up to 25 more years in prison and would be outside the realm of a presidential pardon.
(AFP)
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