Trump Ex-Campaign Chair Paul Manafort Going To Jail
WASHINGTON, DC (CBS News) -- Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is heading to jail pending his trial, a federal judge decided Friday. Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that Manafort has violated his pre-trial release and has detained him pending trial, CBS News' Clare Hymes reports.
He was in court to face superseding charges accusing him of witness tampering, charges to which he pleaded not guilty. Manafort had previously been out on bail on house arrest, but the government requested that his bail be revoked.
Jackson said she didn't feel she could draft an order broad enough to include any potential future violation.
"This is not middle school, I can't take away his cellphone," she said in court.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has brought additional charges against Manafort and longtime associate Konstantin Kilimnik, accusing them of obstructing justice.
The new charges were unsealed last week against Paul Manafort and Kilimnik, who worked in the Ukraine offices of Manafort's firm, Davis Manafort Partners International (DMI). Mueller is accusing Manafort and Kilimnik of tampering with two witnesses. Manafort is awaiting trial in federal court in Washington and Virginia on felony charges related to his work on behalf of Ukrainian interests.
The witnesses, who had worked with Manafort as he represented a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, have told the FBI that they believed Manafort and Kilimnik were trying to get them to lie about the nature of their work.
Mr. Trump on Friday said he hadn't spoken to Manafort in a while, distancing himself from his former campaign manager.
"Well, I feel badly about a lot of them, because I think a lot of it is very unfair," Mr. Trump said. "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?"
"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."
On Friday afternoon, the president did question the revocation of Manafort's bail. "Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns," he tweeted. "Didn't know Manafort was the head of the Mob." He also included a comparison to "Comey and Crooked Hillary."
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