Matt Schlapp, American Conservative Union chairman and ally to President Trump, irked Twitter users on Friday when he suggested that suspected terrorists held at the U.S. military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were treated better than former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
“And not convicted of any crime as of yet. Even terrorists at gitmo were treated better,” Schlapp tweeted in response to a court filing claiming Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair, is being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day while he awaits one of his two federal trials.
And not convicted of any crime as of yet. Even terrorists at gitmo were treated better https://t.co/EFcc1EHGe4
— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) July 6, 2018
Schlapp’s assertion drew ire from political pundits online.
Read a book
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) July 6, 2018
A judge who thinks you were tampering with witnesses will throw you in jail, my love. https://t.co/84eKJcDjp3
— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) July 6, 2018
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in June revoked Manafort’s bail and ordered that he be jailed for obstruction of justice and witness tampering in his criminal trial before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Her decision followed arguments from federal prosecutors serving on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team. They argued that Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime business associate, had reached out to two men who were part of Manafort’s lobbying company, Alan Friedman and Eckart Sager, in order to affect their potential testimony.
Manafort’s trial in Washington is set to start on Sept. 17. His other case, based in Virginia, will begin earlier on July 25.
Some of the charges Manafort faces include bank and tax fraud, as well as failure to register as a foreign agent. The charges stem from Mueller’s federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
