President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was released from a prison in Pennsylvania over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus through the facility.
Manafort will serve out the remainder of his sentence in home confinement after being released from the FCI Loretto prison on Wednesday morning, according to a report from ABC News citing two sources. The report has not yet been confirmed by the Bureau of Prisons, but a lawyer for Manafort confirmed the news to CBS News.
Manafort was in prison serving a seven-year sentence for tax fraud and conspiracy. He was sentenced in March 2019 and was not expected to be released until Nov. 4, 2024. Manafort’s crimes were uncovered by Robert Mueller’s investigation and were connected to his work for Ukraine from 2006 to 2015.
Attorneys for Manafort had sent a letter to the Bureau of Prisons asking for his release last month as the coronavirus pandemic began to build in Pennsylvania. The lawyers argued that Manafort, who is 71 years old and has preexisting conditions, was a high-risk patient if the virus were to spread through the facility. There have been no known cases of COVID-19 in the facility.
Attorney General William Barr issued a directive in late March to release nonviolent prisoners who were in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high risk” age groups to home confinement because of the virus. Barr had suggested that prisoners who had served 50% of their sentence or had 18 or fewer months remaining on their sentence be released but noted that it should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Manafort had served nearly 30% of his sentence.
