Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman who was previously sentenced to more than seven years in prison for tax and bank fraud crimes has reportedly been released to home confinement as Covid-19 threatens prison populations nationwide.
Paul Manafort was transferred on Wednesday after filing a request for home confinement amid the pandemic, his lawyer confirmed in a statement.
The 71-year-old was picked up by family members on Wednesday morning from the low-security federal prison where he was serving his term in Pennsylvania.
Manafort’s attorneys requested he “serve the remainder of his sentence” in home confinement, “or, alternatively, for the duration of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic” in a letter to the director of the Bureau of Prisons and the warden at LCI Loretto.
The letter cited Manafort’s age and numerous health concerns — his attorneys said he suffered from “high blood pressure, liver disease, and respiratory ailments” — while claiming he was “at a significantly higher risk for serious illness or death” if her were to contract the novel coronavirus.
Manafort “currently takes 11 prescription medications daily to treat his various health conditions, 8 of which are relevant to the requested relief”, his lawyers wrote.
There have been no reported Covid-19 cases at the federal correction institute where Manafort was serving his sentence.
Still, his attorneys argued that, “given the growing number of cases in Pennsylvania and increasing challenges in testing inmates and staff potentially exposed to COVID-19, it is only a matter of time before the infection spreads to staff and inmates at FCI Loretto”.
If there were to be an outbreak within the facilities, the lawyers claimed “it may be too late to prevent high-risk inmates, such as Mr Manafort, from contracting the potentially deadly virus”.
Meanwhile, Manafort wasn’t the only one of the president’s men in prison who would be released to home confinement. Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former personal attorney, would also be reportedly transferred from the prison he where was serving his sentence by the end of the month.
The transfers came after Attorney General William Barr ordered the Bureau of Prisons to allow inmates who are most at-risk of developing severe symptoms associated with Covid-19 to instead serve their sentences at home as the pandemic continued.
Manafort was reportedly sent to hospital in February for a heart condition and also was sick with influenza and bronchitis in February, according to his lawyers.
It was not immediately clear whether the Bureau of Prisons would allow the former campaign manager to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement or if he would be forced to return to the federal correction institute after the pandemic.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has declined to comment on the matter.
