Paul Manafort Has State Charges Dropped, Paving Way for Possible Trump Pardon

Former campaign chairman for Donald Trump, Paul Manafort’s mortgage fraud case in New York was thrown out after Judge Maxwell Wiley ruled that state law precludes prosecution on grounds of double jeopardy.  The overlap of evidence between the case in New York and the federal case was deemed “extensive… if not total” written in court papers by Manafot’s lawyer Todd Blanche.  

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Manafort is currently serving a seven and half year sentence in federal prison. The dismissal of the case against him in New York opens the door for a presidential pardon. The case in New York was looked at as a way to block such an action by the president.

New York's game of charging Trump people in NY so Trump cannot pardon them is up.

Judge just throws out NY charges against Manafort due to violation of double-jeopardy.

So much for that cute little ploy.

— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) December 18, 2019

The prosecution, in this case, issued these words in response to the dismissal “We will appeal today’s decision and will continue working to ensure that Mr. Manafort is held accountable for the criminal conduct against the People of New York that is alleged in the indictment.” with those words it appears that they will continue to push forward in an attempt to block a possible presidential pardon. 

NY state charges against Paul Manafort were dismissed; DA says he will appeal. Judge didn’t give reasoning and while some of the charges did have double jeopardy problems there were others (falsifying books & records, for ex) that appeared solid, so we’ll see how it plays out. https://t.co/CLX3jS181V

— Jennifer Rodgers (@JenGRodgers) December 18, 2019

Manafort wasn’t present in court due to a ‘cardiac event’ last week that was made public Tuesday. Currently, it stands that Manafort is scheduled to be released from prison on Christmas day in 2024 according to TheRealDeal.