Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is being kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day to “guarantee his safety,” according to documents his attorney filed in court this week.
“He is locked in his cell for at least 23 hours per day (excluding visits from his attorneys),” defense attorney Kevin Downing wrote in an appeal for Manafort’s release.
In addition, Downing claimed in a brief filed on Thursday that Manafort is unable to prepare for his upcoming trials while jailed. One of those trials begins later this month.
New York magazine also reported that Manafort’s lawyers are also arguing for him to be released on the grounds that the witness-tampering charges he faces do not include alleged physical threats of violence.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team, opposing the request for Manafort’s release, said in a separate filing that Manafort’s attempt to convince two potential witnesses to lie to investigators was “no less damaging to the justice system when committed through covert corrupt persuasion than through overt violence.”
Manafort was sent to Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Va., on June 15 after Mueller asked a court to revoke Manafort’s pretrial release conditions due to his alleged attempted witness tampering.
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Manafort being kept in solitary confinement 23 hours per day to "guarantee his safety" https://t.co/tEMbKdN3Pg pic.twitter.com/MJHHUXdoyc
— The Hill (@thehill) July 6, 2018
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