Federal judge orders Manafort to prison while awaiting trial News
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Federal judge orders Manafort to prison while awaiting trial

In the days leading up to the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a federal judge ordered [order, PDF] him on Friday to be detained without bail awaiting trial, citing recent witness tampering charges [JURIST report].

Judge Amy Berman Jackson in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] said that there are no conditions that would assure Manafort would not commit a crime during a period of release.

“The Court finds that even if the defendant had offered up some additional practical conditions that could to be layered on top of the terms under which he is already operating, it could not find, as the statute requires that it must, that defendant Manafort would abide by those conditions,” she said.

Manafort faces three indictments arising out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible Russian influence in US political affairs: the first [JURIST report] in October for conspiracy to launder money, making false statements, and conspiracy against the US; and the second [JURIST report] in February for false individual income tax returns, failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, bank fraud, and others; and the third for trying to persuade witnesses to lie to the jury.