Appeals court says Manhattan DA can’t prosecute former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort due to double jeopardy rule

A New York state court appeals panel ruled Thursday that Paul Manafort, the disgraced former chief of President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, cannot be prosecuted on state criminal charges related to the same conduct that led to his federal criminal convictions.

The ruling upheld a decision last December by Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Maxwell Wiley, which said that the rule of double jeopardy barred Manafort from being prosecuted for mortgage fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office.

“It is undisputed that the federal charges of which defendant has already been convicted involve the same fraud, against the same victims, as is charged in his New York indictment,” the ruling, issued by the state Supreme Court’s appellate division, said.

The ruling could stop efforts to put Manafort back behind bars and to short-circuit the effect of a possible pardon of him by Trump for his federal convictions.

Manafort was released from prison last May to serve the balance of his 7½-year federal sentence in home confinement due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic spreading in prisons.

Vance’s spokesman, Danny Frost, said in response to the ruling, “We will consider our appellate options.”

Manafort’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, in an emailed statement said, “We are pleased” with the decision.

“As we have said from the time the District Attorney announced charges against Mr. Manafort, this is a case that should never have been brought because the dismissed indictment is a clear violation of New York law,” Blanche said.

“As the Appellate Division held, the People’s arguments ‘fall far short’ of triggering an exception to double jeopardy that would justify this prosecution.”

Manafort, 71, was convicted at a federal trial and in a subsequent guilty plea in another federal court in 2018 of multiple crimes related to money he earned from consulting work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. His work in Ukraine predated his service in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The longtime Republican operative was charged with state crimes in an indictment obtained by Vance right after being sentenced on the federal charges in 2019.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/22/paul-manafort-court-says-da-cant-prosecute-trump-campaign-chief.html