By Chris Sommerfeldt
New York Daily News
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort barely sees the outside of his jail cell, preventing him from prepping his defense for the two separate trials he’s facing, his legal team said in a court filing Friday.
Manafort, who was indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller on a laundry list of charges relating to his pro-Kremlin business dealings in Ukraine, spends “at least” 23 hours per day in solitary confinement at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Va., the Washington, D.C., filing states.
“The detention order — which has already prejudiced Mr. Manafort’s trial preparation profoundly — is fatally flawed,” the papers charge, adding the strict conditions make it “effectively impossible” for the ex-Trump campaign chief to prepare for his trials, the first of which is set to begin on July 25 in Washington.
A spokesman for Manafort did not respond to a request for clarification on what the phrase “fatally flawed” means.
The Friday filing states Manafort is being held in solitary confinement because “the facility cannot otherwise guarantee his safety.”
Manafort, 69, was sent to jail last month after Mueller’s investigators alleged he had attempted to secure false testimony from potential witnesses in the investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin.
Manafort’s lawyers are petitioning to reverse the ruling.
His second trial is slated to begin on Sept. 17 in Virginia. In court papers he waived future personal appearances in that case, citing the two hour trip there from jail.
Manafort faces charges of conspiracy against the U.S., money laundering and failure to register as a foreign agent in the Washington case. He separately faces tax and bank fraud charges in Virginia.
Most of the counts relate to lobbying work Manafort did for ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who lives in exile in Russia and is wanted in his home country for high treason.
Trump, who frequently blasts Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt,” has tried to distance himself from Manafort in recent months, telling reporters his former campaign chief had “nothing to do with our campaign.”
