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NY Prosecutors Appeal Manafort’s Double Jeopardy Dismissal

FILE - In this June 27, 2019 file photo, Paul Manafort arrives in a New York court. President Trump's former campaign manager is to be arraigned on state mortgage fraud charges. Manafort's lawyers filed court papers late Wednesday, Sept. 5, that seek to have his New York mortgage fraud case dismissed, arguing the charges filed in the wake of his federal convictions amount to double jeopardy. The state case involves the same alleged conduct as federal cases that landed him behind bars. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

New York prosecutors seeking to revive state mortgage fraud charges against Paul Manafort say their case is distinct from one that sent President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman to federal prison and should not have been thrown out on double jeopardy grounds.

In appeal paperwork made public Thursday, Manhattan prosecutors argued Judge Maxwell Wiley took an “exceedingly broad view” in reaching the conclusion last December that their case mirrored Manafort’s 2018 federal trial in Virginia.

Manhattan prosecutors contend their case was exempt from state double jeopardy protections because the charges involved different aspects of some of the offenses covered in the federal case, which ended with Manafort convicted on eight counts of tax and bank fraud and a hung jury on 10 other counts.

Manafort, 71, was released to home confinement in May because of concerns about the coronavirus less than a year into his nearly 7½-year sentence for the Virginia conviction and a subsequent guilty plea in a separate federal case in Washington, D.C.

A message seeking comment on the appeal was left with Manafort’s lawyer.

Prosecutors submitted paperwork outlining their appeal in April to the state court’s Appellate Division, but it was not posted to the docket until Thursday because of coronavirus-related closures.

In dismissing the mortgage fraud case in its early stages, Judge Wiley dealt a blow to what had widely been seen as an attempt by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., a Democrat, to hedge against the possibility Trump would pardon Manafort for federal crimes.

“Basically, the law of double jeopardy in New York state provides a very narrow window for prosecution,” Wiley said, explaining his ruling at the time.

Manafort was convicted in federal court on charges alleging he misled the U.S. government about lucrative foreign lobbying work, hid millions of dollars from tax authorities and encouraged witnesses to lie on his behalf.

Vance announced the state charges just minutes after Manafort’s sentencing in March 2019, saying in a statement at the time: “No one is beyond the law in New York.”

The New York indictment alleged Manafort gave false and misleading information in applying for residential mortgage loans, starting in 2015 and continuing until three days before Trump’s inauguration in 2017. Manafort was also charged with falsifying business records and conspiracy.

(AP)



One Response

  1. I have a message for you NY Prosecutors:- Drop the case RIGHT NOW and stop wasting our taxpayers money on a “no case”, or/& you shall be disbarred.

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