Manafort, 71, requested release because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the threats it poses to his health.
President Trump's disgraced former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has been transferred from prison to home confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic. Manafort, 71, requested release because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the threats it poses to his health, his lawyer, Kevin Downing, confirmed to CBS News.
Manafort was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in 2019 on charges relating to bank fraud, tax fraud and failure to disclose foreign bank accounts. The charges stemmed from two separate cases.
In a letter obtained by CBS News, Manafort's attorneys said he suffers from "high blood pressure, liver disease, and respiratory ailments" and asked prison officials at the Federal Correctional Institution Loretto in Pennsylvania to allow Manafort to go home "to serve the remainder of his sentence or, alternatively, for the duration of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic."
Spread of COVID-19 in jails is a major concern; 2,818 federal inmates and 262 staff members have tested positive for the virus nationwide, according to the Bureau of Prisons, and 50 federal inmates have died.
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