Paul Manafort moved to hospital during prison term
NEW YORK — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been hospitalized while serving his federal prison sentence.
Manafort, who is serving more than seven years in prison after being convicted as part of the special counsel’s Russia investigation, was moved to the hospital last Thursday from a federal prison in Pennsylvania, his attorney confirmed Tuesday.
The attorney, Todd Blanche, said Manafort’s family and friends are “extremely concerned about his health and still do not have a full understanding of his medical condition or well-being.”
“We were relieved to learn this afternoon that Mr. Manafort’s condition is stable, and we are hopeful that he makes a speedy recovery,” Blanche said in a statement.
Manafort, 70, is suffering from a heart-related condition, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday. They were not permitted to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Blanche slammed the federal Bureau of Prisons, which he said refused for days to provide any information about his client’s condition, citing privacy and safety concerns, other than to say that Manafort was “safe.”
Manafort was among the first people to be charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which examined possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election campaign.
Manafort, who was prosecuted in two federal courts, was convicted by a jury in federal court in Virginia last year and later pleaded guilty in Washington. He was sentenced in March and immediately hit with state charges in New York that could put him outside the president’s power to pardon.
New York prosecutors accused him of giving false information on a mortgage loan application.
A hearing in New York on Manafort’s state case is expected to go on Wednesday as scheduled, without him in the courtroom. A judge is expected to rule on a defense motion seeking to have the case dismissed on double jeopardy grounds.
A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons said she could not provide the AP with specific information about an inmate’s medical condition because of security and privacy concerns.
The hospitalization was first reported by ABC News.
