Former Trump advisor Paul Manafort is going to jail.
A federal judge in Washington D.C. revoked Manafort’s bail after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team accused the operative of tampering with witnesses, following charges that included “conspiracy against the United States.”
Mueller’s team alleged Manafort obstructed justice alongside his former colleague Konstantin Kilimnick—who was also indicted by the special counsel earlier this month. The Washington Post reported that both associates were charged for trying to persuade two witnesses to tell investigators that Ukrainian lobbying efforts did not occur within the United States.
Kilimnick is believed to reside in Russia, and is unlikely to face arrest since Russia does not extradite its own citizens.
Although Manafort had been placed on house arrest ahead of his July trial, prosecutor Greg Andres said in court that it was likely Manafort would continue criminal activity.
“There is nothing on the record of this court that assures that Mr. Manafort will abide by [any] conditions” of pre-trial release short of jail, Andres said, according to The Post.
Manafort was indicted alongside his deputy, rick gates, this past fall for undisclosed foreign lobbying efforts. It has been widely reported that Manafort owed substantial funds to Russian oligarch Oleg Vladimirovich Depripaska following the 2008 financial crisis, frequently touting his role within the Trump campaign as a means to curry favor.
Born in the working class city of New Britain, Connecticut, Manafort used his lobbying practice to catapult him into an international powerbroker. After meeting the arms dealer Abdul Rahman Al Assir in the late ’80s, the operative’s “lifestyle came to feature opulent touches that stood out amid the relative fustiness of Washington,” according to The Atlantic.
Sensing an opportunity in then-candidate Trump, the operative assumed control of his campaign and was given much-needed political life support and the opportunity to pay off past debts to Depripaska. Instead, however, he wound up as a human sacrifice amid reports that Russia sought to influence the 2016 election.
Rather than overlooking stunning panoramas of the Swiss Alps and the Red Sea, the Jay Gatsby of international lobbying will reflect on his rise and fall in a jail cell.
