Paul Manafort was released from federal prison to home confinement early Wednesday morning due to concerns about coronavirus exposure, his attorney Todd Blanche tells NPR.
Manafort, who was once Donald Trump’s presidential campaign chairman, is 71 years old and is serving a 7-year prison sentence.
He had been serving his time in a low-security prison in Pennsylvania after he was convicted of tax fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy. The charges were brought as part of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Manafort had sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons asking to be released to home confinement. He argued that his health and age made him susceptible to contracting the deadly virus, which can spread quickly in places such as prisons, where social distancing is difficult to achieve.
Once a globe-trotting lobbyist, Manafort has suffered a series of health challenges recently, including a hospitalization in December due to what his lawyer described as a “cardiac event.”
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