Former US attorney says Manafort will likely go to prison Friday

Former U.S. attorney Harry Litman said he expects President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to be sent to federal prison by the end of the week.

“Prosecutors hate this, judges hate this, and he’s going to have to bring his toothbrush to court on Friday because the statute says, if they find this happened, there’s a presumption that no circumstances exist that will get him safely there for trial,” Litman said Tuesday on MSNBC.

“So there’s the real prospect that he now goes to jail, never to leave even until the end of his sentence,” he said. 

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Litman’s comments came days after special counsel Robert Mueller said in a court filing that Manafort attempted to tamper with potential witnesses while on pretrial release. Mueller on Monday asked the court to revoke or revise his release conditions in response to the court filing.

Litman, who now lectures at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law, condemned Manafort’s alleged actions on Tuesday.

“This is the stupidest thing that a defendant can do, this sort of witness tampering,” he told MSNBC. “He’s looking at being in prison, which is a very sort of focusing event, by Friday,” Litman continued. 

Last month marked the first anniversary of the start of Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and his probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

The special counsel hit Manafort with a 12-count indictment last year, which included conspiracy against the United States, tax fraud and money laundering.

Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which have no direct relation to his work for the Trump campaign.