Former President Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will seek more favorable release terms Monday, after a federal court confined him to his Alexandria, Va., home while awaiting trial for twelve criminal charges.
Manafort surrendered to the FBI Oct. 30 after special counsel Robert Mueller secured a set of indictments against him for various white-collar crimes. He was released shortly after his arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson, where he pleaded not guilty to all counts.
By the terms of the current bail package, Manafort was released on house arrest and a $10 million unsecured appearance bond. Pretrial protocol requires a defendant on house arrest to submit to continuous electronic monitoring. He also surrendered all travel documents in his possession.
Manafort’s lawyers suggested new terms in a Saturday filing, seeking an end to house arrest by volunteering a considerable portion of his net-worth as bail. Manafort pledged a combination of real estate and insurance assets, offering two properties in New York City, a third in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and life insurance policies held in trust or in his wife’s name. The proffered assets total $12.5 million. He also offered to restrict his travel to Washington D.C., Virginia, Florida, and New York, all locales where he owns homes and has live business interests.
Defense lawyers argued his flight risk is significantly diminished by virtue of the fact he has little by way of overseas assets and significant familial ties in the United States. The brief also addressed sensational revelations that Manafort held three U.S. passports. The Manafort team claims one was secured for ordinary travel, while a second was used for submission with visa applications to a handful of foreign countries. The third was obtained only after Manafort lost the first one, which was subsequently recovered some months later. Lawyers say he contacted the Department of State on finding the original travel document.
“Along these travel-related lines, much has been made of Mr. Manafort’s possession of three different passports,” the filing reads. “While some reports have painted this as though Mr. Manafort is akin to a 68-year-old ‘Jason Bourne’ character, the facts are much more mundane.”
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson will consider Manafort’s proposal at a federal court in Washington Monday.
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