Judge Jails ex-Trump Campaign Chair Manafort Ahead of Trial

Paul Manafort is Going to Jail

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman is going to jail.

Paul Manafort was ordered into custody Friday after a federal judge revoked his house arrest, citing newly filed obstruction of justice charges.

The move by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson came after prosecutors accused Manafort and a longtime associate of witnesses tampering.

Prosecutors say Manafort and Kilimnik tried to get the two witnesses to say that lobbying work carried out by clandestinely paid former politicians only occurred in Europe and not the U.S., a contention the two witnesses said they knew to be false.

Manafort is the first Trump campaign official to be jailed as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

His attorneys have argued that Manafort didn’t do anything wrong and accused prosecutors of conjuring a “sinister plot” out of “innocuous” contacts with witnesses.

Manafort will remain in jail while he awaits two trials in the next few months.

He faces several felony charges — including tax evasion, bank fraud, money-laundering conspiracy and acting as an unregistered foreign agent — related to his Ukrainian political work, money he funneled through offshore accounts and loans he took out on property in the U.S