By Aaron Miller-
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been released from jail and transfered to home confinement because of the threat COVID-19 poses to his health.
Manafort was picked up by two family members at LCI Loretto, the low-security federal prison in Pennsylvania where he has been serving his term.
In March 2019, Manafort was sentenced to a total of 90 months – or 7.5 years – in two separate cases involving tax and bank fraud and related charges.
On April 13, his attorneys, Todd Blanche and Downing, wrote a letter to the director of the Bureau of Prisons and the warden at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Loretto to request the immediate transfer to home confinement “to serve the remainder of his sentence or, alternatively, for the duration of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.”
The multiple maladies he suffers from including “high blood pressure, liver disease, and respiratory ailments, were all highlighted in the letter, The Eye Of Media.Com was told.
Manafort “currently takes 11 prescription medications daily to treat his various health conditions, 8 of which are relevant to the requested relief.” His lawyers said that the medications, along with his health history, “make plain that Mr. Manafort is at a significantly higher risk for serious illness or death.”
There are no reported cases of COVID-19 at FCI Loretto , but his lawyers given the growing number of cases in Pennsylvania and increasing challenges in testing inmates and staff potentially exposed to COVID-19, it is only a matter of time before the infection spreads to staff and inmates at FCI Loretto, at which time it may be too late to prevent high-risk inmates, such as Mr. Manafort, from contracting the potentially deadly virus,” his lawyers said.
In late March and early April, Attorney General William Barr instructed the Bureau of Prisons to increase the use of home confinement among older inmates with underlying conditions as a means to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within the country’s prison system.
Scott Taylor, spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, told CBS News in a statement at the time that he wouldn’t directly comment on the Manafort request.
Because of the surge in cases at some sites, the Bureau of Prisons “has begun immediately reviewing all inmates who have COVID-19 risk factors, as described by the CDC,” but it is beginning with other facilities first: Oakdale, Louisiana; Danbury, Connecticut; and Elkton, Ohio, Taylor said. These are facilities where inmates have already died of COVID-19.
Michael Avenatti, the attorney who became famous when he was representing adult film star Stormy Daniels in her case against President Trump, was also granted temporary home confinement due to coronavirus, according to a judge’s order. Avenatti was convicted of extortion in February.