June 15, 2018

Paul Manafort Is Going to Jail

Trump reacted angrily—and incorrectly—to the news.

Bill Clark/Congressional Quarterly/Newscom via ZUMA Press

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President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman is going to jail.

A federal judge ordered Paul Manafort on Friday to stay behind bars after special counsel Robert Mueller accused Manafort of witness tampering, the latest charge in a laundry list of allegations resulting from his lobbying in Ukraine on behalf of a pro-Russian politician.

Manafort is still awaiting trial in Washington on charges that include federal conspiracy and money laundering. Prosecutors allege that his undisclosed lobbying was part of a scheme to launder more than $30 million.

Manafort has not been sentenced. Yet, Trump tweeted the following shortly after his former campaign chairman was ordered to jail:

The judge’s decision marks a stunning fall for the longtime Republican power broker, who was hired by the Trump campaign in March 2016 to help corral delegates for the eventual Republican nominee. After a power struggle with Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager, Manafort assumed the reins of the campaign before departing in August 2016 amid revelations of his foreign entanglements.

Mueller’s team said in court filings that between 2006 and 2015, Manafort advised former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia after the Ukrainian revolution in 2014.

US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson did not specify when Manafort would need to report to prison or where he would be held. Her order came “after Manafort had been asking to post a $10 million bond and end seven months of home detention,” according to the Washington Post.

Jackson said in court that she was required to show that Manafort posed a danger before ordering him to stay in jail. Even though she did not believe Manafort posed a violent threat, she said he met the legal requirement regardless. “The harm in this case is to the administration of justice,” she said. “The harm is to the integrity of this court.”

The judge rejected a request from Manafort’s attorneys for him to remain under house arrest but refrain from using electronic devices. (Manafort is accused of witness tampering by phone and text.) “This is not middle school,” she said. “I can’t take away his phone.”

Manafort has been confined to his home, but on June 4, Mueller accused him of attempting to sway witnesses into lying for him in court.

Dan Friedman contributed reporting to this story.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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