President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted Wednesday by a state grand jury in New York on charges of residential mortgage fraud — the announcement coming just minutes after Manafort was sentenced in federal court in Washington to more than seven years in prison.

[Read the indictment: The People of the State of New York against Paul J. Manafort Jr.]

The charges filed against Manafort may stand as a kind of prosecutorial insurance policy against a possible presidential pardon — a scenario that Trump has refused to discuss as Manafort’s case worked its way through the federal court system. The president has called Manafort brave for fighting his case against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“No one is beyond the law in New York,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement announcing the indictment. “Following an investigation commenced by our office in March 2017, a Manhattan grand jury has charged Mr. Manafort with state criminal violations which strike at the heart of New York’s sovereign interests, including the integrity of our residential mortgage market.”

[Paul Manafort sentenced to a total of 7.5 years in prison for conspiracy, fraud]

The state charges could be challenged in the courts as a violation of double jeopardy protections for defendants, an area in which current New York law may favor Manafort.

The mortgage fraud charges stem from the same conduct that led to Manafort’s federal conviction — that he allegedly submitted false information to banks while seeking loans. The 16-count indictment accuses him of residential mortgage fraud, attempted residential mortgage fraud, falsifying business records, scheming to defraud and conspiracy. </s> Paul Manafort has been charged with 16 felonies by the state of New York, meaning that he could be convicted and jailed for crimes that Donald Trump is powerless to pardon.

Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of mortgage fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records, the Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance said on Wednesday.

The new charges were announced by Vance just minutes after Manafort received a second prison sentence in Washington DC for his convictions on federal charges stemming from Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation.

Trump has the authority as US president to pardon Manafort for all his federal convictions, meaning he could be freed from his combined seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence. But Trump has no power to intervene in Vance’s state prosecution.

“No one is beyond the law in New York,” Vance said in a statement. He said that Manafort’s alleged crimes “strike at the heart of New York’s sovereign interests, including the integrity of our residential mortgage market”.

Manafort, 69, is accused in New York of fraudulently obtaining home loans worth millions of dollars between 2015 and 2017. He has been jailed in Virginia since June last year, when his bail was revoked after he was caught witness tampering. </s> NEW YORK (Reuters) - Paul Manafort, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman who was convicted of tax and bank fraud, may be transferred to Rikers Island jail in New York to face state criminal charges, a person familiar with the matter said.

Manafort, 70, is serving a combined sentence of 7-1/2 years in prison from two separate federal criminal cases, the longest term of anyone stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and contacts between Moscow and Trump’s campaign.

The veteran Republican political operative, who was paid millions of dollars for his work for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, had been expected to be transferred to New York state custody in June, another person familiar with the matter said.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

Defendants facing charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney are typically held at Rikers Island, a troubled jail complex that handles about 9,000 people a day, another city jail known as the Tombs, or Bellevue hospital, if a defendant has a medical condition.

According to the New York City Department of Corrections, a judge will decide whether he will be entering their custody.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Manafort did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Manafort was charged by prosecutors in New York in March with residential mortgage fraud and other felonies, as state lawmakers moved to ensure that he can be prosecuted even if he receives a presidential pardon from Trump. Presidents possess the power to issue pardons for federal crimes, not state crimes.

Prosecutors said the charges involved a scheme in which Manafort and others falsified records to obtain millions of dollars related to property loans. Manafort faces up to 25 years in prison on the three most serious charges in the latest indictment, residential mortgage fraud in the first degree.

Manafort was convicted by a Virginia jury last year on tax and bank fraud charges and pleaded guilty in Washington to charges including unregistered lobbying and witness tampering. </s> NEW YORK (Reuters) - Paul Manafort has been charged in New York with residential mortgage fraud and other felonies, as state lawmakers move to ensure that U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman can be prosecuted even if he receives a presidential pardon.

The 16-count indictment was announced by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance on Wednesday less than an hour after Manafort, 69, was given his second federal prison sentence this month, for a combined term of 7-1/2 years.

“No one is beyond the law in New York,” and the state probe “yielded serious criminal charges for which the defendant has not been held accountable,” Vance, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Manafort was sentenced on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington to about 3-1/2 additional years in prison on conspiracy charges from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

That sentence came after Manafort was sentenced by another judge last Thursday in Virginia to nearly four years in prison, following his conviction last August on tax evasion and bank fraud charges related to the Mueller probe.

Trump has denied colluding with Moscow. The Kremlin has denied election interference.

Kevin Downing, a lawyer for Manafort, had no comment on the New York case following his client’s sentencing by Jackson.

Rudolph Giuliani, a lawyer for the Republican president and New York City’s former mayor, in a text message called the indictment an “irrational attempt” by Democrats to advance their political agenda.

Vance said the charges in the March 7 indictment related to a year-long scheme in which Manafort and others falsified records to obtain millions of dollars related to property loans.

Manafort faces up to 25 years in prison on the three most serious charges in the latest indictment, residential mortgage fraud in the first degree.

Some charges appeared to relate to testimony in Manafort’s Virginia trial including his alleged effort to disclaim a big American Express bill for season tickets to New York Yankees baseball games to help him qualify for loans.

It is unclear whether Manafort’s indictment will be challenged on double jeopardy grounds, the doctrine against prosecuting a person twice for the same offense.

Legislation being proposed this week in New York’s state capital of Albany may prevent that from being an issue.

Trump in November said he had not ruled out giving Manafort a pardon. On Wednesday, he said “I have not even given it a thought,” but that he felt “badly” for Manafort.

Presidents possess the power to issue pardons for federal crimes, not state crimes. New York has stronger double jeopardy protections than the U.S. Constitution, which could impede state prosecutions.

A bill proposed by former state attorney general Eric Schneiderman to lessen those protections died last year when control of the state legislature was effectively divided between Democrats and Republicans.

Democrats now have full control, and Assemblyman Joseph Lentol is co-sponsoring joint legislation this week to end such protections for people with what he called “close ties” to the White House, the president and his campaign.

Lentol, a Democrat, said in an interview that this would ensure that Vance, state Attorney General Letitia James and other prosecutors could pursue cases such as Manafort’s.

He said a bill could be ready for Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature as soon as next week.

“There are people associated with the president who may have committed crimes that should not go unpunished,” Lentol said. “It’s a wise thing to have some sort of a mechanism in our law to act as a check and balance on the presidential power to pardon.” </s> March 13 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s former presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been indicted in New York on fresh charges of residential mortgage fraud, state prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Shortly after Manafort’s sentencing on federal conspiracy charges in Washington, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced that the indictment was filed in state Supreme Court last Thursday. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Tim Ahmann) </s> Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been indicted in New York on state charges, seen as a strategy for preventing a potential presidential pardon.

An indictment unsealed Wednesday in Manhattan accuses the 69-year-old Manafort of conducting a yearlong residential mortgage fraud scheme that netted millions of dollars.

The indictment filed March 7 was unsealed the same day Manafort was sentenced in Washington in the second of two federal cases against him.

He would serve more than seven years in prison in those cases. Trump has repeatedly defended him and floated the idea of granting a pardon, but would not be able to do so in a state case. </s> Trump’s ex-aide Paul Manafort has been charged in New York with residential mortgage fraud and other felonies, as state lawmakers move to ensure that US President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman can be prosecuted even if he receives a presidential pardon.

The 16-count indictment was announced by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance on Wednesday less than an hour after Manafort, 69, was given his second federal prison sentence this month, for a combined term of 7-1/2 years.

“No one is beyond the law in New York,” and the state probe “yielded serious criminal charges for which the defendant has not been held accountable,” Vance, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Manafort was sentenced on Wednesday by US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington to about 3-1/2 additional years in prison on conspiracy charges from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s role in the 2016 US presidential election.

That sentence came after Manafort was sentenced by another judge last Thursday in Virginia to nearly four years in prison, following his conviction last August on tax evasion and bank fraud charges related to the Mueller probe. </s> Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager who was sentenced earlier this year to four years in prison for financial crimes, will be moved to New York City’s infamous Rikers Island prison, it has been reported.

Manafort, 70, whose crimes stemmed from work he did advising politicians in Ukraine, has until now been incarcerated at a minimum security facility in Pennsylvania.

But sources close to Manafort told Fox News that a New York State judge ordered his relocation to Rikers Island.

Manafort, who was sentenced in March to more than seven years in federal prison, is expected to be transferred to Rikers Island on Thursday.

The request to move Manafort to Rikers Island was made by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

Presumably, Vance made the request as Manafort has been indicted in New York State on 16 felony charges.

Vance announced the charges against Manafort back in March. They include residential mortgage fraud and falsifying business records to commit fraud.

Manafort is alleged to have lied on mortgage applications in order to obtain loans.

'No one is beyond the law in New York,' Vance said in a statement at the time.

'Following an investigation commenced by our office in March 2017, a Manhattan grand jury has charged Mr. Manafort with state criminal violations which strike at the heart of New York’s sovereign interests, including the integrity of our residential mortgage market.'

If convicted, Manafort would not be eligible for a pardon from President Trump since the president’s pardon powers do not apply to state crimes.

Manafort will be held in solitary confinement for his own protection at Rikers Island.

The jail on Rikers Island, the 413-acre island to the north of LaGuardia Airport, is known as one of America’s most troubled correctional facilities.

Last year, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio presented a plan to shut down the jail in a process that is expected to play out over a period of up to 10 years.

But a New York state agency is recommending a speedier timeline for the jail’s closure due to a rise in ‘violence incidents and degrading conditions.’

Calls for the jail to be shut down intensified in recent years as the public learned more about the tragic case of Kalief Browder.

In 2010, Browder, an African American teen from The Bronx, was arrested and sent to Rikers Island jail at age 16 for allegedly stealing a backpack.

He was held for three years in jail without trial - two of those years in solitary confinement.

Shortly after his release, he killed himself after numerous suicide attempts.

Browder maintained his innocence. He was never tried or found guilty of any crime.

The Browder case has been cited by advocates of criminal justice reform since the boy was never able to afford the $3,000 bail, thus resulting in his extended stay at Rikers before he stood trial.

At Rikers Island about 85 per cent of the inmates have not been convicted of a crime and are either being held on bail or remanded to custody, according to the City of New York.

There are an estimated 10,000 inmates at Rikers Island.

Manafort was convicted in federal court after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the U.S. government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine’s former pro-Russia government.

After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket. </s> Paul Manafort, the longtime political operative who served as chairman of President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, is expected to be sentenced Thursday in Virginia federal court on tax and bank fraud charges.

Federal guidelines call for Manafort, 69, to spend 19-and-a-half to 24 years in prison, though the judge is free to impose a sentence below that range. In a sentencing memo to Judge T.S. Ellis last month, prosecutors called the charges against Manafort "serious, longstanding, and bold," adding that the offenses were so serious that "the government has not located a comparable case with the unique array of crimes and aggravating factors."

"Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars,” prosecutors for special counsel Robert Mueller wrote in the memo. “The sentence here should reflect the seriousness of these crimes.”

In August, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, convicted Manafort on five counts of tax fraud, one count of failure to file a report of foreign bank and financial accounts and two counts of bank fraud. The judge, however, declared a mistrial on the 10 other charges he faced.

None of the charges involved Manafort's work on the Trump campaign in 2016. Though the trial was the first public test of Mueller's probe, the charges had nothing to do with Mueller's main task as special counsel — to discover whether anyone in the U.S. was helping Russia interfere in the election.

Prosecutors built a case that Manafort for years hid millions from U.S. tax authorities in overseas accounts, spending the money to maintain a lavish lifestyle and lying to banks to generate more cash.

Manafort also faces a second sentencing hearing in federal court in Washington, D.C., on March 13.

The judge in that case, Amy Berman Jackson, must decide if Manafort, who turns 70 in April, will serve the two sentences at the same time or whether they must be served consecutively.

In that case, he pleaded guilty in September to two new counts, admitted his guilt to the 10 outstanding counts the Virginia trial and agreed to cooperate with special counsel prosecutors in a deal that would have made him eligible for a lighter sentence. He also agreed to forfeit multiple bank accounts and properties, including his apartment in Trump Tower. However, Judge Jackson since agreed with investigators' assessment that Manafort lied to them in order to protect a Russian conspirator.

As such, the cooperation deal is off, and he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Minutes after Manafort is sentenced in federal court, New York state prosecutors announce 16 criminal charges against him related to mortgage fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records.