Paul Manafort charged in New York: is this Robert Mueller’s secret weapon against a Donald Trump pardon?
- Trump has broad executive power to pardon whoever he wants for federal crimes, but he can’t waive state crimes
Manhattan prosecutors charged Paul Manafort with a laundry list of crimes immediately after his federal case wrapped up with a hefty prison sentence – an aggressive effort to make sure the disgraced Republican operative faces prison time even if US President Donald Trump tries to pardon him.
Minutes after Manafort was sentenced to 7 1/2 years behind bars for his conviction in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance unsealed an indictment slamming the former Trump campaign chairman with 16 counts of mortgage fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records.
The 11-page indictment charges Manafort orchestrated a massive self-enrichment scheme between December 2015 and March 2016, in which he used his former SoHo loft and other properties to illegally obtain at least US$4 million in loans.
Manafort had help from at least six unnamed co-conspirators, according to the court papers.
Trump has broad executive power to pardon whoever he wants for federal crimes, such as the ones Manafort was convicted of in Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between Russians and Trump associates before the 2016 election.
