Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates will remain under house arrest for at least a few more days while their attorneys work out an agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team on a bond package that would permit their release.
The negotiations over the conditions of pretrial release for Manafort and Gates has dragged into a second week. At a hearing Monday, the federal judge presiding over the case signaled that she was ready to impose a curfew, GPS monitoring and travel restrictions if the government and the defense attorneys couldn’t come to a deal.
Mueller’s team has indicated in court documents filed over the weekend that it would be open to let Manafort to travel to Florida, New York and Virginia if Manafort put up a financially appropriate bond package.
The current hangup is over the worth of the real estate properties Manafort is proposing to include the bond package, as well as the details of the other financial assets Manafort is offering.
Manafort’s attorneys estimated in filings Saturday that the three properties in New York and Florida were worth around $8 million, while the government argued in Sunday court documents that it hadn’t been able to confirm those estimates and had reason to doubt them.
“It didn’t come with the necessary information,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said to Manafort attorney Kevin Downing about the bail package he proposed Saturday.
Greg Andres, the attorney representing Mueller’s team in the hearing, indicated that they were working on a similar bond package with Gates’ lawyer but they were “further behind” in determining Gates’ financial assets.
He estimated that it would take at least two more days to obtain the financial information needed to put forward an agreement on a bond package.
Manafort and Gates are facing allegations of tax evasion, money laundering and failing to disclose lobbying for foreign agents, charges that Mueller brought as part of his Russia investigation. They turned themselves a week ago to the FBI and have pleaded not guilty.
The parties at Monday’s hearing also agreed to put off scheduling a trial date for a few more weeks as they work through discovery. They agreed to update the judge on a potential trial date at a status hearing scheduled for Dec. 11.
I don’t get why guys like this get such a sweet heart deal.
Are we sure that Manafort isn’t stalling until Pootie gets him that Russian passport that was part of the deal??
How is it even legal to have THREE valid US Passports with different numbers?
Why would you make any bail deal with anyone who had 3 passports and millions of dollars stashed away off shore?
If Manafort did plan to flee the US to spend his remaining days in beautiful St Petersburg, he would have no use at all for any US real estate holdings, so from his perspective, why not pledge them? If he’s fleeing, he is abandoning them anyway.
From the US perspective, why on earth take a bond secured by US real estate for someone you think plans on leaving never to return?
Man if he would flip his bail would be granted.
Speaking of arrest, where is Papadopoulos? Is he under house arrest, or in custody (or protective custardy) or just wandering around somewhere?
Anyone know?