Paul Manafort, former campaign chairman for Donald Trump was convicted of eight counts of tax and bank fraud Tuesday afternoon with the jury hung on 10 other counts. According to the Wall Street Journal, Manafort was found guilty on all five charges of tax fraud, one count of failing to report on a foreign bank account and two bank fraud counts.
The other charges the jury couldn’t come to a consensus on were three other counts on failing to report a foreign bank account and seven other charges of bank fraud.
Via the WSJ:
“Mr. Manafort is disappointed at not getting acquittals all the way through, or a complete hung jury on all counts,” said Kevin Downing, an attorney for Mr. Manafort. Mr. Downing also told reporters outside the courtroom, “However he would like to thank Judge (T.S.) Ellis for granting him a fair trial and the jury for its hard-fought deliberation.” Mr. Downing said Mr. Manafort is evaluating all his options.
There was no immediate comment from the prosecution.
In comments from the bench, Judge Ellis said: “I think the government and Mr. Manafort received very zealous and effective representation from their counsel.”
In addition to the charges Manafort was convicted of, a trial in Washington D.C. also awaits him. And as far as the 10 charges that resulted in the mistrial, federal prosecutors can choose to re-try Trump’s former campaign chairman however it’s unclear if those charges will be re-pursued.
When it comes to Manafort ever seeing the outside of a prison cell ever again it seems unlikely. The current charges he’s been convicted of carry a maximum (altogether) of over 40 years behind bars. This also doesn’t include the eight other counts Manafort faces in the District of Columbia which carry very serious penalty if he’s convicted on those charges as well. Those counts in D.C. will focus on Manafort’s suspected failure to register his foreign lobbying and of money laundering conspiracy related to the same Ukrainian political work that pertained to his Virginia case.
The 69-year-old Manafort has been in jail since June when his bond was revoked for witness tampering.
