A New York judge on Wednesday dismissed state charges against former Trump-campaign aide Paul Manafort.
Manafort is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence after he was found guilty in 2018 on federal tax and bank fraud charges. The former aide was investigated as part of the Mueller probe into alleged collusion between President Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Russian operatives.
The probe turned up insufficient evidence to charge campaign officials with conspiring with Russians to subvert the election, however the investigation into Manafort led to the discovery of other crimes.
In May 2019, after Manafort was sentenced, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance brought additional state charges against the former campaign chairman alleging he falsified business documents in order to obtain millions of dollars in loans.
A conviction would ensure jail time for Manafort even if President Trump pardoned him of federal crimes, since the presidential pardon cannot be to obviate state charges. However, on Wednesday Juctice Maxwell Wiley of the State Supreme Court dismissed the state charges on grounds of double jeopardy, a legal principle that prevents a defendant from being charged twice with the same crime.
ABC News reported on Tuesday that Manafort had suffered a “cardiac event” last week and was recovering in a hospital while guarded by correctional officers. Manafort is currently serving his sentence in a Pennsylvania correctional facility.
Another former Trump-campaign aide, Rick Gates, was sentenced on Tuesday to 45 days in prison and a $20,000 fine for lying to federal investigators in the Mueller probe and for a criminal financial scheme. Gates had become a key witness for the prosecution in the trials of Manafort and former aide Roger Stone, who was found guilty on charges relating to the Mueller probe in November.