Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, was released from prison to home confinement early Wednesday amid health concerns tied to the coronavirus, according to multiple reports.
Manafort had been serving a more than seven-year sentence at a federal correctional facility in Pennsylvania for tax and financial fraud charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
He had been scheduled for release in November 2024.
His attorneys had petitioned that Manafort, 71, be allowed to move to home confinement because of his high risk of contracting the virus.
ABC News was first to report on Manafort’s transfer.
The charges are mainly connected to lobbying work Manafort did in Ukraine before he worked as a top official on Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Manafort’s attorneys had petitioned the federal Bureau of Prisons last month for an early release because of his age and pre-existing conditions like high blood pressure and liver disease.
They acknowledged that there were no reported COVID-19 cases at FCI Loretto, but said it was “only a matter of time” before the infection spread to staff and inmates.
In March, Attorney General William Barr had urged federal prison officials to move certain at-risk non-violent inmates to home confinement in light of the coronavirus outbreak.
