Coronavirus: Paul Manafort, ex-Trump campaign chairman, released from prison amid COVID-19 concerns

President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was released from a federal prison in Pennsylvania amid the coronavirus pandemic, multiple news outlets are reporting.

ABC News first reported that Manafort, who had been serving a 7 1/2-year sentence at Federal Correctional Institution, Loretto, in Cambria County, was released Wednesday morning. He is now in home confinement, where he will serve the rest of the sentence.

CBS News later independently confirmed the report.

News of Manafort's release came about a month after the 71-year-old wrote a letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons asking to be released to home confinement, citing concerns about COVID-19, the Washington Post reported April 14. Manafort, who suffered a cardiac event in December and previously suffered from gout, argued that the virus could kill him given his health issues and age.

Manafort was sentenced in March 2019 after he was convicted of conspiring against the United States, conspiring to launder money, and bank and tax fraud charges connected to lobbying work he did for pro-Russia forces in Ukraine. The charges brought against Manafort did not touch on work he did for Trump.

Manafort’s expected release date had been Christmas 2024, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

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