COURT/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/PAUL MANAFORT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “A federal judge revoked Paul Manafort’s bail and sent him to jail on Friday [6-15-18] to await trial, citing new charges that Mr. Manafort had tried to influence the testimony of two of the government’s witnesses after he had been granted bail. Mr. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, had posted a $10 million bond and was under house arrest while awaiting his September trial on a host of charges, including money laundering and false statements. But Judge Amy Berman Jackson of United States District Court for the District of Columbia said Mr. Manafort could not remain free, even under stricter conditions, in the face of new felony charges that he had engaged in witness tampering while out on bail. ‘This is not middle school,’ she said during a 90-minute court hearing. ‘I can’t take away his cellphone.’ Mr. Trump, in a tweet on Friday, defended Mr. Manafort and criticized Judge Jackson’s action against him, though he seemed to misunderstand what the judge had done…The government alleges that Mr. Manafort violated the law by failing to report those lobbying efforts to the Justice Department and by lying to federal authorities about his activities. The day after he was indicted in February in connection with those offenses, prosecutors claim, Mr. Manafort began trying to influence the accounts of two members of a public relations team who had worked with him, reaching out to them by phone, through encrypted messages and through Mr. Kilimnik.”
-Sharon LaFraniere, “Judge Orders Paul Manafort Jailed Before Trial, Citing New Obstruction Charges,” The New York Times online, June 15, 2018