2/26/2019

LEGAL/PAUL MANAFORT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Paul J. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, is now in the sights of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., whose office is set to bring charges against him. A federal jury in Virginia already convicted Mr. Manafort in a financial fraud scheme that could send him to prison for decades, and he has pleaded guilty in Washington to other federal charges. But Mr. Vance’s prosecutors, who are said to be preparing charges to try to ensure that Mr. Manafort faces prison even if he is pardoned by the president, will most likely face a pitched legal battle and a political firefight. A federal jury in August convicted Mr. Manafort of using foreign accounts to hide millions of dollars from his political consulting work in Ukraine, tax fraud and of lying to banks to obtain millions of dollars in loans. State charges, which would be brought by Mr. Vance, would be based on some of those same loans, which were issued by Citizens Bank in Rhode Island and Federal Savings Bank in Chicago, according to people with knowledge of the matter.”

William K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser, “If Trump Pardons Manafort, Can State Charges Stick?,” The New York Times online, February 26, 2019