New York state’s top court ruled that the Manhattan district attorney’s office can’t prosecute Paul Manafort, who served as former President Trump’s top campaign aide in 2016, over mortgage fraud charges because of the state’s double jeopardy rule.
Trump pardoned Manafort in December following his convictions on various federal fraud charges. Manafort was serving a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence.
Manafort was also charged by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who was seeking to head off the possibility that the longtime Republican political operative would receive a pardon.
A state appeals court ruled in October that Vance’s effort triggered the state’s double jeopardy prohibition because of the overlap with the federal charges that Manafort had already been convicted of.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}
