President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort is being housed in solitary confinement – nearly around the clock -- because prison authorities in Virginia cannot otherwise guarantee his safety, his lawyers say.
"He is locked in his cell for at least 23 hours per day -- excluding visits from his attorneys," his defense lawyer Kevin Downing wrote in a brief filed Thursday, Courthouse News reports.
And that confinement makes it "effectively impossible" for Manafort to adequately prepare for his two upcoming federal criminal trials, said Downing, who is requesting that his client be sprung.
Manafort was locked up last month after being accused of attempting to influence witness testimony while he was under house arrest. The 69-year-old defendant, who served the Trump campaign from June to August 2016, has been indicted on charges of money laundering and bank fraud.
Prosecutors from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office have countered Manafort’s conditions behind bars "are common to defendants [who are] incarcerated pending trial."
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