Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman serving a prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy, suffered a full-blown heart attack last week – a coronary failure far more serious than what officials originally told his family, Newsmax has learned.
Sources close to the Manafort family told Newsmax TV's John Cardillo that while they were informed the 70-year-old inmate had experienced a "cardiac event," they've since found the health crisis nearly killed him.
And they also say the family wasn't notified of Manafort's attack for several days – a delay that astounded and upset them.
"My sources tell me that Manafort did in fact have a heart attack and it was problematic because federal officials at the Bureau of Prisons didn't notify his family or lawyers for days," said Cardillo, who hosts "America Talks Live" on Newsmax TV weekdays at 3 p.m. ET.
"They also downplayed the severity of it, by calling it a cardiac incident, and the family is a little teed off that they left it at that."
Sources also revealed to Cardillo that Manafort — serving 7½ years for tax fraud and conspiracy at the Federal Correctional Institution in Loretto, Pa. — has been moved from a Pennsylvania hospital to a larger one in Kentucky to deal with his condition.
"They typically move a patient once they stabilize them to a federal Bureau of Prisons hospital,'' Cardillo said. "There are regional ones around the country, but that would be the closest full blown hospital to Pennsylvania."
Manafort's family is said to be making arrangements to visit him.
The heart issue was first disclosed this week by ABC News, which reported Manafort had experienced an unidentified health problem and had been hospitalized since at least last Thursday. His condition was said to be stable.
Manafort's attorney Todd Blanche said in a statement that neither he nor Manafort's family were made aware of his condition until a reporter called with information that something had happened.
The attorney added that prison officials refused to provide any information about Manafort's condition or whereabouts, only saying that he was "safe."
Manafort had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday on a separate criminal case brought by New York State prosecutors. Late Wednesday morning, a New York judge threw out the state mortgage fraud charges against Manafort, ruling it was too similar to the one that has already landed him in the slammer.
Last year, the former Trump intimate came to court in a wheelchair and asked for leniency because of his ongoing medical issues. He is now slated to be released Christmas Day 2024.
But his legal woes may not be over. Earlier this week, a federal prosecutor alleged Manafort offered his former deputy a legal defense fund if he did not cooperate with the Mueller investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gaston said during Rick Gates' sentencing that the former deputy campaign chair provided "extraordinary" assistance to the government during special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian election meddling — despite pressure from Manafort not to cooperate.
"Gaston says Manafort had told Gates a legal defense fund would be available to him if he didn't plead guilty and cooperate with the government," Politico senior reporter Darren Samuelsohn tweeted while covering the hearing.
Politico later reported Manafort pressured Gates to maintain his innocence and relayed an offer to provide financial assistance via a legal defense fund. Gates initially pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea and began cooperating with federal prosecutors in February 2018.
Gates testified in the trial of Manafort as well as the trial of longtime Republican political operative Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress about his attempts to contact WikiLeaks during the 2016 election.
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