President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is very likely to be the next beneficiary of a presidential pardon, sources close to the administration told Newsmax Wednesday morning.
Speculation about a pardon or clemency for Manafort, 71 and in failing health, came as the White House was unveiling a developing list of recipients of presidential pardons or commutations of sentences.
Those who benefited from the stroke of a presidential pen Tuesday night ranged from political allies, such as former Republican Reps. Steve Stockman of Texas and Duncan D. Hunter of California, to past campaign workers George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan, who were caught up in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the 2016 campaign.
Once a high-powered international lobbyist and adviser to four Republican presidential candidates, Manafort in 2019 received an aggregate sentence from two federal judges of 90 months in prison for violating a plea agreement with Mueller.
The onetime Trump campaign chief was, until May, incarcerated at the FCI Loretto Prison in Pennsylvania. Following an outbreak of the coronavirus in which 75% of the 856 prisoners tested positive, Manafort was transferred to home confinement.
His lawyers argued that his history of heart disease and other ailments made Manafort especially vulnerable.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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