Paul Manafort is scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington, DC Friday morning where he will be arraigned on charges of witness tampering and find out whether he loses his freedom while awaiting trial on previous charges of "conspiracy to launder money, failing to file foreign bank account reports, acting as an unregistered foreign agent and making false statements."
According to ABC News, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is turning up the heat on Manafort to get him to cut a deal.
The hearing is the latest in a series of moves by the prosecutors that applies immense pressure on the 69-year-old lobbyist and political operative, who has pleaded not guilty to a heavy raft of tax and financial crimes. The goal, his friends and legal experts tell ABC News, is to persuade him to cut a deal for lenience in exchange for testimony about others, possibly including President Donald Trump,.
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The stepped up pressure has included three superseding indictments in two federal courts, amounting to more than 40 charges related to money laundering, tax and bank fraud, conspiracy, and other financial crimes that largely predate his time on the Trump campaign. Prosecutors have repeatedly sought to challenge Manafort’s proposals to make bail, and confined him to his home, where he is monitored by an ankle bracelet.
Prosecutors have brought charges against two of Manafort’s former colleagues. One, former business partner Rick Gates, has already pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the federal probe of possible campaign collusion with the Russians.
Last week, government prosecutors argued in a new court filing that Manafort abused that home confinement by contacting and, they allege, seeking to tamper with potential witnesses.
Manafort also is awaiting trial in Virginia.
If his bail were to be revoked, Manafort would likely be held in a Washington or Alexandria, Va., city detention facility, according to numerous law enforcement and legal sources. If Judge Jackson decides to maintain his "24-hour-a-day lockdown, he would likely remain on electronic monitors in his Alexandria home – where one Manafort friend told ABC News he has been comfortable.
"He lives in a luxury condo. And he's got a good wife and they like spending time together. It's a lot of pressure on him but he's hanging in there," the friend said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by Manafort to discuss it. "He's doing okay."
[Longtime Manafort friend Michael] Caputo said in an interview that, no matter where Manafort is headed after Friday’s hearing, he does not think the former Trump campaign chief will cut a deal. "Not a chance," he said.
Mueller’s stepped up pressure could land Manafort in jail by week’s end (ABC News)
Judge sets arraignment date on witness tampering charges in Paul Manafort case (CNBC)