Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, had access to a personal telephone, email, and other privileges that other prisoners do not have at the Northern Neck Jail. A judge ordered Manafort to be transferred to a jail in Alexandria following his counsel's complaints about logistics.
According to telephone calls being monitored by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, Manafort has recently told people he’s being treated like a “VIP” at the Virginia prison where he’s been held since June 15.
The longtime GOP operative’s living arrangements, described in an eight-page motion filed Wednesday by Mueller’s prosecutors, also include “unique privileges” like a private, self-contained cell that’s bigger than what other inmates get, a private bathroom and shower, a personal telephone and daily access between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 10 p.m. to a workspace where Manafort can meet with his lawyers and prepare for his upcoming criminal trials.
Manafort also doesn’t have to wear a prison uniform.
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Mueller’s team on Wednesday revealed it can listen in on any phone calls that Manafort has with people other than his lawyers, and it’s one of those conversations that prosecutors are now using in their opposition to the defendant’s request to postpone his upcoming Virginia trial until after a separate criminal case is finished in Washington D.C.
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Ellis on Tuesday also ordered Manafort to be transferred to a detention center in Alexandria and rejected a last-minute request from the defendant’s lawyers to let their client continue to stay at the Northern Neck prison after they’d previously complained about logistical challenges that were hurting their ability to prepare for the trial.
“It is surprising and confusing when counsel identifies a problem and then opposes the most logical solution to that problem,” the judge wrote.
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But Manafort has been hardly cut off from the outside world, according to the Mueller prosecutors. He has access to a personal telephone in his cell that he’s allowed to use for more than 12 hours a day to speak with his lawyers and other people. During the last three weeks, Manafort has also had more than 100 phone calls with his lawyers, speaking with them every day and often several times a day, as well as another 200 calls with other people.
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While in prison, Manafort also has access to a laptop to review documents and prepare for his trial, and the jail has “made extra accommodations” for Manafort to use the computer, including an extension cord that lets him work in his cell so he doesn’t have to go to the separate workspace.
Manafort is not allowed to send or receive emails while in jail. But Mueller’s prosecutors said Manafort “appears to have developed a workaround.” During his monitored phone calls, Manafort has told people he reads and composes emails on a second laptop that his lawyers have “shuttled in and out” of the jail. Then his lawyers sent the messages after they’ve left the prison.
Read More: Mueller team listening to Manafort’s jail phone calls (Politico)