Paul Manafort released from prison amid coronavirus concerns

Seth Wenig/Associated Press

Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair, was released from federal prison due to concerns he could contract coronavirus, ABC News first reported. He will serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.

Manafort was released from FCI Loretto in central Pennsylvania early Wednesday morning, ABC News sources said.

Manafort, 71, has been in prison since June 2018 and is serving a 7.5 year prison for tax and bank fraud and foreign lobbying related crimes, CNN reports.

Last month, Manafort’s lawyers asked prison officials to consider letting him serve the remainder of his prison sentence at home under confinement or for the rest of the pandemic. 

"It is only a matter of time before the infection spreads to staff and inmates at FCI Loretto, at which time it may be too late to prevent high-risk inmates, such as Mr. Manafort, from contracting the potentially deadly virus," his attorney, Kevin Downing, wrote in a letter to prison officials in April. "It is only a matter of time before the infection spreads to staff and inmates at FCI Loretto, at which time it may be too late to prevent high-risk inmates, such as Mr. Manafort, from contracting the potentially deadly virus," Downing wrote. 

He has a history of health problems, with Manafort being hospitalized in December of 2019 while in prison, and NBC News reports his attorney says he has previously “suffered from severe gout.”