New York Plans Pardon-proof Case Against Manafort

be a very tough few days for Paul Manaford. He'll be sentenced on March eighth in Virginia, where jurors convicted him of tax and bank fraud, and then sentenced five days later in d C on two conspiracy counts he pleaded to and the Special Council filed a no holds barred sentencing memo, telling the judge that President Trump's former campaign chairman brazenly violated the law for a decade and

presents a grave risk of committing new crimes. Joining me is Robert Mints of former federal prosecutor and a partner mcarter in English, Bob, what did Muller highlight in the sentencing memo? Well, he really painted a very damning picture of Paul manaforts con duct over the last ten years, really asking the judge to throw the book at him. For somebody who has simply flouted US laws for more than a decade in a variety of schemes that all

ultimately inenored his financial benefit. Explain the mess that Manifort got himself into by agreeing to plead and then lying well. He went to trial in Virginia and was ultimately convicted on aid counts. There After that he was facing similar charges in Washington, d c. And he decided instead of going to trial to enter a guilty plea and to

cooperate with the Muller investigation. After agreeing to cooperate with the Muller investigation, he apparently lied to federal prosecutors repeatedly, causing Mueller to go to court and ask that the cooperation deal be tossed out, and the judge actually had to hold a hearing on that and determine whether or not Manaford had lied. Judge found that he did throughout the cooperation deal. And now Manafort is facing up to twenty four years in prison. So this will be a

virtual life sentence. A presidential pardon, many say, his only way out, but prosecutors in Manhattan are putting together a criminal case against Manifort just in case there's a pardon explain how they'll get around double jeopardy laws. Well, that's a very interesting question, June, because the dual sovereignty doctrine allows for different sovereigns to prosecute someone for essentially the

same crimes. So, in other words, if you commit a crime and are are convicted under federal law, the state can actually go after you for a basically the same offense. New York, however, has a state law which makes it much more difficult to get around that double jeopardy issue. So what prosecutors in Manhattan have apparently done as they put together charges that don't completely overlap with the charges

that Mueller was investigating. So in the event that there is a presidential pardon, they believe that their charges, which would involve state tax law claims as opposed to federal for example, that would include charges regarding false books and record keeping in connection with certain loans, that those would be independent and would be able to stand up to a challenge along double jeopardy lines. But will the courts

let these charges stand? Well, it really will depend on the facts, uh, and we don't know all those facts at this point, but certainly the prosecutors in the Manhattan DA's office are aware what they have to do to put together an independent case. And generally, when someone who has has committed such a broad array of crimes and so much criminal conduct, someone like Paul manafor it, it's not that difficult for prosecutors to find independent and different

crimes than the one that Mueller went after. Now Mueller is close to closing his report, if there are no other indictments forthcoming, what could states do to indict any of those who have been connected in the report. Well, anybody who's not been charged are fair game for state prosecutors if state laws have been violated. So I think we could certainly see the possibility of state ages in

different jurisdictions taking a look at those individuals. Typically, what will happen is state prosecutors will stand down, as they did, for example, in Manhattan against Paul Mantafort, when they know there's a federal investigation going on. They'll defer to federal prosecutors who have broader jurisdiction and sometimes better tools to

go after these crimes. But once federal prosecutors decide not to pursue them, state prosecutors will certainly take a fresh look at these allegations and see if they can bring charges on state grounds. Do you think that at this point there are not going to be any smoking guns there that some people might be disappointed in what's in the report? Well, you know that. I mean, obviously that's the ten million dollar question. It's it's hard to say

what Mueller has is going to including this report. He's been working at this for quite a while. It's hard to imagine that after all this time, there's not gonna be something in there that is going to be of consequence. And it really will depend on ultimately whether it amounts to a criminal violation, and even if it doesn't, whether it's so damning politically that it's ultimately moves Democrats in

the House to seek impeachment. Thanks so much, Bob. That's Robert Minzi is a former federal prosecutor and a partner in McCarter and English. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple podcast, SoundCloud, and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brasso. This is Bloomberg