A New York judge dismissed a state mortgage fraud indictment against Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, ruling that double jeopardy laws apply.
The 70-year-old Manafort was previously sentenced over federal cases earlier this year as part of former Special Counsel Rober Mueller’s Russia collusion delusion witch hunt investigation.
The judge, Maxwell Wiley, told the state prosecutors that state law blocks prosecution because the charges against Manafort are too similar to the same ones that got the former campaign manager sentenced to prison in federal court, writing that the factual overlap between the state and federal cases “is extensive — if not total.”
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. said they would appeal the decision.
He, apparently doesn’t believe in the 5th Amendment that protects individuals against double jeopardy, which is a person cannot be tried for the same crime more than once.
For example, if someone is charged with robbing a bank, and he is found not guilty, the prosecutors cannot go after him again for bank robbery.
The same applies here for Manafort.
And the fact that Vance is vowing to appeal the decision shows that there is still a political motive against Manafort, because he worked for Trump.
Trump Derangement Syndrome rears its ugly head in many different ways.
The fact that Vance’s move was widely seen as a way to screw Manafort over due to the fear that President Trump may pardon him shows how vindictive Vance is as a prosecutor.
The president can only pardon federal crimes, so this hack wanted to get Manafort convicted on a state crime, where the president wouldn’t be able to do anything for him.
Meanwhile, the president has said nothing about granting a pardon for Manafort, and back in March responded to reporters by saying that it’s “not something that’s right now on my mind.
