On Wednesday morning, Manafort, 71, the presidential campaign chairman of Donald Trump got released from a low-security prison in Pennsylvania due to coronavirus and is instructed to serve his punishment at home.
He was condemned as a part of the special counsel’s Russia investigation. He is in prison for 7 years.
According to abc news, while he witnessed a heart-attack, due to old age and medical conditions, his lawyer took permission from the Bureau of Prisons to allow him stay prisoned at home due to the pandemic being a threat to his life.
From March-April, his lawyer approached the Bureau for his imprisonment to continue at home and they didn’t approve it.
On Tuesday,2,818 federal inmates and 262 BOP staff members had positive test results for COVID-19 at the prison he is at and 50 died.
When the bureau was questioned on what basis they decide and release people, they didn’t have an answer to that.
In the Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, Manafort was among the first people to be charged. In 2016, there was an election campaign that led to a possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Given that keeping 6 feet distance from people behind bars is difficult, advocates and congressional leaders pushed the Justice Department for weeks.
Bureau of Prisons received orders from Attorney General William Barr in March and April for increasing the use of home confinement option in order to keep the risk of getting infected by the virus away. However, they didn’t find any COVID positive cases at FCI Loretto.
According to the recent update given by an agency spokeswoman, barr issued a confinement memo and since March 26th 2,400 inmates are in home confinement. Now, more than 1,200 others have been approved and will be released soon.
