Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort has been released early from prison to home confinement over COVID-19 concerns

• Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was released from prison early over COVID-19 concerns, his lawyers confirmed to Insider.
• Manafort's release, first reported by ABC News, comes a little over a year into his serving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence at FCI Loretto in Pennsylvania.
• He'll serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.
• Manafort was sentenced to prison in March 2019 after being convicted of and pleading guilty to multiple federal charges between two separate cases that unfolded as part of Mueller's Russia investigation.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Paul Manafort, a lobbyist and one-time chairman of President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, has been released early from federal prison over COVID-19 concerns, two of his attorneys confirmed to Insider.

Manafort's release, first reported by ABC News, comes a little over a year into his serving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence at FCI Loretto in Pennsylvania. ABC reported that due to his frail health, Manafort will be allowed to serve out the rest of his sentence in home confinement.

Manafort was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison in March 2019 after being convicted on multiple federal charges between two separate cases that unfolded as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Manafort was found guilty on eight federal counts of bank and tax fraud by a jury in Virginia in August of 2018. He also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and one count of conspiracy against the US in a case run out of the DC US Attorney's office.

Even after being sentenced to federal prison, state-level prosecutors in New York and Virginia began considering prosecuting Manafort on additional state charges.

In March of 2019, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. initiated a case that resulted in a grand jury indicting Manafort on 16 counts of fraud-related felony charges including mortgage fraud, falsifying business documents, and conspiracy.

But in December 2019, a New York federal judge dismissed all 16 of the Manhattan DA's charges against Manafort, ruling that violated "double jeopardy" rules that protect defendants from being charged with the same crimes twice.

Manafort, 71, has suffered health troubles while in prison. In December 2019, he was admitted to the hospital for a "cardiac event" but has since recovered.

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