U.S. federal judge in the case against President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman on Monday agreed that he and his co-defendant are flight risks and ordered their continued confinement to their homes.
Judge Amy Jackson said she would not permit Paul Manafort and business associate Rick Gates to be free from home confinement until prosecutors understood the assets the men held.
Both must remain in their homes in Virginia with electronic GPS monitoring them until they work out a deal to disclose their assets and secure a bond, Jackson said during hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Prosecutors said in court documents that given the nature of the allegations and long sentences if convicted, both men were flight risks.
Manafort, 68, and Gates, 45, pleaded not guilty after being charged on Oct. 30 in a 12-count indictment handed down by a grand jury.
The indictment charges Manafort and Gates with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., money laundering and violations of lobbying laws in connection with Manafort’s lobbying work for pro-Russian party in Ukraine.
The charges are the first to emerge from investigation centred on Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election that encompassed alleged contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.
However, the charges are not directly tied to the campaign itself.