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US Judge Denies Paul Manafort's Request to End His House Arrest

A US judge has denied Paul Manafort's request to change his bail conditions. The former campaign manager for US President Donald Trump had appealed for a release from his house arrest, which the judge refused to grant.
Sputnik

"Minute order denying without prejudice defendant Manafort's sealed motion for reconsideration of the conditions of release," read a court filing from the court of US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

Manafort was indicted alongside his business partner and former Trump deputy campaign manager Rick Gates in October. The two men have been accused of criminal misdoings during their work as lobbyists in Ukraine on behalf of former President Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions.

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The two men stand accused of conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to commit fraud, and failure to register as foreign agents. None of the charges directly pertain to their work on the Trump campaign.

They were the second and third people indicted by Department of Justice special counsel Robert Mueller, respectively. Mueller was appointed to investigate alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russian actors in May 2017. He has indicted four Trump campaign officials in total: Manafort and Gates, plus foreign policy adviser George Papadopolous and national security adviser Michael Flynn, both for making false statements to the FBI.

Mueller has also indicted 13 Russian nationals, three LLCs, and two American nationals with no direct connection to the Trump campaign. None of these 22 indictments have suggested that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian actors. Russian authorities have also consistently denied any and all allegations that they meddled in the 2016 US presidential election.

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