FINAL JEOPARDY

Manafort Can’t Face State Charges After Trump Pardon, Appeals Court Rules

New York’s Court of Appeals said it wouldn’t hear an appeal of a dismissal of the case on double jeopardy grounds.

The New York State Court of Appeals said it would not hear a trial on President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, allowing to stand a lower court’s ruling that further prosecution would run afoul of double jeopardy laws. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. first brought charges of mortgage fraud against Manafort in 2019, following his 2018 conviction on tax and bank fraud charges as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the 2016 Trump campaign. However, a trial court dismissed the state charges in December 2019, writing that the “defendant has already been convicted involve the same fraud, against the same victims, as is charged in his New York indictment.” That dismissal was upheld by an appellate court last year and now the state’s highest court. Trump pardoned Manafort in December.