Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman has been found guilty on eight counts of fraud, in what CNN describes as “a major victory for special counsel Robert Mueller”.
Manafort was found guilty of five tax fraud charges, two counts of bank fraud and one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts, and now faces up to 80 years in prison.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on a further 10 counts against Manafort, leading district judge T.S. Ellis to declare a mistrial on those charges, the Washington Post says.
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Following the verdict, Trump told reporters in West Virginia “Paul Manafort’s a good man”, adding that the verdict “doesn’t involve me, but I still feel, you know, it’s a very sad thing that happened.”
Manafort’s conviction brings the total number of Trump associates who have pleaded guilty or been convicted to five, stemming from Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
The prospect that he might end his days in prison “represented an astounding downfall for Manafort, a valued adviser to Republican presidents going back to Gerald Ford and once a top Washington lobbyist and power broker,” The Guardian says.
It also isn't the end of his legal jeopardy. Next month, Manafort is scheduled to go to trial in Washington DC on charges that he conspired to launder tens of millions of dollars in overseas earnings, failed to register as a foreign agent and made false statements.
Manafort has a wife of 40 years and two adult children.
