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Just weeks before leaving office, President Donald Trump issued a full and complete pardon just before Christmas 2020 to his one-time campaign manager Paul Manafort. It might not have been a hush money payment, but the pardon likely encouraged Manafort to remain silent and not make any damaging revelations about Russian collusion with the 2016 Trump campaign.
Trump’s press secretary issued a statement that accused Special Counsel Robert Mueller of engaging in “blatant prosecutorial overreach” that “was premised on the Russian collusion hoax.” It described Manafort as “one of the most prominent victims of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American history.”
A grateful Manafort responded by tweeting: “Mr President, my family & I humbly thank you for the Presidential Pardon you bestowed on me. Words cannot fully convey how grateful we are."
After the pardon was issued, a federal judge also ruled that Manafort could keep nearly $20 million worth of real estate in New York City and the Hamptons that had been subject to a forfeiture action. Manafort wrote a book titled “Political Prisoner,” published in 2022, in which he praised Trump and criticized federal prosecutors. He also predicted that Trump would run in 2024 and win the election. And Manafort, who has been referred to as a “grave counterintelligence threat,” could end up being very involved in that campaign.
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