Manafort appears in court in a wheelchair convicted in February



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His lawyer, Kevin Downing, said that Manafort's health had "significant problems" related to the "conditions of his imprisonment". He asked Judge TS Ellis to move quickly to the sentencing phase, so that he could be transferred out of Alexandria detention center and placed in an office of the Prisons Office, where he He is sentenced to a prison term.

Manafort, who was convicted of eight counts in August, appeared in court in a wheelchair, his right foot lifted off the floor and in sock. He suffers from a serious illness – an inflammation related to his diet, said a person familiar with Manafort's disease.

In addition to setting the date of the sentence to February 8, Ellis will dismiss 10 charges that the jury was unable to rule on during the August trial.

Prosecutors may be able to call these charges if their cooperation does not succeed and they will also have the opportunity to ask the court to reduce their sentence later if Manafort is particularly useful in the ongoing investigation. .

Manafort still faces an initial sentence of at least ten years imprisonment.

In September, Manafort pleaded guilty to a different judge in Washington on two counts of conspiracy and obstruction of justice, setting in motion his cooperation agreement to help the special council investigate the case. Presidential election of 2016.

Ellis asked Friday at Mueller's team if she had an estimate of when Manafort's cooperation would end, and they declared in court that this was not the case.

Manafort's wife was not seen in the audience hall on Friday. Previously, she had attended most of her hearings and the entire trial in Virginia.

The former Trump campaign president, aged 69, has been in jail since June, when a judge overturned his bail. He cooperates with the team of special advocate Robert Mueller. CNN reported that Manafort's visits with the special attorney extend over at least nine days since signing an agreement a month ago, stating that he had shared dozens hours of details about Russians and Trump campaign affiliates.

Manafort's trial and guilty pleas focused on his lobbying work with pro-Russian Ukrainians and barely touched his time in the Trump campaign. The extent of his contacts with Russians and Ukrainians throughout 2016 is not yet known, although Mueller would have closely scrutinized the allegations that Manafort would have coordinated with the Russian government of his own. to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

Manafort is at the heart of many of the most memorable moments of 2016. He attended the Trump Tower meeting, in which Russians reportedly provided information to the campaign that might harm Hillary Clinton. he offered private briefings on the campaign to the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska; and he played a pivotal role at the Republican National Convention when the party relaxed its stance towards Ukraine.

Manafort also kept in touch with his Russian partner Konstantin Kilimnik, who, according to the prosecutors, is said to have ties to the same intelligence operation of the Russian army that allegedly hacked the Democrats during the elections.

Marshall Cohen of CNN contributed to this report.

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