“Among the unique privileges Manafort enjoys at the jail are a private, self-contained living unit, which is larger than other inmates’ units, his own bathroom and shower facility, his own personal telephone and his own workspace to prepare for trial,” the prosecutors wrote. “Manafort is also not required to wear a prison uniform.” He also has a personal laptop, they say, with an extension cord so he can use it in his unit and not just the workroom.<doc-sep>“If five lawyers take up five rooms, then you wait in line for someone to finish,” said Marina Medvin, a defense attorney who has represented many clients held there. “If they take up the entire time slot, then you’re out of luck — you need to leave and come back and hopefully be first in line.”<doc-sep>The order to move Paul Manafort followed complaints from his attorneys that the circumstances of his detention were interfering with his ability to prepare for trial. | Alexandria Detention Center Manafort moved to Alexandria jail Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was moved Thursday to a jail in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, to await a criminal trial set to open later this month, jail officials confirmed. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III, who is set to oversee the upcoming trial, issued an order earlier this week requiring that Manafort be transferred to the Alexandria facility from the Northern Neck Regional Jail — about a two-hour drive south of Washington. Online records from the Northern Neck jail show Manafort was checked out of that detention center at 12:32 a.m. Thursday. “Mr. Manafort’s arrival and booking process were routine," Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne said in a statement. “Because he is a high-profile inmate, Mr. Manafort will be placed in protective custody which limits his interactions with other inmates. Specific details about Mr. Manafort’s confinement will not be made public due to security and privacy concerns. We will work closely with the U.S. Marshals to ensure his proper care while he remains in our custody.” POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Ellis' order to move Manafort followed complaints from his attorneys that the circumstances of his detention were interfering with his ability to prepare for the Alexandria trial set to begin July 25 and another trial set to open Sept. 17 in Washington. Following Ellis' order, Manafort's attorneys sought to head off the transfer, saying the longtime lobbyist and former Trump campaign official preferred to remain at Northern Neck. The defense cited both concerns about Manafort's safety and about adjusting to a new jail. However, the judge rejected that plea, calling it "surprising and confusing" in light of the complaints from Manafort's defense attorneys about the difficulties involved with his detention so far from Washington. Ellis said he was confident Manafort's safety could be assured at the Alexandria detention center, noting that its staff is “very familiar with housing high-profile defendants including foreign and domestic terrorists, spies and traitors." It's unclear whether Manafort's treatment at the Alexandria jail will be as accommodating as at the Northern Neck jail he was sent to on June 15, after witness tampering charges led to his house arrest being revoked. Prosecutors from special counsel Robert Mueller's office said in a court filing Wednesday that he had unusually favorable conditions at the Warsaw, Virginia jail, including a self-contained cell larger than what other inmates get, a private bathroom and shower, access to a personal phone and laptop computer, and the ability from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. to use a workspace to meet with his lawyers and prepare for his upcoming criminal trials. Prosecutors also said Manafort was not required to wear the standard prison uniform at Northern Neck. However, in a booking photo released Thursday from Alexandria, he looks somewhat unshaven and appears to be wearing a standard-issue dark jumpsuit.<doc-sep>Working for President Trump apparently has its perks — even in prison. A federal judge has ordered former campaign chairman Paul Manafort to be moved from the Virginia facility where he’s locked up after he allegedly claimed to be getting “VIP” treatment behind bars. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team accused him of making the statement in a court filing on Wednesday. “On the monitored prison phone calls, Manafort has mentioned that he is being treated like a ‘VIP,'” the filing stated. According to prosecutors, the 69-year-old also boasted about having access to a personal laptop and telephone — which he used to make hundreds of phone calls. He even found a way to use his email account. “In order to exchange emails, he reads and composes emails on a second laptop that is shuttled in and out of the facility by his team,” prosecutors explained. “When the team takes the laptop from the jail, it re-connects to the Internet and Manafort’s emails are transmitted.” During one prison call, prosecutors said Manafort — who is accused of bank and tax fraud — bragged about having access to “all my files like I would at home.” The former Trump campaign head has allegedly made more than 300 calls to his attorneys and several others over the past three weeks. Prosecutors say he speaks to his legal team on a daily basis, with no limits set on how many calls he can make or emails he can send. “Among the unique privileges Manafort enjoys at the jail are a private, self-contained living unit, which is larger than other inmates’ units, his own bathroom and shower facility, his own personal telephone and his own workspace to prepare for trial,” alleged Mueller’s team. “Manafort is also not required to wear a prison uniform.” Despite all this, Manafort claimed in a recent court filing that he was having difficulty preparing for his trial due to how far the prison was from the courthouse. The federal facility where he is located is in Northern Neck, Va. — roughly 100 miles away from Alexandria, where the courthouse is. Because of this, Manafort has asked for his July 25 trial to be delayed. On Tuesday — just one day before Mueller’s team entered the filing about his alleged “VIP” treatment — Manafort was granted a transfer to a city jail in Alexandria. His lawyers, however, pulled a 180 and claimed he was perfectly fine in Northern Neck and wanted to stay. The judge didn’t care, though — and declined his request. “It is surprising and confusing when counsel identifies a problem and then opposes the most logical solution to that problem,” Judge T.S. Ellis wrote in a separate filing published Wednesday. “The dissonance between defendant’s motion to continue and motion opposing transfer to the Alexandria Detention Center cannot easily be explained or resolved.” Manafort is due back in court on July 17. Prosecutors and defense lawyers have been ordered to argue about whether his case should be delayed or moved. With Post wires<doc-sep>
WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors offered some tantalizing reasons Wednesday for what prompted attorneys for former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort to raise late objections this week to moving their client from a rural Virginia jail cell to the Alexandria Detention Center ahead of his upcoming trial on tax and bank fraud charges. In court documents, prosecutors working for Russia special counsel Robert Mueller, said Manafort – long accustomed to a life of luxury cars, tailored suits and multiple residences on the outside – has been afforded "unique privileges'' inside the Northern Neck Regional Jail near Richmond, where he has been confined since a federal judge revoked his bail last month. "Manafort enjoys...a private, self contained living unit, his own bathroom and shower facility, his own personal telephone and his own work-space to prepare for trial," prosecutors wrote in opposition to a defense request to postpone the July 25 trial. In a series of monitored telephone calls, described by prosecutors in court documents, Manafort also has told associates that he is not required to wear a prison uniform and "has mentioned that he is being treated like a VIP." Defense attorneys, in part, based their request for a trial delay on a lack of proximity to their client, whose Warsaw, Va., jail cell is located about 100 miles from the site of his upcoming trial in Alexandria. They said the distance made it difficult for Manafort to engage in a timely review of necessary documents in advance of the trial. But prosecutors, again citing Manafort's monitored telephone conversations and phone logs, said the former campaign aide to President Donald Trump has participated in more than 100 calls with his attorneys and has completed a review of documents provided by the government. "Telephone logs indicate Manafort has spoken to his attorneys every day, and often multiple times a day," prosecutors said. "Manafort also possess a personal laptop that he is permitted to use in his (jail) unit to review materials and prepare for trial. The jail has made extra accommodations for Manafort's use of the laptop, including providing him an extension cord to ensure the laptop can be used in his unit and not just in the separate workroom." In a monitored July 4 call to an undisclosed party, according to prosecutors, Manafort said that he had "all my files like I would at home." Acting on the initial defense request for the trial delay, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis Wednesday issued an order for Manafort's transfer to Alexandria, dismissing the attorneys' late objection that such a move could pose a risk to their client's safety. With the move, the judge also strongly hinted that the quality of Manafort's accommodations were about to dramatically change. "Defense counsel has not identified any general or specific threat to defendant's safety at the Alexandria Detention Center," Ellis wrote Wednesday. "They have not done so, because the professionals at the Alexandria Detention Center are very familiar with housing high-profile defendants, including foreign and domestic terrorists, spies and traitors. "All of those defendants were housed safely in Alexandria pending their respective trials and defendant's experience...will presumably be no different," he said.