Paul Manafort will get to visit the Hamptons for Christmas—albeit with an ankle monitor.
On Monday the former Trump campaign chairman filed a motion to be allowed to travel to the Hamptons for Christmas despite being under house arrest in Virginia for his alleged involvement in potential collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson approved the motion, which was filed after Manafort’s lawyers had “conferred” with Robert Mueller, who indicted Manafort in October as part of his ongoing investigation of the Trump campaign’s Russia ties.
Manafort and his in-laws both own homes in the Hamptons. He will have to provide a detailed itinerary of his Christmas trip if he plans to leave his house in Bridgehampton—one of the possessions used by Mueller’s team to “paint a portrait of excess.” He is still being monitored by an ankle device.
On Friday, in a separate request, the same judge released him from the confines of his Virginia home on $10 million bail. He plans to live in his Florida home. He won’t be allowed to travel outside two counties in Florida, and will need to seek prior approval before getting too close to an airport, train station, or bus station.
In exchange for this freedom, Manafort will put up four of his houses as collateral, his wife will surrender her passport and put $5 million in an account, and his daughter will put another $2 million in a separate account.