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Paul Manafort Hospitalized After Blood Pressure Spike, Lawyer Says

Paul Manafort Hospitalized After Blood Pressure Spike, Lawyer Says

(Bloomberg) -- Paul Manafort, the imprisoned former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump, was transferred to a Pennsylvania hospital last week after experiencing problems with his blood pressure, his attorney said.

Manafort, 70, was moved on Dec. 12 from the federal prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania, to an undisclosed hospital, the attorney, Kevin Downing, said on Tuesday. Manafort’s move was reported earlier by ABC News.

Paul Manafort Hospitalized After Blood Pressure Spike, Lawyer Says

“It had to do with a spike in blood pressure that’s been resolved,” Downing said. “His family and I learned about it from ABC News, not the Bureau of Prisons.”

A Bureau of Prisons spokesman, Justin Long, said: “For safety and security and privacy reasons, we cannot provide specific information about an inmate’s medical condition.”

Manafort, an international political consultant and Republican Party operative, is serving a 7 ½-year term. He was convicted in August 2018 of lying to tax authorities about tens of millions of dollars he earned as a political consultant in Ukraine and misleading banks about his financial health to get loans. He later pleaded guilty to conspiring to lobby illegally for Ukraine, to launder money to support a lavish lifestyle and tamper with witnesses. He faces additional charges in New York state.

Before news of the hospitalization surfaced, his longtime right-hand man, Rick Gates, was sentenced to 45 days in jail on Tuesday for financial and lobbying crimes he committed with Manafort. Gates, once a top Trump campaign aide, pleaded guilty and cooperated extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and other federal prosecutors. The government asked that he be spared jail time.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Voreacos in New York at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey D Grocott at jgrocott2@bloomberg.net, David S. Joachim

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