NEW YORK _ Paul Manafort won a lightning-quick legal victory Wednesday when a Manhattan state judge tossed his mortgage fraud case on double jeopardy grounds.
Judge Maxwell Wiley ruled after a hearing that lasted just a few minutes that state law does not permit the prosecution of the disgraced ex-campaign manager for President Donald Trump because some of the same issues were adjudicated in his federal trial.
"This indictment should never have been brought," said Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Manafort. "Today's decision is a stark reminder that the law and justice should always prevail over politically motivated actions."
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance vowed to appeal.
The decision came a day after Manafort was treated for an unspecified minor cardiac event.
It doesn't affect his federal prison sentence. Manafort remains behind bars, serving a sentence of up to seven years in federal prison for a string of financial crimes.
Manafort's lawyers had argued that the state charges should have been dismissed because they involve some of the same allegations as federal cases that have landed Manafort behind bars.
In a hearing that lasted just a few minutes, Wiley agreed.
"Basically, the law of double jeopardy in New York state provides a very narrow window for prosecution," the judge said.
Blanche raised the double jeopardy issue soon after Manafort was arrested.
The factual overlap between the federal and state cases "is extensive _ if not total," Blanche wrote in court papers.
Vance announced the charges in March, just minutes after Manafort was sentenced in the second of the two federal cases.
The 16-count New York indictment was largely seen as a hedge against the possibility that Trump might pardon Manafort for his federal crimes. The state charges alleged Manafort gave false and misleading information in applying for residential mortgage loans, starting in 2015 and continuing until three days before Trump's inauguration in 2017. He is also charged with falsifying business records and conspiracy.
Prosecutors had argued that the case was based on allegations that were never resolved in Manafort's 2018 federal trial in Virginia. Jurors found Manafort guilty of eight counts of tax and bank fraud charges but couldn't reach a verdict on 10 other charges, resulting in a mistrial on those counts.
