NEW YORK _ A disheveled Paul Manafort limped into a Manhattan criminal court Thursday to plead not guilty to state fraud charges designed to keep him behind bars even if President Donald Trump pardons him.
The ex-Trump campaign chief looked tired and barely spoke at the brief hearing where a judge dashed his hopes of waiting for his trial date in a cushy minimum security federal lockup in Pennsylvania.
Justice Maxwell Wiley reject a request from Manafort's lawyer to allow him to be absent from the court appearance. Instead, the judge says he'll decide on a "date-by-date basis," likely meaning he'll have to spend most of the next several months in the Metropolitan Detention Center, otherwise known as the Tombs.
Manafort did not respond when someone in the courthouse hallway yelled "traitor" at him.
He did manage to crack a grim smile while exchanging words with a well-wisher in the courthouse.
The onetime high-flying conservative wheeler-dealer is already serving seven years after being convicted of federal fraud charges in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
He will face 16 separate felony fraud counts in the upcoming state trial tied to his efforts to obtain millions of dollars in loans on New York properties between 2015 and 2017. If convicted, Manafort cannot be pardoned by Trump as he could be for the federal crimes.
Manafort's defense lawyer plans to claim that the new charges violate the prohibition against double jeopardy. But New York law allows a person to be prosecuted twice for the same act if at least one element of the crimes is distinct.
