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A New York judge Maxwell Wiley has dismissed a mortgage fraud case against the former chair of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The judge argued local charges stacked against Paul Manafort would amount to double jeopardy. Manafort recently started 7 ½ years prison sentence amid charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller‘s probe into foreign interference in the U.S elections. He was already convicted on similar federal charges. The New York Judge Wiley said before dismissing the 16-count indictment that the laws of double jeopardy in the state provide very narrow exceptions for prosecution. The judge ruled, “The state failed to establish that the harm or evil each statute is designed to prevent is different in kind from the federal statutes, for which the defendant was previously prosecuted”.

The president could pardon his former campaign chair and undermine charges leveled against Manafort as well as the 34 people with this dismissed case, including six of the president’s former advisers. They were charged amid the Mueller investigation. The U.S President can intervene with cases involving federal convictions but not state-level ones. The investigation declared Manafort acted as an unregistered agent acting on behalf of Ukraine in the U.S, along with Rick Gates. He made tens of millions of U.S dollars that were laundered through the various U.S and foreign accounts and businesses. The alleged money was hidden in foreign bank accounts that weren’t disclosed in tax documents.

It is noteworthy that Gates was recently sentenced to 45 days in prison and 3 years of probation. The New York prosecutors argued Manafort had falsified records to illegally obtain millions of U.S dollars in loans for properties in the state through Citizen Bank and Federal Savings bank. The lawyer of Manafort, Kevin Downing insisted the indictments were politically motivated. He argued he already had been charged and convicted for a tax and bank fraud case that was tried in Virginia. He was also found guilty of conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the month of September 2018. A spokesperson for Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance said the office aims to appeal the decision and continue working to ensure that Manafort is held accountable for the criminal conduct against the people of New York.