President Donald Trump on Friday stated that his former campaign manager Paul Manafort had received a “very unfair” sentence.
“What a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns,” Trump tweeted. “Didn’t know Manafort was the head of the Mob. What about Comey and Crooked Hillary and all of the others? Very unfair!”
Trump’s comments came shortly after Manafort was ordered by a federal judge to go to jail on Friday.
The court order comes after special counsel Robert Mueller asked Judge Amy Berman Jackson to revoke Manafort’s pretrial release conditions because of his attempt for witness tampering.
Manafort, who was already facing multiple charges related to financial crime, was also accused of Mueller for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Manafort going to jail ahead of his trial in September is expected to put additional pressure on him to cooperate with the investigators.
According to CNN, Manafort was immediately taken into custody following the ruling and then taken to Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia,
Trump over the past year tried to distance himself from Manafort.
On Friday, Trump speaking from the White House insisted that Manafort only worked on the campaign “for a very short period of time.”
The Washington Post reported that Manafort served as Trump’s campaign manager for 144 days.
The ex-campaign manager is already facing a number of charges including tax evasion, bank fraud, money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department for his work on behalf of Yanukovych and the Ukrainian government.
Prosecutors wanted to send Manafort to jail from fears that he could continue with criminal activities if he were to remain on house arrest.
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