By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Two aides who were influential parts of Donald Trump’s campaign team are now under house arrest as their attorneys go on the defensive.
Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manaf0rt, and another aide, Rick Gates, have been under house arrest since Special Counsel Robert Mueller unsealed a 12-count indictment stemming from their work for a pro-Russian faction in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
They have been ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device as they await a tial on money-laundering and other charges.
The aides’ attorneys said they case was embellished and overblown by the special counsel team and unsuccessfully requested that their clients not be forced to wear monitoring device.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she’s “concerned, very concerned” that an unsecured appearance bond was “not sufficient” without some sort of monitoring.
“If they leave and don’t come back, we need to know where they went,” the judge said.
