Immediately following the conclusion of federal sentencing Wednesday of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, the Manhattan District Attorney unsealed a grand jury indictment of Manafort on 16 different counts related to residential mortgage fraud.
The charges appear to parallel revelations that emerged in Manafort's closely watched federal trial last year in Virginia. In the indictment, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance writes:
The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, during the period from on or about December 22, 2015 to on or about March 7, 2016, knowingly and with intent to defraud, presented, caused to be presented, and prepared with knowledge and belief that it would be used in applying for, underwriting and closing a residential mortgage loan, a written statement which contained materially false information concerning a fact material thereto; and concealed, for the purpose of misleading, information concerning a fact material thereto and thereby received proceeds and any other funds in the aggregate in excess of one million dollars.
This story is still developing, but here's an early takeaway on the day: Whatever criminal violations Trump and his cronies face at the federal level, their problems are bound to be amplified by the State of New York, where presidential pardons will be useless. “No one is beyond the law in New York,” Vance said in a statement. Indeed.
Anyone angling for a presidential pardon, as Manafort and his lawyers clearly did with their "no collusion" claims, should take note. New York prosecutors are going to pick Trump associates apart, bit by bitter bit. Couldn't happen to a nicer crowd of all "the best" people.