Manafort to be Moved to Jail Closer to Lawyers

(CN) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to be moved to a jail closer to his lawyers.

U.S District Judge T.S. Ellis III directed that Manafort be relocated to a jail in Alexandria, Virginia, where he is scheduled to stand trial later this month.

He has been held since last month at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in rural Warsaw, Va., after a judge revoked his house arrest following witness tampering allegations from prosecutors.

Also Tuesday, Ellis gave special counsel Robert Mueller's team until Friday evening to respond to Manafort's request to move his trial from Alexandria to Roanoke.

Manafort's lawyers cited extensive pretrial publicity in asking last week for the trial to be moved out of the Washington, D.C. region.