WASHINGTON – Lawyers for Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, say their client has been in solitary confinement as he awaits trial on financial charges.

The lawyers say Manafort is locked in a jail cell at Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia for 23 hours a day and has been in solitary confinement because the facility can’t guarantee his safety.

Manafort was jailed last month after a federal judge revoked his house arrest over allegations of witness tampering in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

His lawyers are asking a federal appeals court to overturn the judge’s order and release him under certain conditions as he awaits trial later this month in Alexandria, Virginia, and later in Washington, D.C.

They say his detention makes it “effectively impossible” for Manafort to prepare for trial.

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