Paul Manafort to be held in solitary confinement at New York's notorious Rikers Island: report

Paul Manafort, the longtime Republican consultant who spent five months as President Donald Trump's campaign chairman during the 2016 election, is set to complete his federal prison sentence on New York's Rikers Island, the notorious jail complex which has been home to some of the most infamous inmates in Gotham history — from serial killer David Berkowitz to John Lennon's murderer, Mark David Chapman. Manafort was convicted last year on federal bank fraud, tax and conspiracy charges in two related cases and is currently serving a 7.5 year federal prison sentence at a low-security facility in Pennsylvania. The federal charges on which Manafort was convicted were brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, whose 22-month long investigation into Russian election interference, alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow and whether the president obstructed justice has been dismissed as a "a witch hunt" by Trump and his supporters. The news that Manafort will be held in isolation at Rikers comes nearly one month after Michael Cohen, the attorney who spent many years as Trump's personal lawyer and media attack dog, began a three-year prison sentence at a minimum-security facility in Otisville, New York, for crimes of tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations.