Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager who had been given a seven and a half year prison sentence has just been ordered released from prison by a federal judge because of fears about the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

NEWS: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been released from prison this morning to home confinement for the balance of his sentence, a source confirms to @Tom_Winter. First reported by @KFaulders.

Manafort had been slated to be released in November of 2024.

— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) May 13, 2020

Manafort, 71, has not been in the best of health and had been serving his sentence since March of last year at LCI Loretto, a minimum security prison in Pennsylvania.

His lawyers had argued he should be released because of his health.

From CBS:

Manafort’s lawyers pointed out that he is 71 years old and suffers from a number of maladies, including “high blood pressure, liver disease, and respiratory ailments.” In the letter, first obtained by CBS News, the lawyers noted that he was hospitalized for several days in December for a heart condition, and in February, that he became ill with influenza and bronchitis.

They added that Manafort “currently takes 11 prescription medications daily to treat his various health conditions, 8 of which are relevant to the requested relief.” His lawyers said that the medications, along with his health history, “make plain that Mr. Manafort is at a significantly higher risk for serious illness or death.”

The attorneys argued that put Manafort at significantly higher risk from the virus.

According to ABC, the Bureau of Prisons says more than 2,800 federal inmates have tested positive for coronavirus and so far 50 have died, although the prison Manafort was in, LCI Loretto, has not yet reported any cases of coronavirus, but his attorneys argued that there are new people coming in all the time so that may change. According to NBC’s Mike Kosnar, 2,471 inmates have been released to home confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Manafort was fired from the Trump campaign after stories were leaked about his work in Ukraine in another effort to undermine the Trump campaign. Manafort only served in his position for a brief three month period but that made him a target for the Special Counsel and an effort to tag the Trump team with something. The Special Counsel didn’t find any collusion but Manafort was convicted over bank and tax fraud issues that had nothing to do with the Trump campaign and had to do with things he had done prior to his time with the Trump campaign.