Manafort removed from plane for revoked passport

Former Trump adviser Paul Manafort was removed from a plane in Miami on Sunday for carrying a revoked passport, according to officials.

Public information officer for the Miami-Dade Police Department Detective Alvaro Zabaleta confirmed to The Associated Press that Manafort had been removed from an Emirates Airline flight to Dubai on Sunday night.

“Mr. Manafort was denied travel by [Customs and Border Protection] on scene and his US Passport was revoked and he could not take his flight. No further incident,” Zabaleta said in a statement to The Hill.

Manafort was previously the campaign chairman for former President Trump’s 2016 campaign. In 2018, he was convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud by a Virginia jury. The case against Manafort had to do in part with whether he engaged in a scheme to avoid paying taxes on income he received for working as a political consultant for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.

Manafort was sentenced to a prison term of more than seven years in 2019, but was released early in 2020 to serve out the rest of his sentence at home. Trump pardoned Manafort in December 2020 along with a slew of other allies.

The Hill has reached out to lawyers who have represented the Manaforts for further comment.