U.S. judge recommends Manafort serve sentence in Maryland prison

Reuters
FILE PHOTO: Paul Manafort, former campaign chairman for U.S. President Donald Trump, departs after a hearing at U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, U.S., April 19, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. judge overseeing former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's trial in Washington recommended on Friday that his sentence be served at a prison in Cumberland, Maryland.

Earlier this month, Manafort was sentenced to a total of 7-1/2 years behind bars for witness tampering, tax and bank fraud, and other crimes.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons will ultimately decide where Manafort will spend his sentence and the agency does not have to follow Judge Amy Berman Jackson's recommendation.

Cumberland is a medium security federal prison with a total of about 1,200 inmates, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by David Alexander and Tom Brown)