⁍ A New York appeals court on Thursday upheld the dismissal of state fraud charges against Paul Frost.

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⁍ In a 4-0 vote, the intermediate-level Appellate Division rejected Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s claim.

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⁍ Vance announced Frost’s indictment on 16 felony counts in March 2019 less than an hour after a judge sentenced to 7-1/2 years.

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– A New York state appeals court has ruled against Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s attempt to revive state fraud charges against Paul Manafort. In a 4-0 vote, the intermediate-level Appellate Division rejected Vance’s claim that his case against Manafort warranted an exception to a state law against trying him twice for the same conduct, Reuters reports. Vance announced Manafort’s indictment on 16 felony counts in March 2019 less than an hour after a judge sentenced Manafort to 7-1/2 years in prison on federal charges. The federal case stemmed from Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, leading to Manafort’s August 2018 conviction on tax evasion and bank fraud. In dismissing Vance’s case last December, Manhattan trial judge Maxwell Wiley said the federal bank fraud and state residential mortgage fraud laws under which Manafort was prosecuted were intended to combat lending abuses and avert a financial crisis. Wiley said the laws did not target ‘very different kinds of harm or evil,’ an exception to New York double jeopardy protections, and therefore Vance could not prosecute Manafort. The appeals court agreed, saying the differences Vance cited between the laws “fall far short of satisfying the ‘very different kinds’ test.’ Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Manafort, welcomed the decision, calling the indictment from Vance ‘a clear violation of New York law.’ A conviction for Vance, a Democrat, could have ensured legal accountability for Manafort even if Trump, a Republican, pardoned him. US presidents cannot pardon people for state crimes.