US President Donald Trump’s imprisoned former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has pleaded not guilty to state mortgage fraud charges.

The charges could keep him locked up even if Mr Trump pardons him for federal crimes uncovered during the probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.

Manafort, in a blue jail uniform and handcuffs, walked with a limp as court officers led him down a public hall to and from the courtroom in New York yesterday.

He had been transferred last week to a federal detention centre in New York for his arraignment in the state case.

Manafort remained seated as he entered his plea and he had to be helped out of his chair when taken out of the courtroom.

He used a wheelchair at his last federal sentencing in March because of gout.

Manafort (70) is already serving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence for misleading the US government about his lucrative foreign lobbying work, hiding millions of dollars from tax authorities and encouraging witnesses to lie on his behalf.

Manafort is due back in court on October 9.

The US government seized two of his Manhattan properties and put them up for sale.

His Trump Tower apartment, a one-bedroom property with sweeping views of Central Park, is listed at $3.6m (€3.2m).

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