Let’s suppose for the sake of discussion that officials do decide they want to grant Manafort the freedom to travel the Eastern seaboard between fixed locations. Why would that need to entail permission to remove his ankle monitor? Do they not have ankle monitors with GPS and cell network connectivity that they can tell to make sure he doesn’t leave a defined region? “Yes, you can do to these locations in DC (etc.), but only by Amtrak, and you must take these specific routes to and from the train stations, and you must alert the authorities with X amount of notice about any plans to make such a move. Also, you must check in with us regularly during your travels.”
I still don’t think they should grant that request, but even if they did, it doesn’t need to entail not being tracked.
