Paul Manafort Sentenced To A Total Of 7.5 Years In Prison
On Wednesday, Paul Manafort was sentenced to an additional 43 months in prison, bringing his total sentence to 7 years behind bars. According to The New York Times, Judge Amy Berman Jackson gave Manafort 60 months running concurrently to 30 months in the 47-month sentence that Trump’s former campaign consultant was sentenced to last week. That brings his total sentence, including the 9 months he has already served, to 81 months.
Manafort entered the court in a wheelchair due to his gout, and addressed the judge, asking her for leniency in sentencing. He said that he took responsibility for his actions, and was ashamed of his previous conduct.
“This case has taken everything from me, already,” he said. “Please let my wife and I be together.”
The ruling closes out the special counsel’s prosecution of Manafort, who was accused of a wide range of crimes, including money laundering, failing to disclose lobbying income, and obstruction of justice.
“It is hard to overstate the number of lies and the amount of fraud and the amount of money involved,” Judge Jackson said during sentencing. “A significant portion of his career has been spent gaming the system.”
Jackson was careful to point out that this ruling has nothing to do with Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian tampering in the 2016 presidential election, and that she wasn’t making a ruling on Manafort as a person. She said that any involvement in Russian collusion was not addressed nor resolved by this sentencing.
#BREAKING: Second Manafort sentencing puts total prison time at 7 1/2 years https://t.co/FGcr0uow9T pic.twitter.com/BAVPB4ZhrZ
— The Hill (@thehill) March 13, 2019
Andrew Weissmann, one of the top officials in Mueller’s investigation, wasn’t so careful with his language. He accused Manafort of tampering with witnesses and lying to prosecutors.
“He served to undermine — not promote — American ideals of honesty, transparency and playing by the rules,” he said.
Last week, Manafort was sentenced in Virginia — by Judge T. S. Ellis III — on eight felony counts of tax evasion, bank fraud, and failure to disclose foreign bank accounts. He was given what many saw as an overly-lenient sentence of 47 months in prison. Jackson said that her sentence had nothing to do with the one imposed by a previous court.
“What is happening today is not and cannot be a review and a revision by a sentence imposed by another court,” Judge Jackson said.
Manafort is the fifth person to be sentenced in association with Robert Mueller’s investigation. Trump has repeatedly criticized the investigation into Manafort, saying that his former campaign manager is being treated like a greater criminal than Al Capone.
Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and “Public Enemy Number One,” or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement – although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018
