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Paul Manafort sentenced to 47 months in prison, far short of expectations | CNN Politics

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Lobbyist and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort learned on Thursday that he will serve almost four years in prison – far short of what had been expected and recommended – for financial fraud convictions obtained by special counsel Robert Mueller as he investigated Manafort’s alleged collusion with the Russian government in 2016.

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Sentencing documents filed today in VA try to claim that "Russian collusion" was the reason for Manafort's prosecution, even as it's irrelevant to Manafort's conviction for financial crimes. The reality is that Manafort was a crook, but issues related to larger Trumpian narratives seem at work. This defense claim seems to try to establish a more likely reason for giving him a WH pardon.

Lawyers for , U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, asked a federal judge in Virginia on Friday to hand down a sentence that is significantly below sentencing guidelines, according to a court filing.

MANAFORT's team says that MUELLER's "attempt to vilify Mr. Manafort as a lifelong & irredeemable felon is beyond the pale," & accuses MUELLER of "spreading misinformation about Mr. Manafort to impugn his character in a manner that this country has not experienced in decades." pic.twitter.com/vJhogFfSHs
Ã¢Â€Â" Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) March 1, 2019

Fascinating are Manafort's lawyers trying to unredact some documents to give the impression that Kilimnik was not "as much" connected to GRU.

As per @maddow tonight, seems clear Manafort defense is focusing on Kilimnik contacts with US officials because they want to leverage the BS that KK was actually a double agent.

So, here's this reminder tonight: Ã°ÂŸÂ'Â‡ https://t.co/lucziaxsLi
Ã¢Â€Â" Molly McKew (@MollyMcKew) March 2, 2019

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New Manafort filing asks for leniency from 19.5-24 years because it's about the future pardon

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Sentencing documents filed today in VA try to claim that "Russian collusion" was the reason for Manafort's prosecution, even as it's irrelevant to Manafort's conviction for financial crimes. The reality is that Manafort was a crook, but issues related to larger Trumpian narratives seem at work.

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A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Paul Manafort to nearly four years in federal prison for financial crimes in the first of two sentencing hearings for the onetime Trump campaign chairman, a term substantially less than prosecutors sought.

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U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis' decision came more than a year after special counsel Robert Mueller secured an 18-count indictment against Manafort on charges related to tax and bank fraud. During Thursday's sentencing hearing, the judge said Manafort should receive credit for his time already served, meaning he will serve just over three more years.

"I want him to receive credit for the nine months," Ellis said in the courtroom.

The Virginia-based jury found Manafort, 69, guilty on eight of those counts after a lengthy trial in Aug. 2018, setting the stage for the hefty upcoming prison term.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images, FILE

In a flurry of court documents filed over the past month, special counsel prosecutors and Manafort's defense team sparred over what penalty would be appropriate for his crimes.

The special counsel's office advocated for a lengthy prison term in line with the findings of an independent pre-sentencing report, which calculated that Manafort's crimes called for a prison sentence of up to 25 years. In response, defense counsel for Manafort sought a term "substantially below" sentencing guidelines, citing their client's age and health.

Ellis said Thursday he found those sentencing guidelines "excessive" and "quite high."

The judge said Manafort lived an otherwise "blameless life" and earned the admiration of a number of people.

"Of course that can't erase criminal activity," Ellis said, "but those factors should be taken into account."

Arriving at court Thursday afternoon, a wheelchair-bound Manafort donned a green jumpsuit with a cane in hand. He managed to stand up under his own weight when the judge entered the courtroom.

Nearly three hours into his sentencing hearing, Manafort made a direct pitch to Ellis to show "compassion" in his sentence and sought to describe the burden his actions have taken on his family.

"My life -- personally and professionally -- is in shambles ... The last two years have been most difficult my family has experienced," he said. "This is an ordeal I am responsible for ... I ask for your compassion."

As they left court Thursday evening, Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing said, "As you heard in court today Mr. Manafort finally got to speak for himself and made clear he accepts responsibility for his conduct and I think most importantly what you saw today is the same thing we had said from day one. There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved in any collusion with any government official or Russia."

Special counsel spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment on Manafort's sentence.

Despite Ellis' decision, Manafort's legal travails are far from over. He faces another sentencing next week in Washington. He pleaded guilty to those additional federal charges brought by the special counsel's office in Sept. 2018.

Manafort, a longtime lobbyist and Republican political operative, led Trump's campaign for five months, from May to Aug. 2016.

Now that he has been sentenced to prison, Manafort's former boss could be his saving grace. In November, Trump told the New York Post that though a pardon for Manafort had never been discussed, he "wouldn't take it off the table."

ABC News' Jack Date contributed to this report.

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Paul Manafort sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison

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A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Paul Manafort to nearly four years in federal prison for financial crimes in the first of two sentencing hearings for the onetime Trump campaign chairman, a term substantially less than prosecutors sought. Add Russia Investigation as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Russia Investigation news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

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It is striking that a judge just sentenced Paul Manafort, a major target of the Mueller investigation, to only 47 months in prison. The Sentencing Guidelines justified a sentence well above fifteen years. It was all-important that Manafort, who had been the head of the Trump presidential campaign, receive a strong sentence.

This was partly for the general reason in sentencing, to send the message to potential malefactors of the consequences. But, it was also needed to persuade Manafort to tell Mueller (and, eventually, in some forum, the public) the truth about President Trump and Russia.

Instead, this weak sentence sends these kind of messages of a conservative judge: it is not so bad to use Republican connections to cash in with Putin's allies; Trump's campaign manager is worthy of much, much more respect than in the Sentencing Guidelines; Mueller's quest for the Russia connection deserves little help, and some messages.

Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis was nominated to the bench in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, who of course favored very conservative picks. Before then, he had worked since 1970 for Hunton and Williams, a very well known, quite conservative, Richmond firm.

President Reagan nominated Judge Ellis to the Eastern District of Virginia. Presidents have a special reason to want to stack that particular court with strong conservatives. The Pentagon and the CIA are in that district. There is a great desire among conservatives to stack that district court to handle the cases that concern national security brought in that district, including espionage cases.

Take a comparison of the Manafort case with another prosecution of a political figure, a black Democratic Congressman from a black district in Louisiana named William J. Jefferson. (I was a peripheral observer of that case. The FBI had raided Jefferson's Congressional office and carried off his computer hard drive. The Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the violation of Congressional independence by that raid, and I was the principal witness (because I knew the established limits on prosecution tactics as a former House General Counsel and I was now a professor.))

Jefferson's case was basically bribery. It was nationally famous because agents raiding his house found cash in the freezer.

Manafort may have gotten off easy with four years, but Ellis threw the book at Jefferson. In 2009 Ellis sentenced Jefferson to 13 years, the longest sentence of any Congressman to that date. (After further twists and turns Ellis let off Jefferson in December 2017 for five years time served.) It seems that while Judge Ellis can sympathize with Manafort, the Republican presidential campaign manager, he did not sympathize with Jefferson.

Everything now depends on the sentence Manafort receives in his other case, and whether it is consecutive or concurrent. Imagine the relief for Trump if it is a sentence no longer than 47 months and it runs concurrently. If Manafort had gotten (or still gets) a sentence of more than 15 years, Trump would face the problem of pardoning Manafort to prevent him from experiencing great pressure to cooperate with Mueller.

The press and public have been waiting for the first use of the pardon power as a major statement about Trump.

Now, Trump might just get off and not need to display the pardon weapon. Trump should say "Thank you, Judge Ellis."

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The Judge Who Let Manafort Off Easy With 47 Months Is An Arch-Conservative

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It is striking that a judge just sentenced Paul Manafort, a major target of the Mueller investigation, to only 47 months in prison. The Sentencing Guidelines justified a sentence well above fifteen years. It was all-important that Manafort, who had been the head of the Trump presidential campaign, receive a strong sentence.

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller is asking a federal judge to sentence former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort up to 24 years in prison and order him to pay as much as a $24 million fine.

A federal jury in the Eastern District of Virginia in August convicted Manafort on eight counts of bank and tax fraud, making him the first campaign associate of President Trump found guilty by a jury as part of Mueller's probe.
JUDGE RULES MANAFORT 'INTENTIONALLY' LIED TO MUELLER TEAM, VOIDING PLEA AGREEMENT
On Friday night, Mueller's team filed a sentencing submission in that case, saying it agrees with the guidelines that call for Manafort serving 20 to 24 years in prison and paying a fine between $50,000 and $24 million.

A sentence of more than 20 years could mean the 69-year-old Manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison. A sentencing date in the Virginia case has not yet been set.

"If Manafort receives recommended sentence in 19-24 year range, it will be longer than many murder sentences in District of Columbia," said Byron York, a Washington Examiner columnist and Fox News contributor.

Manafort is also separately facing a sentence in a Washington case, where he pleaded guilty last year to foreign lobbying violations and witness tampering as part of a plea deal. But his hopes for a reduced sentence may be in jeopardy after a federal judge on Wednesday found that he "intentionally" lied to Mueller's team in response to some, but not all, of their inquiries. The ruling voids his plea deal and exposes Manafort, at a minimum, to a harsher sentence.

In her decision, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson pointedly rejected some of the claims by Mueller's team, while noting that legally, prosecutors were entitled to deference on the question of whether Manafort breached the terms of his plea deal as long as they made the claim in "good faith."

The sentencing date for the Washington case is currently set for March 13.
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Manafort has denied intentionally misleading Mueller's team during the approximately 50 hours of interviews with investigators that he participated in following his plea deal, and said he is under stress and physically ill.
Fox News' Jake Gibson and Gregg Re contributed to this report.

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Mueller wants Paul Manafort imprisoned up to 24 years

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller is asking a federal judge to sentence former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort up to 24 years in prison and order him to pay as much as a $24 million fine.