Special Counsel Mueller’s request to sentence Paul Manafort for 19-24 years behind bars was flatly rejected by a federal judge who instead gave Manafort under 4 years. Clearly, conservatives who feel Mueller’s efforts are a “witch hunt” felt some vindication.
The relatively short sentence however, angered Democrats.
2020 Presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar wrote:
My view on Manafort sentence: Guidelines there for a reason. His crimes took place over years and he led far from a “blameless life.” Crimes committed in an office building should be treated as seriously as crimes committed on a street corner. Can’t have two systems of justice!
Harvard professor Laurence Tribe wrote:
Manafort’s 47-month sentence in ED Va is outrageously lenient. Judge Ellis has inexcusably perverted justice and the guidelines. His pretrial comments were a dead giveaway. The DC sentence next week had better be consecutive.
Adam Schiff also accused Manafort’s lawyer of appealing for a pardon.
From WashingtonExaminer
A federal judge known for his impatience in court sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Thursday to less than four years behind bars, defying a requested prison term of 19 to 24 years by special counsel Robert Mueller.
T.S. Ellis III, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and serves on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, called Mueller’s recommended sentence “excessive.” Instead, the former U.S. Navy aviator, who piloted an F-4 Phantom before heading to Harvard Law School and then Oxford University, handed down a 47-month sentence.
“To impose a sentence of 19-24 years on Mr. Manafort would clearly be a disparity. In the end, I don’t think the guidelines range is at all appropriate,” Ellis said.
“I think what I’ve done is sufficiently punitive, and anyone who disagrees should spend a day in a federal penitentiary,” he said, adding that he wants Manafort to receive credit for the nine months he’s already served behind bars.
The 78-year-old judge, who presided over the trial in which Manafort was convicted of eight financial crimes, including bank fraud, tax fraud, and failure to disclose a foreign bank account, seemed swayed by his attorneys’ argument for a sentence “substantially below” the federal guidelines.
The sentence was in contrast with a sentencing memo from Mueller’s team.
“Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing last month.
“Manafort chose to do this for no other reason than greed, evidencing his belief that the law does not apply to him,” they wrote.
But Manafort’s attorneys had hit back at the special counsel in their own sentencing memo, claiming prosecutors were trying to “vilify Mr. Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon” and “spreading misinformation about Mr. Manafort to impugn his character in a manner that this country has not experienced in decades.”
Ellis was often curt during the case. At a pre-trial hearing, he questioned why the special counsel’s office had charged Manafort with crimes unrelated to their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Ellis argued that prosecutors ultimately wanted to pressure Manafort to give them information “that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment or whatever.”
He also intervened throughout the trial, disparaging the special counsel’s evidence and telling prosecutor Greg Andres to not roll his eyes.
When prosecutors focused on Manafort’s lavish lifestyle, such as his expensive taste in clothing, Ellis interrupted: “The government doesn’t want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, do they? Let’s move on.”
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