Sentenced to 47 months in federal prison, 69-year-old former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III thumbed his nose at Special Counsel Robert Muller, urging the independently-minded federal judge to give him 19-24 years in prison. Critics of President Donald Trump expressed outrage at the relatively light sentence for income tax evasion, bank and wire fraud for work Manafort performed for Ukraine’s former Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukoych in 2006, 10 years before Manafort worked for only six months for the Trump campaign. Harvard Preofeesor Lawrence Tribe expressed disgust over the light sentence, knowing that Manafort was not charged with conspiracy with the Russian government to help Trump win the 2016 election. Mueller was appointed Special Counsel May 17, 2017 by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein with the mandate of probing Russian meddling and alleged Trump collusion.
]]
Trump was “saddened” watching Manafort arrive for sentencing wearing a green jumpsuit in a wheel chair due to severe gout and other medical problems. Whatever Manafort’s medical condition, Ellis based his sentence on the fact Mueller prosecuted Manafort for white collar crimes associated with his work 10 years before the 2016 campaign. Manafort’s attorney argued for leniency based on the fact Manafort had no criminal record before Mueller put him under the microscope, completely unrelated to the 2016 campaign, but, more importantly, to the Special Counsel’s mandate to investigate Russian meddling or alleged Trump collusion with the Kremlin. With Mueller’s final report to the Atty. Gen Bill Barr due soon, there’s no indication that the Special Counsel has found anything that connects Trump or his campaign to coordinating with Moscow to win the 2016 presidential election. Yet Mueller wanted Manafort to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Fined $50,000 and given nine months of time served, Manafort will spend 36 months in federal prison unless U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson requires his March 15 sentencing in D.C. federal court to run consecutively. Berman-Jackson isn’t likely to require Manafort to serve more time, recognizing that the once elite political consultants, dating back to the Nixon days, has been punished enough. To the anti-Trump press, Manafort’s sentence was taken personally, believing he should pay extra time for what Mueller couldn’t find with Trump when it comes to Russian collusion. Democrats and their friends in the liberal press couldn’t stomach the fact that Mueller should have never prosecuted Manafort, whether he committed any crimes or not. Manafort’s sentence raises the possibility of a presidential pardon, something Trump has not ruled out. Given that Manfort’s prosecution fits Trump “witch hunt” definition, a pardon would surprise no one.
Getting 36 months in prison actually exceds average sentencing guidelines for income tax evasion, running about 12 months. Mueller’s contention that Manafort should get the maximum sentence under federal guidelines speaks volumes about the political nature to Manafort’s prosecution. Pushing for a longer sentence, Mueller’s legal team antagonized Ellis, recognizing the political nature of the prosecution. “To say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement,” Manafort told the court. Yet Mueller’s prosecutors insist Manafort never accepted responsibility for his actions, demanding an outright apology. Ellis slapped Mueller saying Manafort has “been a good friend to others, a generous person.” Adding insult to injury to Mueller, Ellis said, “he has lived an otherwise blameless life,” before delivering his 47-month sentence, minus nine moths for ttme served. No what the sentence, it wouldn’t have been enough.
Whether admitted to or not, Manafort should not have been put in the pucrosshairs by Mueller for anything outside his work for Trump. Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation prosecuting Trump campaign officials for technical “perjury traps,” like Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen. Mueller got Cohen on perjury for telling Congress he concluded discussions about Trump Tower Moscow in Dec. 2016 when in fact talks didn’t end until June 2017. When it came to former Atty Gen. Jeff Sessions or Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Mueller got them for not recalling they talked with former Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak, as if that were a crime. Ellis recognized that Muller’s team showed too much zealotry trying to put Manafort away for life, for a garden-variety tax evasion case. Democrats and the anti-Trump press are getting worried that Mueller’s final report won’t give them impeachable offenses to remove Trump from office.
Ellis realized that he was sucked into the political maelstrom that’s swept Washington attempting, beyond anything else, to get rid of Trump. House Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.) made clear he wants to create a record with more subpoenas and testimony to begin impeachment proceedings, regardless of whether he committed high-crimes-and-misdemeanors, the Constitutional standard. “It’s very sad what happened to Paul,” Trump said. “I have not offered any pardon. I’m not taking anything of the table,” Trump said last year. When you consider all the politics at play, it’s difficult for federal judges like Ellis and Berman to figure out how to mete out justice. Giving the ailing Manafort 36 months to rot in federal prison is no slap on the writs, especially given his medical problems. Watching Mueller’s team try to throw the book at Manafort tells the whole story. It’s not about justie, it’s about scoring points in what’s looking more like a failed investigation.
