Manafort Gets 47 Months, But Second Sentencing Awaits
The term is more than 15 years short of the minimum recommended by the special counsel.
March 07, 2019 at 07:15 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on National Law Journal
A federal judge in Virginia sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison, a term falling more than 15 years short of the minimum term recommended by the special counsel's office.
Manafort, seated in a wheelchair and wearing a prison uniform with “Alexandria Inmate” emblazoned on the back, received the sentence just before 7 p.m. from Judge T.S. Ellis. His appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Thursday came as he approaches a separate sentencing in Washington on charges related to his past lobbying work for the pro-Russian government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Manafort, speaking publicly for the first time since his indictment, didn't apologize or express remorse, and instead told Ellis he was humiliated and ashamed. He described the past two years as the most difficult he and his family had “ever experienced,” and thanked Ellis for his oversight of the August trial that resulted in his conviction on financial fraud charges.
“Again, I want to thank you for the fair trial,” Manafort said Thursday.
When it came time to impose a sentence, Ellis said he was struck by what he did not hear from Manafort: an expression of regret.
“I certainly recommend that you do it in the District of Columbia,” Ellis said, referring to Manafort's upcoming sentencing before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington.
Manafort had lived an otherwise blameless life. Ellis said he believed the more than 19 years in prison recommended would be excessive and create a “unwarranted disparity” with past sentences on similar charges.
A jury in Alexandria, Virginia, found Manafort guilty in August on eight counts of bank and tax fraud. The verdict followed a weeks-long trial in which prosecutors painted a detailed picture of Manafort's luxe lifestyle, featuring his high-end homes and a $15,000 ostrich jacket.
In the years before he joined Trump's presidential campaign, Manafort cheated the government out of millions of dollars in taxes owed on his income from his Ukrainian lobbying work, prosecutors said. And when that income stream dried up, Manafort submitted false information to banks to secure loans to prop up his lavish lifestyle.
The jury deadlocked on ten other criminal counts, but Manafort would go on to admit guilt to those as part of his September plea agreement to the separate case in Washington.
In court papers filed in Virginia, Manafort's attorneys sought to persuade the judge that Manafort accepted responsibility for his actions, and has already suffered the consequences. In response to those claims, prosecutors portrayed Manafort as a man who viewed himself as above the law.
In Washington, Jackson is scheduled to sentence Manafort on March 13 on two counts: conspiring against the United States, and conspiring to obstruct justice by tampering with witnesses.
The government is expected to tell Jackson on Wednesday whether they think the sentences should be consecutive or concurrent.
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