Manafort sentenced
Trump’s campaign manager gets 47 months’ jail
ALEXANDRIA: Paul Manafort, who managed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for part of 2016, was yesterday sentenced to 47 months in prison for financial crimes that were prosecuted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
US District Judge T.S. Ellis III could have sent the 69yearold veteran Republican operative to prison for the rest of his life, but he rejected the recommended sentence of 19 to 24 years, under federal guidelines, calling it excessive.
A highflying lobbyist and consultant before he joined Trump’s campaign, Manafort was brought into court in a wheelchair. He appeared more frail than in August, when a federal jury convicted him of eight charges of tax evasion and bank fraud.
Near the end of a threehour court hearing, Manafort appealed to Ellis for compassion and said he felt ‘‘humiliated and ashamed’’ by his conduct. He thanked the judge for ‘‘a fair trial’’.
‘‘The last two years have been the most difficult that my family and I have experienced,’’ he said.
Ellis described Manafort’s crimes as ‘‘very serious’’ and said his tax evasion represented ‘‘a theft of money from everyone that pays their taxes.’’ He also expressed surprise that Manafort did not express more regret when he addressed the court.
‘‘I hope you reflect on that,’’ he said.
Because Manafort has already been in jail for the past nine months, his sentence means he would only serve an additional 38 months.
He was sent to jail last summer when US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing a related case in Washington, DC, decided he revoked his bail by reaching out to potential witnesses.
Jackson is scheduled to sentence Manafort at another hearing on Thursday next week. He pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy in that case.
All the criminal charges against Manafort stemmed from his work on behalf of Ukraine’s former proRussian government, although some of the crimes continued while he also managed Trump’s campaign for several months in 2016. Prosecutors detailed how Manafort used a network of schemes to avoid paying taxes. — TCA