Trump’s campaign chairman is jailed

FORMER TRUMP campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians.

Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he deals with complications from gout, showed no visible reaction as he heard the 47-month sentence, after prosecution calls for a 20-year prison term.

The sentence caps the only jury trial following indictments stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. It was not related to Manafort’s role in the presidential campaign.

Before Judge TS Ellis III imposed the sentence, Manafort told him that “saying I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement”.

But he offered no explicit apology, something the judge noted before issuing his sentence.

Manafort’s lawyers argued that their client had engaged in what amounted to a routine tax evasion case, and cited numerous past sentences in which defendants had hidden millions from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and served less than a year in prison.

Prosecutors said Manafort’s conduct was egregious, but the judge ultimately agreed more with defence lawyers.

A jury convicted Manafort on eight counts last year, concluding that he hid from the IRS millions of dollars he earned from his work in Ukraine.

Manafort still faces sentencing in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty in a separate case connected to illegal lobbying.

Outside court, Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, said his client accepted responsibility for his conduct “and there was absolutely no evidence that Mr Manafort was involved in any collusion with the government of Russia”.