Manafort sentenced to 47 months in prison
Conspiracy, tampering sentence to come
ALEXANDRIA, VA.• Paul Manafort, who helped define Washington’s modern lobbying culture and advised four U.S. presidents, was sentenced to less than four years in prison for hiding millions of dollars offshore to support a glittering lifestyle that included six homes, dozens of custom suits and a $15,000 ostrich jacket.
Manafort, 69, faced the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison, but got a break from the federal judge in Alexandria, Va., Thursday who called a recommendation for a sentence of 19 years to 241/2 years excessive.
Manafort’s punishment could still get worse. He faces another decade in prison when he’s sentenced March 13 in Washington for conspiracy counts related to a secret lobbying campaign on behalf of Ukraine and for joining a Russian associate in tampering with witnesses.
The downfall of Manafort, President Donald Trump’s campaign chairman for four months, came at the hands of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who depicted him as a serial liar who defrauded tax authorities and banks while concealing his political consulting for pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine. Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Russians who interfered with the 2016 election.
Manafort, who attended the hearing in a wheelchair, wearing a green jumpsuit, had asked the judge for mercy in a brief statement. He was convicted of eight felonies, including hiding $55 million abroad, cheating the U.S. of more than $6 million in taxes and defrauding banks that lent him money.
His lawyers didn’t dispute that his crimes were serious, conceding he didn’t report income made offshore to the Internal Revenue Service, hid accounts from the Treasury Department and lied to lenders after his cash dwindled.
But they insisted that Manafort, who worked on Trump’s campaign without pay, never colluded with Russia. They said Mueller singled him out because he worked for Trump. And they said Manafort’s work for former president Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine wasn’t on behalf of a Kremlin-aligned politician, as Mueller contends, but rather an effort to steer Ukraine toward the U.S.-friendly European Union.
Yanukovych fled to Moscow after protests in 2014. Low on cash, Manafort tried to leverage properties in New York, Florida and Virginia as he lied to banks to secure loans.
After his conviction in Alexandria, Manafort averted a trial in Washington by pleading guilty to two conspiracy counts and agreeing to co-operate with Mueller. But prosecutors said he repeatedly lied to them in debriefings while failing to come clean about his contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime associate allegedly tied to Russian intelligence.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington ruled that Manafort deliberately lied about his contacts with Kilimnik, calling it an “attempt to shield his Russian conspirator from liability” and saying it raised “legitimate questions about where his loyalties lie.”
Prosecutors said that during the 2016 campaign, Manafort shared Trump polling data with Kilimnik, and they discussed a peace plan to resolve sanctions imposed on Russia after it annexed Ukraine. Mueller also appeared to examine whether Manafort and Kilimnik possibly were a back channel for communications between Russia and Trump, but neither man was formally accused of that. Manafort’s lawyers also firmly denied that he conspired with Russia.
Mueller also investigated whether Manafort sought a pardon from Trump — a possibility that still exists.
In his Virginia trial, prosecutors cast Manafort as a cash-hungry villain bent on skirting the law. Jurors heard how Manafort used wire transfers from offshore accounts to pay for houses, cars, clothes and rugs. Manafort spent on custom clothes from Alan Couture in New York and the House of Bijan in Beverly Hills, as well as improvements to homes in the Hamptons and Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Jurors heard from Rick Gates, Manafort’s right-hand man, who pleaded guilty and is co-operating with Mueller’s investigators. Gates recounted how he helped Manafort cheat the IRS and banks for years, but on crossexamination, he admitted that he stole from his boss and lied to prosecutors.