Manafort returning to federal court for another sentencing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort faces his second sentencing hearing in as many weeks, with a judge expected to tack on additional prison time beyond the roughly four-year punishment he has already received.

Manafort faces up to 10 additional years in prison when he is sentenced in Washington in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

A judge in Virginia last week sentenced Manafort to 47 months in prison, departing far below sentencing guidelines that allowed for more than two decades in prison and prompting national debate about disparities in how rich and poor defendants are treated by the criminal justice system.

As US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington decides whether the sentences should run consecutively or at the same time, she is likely to take into account allegations by prosecutors that Manafort tampered with witnesses after he was charged and that he lied to investigators even after he pleaded guilty and pledged to cooperate.

The hearing may offer a window into tantalizing allegations that aren’t part of the criminal cases against him but have nonetheless surfaced in recent court filings — that Manafort shared Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate the US says has ties to Russian intelligence, and that the two men met secretly during the campaign in an encounter that prosecutors say cuts “to the heart” of their investigation.