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Hmmm: Manafort Gets Relatively Light Second Sentence Too — And A New Indictment
Hotair ^ | 03/13/2019 | Ed Morrissey

Posted on 03/13/2019 11:39:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Before Paul Manafort’s sentence-o-rama tour through the courts last week, he faced a potential for consecutive sentences running into decades in prison. By this afternoon, Manafort appeared to have gotten off lightly not once but twice. Judge Amy Berman Jackson added a 43-month prison term to the 47 months Judge T.S. Ellis handed down, with enough overlap that Manafort faces 81 months in federal prison altogether.

That may not be good news, but it wasn’t as bad as it might have been:

WATCH: NBC News Special Report: With judge's second sentence, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is receiving 90 months total in prison. https://t.co/GVnX2Sphwb pic.twitter.com/fNRU0fkuCs

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 13, 2019

Paul Manafort received a prison sentence totaling 7 1 / 2 years in prison at a hearing in Washington on Wednesday. Judge Amy Berman Jackson added 43 months to the 47-month sentence the former Trump campaign chairman was given last week in federal court in Alexandria, Va. …

Defense attorney Kevin M. Downing said his client is genuinely remorseful and has endured a “media frenzy” that few other defendants in this country have faced. Downing said all sides have sought to spin Manafort’s predicament to their political advantage, adding, that “but for a short stint as campaign manager in a presidential election, I don’t think we would be here today. I think the court should consider that, too.”

Jackson dismissed that argument, telling Manafort, “Saying ‘I’m sorry I got caught’ is not an inspiring call for leniency.”

And yet Jackson wound up being relatively lenient anyway. She spent a significant part of the hearing rebutting the defense’s claim that Manafort was a mere pawn in Robert Mueller’s special-counsel probe, noting that Manafort got convicted of and pled guilty to crimes of his own making. Jackson criticized Manafort for lying to Mueller even after cutting a plea deal, and for lying most of his life to boot. “It is hard to overstate the number of lies and amount of money involved,” Jackson summarized at one point.

And yet, while she could have sentenced Manafort to ten additional years in prison, Jackson only effectively added 34 months to the sentence Ellis imposed last week. In that case, sentencing guidelines suggested that Manafort should get closer to 20 years than just under four, as Ellis assigned. At that time, Ellis sharply criticized the sentencing guidelines as unjust and took a great deal of criticism for the light sentence, and some accused Ellis of exploiting his sentencing authority to lash out at Mueller. Jackson’s sentence, however, should put an end to those criticisms as it also departs sharply from federal sentencing guidelines.

That’s as far as the good news went for Manafort today. Just minutes after his sentencing hearing ended, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance announced a new indictment for sixteen counts of real-estate fraud and related crimes:

Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, was indicted on 16 counts tied to residential mortgage fraud and conspiracy, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

The 69-year-old longtime GOP operative is accused of falsifying business records to illegally obtain millions of dollars as part of a yearlong mortgage fraud scheme.

“No one is beyond the law in New York,” Vance said in a statement.

Yeah! Who does Manafort think he is … Harvey Weinstein?

Looks like Manafort will have a busy 81 months ahead of him, assuming Vance presses forward with the case. It might just be filed to deter Donald Trump from issuing a pardon to Manafort, which would not affect non-federal crimes. If Manafort will get prosecuted in Manhattan, Trump and his advisers will likely think, there’s not much to be gained by pardoning Manafort or commuting his federal sentence. Since it also looks like Manafort doesn’t have anything damaging on Trump, that incentive has already dissipated.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blog; manafort
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To: SeekAndFind
Too bad we don't have this in the Constitution...


21 posted on 03/13/2019 12:44:35 PM PDT by montag813 ("This is Montag, Block 813...")
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To: dpetty121263

“Considering he is 69 yrs old then his days are numbered anyway-——————”


So are yours——that’s the way it is.

.


22 posted on 03/13/2019 12:45:58 PM PDT by Mears
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To: dpetty121263

Top of the world ma!


23 posted on 03/13/2019 12:46:57 PM PDT by Leep (It's.. (W)all or nothing..!)
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To: SeekAndFind

How soon is he eligible for parole? More importantly, when is Tony Podesta going to be tried for the same thing?


24 posted on 03/13/2019 12:54:09 PM PDT by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
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To: Mears

Live everyday live like my last last buckaroo banzai!


25 posted on 03/13/2019 12:56:04 PM PDT by dpetty121263
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To: Leep

Faced with a long sentence in Prison and age was a factor..no way to die rotting in Prison...especially in this case.


26 posted on 03/13/2019 12:57:29 PM PDT by dpetty121263
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To: dpetty121263

:-)


27 posted on 03/13/2019 12:58:06 PM PDT by Mears
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To: SeekAndFind

Anyond know exactly how much tax Manafort owed?

More or less than the $900 million missing tax dollars diverted by DeBlasio to his wifes nonexistent mental health ptogram?

More or less than the $2 million owed by Al Sharpton?


28 posted on 03/13/2019 1:02:31 PM PDT by silverleaf (A man who kneels for the national anthem doesn't stand for much of anything)
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To: commish

His assets were seized by/forfeited to the feds. Mot much there to hide.


29 posted on 03/13/2019 1:19:38 PM PDT by Coronal
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To: READINABLUESTATE

30 months concurrent, the rest consecutive.


30 posted on 03/13/2019 1:20:34 PM PDT by Coronal
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To: Freedom'sWorthIt

“The President saying he feels very badly for Manafort.”

Yeah, but he first said he hadn’t given a thought tp pardoning Manafort. What a guy. A man saves your Presidential campaign, and you don’t give pardoning him ‘A Thought’. What a guy!


31 posted on 03/13/2019 1:24:29 PM PDT by heights
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To: rlmorel

Manafort should play “felony poker” with the scumprosecutors in NY.


32 posted on 03/13/2019 2:31:34 PM PDT by an amused spectator (Mitt Romney, Chuck Schumer's p*ssboy)
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To: ghost of nixon; Robert357
didn’t Cyrus Vance Jr. recently get in trouble for something?

No one is above the law in New York state.

Well, except Harvey Weinstein, or other big Democrat money donors, or corrupt POS prosecutors like Cyrus "The Virus" Vance Jr...

Why Did Cyrus Vance Jr. Give Harvey Weinstein Special Treatment
https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/policy/criminal-justice/cy-vance-give-weinstein-special-treatment.html

Vance should be on the bidness end of a rope.

33 posted on 03/13/2019 2:37:05 PM PDT by an amused spectator (Mitt Romney, Chuck Schumer's p*ssboy)
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To: Robert357

If they want blood sports...


34 posted on 03/13/2019 2:39:16 PM PDT by an amused spectator (Mitt Romney, Chuck Schumer's p*ssboy)
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To: central_va
Armed robbery with bodily harm gets on average 5 years. Trump pardon this man.

This is selective prosecution to influence future elections.

Who is going to want to work on Trump's 2020 campaign, if they're going to get targeted by the American Criminal Jesters system?

I submit that we're done with normal voting.

35 posted on 03/13/2019 2:46:48 PM PDT by an amused spectator (Mitt Romney, Chuck Schumer's p*ssboy)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is the trick NY state plans to pull on Trump and his family once they have the opportunity.


36 posted on 03/13/2019 5:32:01 PM PDT by damper99 (pu)
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To: tirednvirginia
"Tried twice for the exact same crimes?"

.... Yup .... These Indictments are State..... Previous were Federal ...

37 posted on 03/14/2019 12:12:36 PM PDT by R_Kangel ("A nation of sheep will beget a nation ruled by wolves")
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