Manafort's attorneys claim to have learned the "hard lesson" and demand a lenient sentence

WASHINGTON – Paul Manafort's lawyers, former president of President Trump's campaign, on Friday urged a federal judge in northern Virginia to be lenient in condemning Mr. Manafort as a loyal man. compassionate and idealistic, who has lesson. "

They said that Mr. Manafort, imprisoned since June, had already suffered a lot from his crimes. At 69 years old, plagued by health problems, he poses no risk of recidivism, they said.

Their sentencing memorandum, the second they tabled this week, was submitted to US District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria, Virginia. Judge Ellis will condemn Thursday Mr. Manafort for tax evasion, banking fraud and other financial crimes. Next week, he will be sentenced by Judge Amy Berman Jackson in a conspiracy-related case before the US District Court in Washington, D.C.

According to the sentencing guidelines, Mr. Manafort's sentence would be 19 to 24 years in the case of financial fraud. While they did not recommend any specific punishment, prosecutors working for the special advocate, Robert S. Mueller III, said they agreed with this calculation of the federal probation office. .

But Mr. Manafort's lawyers argued that such a sentence would be far too severe, requiring a sentence "well below the advisory guidelines". They cited a series of cases in which other defendants were sentenced to probation or jailed for less than a year. similar schemes involving millions of dollars of hidden revenue in offshore bank accounts.

Prosecutors described Mr. Manafort as a hardened and hardened criminal, motivated solely by greed. The Special Council office also asked Judge Ellis to consider Judge Jackson's recent finding that Mr. Manafort lied to prosecutors after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges in September and agreed to cooperate with them.

Earlier this week, citing new information from a cooperating witness, Prosecutors apparently corrected an element of their allegations that Mr. Manafort lied to them about his contacts with a Russian business associate that they allegedly linked to Russian intelligence. Counsel for Mr. Manafort seized on this apparent error by telling Ellis J. that the revised narrative of the evidence presented by the prosecutors gave Mr. Manafort a more favorable image.