Mueller's sentence in jail will be "life sentence"

WASHINGTON – Former president of President Donald Trump's campaign, Paul Manafort, pleaded on Monday to avoid a lengthy jail sentence that "would likely be a life sentence" for his convictions in the interference investigation. of Russia in the elections of 2016.

Manafort should be sentenced twice next month, first by a federal judge in Virginia, where he was convicted of tax and banking fraud; and then a week later, in Washington, by another federal judge, where he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lied to the investigators. Together, these cases could result in a life sentence for the 69-year-old politician.

Prosecutors working for special advocate Robert Mueller described Manafort as a "hardened" criminal who "violated the law cheekily" after years of fraud and illicit lobbying. They urged both judges to order that he serve a substantial prison sentence.

Manafort, who pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in the District of Columbia, said the cruel descriptions of his crimes were not aimed at "murder, drug cartels, organized crime, ploy" of Madoff Ponzi or the bankruptcy of Enron ". And the charges do not relate to the "collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russia, which was at the heart of Mueller's investigation, his lawyers said.

Manafort instead pleaded guilty in Washington for crimes related to his lucrative lobbying work in Ukraine, failing to report it to the government and trying to conceal it from the authorities, his lawyers said in a 47-page filing late Monday. They stated that in the past, the government had only rarely initiated such prosecutions and did not consider them particularly serious.

"A long prison sentence is not necessary in this case and would not serve the statutory purposes of sentencing," said Manafort's lawyers. "Mr. Manafort has been severely punished, including the confiscation of most of his assets, and given his age and health problems, a significant additional sentence of imprisonment is likely to be a significant penalty. life imprisonment for a primary offender. "

Manafort faces a maximum sentence of 10 years when US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson convicts him on March 13.

Manafort's lawyers did not specify the sentence that seemed appropriate to them, but felt that it should be "significantly lower" than the decade to which he could be sentenced.

This sentence will come after US District Judge T. Ellis condemns March 8th in Virginia. Mueller's office said in the case that the federal guidelines required him to spend 20 to 24 years in prison following his conviction for eight counts of bank and tax fraud.

Mueller's office said in court Saturday that he could ask Jackson to serve his sentence by starting with a sentence. But Manafort's lawyers said that if a prison sentence is imposed in Virginia, the sentence of forced detention should be enforced simultaneously.

"For more than a decade, Manafort has repeatedly and shamelessly violated the law," prosecutor Andrew Weissmann wrote in a 25-page memo released Saturday. "His crimes continued during the time he was charged for the first time in October 2017 and have remarkably continued relentlessly even after the indictment."

The cases stem from the fact that Manafort served as a political consultant for a pro-Russian faction in Ukraine during the decade prior to joining the Trump campaign from March to August 2016.

Manafort was a key figure in Mueller's investigation of Russia because he was one of the main collaborators of the Trump campaign and had many relations with Russian interests. Manafort attended a meeting of the Trump Tower in June 2016 with Russians offering damaging information on their Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Manafort's partner in the work in Ukraine, the Russian national Konstantin Kilimnik, also faces charges of conspiracy in the DC case The Court's records described the Manafort meeting more than he had acknowledged. with Kilimnik during the Trump campaign and sharing survey data.

None of the charges against Manafort imply his work for the campaign.

In August, in Virginia, Manafort was found guilty of concealing tens of millions of dollars in banks and foreign companies in order to avoid paying taxes. His plea of ​​guilty, in September in Washington, focused on charges of conspiracy for failing to report a lobbying for Ukraine and manipulating witnesses to urge them to change their testimonies.

Manafort may have trouble paying fines and restitution. He has already confiscated property worth an estimated $ 27 million, including a $ 7.3 million complex in the Hamptons and a $ 3.8 million apartment in Trump Tower.

More on Paul Manafort's legal issues:

"His criminal actions were daring": the Prosecutor calls for severe punishment for Paul Manafort in a court memo

Mueller's office calls for 20 years or more in prison for former Trump campaign president Paul Manafort

Yes, Mueller's investigation is expensive. But the millions of people seized in Manafort are about to pay their bills

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