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On Wednesday, a federal judge sentenced Paul Manafort to an additional three and a half years in prison. In more than nearly four years, he had been sentenced last week during the investigation of the special advocate Robert Mueller on Russia's interference in the 2016 US election .
A few minutes later, the Manhattan District Attorney 's Office, headed by Cyrus Vance, Jr., unveiled an indictment of 16 counts of indictment against the former president of the campaign. President Donald Trump, accusing Manafort of various financial crimes, including mortgage fraud, falsification of commercial documents and conspiracy. and ploy to defraud.
A former White House official close to Trump's legal team, contacted by INSIDER for comment, said bluntly when he reacted to the new charges: "Manafort is screwed up" said this person.
Read more:New York state attorneys accuse Manafort of new charges just minutes after he was sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison as part of the Mueller investigation
This development represents a significant departure from last week, when US District Judge TS Ellis in the Eastern District of Virginia sentenced Manafort to 47 months in jail, much less than the federal guidelines on sentencing, after being found guilty of eight counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and non-reporting of foreign bank accounts.
The federal guidelines recommend a sentence of 19.5 to 24 years for the crimes of which Manafort was convicted, but Ellis said that a long sentence would be "excessive" in the case of Manafort, adding that he had led an "otherwise irreproachable life".
On Wednesday, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson – who oversaw the second trial against Manafort, which was brought to Washington – rebuffed Ellis' claims.
"The criminal behavior in this case was not an isolated and isolated incident," she said at the second sentencing hearing before Manafort. "An important part of [Manafort’s] career was spent playing the system. "
Read more:Former Trump campaign president Paul Manafort, sentenced to an additional three and a half years in prison, will serve a total sentence of seven and a half years
"This guy was a crime committed by a man"
Manafort pleaded guilty in the Washington, DC case, under a charge of conspiracy and a charge. Jackson sentenced him to 60 months for the first charge, with 30 months serving his sentence in the Virginia case.
For the second count, Jackson sentenced Manafort to 13 months in prison. In total, Manafort was sentenced to 90 months, or seven and a half years, of prison for his crimes related to the investigation conducted in Russia.
Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor specializing in financial crime and money laundering, said Michael Jackson's sentence was "severe but fair".
"Manafort's previous sentence in Virginia was outside the leniency standard," Levin told INSIDER. "Added together, the sentence is exactly what we could have expected."
Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years in the Department of Justice, went further and told the INDIRECTOR that Manafort should be "grateful" for his death sentence.
"This guy was a one-man crime of tens of millions of dollars," said Cramer. "It will only serve 85% [of his sentence] under federal rules and will receive a credit for the nine months already spent in prison. In the end, jurists said that Manafort could be released by the end of 2024, despite prosecutors demanding tougher sentences.
Read more:Mueller called Manafort a "hardened" criminal who "violated the law repeatedly and shamelessly" in a severe sentencing memorandum
In all, things seemed to be going as smoothly as possible for the former president of the Trump campaign. That is, until New York State prosecutors announce the indictment of Manafort, consisting of 16 counts of indictment. , just after Jackson ruled on his conviction as part of an investigation into Russia.
"When you have to ask yourself what is the worst prosecution, the federal or state prosecution, you have big problems anyway"
The charges were not unexpected; Last month, Bloomberg News reported that prosecutors were preparing a criminal case against Manafort in case Trump would forgive him. The Constitution gives the president broad powers to forgive federal crimes, but he does not have the power to forgive the state's offenses.
Levin, who previously worked in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office as the head of Vance asset forfeiture, described the state's charges as "serious", adding that they " would remain alone, regardless of what will happen in the federal case ".
Two people familiar with the thinking process of Manafort's legal team told INSIDER that they were preparing to defend themselves with a double jeopardy, arguing that Manafort's alleged behavior in the case of Manafort was a serious one. State is too similar to the one that Mueller accuses, and that it can not be tried. for the same crimes twice.
Read more:The 2 reasons why Paul Manafort would lie to prosecutors and risk life imprisonment
The New York state constitution prohibits subsequent lawsuits that result from the same acts or transactions as the federal charges. But Levin noted that it would probably not be "an insurmountable problem" in this case as the conduct described in the indictment against Manafort appears to be distinct from what Mueller accuses, and supports different criminal charges.
The former head of the White House has widely accepted, saying at the INSIDE: "The best bet Manafort here is to claim the double jeopardy, but even then, the odds that he succeed in avoiding an extra sentence of imprisonment are slim. "
This person added, "In the investigation on Mueller, Manafort could at least rely on a presidential pardon if he played his cards well – God knows that's the only explanation for why he would violate his plea agreement, lie to prosecutors, attempt to manipulate witness testimony after being charged, etc. In the New York case, a pardon is completely removed from the table.The guy is screwed up. "
Levin echoed this view.
"When you have to ask yourself which prosecution is the worst, the federal one, you are in a very difficult situation," he said.
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