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The lawyers of Paul Manafort, a long-time Republican consultant who chaired President Donald Trump's campaign president during the 2016 elections, pleaded Monday for a federal judge to save his 69-year-old client a that would lead him to prison. For the rest of his life.
In a 47-page memo submitted to the US District Court in Washington, the Manafort legal team described a client who would have been "personally, professionally and financially" ruined by the lawyer's investigation. Robert Mueller on charges of collusion between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russia. . They argued that Manafort deserved a sentence "significantly" less than the legislated maximum of 10 years after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges and lying charges to federal prosecutors and a grand jury.
"Mr. Manafort was devastated personally and financially [sic] his lawyers wrote: "There is no reason to think that a prison sentence of several years is necessary to prevent it from committing new crimes."
His lawyers added that Manafort "poses no risk to the public, who has certainly been generally dissuaded from engaging in similar behavior because of widespread negative publicity that this case has aroused, as well as his incarceration in solitary confinement." .
In their memo, Manafort's lawyers argue that their client "served four US presidents and that he did not have a criminal record," but he is "presented to this court by the government as a hardened criminal ".
"This case does not involve murders, drug cartels, organized crime, Madoff Ponzi's ploy or Enron's collapse," they write in a memo.
Instead, they stated that Manafort had been irreparably damaged by the scrutiny and scope of the investigation, which resulted in no charges of "Russian collusion".
According to the lawyers, the case of Manafort already has a deterrent effect on potential future rapists.
"Because of this widely reported case, the public now understands what can happen when the entire US Government prosecution force is inflicted on an individual and that potential violators have generally been dissuaded from engaging in corrupt behavior. similar, "they wrote.
Manafort's legal team included statements from witnesses, including his wife Kathleen and his daughter, who claimed that his father was "worthy of forgiveness".
The note from Manafort's legal team follows a sentencing document submitted by Mueller's office on Friday night for one of two criminal cases against the former president of the campaign Trump. Prosecutors in this memo, which was filed in federal court in Washington, said that Manafort "violated the law repeatedly and shamelessly," revealing "a hard-line commitment to the commission of crimes and a lack of remorse." The document lists a litany of Manafort's crimes, including "gardening" offenses such as "tax evasion, money laundering, obstruction of justice and bank fraud" and more "esoteric" crimes, such as the violation of the law on the registration of foreign agents. Prosecutors also claimed that Manafort was "bold" in his criminality, engaging in illegal activities not only before and while he was working for the Trump campaign, but also while on bail.
Manafort was convicted last year of eight counts of bank fraud and fraud. He also pleaded guilty to two more counts of plotting and lying to the FBI. He is expected to be sentenced next month to two separate federal criminal cases, in Virginia and Washington, for crimes related to unregistered foreign lobbying and advising pro-Russian politicians and oligarchs in Ukraine in the years preceding his involvement. to the Trump presidential campaign.
In Virginia, US District Court Judge TS Ellis III scheduled Manafort's conviction for the beginning of February, but the hearing was postponed until the lawyers resolved the dispute. that Manafort allegedly violated his plea agreement with Mueller in the Washington case. Last week, Jackson had stated that Manafort had deliberately lied to the FBI, as well as to Mueller's team, about his contacts with Trump administration officials and his dealings with officials. Intelligence officers linked to Russia two months after the conclusion of a plea agreement. Mueller to recommend a harsher punishment. The Mueller team recommended to Manafort to serve a 24.5-year sentence in the Virginia case, essentially a life sentence for the 69-year-old . He is scheduled to be sentenced to a US District Court in Virginia on March 8, according to a court record.
Manafort is also awaiting the date of sentencing on March 13 in Mueller's case in Washington, where he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to federal prosecutors and a grand jury.
Ellis and Jackson, the Virginia and Washington judges, are likely to determine how Manafort will serve his prison term. Under the original plea agreement, Mueller agreed to recommend to Manafort that he serve his sentence in Washington at the same time as his sentence in Virginia. But after Jackson's decision last week, Mueller could suggest that Manafort serve the sentences consecutively.
Last November, Trump, speaking of a forgiveness for Manafort, said that he "would not take it away." At the time, New York Democrat Representative Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, had warned Trump that "even granting a pardon" to Manafort "would strengthen a claim or charge of impeding the justice". More recently, Bloomberg News revealed that state attorneys in the state of New York were preparing to initiate criminal proceedings against Manafort in the event that he would receive a presidential pardon.
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