As former head of Trump’s headquarters, Manaforte managed to get less than four years instead of 19

Former Chief of Staff Donald Trump Paul Manafort received 3 of the year and 11 months in prison for financial fraud. The prosecution requested for him at least 19,5 years in prison. Air force tells how Manaforte, who was one of the defendants in the case of a possible deal between the Trump team and the Kremlin, was convicted in the court of Virginia.

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TV cameras lined up outside the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, hours before the trial began. A man in an orange earflap hat was walking nearby with a sign saying “This is a sign.”

During the trials of those involved in the investigation into Russian interference in the US presidential election, people regularly appear at the entrance with posters, often with harsher slogans: “Putin’s puppet”, “Traitor”, “Sold democracy to Putin? Pay your taxes."

Representatives of the Office of Special Prosecutor Robert Muller, who is investigating a possible deal between Trump’s entourage and the Kremlin, went to court in a good mood. In the case of Manafort, they acted as state prosecutors, a political consultant jury convicted as early as August last year.

Even if not for all the charges, but only for 8 out of 18, but this, as Mueller’s office stated in the memorandum, was enough to sentence Manafort to a minimum of 19,5 years in prison, and a maximum of 24.

- Which floor? — one of the state prosecutors asked a colleague.

- Ninth! Forgot already?

- We haven't been for a long time!

The date of sentencing to Manafor in Virginia was postponed several times because of the second case against the former head of Trump's headquarters, which is being considered in parallel in Washington, in a court in the capital district of Columbia.

Manafort is charged with conspiracy against the state, money laundering, giving false testimony and violating rules for registering as a foreign agent - before collaborating with Trump, he worked for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

The sentence on the second case will be announced on March 13.

Journalists lined up at the door to the 900 hall in a huge snake turn, filling the entire hall and adjacent corridors, but the meeting did not start in time.

When the doors opened, media staff rushed forward, and some tried to jump the line, fearing there would not be enough space in the hall. The attempts were stopped by the bailiff - the first to let in were lawyers, state prosecutors and relatives of the political strategist.

Manafort was brought to the hall in a wheelchair, and he held a cane in his hands. The political strategist suffers from gout, which has worsened in his eight months in prison. At the first meetings of the case, while he was under house arrest, Manafort still came himself.

During the time spent in prison, the former chief of staff of Trump is very old and gray. He changed his business suit to a green prison uniform. In the hall, about a hundred journalists, employees of the FBI and the US Justice Department, as well as curious onlookers, watched him in total silence.

Judge Thomas Ellis was half an hour late and began the session with an apology. Manafort he allowed not to get up. The participants did not yet know that in a few hours Ellis would show much more leniency to the political consultant who was caught in the fraud.

Ellis recalled that Manaforta was convicted on all five counts of tax evasion, two cases of bank fraud and one episode of hiding a foreign account.

“The court has no evidence that Manafort conspired with Russian officials in 2016,” the judge said. He noted that he had already raised the issue of the extremely broad powers of special counsel Robert Mueller, but recognized the legality of his actions.

Throughout the process, Ellis repeatedly pointed out that the charges incriminated to the political consultant are in no way connected with Russia's intervention in the US presidential election in 2016.

The 78-year-old judge, appointed to this position by President Ronald Reagan, emphasized that Mueller’s team is deliberately tightening the ring around the political strategist, hoping that he will eventually testify against other defendants in the “Russian investigation,” including President Trump.

However, the fact that the guilt of Manafort in proven fraud, Ellis did not doubt. Most of the process went to re-examine the charges brought against Manaforte and the schemes for his evasion of taxes.

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In total, according to the judge, Manafort did not pay more than 6 million dollars in taxes. All this time, the political consultant led a luxurious lifestyle, acquired expensive real estate, cars, and even an ostrich skin jacket for 15 thousand dollars.

At the same time, the judge noted that the political strategist had not previously been brought to criminal liability. Manafort also "turned himself inside out" in front of Mueller's investigators.

In response, state prosecutors said that during the 50 interrogation, the political consultant did not say anything new, not known to the investigators.

"It's not like it was 50 hours of anything useful, something we didn't know before, it wasn't 50 hours of important information," said Greg Anders, the lead prosecutor at the trial.

Müller’s team does not believe that Trump’s former head of staff honestly cooperated with the investigation: the second case, which is being considered in Washington, concerns just his lies during interrogations.

The lawyer of Manafort, Kevin Downing, in turn, noted that in similar cases of tax fraud, the defendants often make a deal with the investigation and often do not even get to court.

The unusual case of his client, according to the lawyer, was that Manafort was not able to resolve the claims of the authorities in the pretrial order.

Disputes between the defense and the prosecution also arose over the amount of damage that Manafort must pay. Muller's team insisted on 24 million dollars, claiming that the spin consultant had money.

“The state knows that Manafort has two homes - in Virginia and in Palm Beach, Florida,” said Uzo Osanye, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. “They cost approximately $4 million.”

The defense objected - even if Osanje’s calculations are correct, Manafort’s property still needs to be able to be sold at that price. Lawyers argued that the state prosecution has no evidence of the solvency of the former head of Trump's campaign.

Finally, the judge gave the final speech to Manafor. Since he could not go to the podium and speak into the microphone, the political consultant was barely audible.

He complained that the last two years had been the most difficult of his life. “To say that I am humiliated and ashamed is putting it mildly,” he added, asking the judge to show compassion.

According to Manafort, in professional and financial terms, his life is in ruins, and his mental and physical health has been hit.

“The biggest pain is the pain of my family, which I have been without for almost nine months,” Paul Manafort said. He noted that in his cell he thought a lot about his life and the decisions he made when faced with a choice.

Announcing the verdict, the judge noted that Manafort did not say anything about repentance and regret in the last word. He was surprised at this and advised the political consultant to think about this in conclusion.

“Mr. Manafort, you have been accused of serious, very serious crimes. Life is a series of choices, you made your choice, you decided to start engaging in illegal activities,” Ellis said.

However, the judge stressed that in similar cases the sentences were made less severe than requested by the prosecution for Manafort. The term in 19,5 years he called unfounded.

As a result, he ruled that Manafort must serve 24 months for tax evasion, 30 months for concealing a foreign bank account, and 47 months for two counts of bank fraud.

He can serve the punishment at the same time, not consecutively, and so Manafort received the 3 of the year and the 11 of the prison months. The term he has already spent behind bars will be reckoned. As a result, he will have to serve three years and three months in prison.

He was also given a fine in 50 thousand dollars. The judge first asked the public prosecutors what size of the fine they called the minimum, and chose the punishment for the lower bar. Manafort will also have to pay the state 24 million dollars in damages.

At the exit of the court building, lawyer Kevin Downing stated that the court has no evidence of Paul Manafort’s involvement in any collusion with Russian officials.

Representatives of the Office of Special Prosecutor Muller left quickly and silently.

Manafort was detained in 2017 year, in addition to financial crimes he was accused of refusing to register as a foreign agent and obstructing justice. is he made a deal with the investigation, agreeing to pay $ 22 million and cooperate with Muller. However, in December 2018, the Special Prosecutor announced that Manafort lied about his relationship with the Trump administration and the payments received.

In the summer of 2018, the jury found Manafort guilty of concealing bank accounts, tax evasion. After that, he made a deal with the investigation, in violation of which Muller accused him.

Next week, a Washington court will announce another sentence to Manaforte on charges of working as a foreign agent and money laundering .The investigation believes that he laundered more than $ 30 million while working for the former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.

Recall earlier ForumDaily wrote on what exactly Manafort spent laundered millions of dollars.

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