'His criminal actions were bold': Prosecutors urge harsh sentence for Paul Manafort in court memo
Bart JansenWASHINGTON – Prosecutors painted a damning picture of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman as a "hardened" criminal who "brazenly violated the law" and urged that his sentence not be reduced in a memo released Saturday.
In the court filing from special counsel Robert Mueller's office, prosecutors urged a federal judge not to reduce the sentence for Paul Manafort for his conspiracy case in the District of Columbia. Prosecutors said Manafort deserved a significant sentence without specifying what it should be, but that it shouldn't include credit for his promise to cooperate.
Federal guidelines call for a sentence roughly double what Manafort could receive. The guidelines called for a 17- to nearly 22-year term for the charges in the case. But the sentence for the two charges he acknowledged is capped at 10 years. Whatever he receives could run after the sentence in his Virginia case.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson earlier ruled that Manafort lied repeatedly to investigators despite the cooperation he promised as part of a plea agreement.
"For over a decade, Manafort repeatedly and brazenly violated the law," prosecutor Andrew Weissmann wrote in the 25-page sentencing memo, which was accompanied by 800 pages of partially redacted exhibits. "His crimes continued up through the time he was first indicted in October 2017 and remarkably went unabated even after indictment."
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The case has many aggravating factors and no mitigating ones, the memo said.
The filing was made public on Saturday, hours after the Friday deadline due to portions of the memo being placed under seal and needing redactions pending the ongoing investigation. Manafort’s lawyers will respond to the filing Monday. Jackson scheduled sentencing on March 13.
Whatever she decides could be irrelevant after Manafort is sentenced March 8 in Virginia on eight counts of tax and bank fraud. Prosecutors in that case recommended that U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis put Manafort in prison for nearly 20 to 24 years, with fines, restitution and property forfeiture totaling up to $53 million. It could essentially become a life sentence for 69-year-old Manafort.
The cases stemmed from when Manafort served as a political consultant for a pro-Russian faction in Ukraine during the decade before he joined Trump’s campaign from March to August 2016.
Manafort was a key figure in Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election because he ranked high in Trump's campaign and dealt routinely with Russian contacts. He attended the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 with Russians offering damaging information about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
The documents released Saturday do not appear to provide any further view into Manafort’s alleged criminal conduct beyond the existing convictions on financial fraud, witness tampering charges, along with the collapse of his plea agreement with Mueller’s prosecutors in the Washington, D.C., case.
Most notably, the court papers do not offer any information involving coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, which has been the primary focus of the Mueller investigation.
Manafort's partner in the Ukraine work, Russian national Konstantin Kilimnik, also faces conspiracy charges in the D.C. case. Court filings described Manafort meeting more than he acknowledged with Kilimnik during the Trump campaign and sharing polling data.
But none of the Manafort charges deals with his work on the Trump campaign. Trump personally denied knowing about Manafort sharing polling data.
In August, Manafort was convicted in Virginia of hiding tens of millions of dollars in overseas banks and corporations, to avoid paying taxes. His guilty plea in September in D.C. dealt with conspiracy charges for failing to report lobbying for Ukraine and for tampering with witnesses to get them to change their stories.
“His criminal actions were bold, some of which were committed while under a spotlight due to his work as the campaign chairman and, later, while he was on bail from this court,” the Mueller memo said. "Manafort's conduct after he pleaded guilty is pertinent to sentencing. It reflects a hardened adherence to committing crimes and lack of remorse."
Manafort may find it difficult to pay the fines and restitution. He has already forfeited properties worth an estimated $27 million, including a $7.3 million compound in the Hamptons and a $3.8 million apartment in Trump Tower.
Despite his convictions, Trump has lauded Manafort for his refusal "to break." The president, however, has not indicated whether he would issue a pardon for his one-time campaign chief. Prosecutor Weissmann told a judge this month that one of the reasons Manafort might have lied after promising to cooperate was to "augment his chances for a pardon."
More about Paul Manafort's legal troubles:
Judge: Paul Manafort lied to the FBI after agreeing to cooperate in the Russia probe
