Less than a week after Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison over a financial fraud conviction, the former campaign chairman to Donald Trump was sentenced to an additional 43 months for conspiracy. Minutes after that, he was indicted by NY prosecutors on 16 charges related to mortgage fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records.
In the second sentencing on charges brought by special counsel, Robert S. Mueller, federal judge Amy Berman Jackson handed down a 60-month prison sentence on one criminal conspiracy counts, 30 of which will be served concurrently with his previous sentence. On the second criminal count of conspiracy, Jackson ordered Manafort to 13 months of consecutive prison time, for a total of seven-and-a-half years behind bars.
“I am sorry for what I have done and for all the activities that have gotten us here today,” Manafort said ahead of his sentencing. “I will be 70 years old in a few weeks. My wife is 66. She needs me. I need her. I ask you to think of this and our need for each other.”
However, Jackson was not moved by Manafort’s public apology. Although she gave credit to Manafort for taking responsibility for his actions, she stood by her February ruling in saying Manafort intentionally lied to prosecutors.
“Saying I’m sorry I got caught is not an inspiring plea for leniency,” Jackson said. “‘A significant portion’ of Manafort’s career ‘ was spent gaming the system’” she added, as she maintained that her decision was “not or can not be a revision of a sentence that is imposed by another court,” in reference to Manafort’s Virginia sentencing.
In the meantime, a spokesperson for Manafort has yet to comment on the New York indictment.
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