Paul Manafort sentenced to 47 months in prison News
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Paul Manafort sentenced to 47 months in prison

A federal judge on Thursday sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison.

Manafort was found guilty of eight charges of bank and tax fraud in August, which, under federal sentencing guidelines, could have resulted in a prison term of 19-24 years, as projected by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team in their sentencing memo. Manafort’s attorneys, in their own sentencing memo, argued that the sentencing guidelines were “clearly disproportionate” to Manafort’s offenses and asked for leniency given that Manafort had already been “personally and financially punished” for his conduct.

Judge TS Ellis III of the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, acknowledged the seriousness of Manafort’s offenses but determined that a longer sentence would be excessively harsh. Ellis ordered Manafort to pay $25 million in restitution and a $50,000 fine.

In a prepared statement, Manafort thanked the court for a fair trial and expressed how painful the process and his nine months of pretrial detention (now to be counted towards his sentence) have been.

Manafort is also awaiting sentencing in a separate case before the US District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Amy Berman Jackson will determine Manafort’s sentence for two charges of conspiracy, each carrying a maximum of five years of prison. In February Jackson allowed the prosecution to revoke Manafort’s plea agreement after Mueller’s team determined that Manafort had misrepresented information to the FBI and the Special Counsel’s office. Jackson will decide whether Manafort’s prison term for these charges will run consecutively or concurrently to his current term.