Thread: Prosecutors say Manafort's 'criminal actions were bold' in redacted sentencing memo

Prosecutors say Manafort's 'criminal actions were bold' in redacted sentencing memo

By Katelyn Polantz and Marshall Cohen, CNN
Updated 3:23 PM ET, Sat February 23, 2019

(CNN)Prosecutors from special counsel Robert Mueller's office wrote in a sentencing memo filed Friday for Paul Manafort that the former Trump campaign chairman's years of criminality were "bold" and continued even when and after he served as Donald Trump's campaign chair in the 2016 election.

The memo was made public Saturday with some redactions, and prosecutors asked Judge Amy Berman Jackson to make sure the now-jailed 69-year-old may never walk free again.

Manafort pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy against the US and conspiracy witness tampering.

At the time of his plea, Manafort also admitted to a litany of money laundering and foreign lobbying crimes that encompassed his work for Ukrainian politicians and other clients over several years.



Read: Paul Manafort's sentencing memo

The prosecutors specifically note that they don't believe Manafort accepted responsibility for his crimes, and there's no reason his agreement to plead guilty and cooperate should help him at sentencing. Even after he broke the plea deal, there was some question about whether Manafort had accepted responsibility in the eyes of the court and the prosecutors because of his admissions to so many crimes.

The special counsel's office wrote that "Manafort's conduct after he pleaded guilty is pertinent to sentencing. It reflects a hardened adherence to committing crimes and lack of remorse."

The prosecutors did not give a specific amount of time for which they'd like Berman Jackson to sentence Manafort to prison, though they reminded her that she can impose a sentence that runs in addition to the time Manafort gets from another federal judge in Virginia for financial fraud.

He'll be sentenced in Virginia first, and prosecutors have told that judge he should face up to 25 years in prison. He will only be sentenced for two crimes in the DC District Court, which together are capped at 10 years.

However, prosecutors have also outlined a host of other crimes for which he is not charged — including perjury after he pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate last September. They suggest he may be able to face a sentence in DC above the cap of 10 years.

In the redacted sentencing document released Saturday, prosecutors documented the range of people Manafort deceived, including "Members of Congress, and members of the executive branch of the United States government" with his illegal lobbying.

The sentencing memorandum is the last major requisite court filing in Mueller's longest running case, a sprawling prosecution of Manafort that led investigators to gather exhaustive information about his hidden Cypriot bank accounts, Ukrainian political efforts in Europe and the US, and into Manafort's time on the 2016 presidential campaign.

The prosecutors did not reveal on Saturday new information about Manafort's activities in 2016 and later, which prosecutors say have become a focus of Mueller's inquiry into Russian influence and the Trump campaign.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/23/polit...ler/index.html

Mueller filing on Manafort sentencing still not public after midnight deadline