Paul Manafort heads back into court Wednesday as Judge Amy Berman Jackson decides what kind of time he should serve for pleading guilty to charges in his DC case.
Under the terms of Manafort’s plea agreement with prosecutors for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, the 69-year-old faces up to a 10-year sentence from Jackson after admitting to conspiring to hiding millions he earned as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukrainian politicians over a decade and attempting to tamper with witnesses after he was charged.
Jackson, a 2011 Obama appointee, also has found that Manafort breached his plea deal by lying to prosecutors, including about contacts with a Russian aide, freeing prosecutors from their promise to consider recommending leniency in exchange for substantial help.
In an “I’m-just-gonna-leave-this-here” move, Mueller’s prosecutors Andrew Weissmann, Jeannie Rhee, and Greg Andres filed a one-paragraph status report with D.C. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, saying:
"The United States of America, by and through Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III, files this status report to apprise the Court of a recent development in United States v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr., No. 1:18-cr-83 (E.D. Va.) that is pertinent to this Court’s upcoming sentencing decision. Attached to this status report as Exhibit A is the transcript from the sentencing hearing on March 7, 2019."
Mueller’s team then attaches the 96-page transcript of Manafort’s sentencing hearing, where Judge T.S. Ellis III went far below the sentencing guidelines, giving Manafort a punishment of just 47 months for his tax and bank fraud case.
The Special Counsel’s Office prosecutors did not provide any argument or request in their filing, simply stating that Manafort’s sentencing in the EDVA case is “pertinent” to Judge Jackson’s sentencing decision ...
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders addressed the matter of a possible pardon for Paul Manafort at Monday's press briefing.
CNBC:
In November, Trump said in a New York Post interview that a pardon for Manafort “was never discussed,” but added that he “wouldn’t take it off the table.”
“Why would I take it off the table?” Trump asked rhetorically.
But when asked during Monday’s briefing why Trump has not yet ruled out a pardon for Manafort, Sanders responded: “The president has made his position on that clear and he’ll make a decision when he’s ready.”
The president insisted again Friday he has not discussed the possibility of a pardon for Manafort but, at the same time, tweeted that Michael Cohen personally asked him for a pardon, a request Trump claimed he refused.
The full transcript from Manafort's hearing before Judge T.S. Ellis in Virginia, during which Ellis shockingly praised Manafort for living an "otherwise blameless life," is now public.
Page 79:
TRANSCRIPT OF SENTENCING BEFORE THE HONORABLE T.S. ELLIS, III
Robert Mueller Not-So-Subtly Nudges D.C. Judge to Throw the Book at Paul Manafort (Law & Crime)
Paul Manafort is about to face another sentencing judge: Amy Berman Jackson (Washington Post)
White House defends Trump's claim that Cohen asked him for a pardon (CNN)