Paul Manafort's defense team has filed its sentencing memorandum for his DC case, and in it, they attempt to downplay his crimes.
From the memo:
Mr. Manafort, who over the decades has served four U.S. presidents and has no prior criminal history, is presented to this Court by the government as a hardened criminal who “brazenly” violated the law and deserves no mercy. But this case is not about murder, drug cartels, organized crime, the Madoff Ponzi scheme or the collapse of Enron.
Manafort's lawyers also say if it weren't for Special Counsel Robert Mueller's appointment, Manafort never would have been charged in DC, and they point out he has not been charged with Russian collusion. They claim their client already has suffered enough.
Mr. Manafort has been punished substantially, including the forfeiture of most of his assets. In light of his age and health concerns, a significant additional period of incarceration will likely amount to a life sentence for a first time offender.
CNN:
Manafort's lawyers ask that his sentence in DC run alongside his sentence in Virginia, for which prosecutors have requested up to 25 years in prison, instead of stacking the two sentences consecutively. He will be sentenced in Virginia by a federal judge on March 8 for eight financial fraud convictions at a jury trial.
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The filing Monday night mostly glosses over the most notable development since Manafort was convicted last year -- that he lied to prosecutors during his cooperation interviews and to a federal grand jury. His defense team notes on Monday that he was truthful during the "majority" of his 50 hours of interviews.
Manafort's sentencing in the DC case is scheduled for March 13.
Among the attached exhibits are character reference letters from friends and family including his wife Kathleen Manafort and their daughter Andrea, who offers a very different description of her father today than she did in four years' worth of hacked and leaked text messages published on the dark web in 2017.
In a series of texts reviewed by Business Insider that appear to have been sent by Andrea to her sister, Jessica, in March 2015, Andrea said their father had "no moral or legal compass."
"Don't fool yourself," Andrea wrote to her sister, according to the texts. "That money we have is blood money."
"You know he has killed people in Ukraine? Knowingly," she continued, according to the reviewed texts. "As a tactic to outrage the world and get focus on Ukraine. Remember when there were all those deaths taking place. A while back. About a year ago. Revolts and what not. Do you know whose strategy that was to cause that, to send those people out and get them slaughtered."
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In a later exchange with a man who appeared to be Andrea's cousin — and one of her father's former employees — Collin Bond, Andrea appears to have said her mother and father couldn't go through a "public divorce" because Manafort had "too many skeletons" and "his work and payment in Ukraine is legally questionable."
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"He is a sick f---ing tyrant," Andrea appears to have said to Bond about her father. "And we keep showing up and dancing for him. ... We just keep showing up and eating the lobster. Nothing changes."
Jessica Manafort legally changed her name to distance herself from her father last year.
Read more: Manafort Sentencing Memorandum
PAUL MANAFORT'S DAUGHTER FILES TO LEGALLY CHANGE HER NAME (Newsweek)
Hacked text messages allegedly sent by Paul Manafort's daughter discuss 'blood money' and killings, and a Ukrainian lawyer wants him to explain (Business Insider)
Manafort's lawyers taunt Mueller for not tying him to Russian interference in 2016 election (CNN)