In another major development in the ongoing Mueller investigation, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was sentenced on Thursday to just 47 months – nearly four years – in prison.
As MSNBC reporter Ken Dilanian noted, the light sentence “bears no resemblance, essentially, to [Mueller’s guidelines] of 19 and a half to 24 years.”
After the news broke, Ari Melber asked, ” What are the point of the guidelines if, of all people, Paul Manafort, after conviction and blowing up his plea deal and lying to the Mueller prosecutors, if he is the star candidate to be up for 19 years and get four, what does that say?” Ari Melber asked.
“This is a message to the people who would commit this kind of conduct that we are not going to throw the book at you in this court in Alexandria, Virginia,” Dilianian said.
More from MSNBC:
Paul Manafort was sentenced to just 47 months in prison. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/D7qJenS6nd
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 8, 2019
Manafort refused to apologize or express remorse for his crimes
In a brief statement that Paul Manafort made before his sentencing, the former Trump campaign manager took a page from Donald Trump’s playbook and refused to apologize for his crimes.
Instead, Manafort essentially said that the only thing he was sorry for was himself, saying he has been “humiliated.”
“The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I,” he said. “To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.”
.@KenDilanianNBC just reported on MSNBC that Paul Manafort “gave a fairly short statement in which he did not apologize, did not seem to express remorse.”
“He said, ‘To say that I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.'”
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 7, 2019
In other words, Paul Manafort has no apologies for his crimes. He’s just mad he got caught.
Luckily for the former Trump campaign manager, Judge T.S. Ellis III – appointed by Ronald Reagan – didn’t seem to care much about Manafort’s crimes or his lack of remorse. Instead, Ellis essentially ignored Mueller’s guidelines to throw the book at Manafort and gave him a lenient sentence.
Manafort is not out of the woods yet
Next week in a court in Washington D.C., Judge Amy Berman Jackson will sentence Manafort for two conspiracy charges – each carrying a maximum of five years.
Hopefully, in that case, justice will be adequately served.
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