Paul Manafort Faces 305 Year Sentence

Paul Manafort leaves Federal District Court in Washington, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, and Manafort's business associate Rick Gates pleaded not guilty to felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Donald Trump’s short-lived campaign manager, Paul Manafort, could face a sentence of 305 years if convicted on all the charges against him in Virginia.

Advertisement

On Tuesday, a federal court judge, T.S. Ellis III, issued an ominous opinion on Manafort’s future.

“Given the nature of the charges against the defendant and the apparent weight of the evidence against him, “he wrote, “defendant faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.”

The 68-year-old Manafort could very likely spend the rest of his years behind bars even if only given the lightest of sentences for his crimes, which came to glaring light in the aftermath of the 2016 election and subsequent Russian collusion investigation.

While saying Manafort is “quite manifestly a risk of flight,” Ellis allowed Manafort to go home under house arrest with a GPS monitor — of which he now has two. One from the separate Washington D.C. federal court case — and $10 million unsecured bail bond.

Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which include:

On tax charges he faces in Virginia alone, his likely sentence would be eight years, prosecutors said in a previous court filing. He also faces nine charges of bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy, which each carry a maximum 30 years in prison, for 270 years maximum.

In the DC case, Manafort faces a likely sentence of 15 years to 20 years in prison if convicted there on five total conspiracy charges and foreign lobbying violations.

The allegations in his criminal indictments, brought by Mueller’s office this fall and winter, describe a scheme of shell companies and offshore bank accounts Manafort used to hide his earnings from lobbying for Ukrainian politicians. He then allegedly used those earnings to obtain mortgages and buy home renovations and luxury goods.

Advertisement

Surely no one regrets getting involved with the Trump campaign more than Paul Manafort. Who knows how long he could’ve continued to live a corrupt but free existence if he hadn’t.

But as Icarus in his false sense of invincibility flew to close to the Sun and was blinded, Manafort’s thrust into the spotlight of the Trump campaign has clearly burned him.

Recommended

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on RedState Videos