The Democrat Party, its left-wing media enablers and special counsel Robert Mueller were all served a veritable smackdown Thursday when the judge presiding over Paul Manafort’s case defied Mueller’s request and handed the 69-year-old political consultant a sentence of only four years.
“To impose a sentence of 19-24 years on Mr. Manafort would clearly be a disparity. In the end, I don’t think the guidelines range is at all appropriate,” U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III ruled, citing the special counsel’s demand that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman spend up to a quarter of a century behind bars for white-collar financial crimes.
I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. “Justice” took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to “break” – make up stories in order to get a “deal.” Such respect for a brave man!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
“I think what I’ve done is sufficiently punitive — and anyone who disagrees should try spending a day in a federal penitentiary. And he’s spending 47 months,” Ellis continued.
The judge, a Navy veteran appointed to the court in 1987 by then-President Ronald Reagan, added that Manafort is to receive credit for time served, meaning he’s only looking at another 38 months before he’s freed and allowed to return home to his wife and kids.
The Democrat Party and its media enablers disagree with the ruling. By Friday morning dozens of “analysis” pieces and columns had been published by the media panning the judge’s decision.
“Paul Manafort gets 47 months. Legal experts and advocates share examples of people who got more time for less,” a headline at CNN reads.
As an example, the notoriously far-left outlet highlighted the case of a convicted felon who illegally voted in the 2016 presidential election — for then-Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, no less — while on parole for a tax fraud conviction, and the case of a crack cocaine dealer.
Similar headlines and narratives can be found at New York magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, USA Today, MSNBC, Business Insider, etc.
Even more caustic rhetoric from America’s “journalists” may be seen on Twitter:
Judge Ellis is a DISGRACE to the judiciary, a morally & intellectually bankrupt partisan hack who tried to sabotage the prosecution & has now mitigated the jury’s verdict. Prosecutors should appeal, & we should all demand Ellis’ removal from the bench. #ManafortSentencing
— Mark Hughes (@markhughesfilms) March 8, 2019
Media: @MaxBoot on #Manafort: “What Judge Ellis is doing here is inexplicable and offensive. Clearly, he’s no Judge John Sirica,” the Watergate judge. … Ellis doesn’t seem interested. He may be the only person outside the @WhiteHouse who has sympathy for Paul Manafort.” pic.twitter.com/uG5fSTWICl
— Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson) March 8, 2019
It has no place in the US justice system, says @BarbMcQuade of leniency in white collar crimes by white people .. as it seems Judge Ellis goes easy giving Manafort less than 4 years for tax and bank crimes. #abcPM @abcnews
— Linda Mottram (@LindaMottram) March 8, 2019
Insecure old conservative white men like Judge T.S. Ellis wish they could be out there living wealthy lives of crime and power like Paul Manafort or Donald Trump and getting away with it. That’s the real problem.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) March 8, 2019
Well hats off to Paul Manafort and Judge T.S. Ellis I guess: They’ve jump-started a conversation about why white collar criminals are treated differently than other law-breakers… https://t.co/iehtC15G6g
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 8, 2019
Congressional Democrats have been just as sour, with socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez going so far as to suggest Ellis had been bribed by Manafort:
Paul Manafort getting such little jail time for such serious crimes lays out for the world how it’s almost impossible for rich people to go to jail for the same amount of time as someone who is lower income.
In our current broken system, “justice” isn’t blind. It’s bought. https://t.co/1UgBXmR8bl
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 8, 2019
Without evidence, socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) claims that Paul Manafort “bought” a reduced prison sentence: https://t.co/zPT71gl6IR
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 8, 2019
Meanwhile, House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff suggested that Manafort may be seeking a pardon. His evidence? Following the sentencing, Manafort’s attorney made a statement to the media reaffirming what Ellis had said about there being no collusion.
“He is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government to influence the election,” Ellis had said in court.
“I think most importantly what you saw today is the same thing we had said from day one: There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia,” Manafort’s attorney Kevin Downing said after the sentencing.
Listen:
In response to Manafort’s attorney speaking facts, Schiff cried foul.
“The statement by Paul Manafort’s lawyer after an already lenient sentence — repeating the President’s mantra of no collusion — was no accident. It was a deliberate appeal for a pardon,” he tweeted. “One injustice must not follow another.”
Some would argue that the real injustice is Mueller’s use of “unfettered power,” as Ellis himself put it last year, to destroy Manafort’s life so as to get to and expose the president’s alleged and still-unproven crimes.
The statement by Paul Manafort’s lawyer after an already lenient sentence — repeating the President’s mantra of no collusion — was no accident. It was a deliberate appeal for a pardon.
One injustice must not follow another.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 8, 2019
As for Manafort, whom the left has portrayed as a monster for hiding his income from the government, not paying his fair share in taxes and defrauding two banks, he seemed depressed.
“Humiliated and shamed would be a gross understatement… My life is personally and professionally in shambles,” he said in court Thursday of his life circumstances and the convictions he’s received. “The man I have seen described in public is not a man I recognize.”
He’s slated to be sentenced next week in Washington, D.C., by a different judge for two additional crimes: witness tampering and conspiracy.
Manafort appeared in a wheelchair today after months of solitary
Man is 70 years old – just got 4 years
And the Left is screaming he got off too light
When people show you who they are, believe them
— Author Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) March 8, 2019
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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