Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was sentenced to three and a half years in jail on Wednesday by D.C. federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson after pleading guilty for conspiracy charges. This makes Manafort’s total jail time about seven and a half years when combined with the nearly four-year prison sentence he received last week in Virginia for tax and bank fraud.
Backlash over the amount of jail time Manafort will serve began after both sentencings, with many calling them too lenient.Scott Hechinger, a public defender in Brooklyn, tweeted last week that he recently had a client who was offered 36-72 months in prison for stealing $100 worth of quarters from a residential laundry room. In contrast, Manafort was given 47 months after being charged with stealing millions of dollars through fraud.
On Boston Public Radio Wednesday, host Margery Eagan also pointed out that former Speaker of the Massachusetts House Sal DiMasi received an eight-year prison sentence for taking $65,000 in bribes.
Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem cautioned Eagan during an interview on BPR from losing site over how remarkable it was that the president’s former campaign manager would be spending close to 10 years in jail.
“I just worry that this focus on what the number is is distracting from the reality of what happened today,” Kayyem said. “What happened today is huge regardless of the sentence. ...Try to take the emotions out of this.”
In addition to today’s sentencing, a Manhattan grand jury indicted Manafort for his connection to a multi-million dollar mortgage scheme. If convicted, Manafort could receive up to another eight to 25 years in prison.
In response to the sentencing and indictment, President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that he feels “very badly for Paul Manafort.”
Kayyem believes that Trump will eventually pardon Manafort. “He is going to give pardons. He’s hinted at it, he’s said it, he’s showing remorse for Manafort,” she said.
“We’re in that phase of this very, very long process, which the president's options are quite limited and the only thing he has left is the pardon power right now, and Twitter.”
