Paul Manafort sentenced to 7.5 years in prison

Trump’s former campaign chairman getting exactly what he deserves, extra jail time for all his crimes.

By Meg Taylor, News Editor

Credit: Flickr/DonkeyHotey

Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered Paul Manafort to serve a total of 7.5 years in a federal penitentiary and justice could not get any sweeter.

President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman received an additional 43 months in prison on top of a 47-month sentence he already received for financial convictions from a jury in Virginia. This substantial sentence is fitting to the charges against him: conspiracy against the U.S. and conspiracy witness tampering. Manafort was ungrateful and tried to play the victim — sitting in a wheelchair — pleading to the judge for leniency.

“Your honor, I will be 70 years old in a few weeks,” said Manafort. “Please let my wife and I be together.”

Thankfully, Judge Jackson fired back at this ridiculous plea. “Saying I’m sorry I got caught is not an inspiring plea for leniency.”

This is a prime example of members of Trump’s administration thinking they can buy and pardon their way out of anything-- the Stormy Daniels’ hush money payoff along, Trump using $258,000 from his charity to settle legal problems, granted clemency to nine people so far-- just to name a few.

“This President has set a new standard in politics which is that you can lie your butt off and it’s okay, and that’s a dangerous standard,” said Chris Cuomo in a one-on-one debate with Kellyanne Conway on CNN.

Following Judge Jackson’s sentencing, the state of New York charged Manafort with 16 crimes that, if convicted, Trump cannot pardon. The pardon proof indictment on Manafort consists of charges in a mortgage fraud case. This is important because even if Trump could pardon Manafort on a federal level, he could not pardon these state charges.

When asked about the additional charges against Manafort, Trump pretended to be completely unaware of the news.

“I don’t know about that. Are they going after him for state taxes?” said Trump. “I don’t know anything about it, I haven’t heard that. I’ll take a look at it.”

These state charges are crucial in the grand scheme of impeaching Trump. Hopefully, this sends a message to the others indicted that they are not “pardon proof” and should cooperate instead of continuing to blindly defend Trump.