'Justice is bought': Paul Manafort sentencing draws accusations of privilege

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/08/scathing-indictment-paul-manafort-sentencing-draws-accusations-of-privilege

'Justice is bought': Paul Manafort sentencing draws accusations of privilege

Hannah Ellis-Petersen

Fri 8 Mar 2019 10.31 GMT

Lawyers and politicians have voiced their outrage at the 47-month prison sentence handed to Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, for bank and tax fraud, arguing that white privilege and wealth had led to privileged treatment under the law.

Manafort had pleaded with the judge, TS Ellis, to show compassion in his sentencing at the court in Virginia. The federal sentencing guidelines for serious fraud cases such as this are between 19 and 24 years in prison, but Ellis described the guidelines as “excessive” and “out of whack”, saying Manafort had no prior criminal history and had lived “an otherwise blameless life”.

The judge sentenced Manafort to three years and 11 months behind bars, acknowledging: “I don’t expect the sentence I’m about to announce to meet with everyone’s approval.”

Indeed, it was met with a wave of anger from many. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the popular and outspoken Democrat who is US Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district, tweeted that Manafort’s sentence showed that “in our current broken system, ‘justice’ isn’t blind. It’s bought.”

“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.”

Democrat senator Elizabeth Warren, who is running for president in 2020, was equally scathing. “Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, commits bank and tax fraud and gets 47 months. A homeless man, Fate Winslow, helped sell $20 of pot and got life in prison. The words above the Supreme Court say “Equal Justice Under Law”—when will we start acting like it?” she tweeted.

Much of the outrage came from lawyers, in particular public defenders who often represented those from underprivileged backgrounds.They used Manafort’s case as an example of racial disparity in the US justice system. A study of US sentencing data last year found that when black men and white men commit the same crime, black men receive a sentence almost 20% longer on average.
Public defender Scott Hechinger pointed out that “for context on Manafort’s 47 months in prison, my client yesterday was offered 36-72 months in prison for stealing $100 worth of quarters from a residential laundry room”.
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