Paul Manafort Will Serve At Least 38 Months In Prison, But His Legal Fight Isn't Over Yet
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/paul-manafort-prison-sentence-virginia-mueller-probe

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Although there was no direct mention of Trump during Thursday's hearing, the president and his public war on Mueller's investigation loomed over the proceedings. Early in the hearing, US District Judge T.S. Ellis III said he wanted to "underscore" that there were no allegations that Manafort or anyone at his direction colluded with anyone to interfere in the 2016 election. Manafort's lawyers repeated that point when they spoke with reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing.

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Manafort's lawyer Kevin Downing asked Ellis on Thursday if the judge would be able to order Manafort's two sentences to run at the same time, but Ellis said that was up to Jackson. The judge said Manafort's lawyers could come back to him later if they found legal precedent that would give Ellis the power to do that.

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Ellis rejected the government's request to impose a stiff fine in addition to the restitution Manafort will have to pay. Assistant US Attorney Uzo Asonye told the judge that Manafort failed to provide updated financial information before sentencing — a "troubling" situation given that Manafort's case was about him hiding money from the government, Asonye said — making it difficult to calculate the value of his assets. But Asonye said they knew Manafort had two properties in Virginia and Florida that weren't going to be forfeited with equity worth more than $4 million.

Manafort's lawyer asked the judge to recommend Manafort serve his time in a federal facility in Cumberland, Maryland, and Ellis agreed. Once Manafort is released, he'll spend three years on supervised release. As one condition of release, he'll have to ask permission from the court or the probation office to open a new line of credit. The judge denied a request by the government to require Manafort to ask approval for any financial transaction valued at more than $10,000.

Manafort's lawyer Richard Westling at one point hinted that they might pursue an appeal related to Manafort's case, although he did not offer specifics. Westling told Ellis that they were not going to sign the restitution order so that they could preserve issues for appeal and not create the appearance that they had agreed to it.

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Manafort's case wasn't jaywalking, but it wasn't a drug trafficking case either, Zehnle said. He argued that a higher sentence wasn't needed to deter other people from committing similar crimes because Manafort's case had gotten more public attention than any tax and foreign bank account reporting case "ever."

"We know why," Ellis retorted to the packed courtroom. He later agreed with Zehnle that he didn't need to worry about the public learning about what happened.

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