Feb 26, 2019

Paul Manafort seeks prison sentence "substantially below" 10 years

Paul Manafort's lawyers say a long prison term would "likely amount to a life sentence".

Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

President Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort should serve less than 10 years in prison because he's already been "punished substantially", his defense counsel submitted Monday night to a federal judge.

Driving the news: Manafort will be sentenced in two separate cases in Washington, D.C., and Virginia next month for financial crimes he has admitted. Special counsel Robert Mueller filed an 800+ page sentencing memo in which he said Manafort "repeatedly and brazenly" broke the law for over a decade, even after being indicted. Manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison, a reason his attorneys cited to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in their court filing for giving him a sentence "substantially below" 10 years.

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