Paul Manafort just got the worst news of his life
It was fairly clear that Paul Manafort’s life was effectively over when a federal judge ruled this week that he had indeed willfully violated his plea deal by lying about his meeting with a Russian spy during the 2016 election. But this evening Mueller truly drove the point home about how screwed Manafort is.
Robert Mueller has made a court filing recommending that Paul Manafort be sentenced to 19.5 to 24.5 years in prison. Based on the way these things tend to play out, that’s probably about what the judge will end up giving him. Considering that Manafort is about to turn seventy years old, this will be a de facto life sentence with no possibility of parole. It gets even worse for him.
All along, Donald Trump’s actions have given no indication that he has any intention of taking the risk of trying to pardon Paul Manafort, which could backfire and end up establishing a legal precedent that Trump can’t pardon himself or his kids. Even if Trump did try to pardon Manafort, parallel state level charges would be brought against Manafort, and those can’t be pardoned.
Legal observers thought that Paul Manafort could have gotten five years in prison or less if he had lived up to his plea deal, which could have given him a chance of getting out before he dies of old age. But now Manafort is simply done for. There’s no less blunt way to put it. The other people who have been covering for Donald Trump should take note of this accordingly: cut a plea deal or you could be the next Manafort.
