Ex-Trump Campaign Chief, Manafort, Sentenced to 47 Months in Prison

Paul Manafort, former campaign chief of US President Donald Trump, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a federal judge for tax crimes and bank fraud.

It is the highest profile case yet stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign and possible collusion with Russia.

Judge T.S. Lewis, who came under fire from Democratic lawmakers for imposing what they described as a relatively light sentence on the 69-year-old Republican, said that while Manafort had committed “very serious crimes,” he had previously led an “otherwise blameless life” and the advisory sentencing guidelines calling for 19 to 24 years behind bars were “excessive” and disproportionate to sentences for similar offenses.

“The government cannot sweep away the history of all these previous sentences,” the judge said.

Manafort was convicted by a jury in August of five counts of filing false income tax returns, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to report a foreign bank account.

The charges against him were not connected to his role in the Trump campaign, which he headed for two months in 2016, but were related to lucrative consulting work he did for Russian-backed Ukrainian politicians from 2004 to 2014.

Prosecutors alleged that Manafort used offshore bank accounts to hide more than $55 million he earned working for the Ukrainians.

His conviction was a stunning downfall for a man who also worked on the White House bids of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole.

Speaking from a wheelchair and wearing a green prison jumpsuit with the words “Alexandria Inmate” on the back, Manafort told the court that his “life, professionally and personally, is in a shambles.”

“I feel the pain and shame,” said Manafort, who the defense says suffers from gout.

“To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement,” he said.

Manafort was ordered to pay $24 million in restitution and a $50,000 fine.