Manafort could face ‘rest of life in prison,’ judge says
"U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who is based in Alexandria, Virginia, and is assigned to a newly filed indictment against Manafort dealing with bank fraud and tax evasion, said the veteran lobbyist and political consultant posed 'a substantial risk of flight' because of his assets and the gravity of his legal predicament."
“The defendant is a person of great wealth who has the financial means and international connections to flee and remain at large, as well as every incentive to do so. Given the nature of the charges against the defendant and the apparent weight of the evidence against him, defendant faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.”
Wow... for bank fraud and tax evasion, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.... while we let murderers and rapists go free after 7-10 years. Boy, is our priority system screwed up.
ReplyDeleteManafort is lucky that he's only facing life in prison. Remember, Gates pleaded guilty to "conspiracy against the United States," which would be treason in wartime. Treason is a capital offense.
DeleteAt any rate, the reason Manafort is facing a lifetime in prison is that there are so many charges against him. You can't compare him to a person who commits one murder, but rather to Charles Manson, who was found responsible for many murders. Unlike, the murderers and rapists you mentioned, Mr. Manson did not get out in 7-10 years.
Also, you're making it sound like Manafort's bank fraud and tax evasion were like one of us forgetting to file our taxes. If I remember that indictment right we're talking about almost a hundred million dollars ($75 million based on paragraph seven of the grand jury indictment), all of it from a corrupt regime with interests antithetical to the values of the US and its allies.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that he may not deserve it, I'm just saying that most murderers and rapists get off easy with short sentences where they should be much longer. Manson, of course, was a different case.
ReplyDeleteManafort probably does deserve to go to prison for a very long time, but for life when people who have committed much worse crimes get off after shorter periods?
All I'm saying is that our criminal justice system is screwed up. I knew a guy once who was wrongly accused of child molestation (it was a bitter ex-wife thing, she had had two other husbands and she did it to all of them). He could have gone to prison for the rest of his life. If he had really done what he was accused of, he would have been better off if he had killed the child. He would have gotten a sentence of only 25 years, with parole after 5 for good behavior.
Speaking of Manson, do you think his case would have gotten the coverage it did if he had killed some no name nobody living in Los Angeles rather than someone famous? That is also part of the problem.
"Most murderers and rapists get off easy with short sentences."
DeleteNow there's a Trump FactTM if ever there was one. Care to cite a reference providing data for that?
Since Manafort is 68 and the average life span of a white male in the US is about 79 years old, we are not necessarily talking all that much jail time.
DeleteNow if he were in his early 20s that might be saying something, but when the rest of his life is probably only 10 or 20 years, not so much.
Especially considering the number of charges he is facing.