Paul Manafort's verdict on his various crimes was read in Washington court on Wednesday, March 13. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced President Donald Trump's former aide to three and a half more prison time in connection to his two counts of conspiracy relating to unregistered lobbying, money laundering and attempted witness tampering.
Reuters reported that Judge Jackson's imprisonment sentence for Manafort will be added on top of the one he already received from a different judge last week. This means that the disgraced politician will spend a total of seven and a half years in jail. However, he already served nine months when he was being investigated for his role in the Robert Mueller investigation on Russia's involvement in the U.S. 2016 national election where Donald Trump won in the presidential race so his term could decrease.
Still, Paul Manafort may have to spend more years behind bars after a court in New York indicted him for other charges. In NY, just minutes after Judge Jackson read her verdict in Washington, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance slapped him with 16 state felony charges on cases connected to mortgage fraud, conspiracy, and falsification of business documents, CNBC reported.
Last year, there were reports that Donald Trump is planning to pardon Paul Manafort if he will be indicted because he felt bad for him. This gained criticisms but via a press conference at the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied that the POTUS was thinking about pardoning his former campaign chairman.
With that previous rumor of the president's intention to absolve him from his crimes, Judge Vance made it clear that Trump cannot pardon Manafort because he simply does not have the power to do so in cases involving state charges.
"No one is beyond the law in New York," Vance stated. "Following an investigation commenced by our office in March 2017, a Manhattan grand jury has charged Mr. Manafort with state criminal violations which strike at the heart of New York's sovereign interests, including the integrity of our residential mortgage market," he added.
Finally, reports stated that a conviction in New York for the new charges hurled against Paul Manafort could entail more than 20 years of jail time. Even so, he is already 69 years old thus it is yet to see what punishment will be handed down to him for the crimes.
