ludicrous, in light of the fact that he has lied to the special counsel. that he has been charged in another jurisdiction with obstruction of justice. i mean, this is not a blameless individual. this is an individual who hasn t gotten caught yet. we should be clear, when it is a complete automatic mandatory, judges can talk about what they think about it, but they don t have the legal freedom to do anything different. exactly. with the sentencing guidelines, that when you get into the discretion and the choice. it s pretty telling that judge ellis looked at all of this including the post-indictment obstruction and then the attacks on mueller through the plea deal that paul manafort blew up for himself, and then the statement in court that didn t even repent, and still came down so differently than congressman jefferson. do you think this is a situation where judges don t even realize their own blind spots? i don t know judge ellis. i ve never seen judge ellis, unlike seth waxma
seth waxman who s been there, thank you. i want to turn now as promised. i m joined by melissa murray. we re going to walk through something so important even if you d already heard about it. that there is racial injustice in criminal sentencing. shocking. let s walk through this. manafort had a light sentence. take a look at this recent study. 2017 from the sentencing commission that showed black male offenders are 19% longer. that s just the sentencing stage. then let s look at judge ellis more narrowly. this is the person who sentenced paul manafort and hasn t shied away in some cases. let s look at what he s done in other cases in the past. 2009. here s former congressman jefferson. judge ellis handled him for financial crimes, not violence, a 13-year sentence over corruption. it was at the time the longest sentence ever for a congressman.
the problem i think with this case is it does look so jarring in light of everything that has happened and in light of the observations the judge has made. the idea paul manafort has had a blameless life is ludicrous in light of the fact that he has lied to the special counsel. that he has been charged in another jurisdiction with obstruction of justice. this is not a blameless individual. this is an individual who hasn t gotten caught yet. we should be clear when it s a complete automatic mandatory the sentencing guidelines, that s when you get into the discretion and the choice. and then the attacks on mueller through the plea deal that manafort blew up for himself and then the statement in court that didn t even repent and still came down so differently than congressman jefferson, do you think this is a situation where
kilpatrick came to mind. mayor of detroit who was convicted and sentenced for a lot of white collar stuff. almost 30 years. and manafort gets about four. were kilpatrick s attorneys that much worse than paul manafort s? or even closer home. remember congressman jefferson. judge he will wlis gaellis gave the same judge. the sentencing gap reflects what i call the value gap. understand nooet the seundernea sentencing gap is the belief that white people matter more than others. and to the extent that that is true, no matter what the inputs are, outputs are the same. and in addition to that reality being affirmed and confirmed,
katrina would go on for another ten years in that it will go on for year of year after year and that we re in mid-recovery mode right now. things are better and we do not have the corrupt politicians here. congressman jefferson went to jail. i any federal governments done a good job of trying to root out the corruption that crippled new orleans. one of the things that you welcome. what are the changes that you have seen and things been brought that have really assisted the city and the people that live there? reporter: well it s been said that the hearts of american people after katrina hit particularly young people came down here and feel in love with it. people started to build homes and working with habitat for humanity or catholic charity groups. many of them said this is where i want to live. there s a youth culture that s helping to participate in new