Or messily x it out because the sentencing of the president s Campaign Chair was called off today by the famous judge that oversees manaforts case in virginia. Although that virginia trial is over and manafort was convicted at that trial of eight felonies, and that Virginia Court famously likes to get stuff done fast with no delays, thats the court, the socalled rocket docket, despite all of that, the sentencing of the president s Campaign Chair that was sentenced for next week, next friday, that is now indefinitely on hiatus and delayed. The problem is that the whole sentencing process for Paul Manafort has now been complicated by these new allegations from special Counsel Robert Mueller that manafort breached his plea deal and lied to prosecutors after he agreed to cooperate with them. That specific issue, which manafort is now facing, the question of whether or not he lied to prosecutors, that is going to be the subject of a Court Hearing for him next week in d. C. , a week from tod
He pled filthy last year to lying to investigators. In a plea agreement in which he admitted arranging an illegal 50,000 foreign donation into the trump inaugural. He also admitted lobbying as a Foreign Agent without registering. He also admitted lying to Senate Investigators about that and other matters. He pled guilty last year. Prosecutors have since said he started cooperating with prosecutors even before he signed his formal plea agreement. Even before he pled guilty. They say hes been very helpful. Judge jackson in washington, d. C. , today explained that she would have considered a prison sentence for sam patten were it not for his considerable cooperation with federal prosecutors. But given the combination of the nature of his crime and his lack of a previous criminal record and prosecutors wholehearted endorsement and appreciation for whatever it is hes been helping them with all these months, the judge ultimately gave sam patten today three years probation and a 5,000 fine. A
Flynn to be sentenced that day, in the end, he was not sentenced. It was sort of a shocking day in court. You might remember. Flynn of course had plead guilty to lying to investigators. When he plead guilty, he became a cooperator, became a cooperating witness. The special counsels office thereafter told the court repeatedly and officially that flynn was a good cooperator, that he had cooperated extensively with them and helped them with multiple investigations. As such, the special counsels office advised the judge in the flynn case that despite the seriousness of flynns own confessed crimes, his cooperation had been so valuable to prosecutors that they believed the judge should give him little to no jail time. But nevertheless, a week before christmas last december, the judge in the mike flynn case balked. He told flynn in open court that day that he could not hide, quote, his disdain, his disgust for flynns criminal conduct. In open court, he asked prosecutors from the special couns
Paul manafort already convicted on multiple felonies, already facing a likely prison sentence of seven to ten years. The drama underlying todays hearing for manafort is that he could be facing an additional decade in prison on top of the seven to ten, which really, i mean, when you start adding it up, that could already be the whole enchilada da if youre already 70 years old. On top of his other sentence if the judge in his case concludes that he breached his plea agreement by lying to prosecutors after he had agreed to cooperate with them so manafort himself was in court today. We got these great sketches by the great courtroom artist manafort was allowed, as you can see here, was allowed to wear a suit this time instead of his jail jumpsuit. He is now whitehaired as you can see, hes using a cane reporters at the hearing today described him as heavily leaning on that cane but with all the prosecutors there and with manaforts whole defense team there and with manafort himself in the co
Resonance, including all sorts of juicy stuff involving the federal government. In the Trump Administration, the u. S. Attorneys office in d. C. Has been particularly high profile because of the role of that office in either handling or taking part in the investigations and the prosecutions of a whole bunch of people who have been caught up in various Trump Administration scandals, including the russia scandal. Jessie lius office, that u. S. Attorneys office in d. C. Has been involved in the criminal cases against sam patten, who is now cooperating with investigators, among other things, patten has linked to Cambridge Analytica and to Konstantin Kilimnik and prosecutors say he helped funnel foreign donations into the trump inaugural. The u. S. Attorneys office in d. C. Has also pursued the maria butina base. She too is now cooperating with federal prosecutors after she was charged with acting a secret agent of the russian government. She was charged as working here in this country to i