cnn starts off our coverage from outside the courthouse. a federal judge in d.c. piling onto paul manafort s prison time today bringing the sentence to seven and a half years in a federal penitentiary. after being convicted of financial crimes in virginia manafort was sentenced to four years behind bars. piled 43 months on top of that. conspiracy against the u.s. and conspiracy witness tampering. dressed in a suit instead of an inmate jump suit he showed little emotion as he spoke from a wheel chair. i am sorry for what i have done he said. let me be clear i respect the responsibility and a plea for leniency manafort said i will be 70 years old in a few weeks adding please let my wife and i be together. he claimed for the 2016 election
manafort in the mccain campaign. they remained close. with the billionaire investing in a number of manafort business projects. with the endorsement, and other like mined oligarchs. manafort also began working extensively for ukraine politician. victor is a former coal trucking administrator who had been convicted twice of assault. as a young man. after the 2004 presidential election in the former soviet republic of ukraine. covish was accused of voter fraud and conspiracy to poison his opponent. he was sent packing. it didn t look like he had a political future. and manafort was brought in to rehab him. he came from a very rough part of the country. and he dressed very much like a
guilty to bank and tax fraud and campaign finance violations. and it s extraordinary that you have two people in the inner orbit of trump, one found guilty and the other one pleading guilty within minutes in separate courtrooms. mr. president, what about michael cohen? any comment on michael cohen? as the white house down played the significance of the two cases, paul manafort s second trial in washington, d.c. moved. on friday, september 14th, with jury selection just days away, a stunning announcement. major breaking news this hour in the mueller investigation. president trump s former campaign chairman, paul manafort, pleading guilty today to two charges. paul manafort reached a plea deal with prosecutors, agreeing to cooperate fully and truthfully in the special
offered the man private briefings. he was in debt to him. what did that mean? what was he willing to do for the russians while he was chairman of trauhe trump campai? mr. manafort accepted responsibility and he wanted to make sure his family was able to remain safe and live a good life. i will tell you this, i believe that he will tell the truth. if he tells the truth, no problem. manafort s cooperation, may, however, save the 69-year-old husband and father from spending what could be the rest of his life in prison. it s doubtful that he s going to get the 10-15 years he was looking at if convicted on all charges in both trials. i predict that at the end of the day, paul manafort ends up with six years. if that happens, and he doesn t lie and cheat and hold back and is fully truthful.
and great success. when you have a convention or fight, the guy you want with you on your side. hoefs the guy that could figure out a strategy. people were drawn to him in politics. he operated by his own rules and he operated in the universe of manafort. his influence extended far outside the u.s. border. in the former soviet union he worked with some of the most powerful oligarchs. linked to russian president vladimir putin. we don t know whether there was a conspiracy between trump campaign and the russians. if there was it stand to reason paul manafort was in middle of it. manafort came to the campaign with the russian connections. in august after a trial in virginia. manafort convictions on bank and tax fraud made him the first trump campaign associate found guilty as part of muellers