From this morning’s Washington Post:
— A string of defense attorneys, especially public defenders, pointed to much harsher sentences doled out to people for non-white-collar crimes than what Manafort got from Ellis. Mueller’s team laid out evidence during the Virginia trial that Manafort, by concealing $16 million in income, didn’t pay $6 million he would have owed in federal taxes, among other crimes.
“Scott Hechinger, a senior staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services, an organization that provides legal representation to defendants who cannot afford it, used one of his recent clients, who was just offered a 36-to-72-month sentence, as an example. The crime? Stealing $100-worth of quarters from a residential laundry room. Hechinger’s client may wind up doing more time than Manafort, a man who defrauded the Internal Revenue Service out of $6 million,” Reis Thebault and Michael Brice-Saddler report. “Hechinger listed a half dozen more examples. Among them were a Brooklyn teenager who got a 19-years-to-life sentence for burning a mattress in the hallway of his apartment building, resulting in the smoke-inhalation death of an officer who responded to the scene. He also cited the case of Cyrstal Mason, an ex-felon who was sent back to prison for five years after voting in the 2016 presidential election while on probation — an act she says she didn’t know was illegal.”
A defense lawyer tweeted that she had a client serving 3 1/2-7 years in prison for stealing laundry detergent from a drugstore (@DrRJKavanagh)
Two systems of justice. One for rich. The other for poor.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This sentence is a travesty. The ruling is reinforcement for doing away with lengthy appointments for judges. Manafort has lead a life full of shady deals, gun running, dealing with the shadiest of characters and gets a slap on the wrist from a senile judge. Shame on Ellis and when anyone says minorities get fair treatment under the law…just point to this decision.
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I think someone needs to look into Ellis’s finances, especially transactions in the last 18 months.
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It goes deeper than that. The fact that he truly feels Manafort led a blameless life shows how despicable he is. But this is an ethos, not an individual belief. It is no accident that he is a Reagan appointee.
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One of the worst examples of a miscarriage of justice is the fact that many poor people languish in jail simply because they cannot afford bail. In an effort to reduce such ridiculous mass incarceration, some cities have stopped charging poor people bail for minor infractions. https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/we-cant-end-mass-incarceration-without-ending-money-bail
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Ellis was critical in open court of the prosecution of Manafort for tax and bank fraud as a result of the Mueller investigation. A light sentence for Manafort may make it harder to “flip” other witnesses. Yes, you can point to the disparity of sentences between rich and poor, but you can’t totally discount the possibility that this sentence was a political statement by this judge to try to protect the GOP. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/3/8/1840489/-Manafort-s-sentence-isn-t-about-his-blameless-life-it-s-about-a-judge-slapping-the-special-counsel#read-more
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Politics entering the court room? I’m shocked. Shocked I tell ya! The sentence disparity is a twofer!
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But Manafort lived an “otherwise blameless life,” said the judge.
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This is more accurate:
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an “otherwise blameless life” representing tyrants and killers and facilitating arms deals to thugs and dictators.
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Flerp, you are a master at tossing the apple of discord. And of irony. Well done.
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The Onion gets it right:
https://www.theonion.com/paul-manafort-given-47-months-in-prison-1833162373?utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=SF&utm_source=Twitter&utm_content=Main
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Cronies are embedded in all institutions. When the formal institutions of society function to protect oligarchy, the only answer is to respond outside the system–extra-judicial and extra-parliamentary mass action. Manafort’s disgracefully light sentence should be cause for strikes and marches. If the teahers’ unions and other labor org’s let it be known that they will shut down society when such outrages occur, it will give the oligarchy and its institutional agents some pause.
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When will the 99% say “Enough” and go Howard Beale screaming “I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore”
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Upheaval is inevitable when a young guy gets a stiffer sentence for stealing a box of laundry detergent at a laundromat than Manafort gets for his crimes.
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This looks like a good bill. Of course the Turtle is against it. We can’t have people voting nor curtailing gerrymandering. Disclosing large-dollar donors is ‘chilling free speech’. Whatever happened to fairness?
……………..
Five things to know about Democrats sweeping election reform bill
The legislation, H.R. 1, is in many ways a direct response to what Democrats have alleged is potential impropriety on the part of President Trump and his 2016 White House campaign.
But the bill, which spans nearly 700 pages, also has the potential to reshape voting, campaigning and government ethics.
The legislation would also require 501(c)(4) nonprofit entities engaged in political activity — dubbed “dark money” groups — to disclose their large-dollar donors, a move lauded by political transparency advocates but criticized by other groups, who warn that the requirement could chill free speech.
Here are five things to know about bill….
The legislation would also bar the government from spending federal funds on businesses owned by the president or members of his Cabinet.
A report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released last month found that four of Trump’s trips to his exclusive Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2017 racked up a bill of $13.6 million — about $3.4 million apiece…
He’s [McConnell] already vowed not to allow H.R. 1 to come to a vote in the Senate. Even if it did, the measure would likely face an insurmountable challenge before the chamber’s Republican majority.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/433243-five-things-to-know-about-democrats-sweeping-election-reform-bill
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Of course it won’t pass – that’s OK. I see the House Dems’ job over these 2 yrs as passing a raft of bills [unlike the constipated Rep House w/1 lousy tax-cut for rich], on very popular issues [the ones where 65-75% public polls show voter support] – to the Senate Reps, who will be forced by fear of Trump/ being primaried to say No every time.
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And I agree with you. The danger is they ran on getting something done and keep repeating it. Getting something done that would please the people who voted for them is as likely as turning water into wine. Getting something done in this country will require a Black Swan moment that so rattles the nation that it enables real change.
What happens when nothing can be done. They should have run on riding the Nation of Trump and his Republican enablers as a means of getting something done.
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The U.S. doesn’t have a justice system. As long as the person charged has a connected lawyer, he walks. Trump understands that. He said he could kill a person on 5th Avenue. He didn’t even mention it as a legal matter.
Manafort’s sentence will be served like Jeffrey Epstein’s. He’ll be leaving jail each day to “resurrect” his career.
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Linda,
I think we do have a 2 tier system – one for the Clintons and the Ds like Melendez and one for everyone else. The judge seemed to feel Manafort would never have been in front of the court if it wasn’t for the fact he was associated with Trump and was a low man on the totem pole in the search to get Trump – yes, he did those crimes and even I think he should have got more time – wait for the DC judge decision….
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So you think that evading $6 million in taxes is not criminal?
If Trump does it, it must be okay.
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Trump says, “no collusion”. He should be saying, “no consequence.”
The second is an accurate prediction.
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Flynn- not sentenced yet. Cohen- incarceration delayed for surgery. Manafort received 1/4 of the max. sentencing guideline.
Robert Kraft won’t be punished even if he’s on video. The trafficked women will suffer the consequences of the police action.
There are no crimes, as long as you are in powerful circles.
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Ben Affleck in his Batman role in Justice League put it succinctly when asked by Barry Allen what his superpower was …”I’m rich”
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Putin wanted internal conflict in America. He wins. The Republicans and establishment Dems created intolerable unfairness. The people will reach a boiling point.
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You got that right, Linda. While everyone is fixated on the term collusion, the evidence is become clearer every day that it was about disruption, sowing dissension, and creating willing dupes among the Republican Party and the cult of Individual-1. Either way, Putin trumps.
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Poor people in the United States know that the criminal “justice” system here is a sick joke. The United States has a greater percentage of its population in jail, in prison, or on parole (that is, under correctional supervision) than does any other country in the world, with the exception of the island of Seychelles. Think of the most despotic, sickest regime in the world. We in “the land of the free” imprison people more commonly than do, and most of those imprisoned are poor and brown.
Yes–two systems–one for the rich, one for the poor. The former get the friendliest legal system that money can buy.
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A person among the 99% makes a single misstep and, consequences in America are catastrophic. The richest can tread on anyone, break any law, no consequence.
The Koch’s made the United States, the nation with the most incarcerated population in the world.
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The Teflon Don
The folks who initiated the Mueller investigation were Republicans and career FBI intelligence officials who were deeply concerned, and for very good reason. A tiny portion of the Russian-connection stuff publicly available about Donald Trump would bring down, on any ordinary person, the full weight of the law and of the intelligence services because it’s all so clearly indicative of money laundering and racketeering and treason, but look at our Congress–full of people willing to give all of that a pass because of their factionalism. It’s truly bizarre, sickening, troubling, and very, very dangerous.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/07/vladimir_putin_has_a_plan_for_destroying_the_west_and_it_looks_a_lot_like.html
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Robert Mueller is a lifelong Republican. He was appointed to lead the FBI by George W. Bush.
He received his Purple Heart for heroism in Vietnam.
No bone spurs.
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Is the assumption that Mueller’s investigation, which in 2 mos. will start its 3rd year, will have findings against Trump?
Erik Prince, Eric Trump, Jared Kushner, Don Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump nothing reported to the public in almost 3 years.
Manafort and Cohen, less than 5 year sentences. Flynn, likely a slap on the wrist.
Stone, the 3rd tongue lashing from the judge.
Mueller apparently is uninterested in Deutsche bank. Some Dutch banker sentenced to a few weeks in jail.
Russians who can’t be prosecuted because they are in a foreign country…
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A disturbing pattern there. Where did you find the information that Mueller is not interested in the information from Deutsche Bank? I figured that that would be the smoking gun with regard to Trump money laundering for the Russian kleptocracy.
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It was reported on network news (not Fox).
A Democratic member of Congress appeared in the segment and stated that the absence of the Deutsch Bank issue from Mueller’s work made it an issue that a Congressional committee would look at. I was shocked at the information, while the congressman stating it and the journalist reporting it were nonplussed. Either the Congressman knows or doesn’t know but, it appeared he thought it was a well-known fact.
Mueller did not make a collusion charge against Manafort. Pundits are tamping down expectations about Mueller’s findings when they say the work of the New York court is potentially more harmful to Trump.
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The only reason you know about the meeting with Manafort Gates and Kilimnik is because of an improper redaction on a defense document.
A document relevant to Manafort lying to the Prosecutor on “the fundamental nature of the investigation ” (or something to that effect)
So lying about a clandestine meeting with a Russian intelligence cut out… Handing him polling data. Now I know that there was a lot of interest in the Ukraine about the American Election so this must just have been to satisfy their curiosity.
The point being you do not know what Mueller will do. I would hope his final act will be a series of indictments against the whole crew and do not assume that some who have had agreements on lesser charges are not indicted on more serious charges. Nor that the President is not indicted.
Indictments for conspiracy against the US and Bribery.
One can only hope that the unusual number of sealed indictments sitting in the DC Circut will be the Mueller Report.
Also, do you really think Ryan left Town to spend time with his kids?
Maria Butina could have a little Black Book of National Russian Association money going to Republicans. Probably the reason Republicans did not rid themselves of Trump a year ago.
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Edit: Circuit
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Joel-
No one wants your view to be correct more than I do.
Does Ty Cobb’s reversal of speculation about the speed of Mueller’s investigation, predicting now that the investigation will continue into Trump’s second term, assuming he’s re-elected, have any influence on your opinion?
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Rick Gates cooperated so likely a lot less time, if any, than Manafort.
Papadopoulis- 14 days.
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Manafort’s Judge Gave This Jamaican Woman More Time for Similar Crimes
She conned victims out of $385,000. He conned banks out of $25 million. The judge gave her six years. He got four.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/manafort-judge-ts-ellis-gave-this-jamaican-woman-more-time-for-similar-crimes?source=email&via=desktop
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The judge gave a Black congressman 13 years for white collar crimes.
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“Two systems of justice. One for rich. The other for poor.”
No, there isn’t any system of justice.
What there is, is a bogus legal system where justice has absolutely nothing to do with the legal system.
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Hey Duane. I think you’d like to read Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt, who, near the end of his life wrote, “Truth and justice are the greatest mass murderers in history.” He primarily wrote plays, two of which are readily available in English translation, The Visit and The Physicists. In his incredible book The Assignment, actually a novella of 24 very long run-on sentences, I was obsessed with the quote, “…he had read von Lambert’s book on terrorism, there were two pages devoted to the Arab resistance movement, von Lambert refused to call them terrorists, which didn’t preclude, and he had emphasized this, that nonterrorists were also capable of atrocities, Auschwitz, for instance, was not the work of terrorists but of state employees…”
He was obsessed with the idea of justice, of how it rarely had to do with fairness. You and he, I suspect, would have been soul mates.
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Thanks for that info. Will check out his stuff.
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Oh, for the days when life was at least not filled with bad judgements and chaos every single day. Don’t forget the horror of Michelle showing her shoulders. Of course, the current first lady was in nude photos but that didn’t matter. I saw them online. She looked good but where is the outcry? I guess the GOP now believes that nude first ladies is acceptable.
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‘The Daily Show’ Looks Back At ‘The Worst Scandal In Presidential History’
President Donald Trump’s administration may be engulfed in a slew of scandals.
But they are nothing, according to “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” compared with “the worst scandal in presidential history” ― when former President Barack Obama donned a tan suit during a 2014 press briefing.
Article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/barack-obama-worst-scandal-presidential-history-trevor-noah_n_5c825859e4b08d5b78608d25
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He’s good.
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Robert Reich: What’s the Real American Story?
Robert Reich
Published on Mar 4, 2019
Robert Reich examines Trump’s dark vision for America, and how to create a progressive message for the future.
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“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach..If you tell a big enough lie and you tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”..Adolf Hitler.
Margaret Sullivan: It’s time – high time – to take Fox News’ destructive role in America seriously
…And, of course, to double down on its mission, described aptly by my Washington Post colleague Greg Sargent: “Fox News is fundamentally in the business of spreading disinformation, as opposed to conservative reportage.” And that disinformation “is plainly about deceiving millions into believing that core functionings of our government — whether law enforcement or congressional oversight — no longer have any legitimacy.”…
https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2019/03/07/margaret-sullivan-its
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This poor fellow helped a neighbor and ended up in prison for 15 years. Sometimes justice is blind if you aren’t wealthy.
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Help Thy Neighbor and Go Straight to Prison
By Nicholas Kristof
Aug. 10, 2013
Some old shotgun shells got a Tennessee man a 15-year sentence. Was it justice served or justice run amok?
IF you want to understand all that is wrong with America’s criminal justice system, take a look at the nightmare experienced by Edward Young.
Young, now 43, was convicted of several burglaries as a young man but then resolved that he would turn his life around. Released from prison in 1996, he married, worked six days a week, and raised four children in Hixson, Tenn.
Then a neighbor died, and his widow, Neva Mumpower, asked Young to help sell her husband’s belongings. He later found, mixed in among them, seven shotgun shells, and he put them aside so that his children wouldn’t find them.
“He was trying to help me out,” Mumpower told me. “My husband was a pack rat, and I was trying to clear things out.”
Then Young became a suspect in burglaries at storage facilities and vehicles in the area, and the police searched his home and found the forgotten shotgun shells as well as some stolen goods. The United States attorney in Chattanooga prosecuted Young under a federal law that bars ex-felons from possessing guns or ammunition. In this case, under the Armed Career Criminal Act, that meant a 15-year minimum sentence.
The United States attorney, William Killian, went after Young — even though none of Young’s past crimes involved a gun, even though Young had no shotgun or other weapon to go with the seven shells, and even though, by all accounts, he had no idea that he was violating the law when he helped Mrs. Mumpower sell her husband’s belongings…
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Paul Manafort Didn’t Get Off Easy — Unless You Compare Him to Whistleblower Reality Winner
…As Will Bunch wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer last year, “Winner did what Daniel Ellsberg, Mark Felt and others whose difficult decisions made in real time have long since been vindicated by history had done: She blew the whistle. In sending her evidence to the news media, Winner took down a cover-up of information that the Russians had, in fact, been far more aggressive — and successful — in targeting voting systems.”
Yet while Manafort was given a 47-month sentence that was below the federal guidelines for his crimes, Winner was sentenced to 63 months, which is the longest ever handed down to someone accused of leaking to the press.
The bottom line is this: The person who tried to warn America about Russian interference in the 2016 election has been punished more severely than one of the most important figures in the Trump-Russia case.
“When whistleblowers like Reality Winner, whose disclosures serve the public interest, are punished more severely than someone like Paul Manafort, who consistently put his own interests over the country’s, it sends a deeply troubling message that the system values abusers of public trust over those who expose abuse,” observes Dana L. Gold, senior counsel and director of education at the Government Accountability Project in Washington…
https://interc.pt/2NOsRGb
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Jeffrey Epstein’s sweet deal obtained from prosecutor, Acosta, who is now in Trump’s administration.
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Doubt that K and Barr remember that once they believed Congress should hold presidents accountable. Clinton should be held accountable but Trump shouldn’t. Both got promoted by the Orange Moron for a reason.
…………….
Brett Kavanaugh said Congress should hold presidents accountable. William Barr agreed.
Deanna Paul
Reporter covering national and breaking news
March 9 at 8:13 PM
…In a March 1998 article published by the conservative magazine American Spectator, Kavanaugh wrote that because “Congress is the entity constitutionally assigned to determine whether the president should remain in office, it follows that a congressional inquiry should take precedence over a criminal investigation of the president.”
He added, “It is more important for Congress to determine whether the president has committed impeachable offenses or otherwise acted in a manner inconsistent with the presidency than for any individual to be criminally prosecuted and sentenced to a few years in prison.”
Similarly, Barr, who was recently confirmed as U.S. attorney general, once expressed dissatisfaction with Congress’s shrinking role in presidential investigations.
“I would like to see the watchdog institutions we have in society step up and perform the primary role they are supposed to, not let the independent counsel handle everything,” he said during a 1999 congressional hearing. “And then continue vigorous oversight both by Congress and the press.”..
https://whatishdidtrumpdotoday.com/2019/03/09/brett-kavanaugh-said-congress-should-hold-presidents-accountable-william-barr-agreed/
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What Kavanaugh meant was that Congress should hold Clinton accountable, but that it should not hold Trump accountable.
Perfectly consistent.
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