Mueller Says Manafort Faces Up To 24.5 Years In Prison

The special counsel’s office said Friday that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort faces between 19 and 24.5 years in prison for the tax and bank fraud charges for which he was convicted in August.

Citing federal sentencing guidelines, prosecutors also said that Manafort faces a fine of up to $24 million for his fraud.

The longtime GOP operative was convicted on Aug. 21, 2018 on a series of charges related to income he received as a consultant for the Ukrainian government through 2014, more than two years before he joined the Trump campaign.

Manafort, who is 69 years old, also faced a separate trial in Washington, D.C. on foreign lobbying charges, but pleaded guilty to those crimes on Sept. 14, 2018. He entered a cooperation agreement with the special counsel as part of that deal, though prosecutors have since accused him of lying numerous times to investigators.

Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence for Manafort, but they did lay out the prison term they believe is warranted under federal sentencing guidelines.

Prosecutors were unrelenting in their criticism of Manafort.

“In the end, Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars,” reads a court filing submitted by Andrew Weissmann, the top prosecutor handling the Manafort case.

“The sentence here should reflect the seriousness of these crimes, and serve to both deter Manafort and others from engaging in such conduct.”

Prosecutors also argued that in addition to Manafort’s role in orchestrating a bank and tax fraud scheme, his “history and characteristics” count as “aggravating factors” in his sentencing guideline.

“Manafort has had every opportunity to succeed,” Weissmann wrote.