Paul Manafort receives sentence of less than four years

Paul Manafort has been sentenced to less than four years jail, a dramatically lower sentence than Robert Mueller requested.

Paul Manafort arrives at US District Court last year. Picture: AFP.

Donald Trump’s former campaign Adviser Paul Manafort has been sentenced to less than four years jail, a dramatically lower sentence than that requested by special counsel Robert Mueller.

In a major blow to the Mueller probe, Mr Manafort was sentenced to only 47 months compared to the 19 to 24 years requested by Mr Mueller.

However the 69-year-old Mr Manafort faces a second sentence next week over separate federal charges which could see more years added to his jail time. Mr Manafort, who says his health had been badly hit by spending the past nine months in solitary confinement, attended a Virginia court in a wheelchair, wearing a green prison jumpsuit and carrying a cane. It was a far cry from the confident, well dressed figure who strode into court denying all charges in the early days of his trial.

‘The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family,’ Mr Manafort told the court shortly before the sentence was delivered. “To say I am humiliated and shamed would be a gross understatement.

“I know it is my conduct that brought me here,” he said. “My life — personally and professionally — is in shambles.”

Alexandria Sheriff's Office picture of Paul Manafort after he was charged. Picture: AFP.

Mr Manafort did not apologise or express remorse for his crimes but he said to District Court Judge TS Ellis: “I ask you to be compassionate.”

The judge said the sentence of between 19 years and 24 years recommended by prosecutors was “excessive.”

He noted that Mr Manafort “lived an otherwise blameless life” and was a good friend and a generous person to others.

Mr Manafort was convicted last year on eight charges of tax and bank fraud for hiding millions of dollars in foreign income from his lobbying work in the Ukraine and inflating his income on bank loan applications. He failed to pay $6 million in taxes.

In a separate case, he pleaded guilty in Washington DC to illegal lobbying and faces up to five years of each of those two charges when the sentence is handed down next week. Prosecutors said Mr Manafort lied to them in the DC case, breaching a plea deal he had already agreed to. Those lies included misrepresenting his links to a Russian associate who is linked to Russian intelligence.

The charges ended a high flying career for the Washington powerbroker who lived a lavish lifestyle and thrived on his reputation as a political consultant and deal-maker.

Mr Manafort’s crimes occurred before he became Mr Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016 and the White House denies that his fate is linked in any way to the president.

But Mr Manafort’s work in the Ukraine and his ties to powerful Russians saw him investigated by the special counsel as part of the Russia investigation.

Mr Mueller had written to the judge saying that the sentence should “reflect the seriousness of these crimes.”

“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,” Mr Mueller wrote. He said his fraud was “serious, longstanding and bold.”

Mr Manafort’s lawyers say he is a scapegoat who was investigated by the special counsel only because Mr Mueller wanted to use him as an indirect means of probing Mr Trump.

They argue that his nine months in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, has left him suffering claustrophobia as well as chronic gout in his foot which requires him to walk with a cane. The case has seen the once-high flying Mr Manafort, who owned a $15,000 ostrich skin jacket, lose his flashy lifestyle and assets which included a mansion in the Hamptons, a house in Brooklyn and three apartments in Manhattan.

But prosecutors said Mr Manafort has refused to accept responsibility for his crimes and that he is not remorseful.

“The defendant blames everyone from the special counsel’s office to his Ukrainian clients for his own criminal choices,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

Mr Manafort was fired from the Trump campaign in August 2016 when news broke of his hidden income from his business dealings in Ukraine.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia