Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign manager and consultant, has been officially charged with multiple counts of tax and bank fraud. Manafort worked as a Republican party campaign consultant, and joined Donald Trump’s campaign team in 2016 (he was the campaign chairman from June to August 2016).
Manafort was officially convicted in August 2018, on eight charges (all of which relates to tax and bank fraud) in the Eastern District of Virginia. He was also charged on ten other counts, but the judge declared a mistrial.
Later, in the DC District Court, Manafort pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States. He also pleaded guilty to witness tampering.
On November 26, 2018, Robert Mueller released a statement saying that Manafort violated his plea deal by lying to investigators. In the DC District Court, Judge Amy Berman Jackson officially voided the plea deal, so Mueller advised the Virginia court to charge Manafort and have him serve 19 and a half years to 24 years in prison.
On March 7, 2019, Judge T.S. Ellis called Mueller’s sentencing guideline “excessive,” and sentenced Manafort to only 47 months in prison. Six days later, Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Manafort to an additional 43 months in prison.
Only minutes after this sentencing, New York state prosecutors charged Manafort with sixteen state felonies. This will almost double his sentence, making him serve 7 ½ years instead of 47 months.
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