RE: Paul Manafort
March 9, 2019 at 9:46 am
(This post was last modified: March 9, 2019 at 9:59 am by The Grand Nudger.)
The sentencing guidelines in this case suggested 235-293 months in jail. With time served and reductions...if it weren't for the fact that he was about to be sentenced for other crimes he's committed in his "otherwise blameless life"....he could have walked out of that court a free man.
As you noticed, we're pretty damn lenient when it comes to white collar assholes - and if you combine that with a judge who has a hilarious gripe, you get the manafort sentencing. Sentencing guidelines may be too harsh, there's something to be said for that, but this particular sentence was absurdly lower than the average sentence handed down in cases where a judge has discretion and absurdly low even in comparison to -this- judges other discretionary reductions. Concern trolling over mandatory minimums is nonsense, and this judge is in no way meaningfully opposed to mandatory minimums..he's directly commented on them and handed them down before, and has also used his discretion to lay down harsher sentences as deterrents.
TLDR version..yes our system is broken, and it's broken in more than one way. In this case a judge used one of the ways that it's broken as a pretext for engaging in behavior that demonstrates a range of those other ways.
As you noticed, we're pretty damn lenient when it comes to white collar assholes - and if you combine that with a judge who has a hilarious gripe, you get the manafort sentencing. Sentencing guidelines may be too harsh, there's something to be said for that, but this particular sentence was absurdly lower than the average sentence handed down in cases where a judge has discretion and absurdly low even in comparison to -this- judges other discretionary reductions. Concern trolling over mandatory minimums is nonsense, and this judge is in no way meaningfully opposed to mandatory minimums..he's directly commented on them and handed them down before, and has also used his discretion to lay down harsher sentences as deterrents.
TLDR version..yes our system is broken, and it's broken in more than one way. In this case a judge used one of the ways that it's broken as a pretext for engaging in behavior that demonstrates a range of those other ways.
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