Manafort Matters

I have uploaded, as a single file, the plea agreement and the superseding indictment with respect to Paul Manafort.  I am not an expert on federal criminal law, in general, or the sentencing guidelines, in particular.  However, my understanding is that, if Manafort is sentenced for 210 months incarceration that is at the lower end of the Estimated Guideline Range (page 4 of the pdf), the effective length of his sentence would be at least 178.5 months, less time already served.  So he would serve at least 14.8 years.  That’s a long time for a 69 year old man.

However, the plea agreement also contains the following provision:

The Government will bring to the Courts’ attention at the time of sentencing the nature and extent of your client’s cooperation or lack of cooperation. The Government will evaluate the full nature and extent of your client’s cooperation to determine whether your client has provided substantial assistance in the investigation or prosecution of another person who has committed an offense. If this Office determines that the defendant has provided substantial assistance in the form of truthful information and, where applicable, testimony, the Office will file motions pursuant to Section 5K1.1 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines. Defendant will then be free to argue for any sentence below the advisory Sentencing Guidelines range calculated by the Probation Office, including probation.

Page 8 of the pdf.

This provision gives Manafort a significant incentive to testify both truthfully and with full candor against any and all of the individuals who may have “committed an offense.”

There has to be some nervousness in the Trump household this evening.