President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort will be serving a prison sentence of seven and a half years, said a Washington D.C federal court which sentenced him on charges of conspiracy and witness tampering, Newsweek reported.
The latest sentence comes on the heels of last week’s 47-month-long prison sentence in the Eastern District of Virginia for hiding money in foreign bank accounts and tax and bank fraud. With time served, Manafort is set to spend 81 months behind bars, or a little less than seven years.
The conspiracy charges in Wednesday’s sentencing were for crimes involving obstruction of justice and money laundering. Both court cases resulted from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The former campaign chairman was not ordered to pay any additional restitution after being ordered last week to pay about $6 million.
Just minutes after his sentencing, a grand jury in Manhattan indicted Manafort on 16 additional charges involving residential mortgage fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records. The state charges would not be subject to a presidential pardon, should Manafort be convicted.
No longer wearing a prison jumpsuit, as he did last week, Manafort sat in a wheelchair sporting a suit. He offered U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson a statement strikingly similar to the one heard by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis last week in Virginia.
“The last two years have been the most difficult that my family and I have ever experienced… The person that I am and have been described in public is not someone I recognize,” Manafort told Jackson.
But this time, Manafort made it clear he was apologizing. Ellis had told him he was “surprised that I did not hear you express regret.”
“I am sorry for what I’ve done. I apologize to all who have been negatively affected by my behavior,” he told Jackson. “I can assure you that I feel the pain from these reflections. For these mistakes, I am remorseful.”
The former campaign chairman, who turns 70 on April 1, and his wife, who is in her late 60s, pleaded with Jackson to show compassion and allow him to be with his wife and family for as long as possible after serving his initial sentence.
“She needs me, and I need her. This case has taken everything from me,” Manafort said. “Please let my wife and I be together. Please do not take us away from each other for any longer than the 47 months imposed last week… If not for me, then for my family. I promise that if you do, you will not regret it.”
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