©2019
Mashable, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Mashable, MashBash and Mashable House are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis, LLC and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission.

Donald Trump‘s former campaign manager Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 73 months in prison for two conspiracy charges arising from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 US presidential election.

On Wednesday, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said 30 of the months would run concurrently with Manafort’s sentence last week in a separate case when the Republican political consultant was sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud in a separate Mueller case.

Manafort, who will serve just over 90 months in prison, apologised for his actions and asked for leniency during his sentencing hearing.

“I am sorry for what I have done and all the activities that have gotten us here today,” Manafort said as he read from a written statement.

“While I cannot undo the past, I will ensure that the future will be very different,” he added. 

The 69-year-old, who arrived in court in a wheelchair, said he was the primary caregiver of his wife and wanted the chance for them to resume their life together.

His plea for leniency followed prosecutor Andrew Weissmann’s scathing assessment of crimes that the government said spanned more than a decade and continued even while Manafort was awaiting trial.

He said Manafort took steps to conceal his foreign lobbying work, laundered millions of dollars to fund a lavish lifestyle and then, while on house arrest, coached other witnesses to lie on his behalf.

Manafort has been jailed since last June, when his house arrest was revoked over allegations that he sought to influence witnesses by trying to get them to give evidence in a certain way.

Foreign lobbying

Manafort was being sentenced for concealing from the government foreign lobbying work.

The Mueller team had prosecuted Manafort in Washington and Virginia for his foreign consulting work on behalf of a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party.

Manafort was convicted of bank and tax fraud in the Virginia case and pleaded guilty in Washington to two conspiracy counts, each punishable by up to five years in prison. 

On Wednesday, Judge Jackson indicated she would give Manafort some credit for accepting responsibility for his crimes by virtue of having pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy last September.

On top of the 47 months term he received last week, Manafort could have faced an additional 10 year sentence on Wednesday in Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump election campaign and Russia.

Defence lawyer Kevin Downing suggested Manafort was being unduly punished because of the “media frenzy” generated by the appointment of a special counsel.

Mueller’s investigation nears end

The hearings for Manafort mark a book-end of sorts for Mueller’s investigation as it inches towards a conclusion.

Manafort and business associate Rick Gates were among the first of 34 people charged, and though the charges against Manafort were not tied to his work on the Trump campaign, his foreign entanglements have made him a subject of intrigue to prosecutors assessing whether the campaign colluded with Russia to sway the outcome of the election.

Mueller is also looking into whether Trump has attempted to obstruct the investigation.

The US president has called the investigation a “witch-hunt” and denied any collusion. Russia has denied the US intelligence community’s finding that Moscow interfered in the US political arena.

Meanwhile, Manafort was indicted in New York City on mortgage fraud, conspiracy, and other state charges, the Manhattan district attorney announced on Wednesday.

Paul Manafort was hit with yet another indictment on Wednesday, just minutes after the former Trump campaign chairman received his second prison sentence in a case brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The latest indictment, which came from a grand jury in New York City, charges Manafort with 16 counts of mortgage fraud, falsifying business records and other crimes in connection with loans he sought or obtained on properties owned by him and his family.

Story Continued Below

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said the indictment addresses “state criminal violations which strike at the heart of New York’s sovereign interests.”

Some or all of the charges appear to stem from evidence introduced last August by Mueller’s team at Manafort’s federal trial in Virginia on various financial fraud charges. The jury there convicted him on two bank fraud counts, but deadlocked on seven others.

Vance said the new indictment involves “serious criminal charges for which the defendant has not been held accountable.”

A state law barring retrials on charges tried in federal court could pose a legal obstacle to the new prosecution. New York legislators have struck a deal to amend that law, but the new legislation has not passed. Legal experts have also said it may be unconstitutional to apply that law to past acts by Manafort.

The new state charges were announced on the same day a judge in Washington extended Manafort’s federal prison sentence to seven-and-a-half years. The case also serves as a reminder that President Donald Trump’s ability to grant Manafort a pardon or commutation for his federal crimes will not protect him from state charges.