Prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller said Tuesday former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort deserves a stiff prison sentence because he hasn’t accepted responsibility for his crimes.
“The defendant blames everyone from the Special Counsel’s Office to his Ukrainian clients for his own criminal choices,” Mr. Mueller wrote in response to defense attorneys’ sentencing memo.
“Manafort suggests, for example, that but for the appointment of the Special Counsel’s Office he would not have been charged in connection with hiding more than $55 million abroad, failing to pay more than $6 million in taxes and defrauding three financial institutions of more than $25 million dollars,” Mr. Mueller continued.
The filing was made ahead of Manafort’s sentencing on Thursday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. In August, a federal jury convicted him on eight criminal financial fraud counts.
Mr. Mueller’s team have requested he serve between 19 to 24.5 years in prison for the crimes. Manafort’s attorneys have asked for far less.
Defense attorneys say Manafort deserves credit for accepting his responsibility for his crimes and cooperating with the special counsel, even after a federal judge in Washington concluded he lied to investigators in his plea.
Federal prosecutors scoffed at the idea that Manafort should be credited for working with the special counsel.
“He neither pled promptly nor provided complete and honest cooperation,” prosecutors wrote in the Tuesday filing.
Mr. Mueller said those lies are among the reasons the court should deny any leniency that could be bestowed to Manafort for accepting responsibility
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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