The extraordinarily lenient 47-month sentence delivered to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, one of most corrupt human beings ever to be born of human skin, notably goes against the recommendations of federal prosecutors. The reaction of legal observers and members of Congress has been marked.
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California responded to the light sentence with irony, saying on "All In With Chris Hayes," "I think I spent more days in detention in high school than Judge Ellis thinks that Paul Manafort should spend in jail for what he did to defraud the United States."
In this case, Manafort was convicted on eight felony counts of tax fraud, bank fraud, and hiding foreign accounts. As ably compiled by Dennis Romero of NBC News, some took note of the grotesque disparity in his sentencing as administered by the Reagan-appointed Judge Thomas Selby ”T.S.” Ellis, and those sentences involving people of a different social “class.”
Other observers highlighted the seeming incongruence between punishments for white-collar crime like Manafort's and street crime, particularly those administered against people of color.
The reactions also include those familiar with such crimes and the sentences they would expect to be laid down in such circumstances, as compared to considerably lesser offenses.
At Brooklyn Defender Services in New York, which provides legal services to low-income people, Scott Hechinger posted a series of tweets, such as one saying, "My client yesterday was offered 36-72 months in prison for stealing $100 worth of quarters."
The Hechinger series of tweets is particularly instructive on the magnitude of the travesty that occurred here.
Some commented on how the perversion of the judiciary was made manifest by this particular federal judge.
"Judge Ellis has inexcusably perverted justice and the guidelines," Harvard Law School professor and Trump critic Laurence Tribe tweeted.
One takeaway from Manafort’s sentence should be that that the administration of justice in this country is really dependent on Judges who do their job—and those who don’t.
Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman tweeted that Ellis is known for "arbitrary and capricious" sentencing but "this is a totally crazy and exorbitant departure."
Perhaps the most enduring historical remembrance from this fiasco will be Judge Ellis’ remarks during Manafort’s sentencing, when he opined on the far harsher sentence that had been suggested by the prosecution.
Prior to announcing his decision, Judge T.S. Ellis called that range "excessive," and said Manafort "has lived an otherwise blameless life."
Elections have consequences. This is what can happen to our justice system when biased Republicans—and (some) judges appointed by them—are put in charge of it.