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RUSSIA PROBE: Mueller seeks tougher sentence for Trump’s ex-campaign manager
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is seeking a tougher prison sentence for President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort.
According to a memo filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, prosecutors are seeking between 19.6 and 24.4 years in prison and a fine of between $50,000 and $24 million for Manafort, 69.
“While some of these offences are commonly prosecuted, there was nothing ordinary about the millions of dollars involved in the defendant’s crimes, the duration of his criminal conduct or the sophistication of his schemes,” prosecutors said in the memo.
Read also: US House Chairman wants Mueller to probe Trump’s Deutsche Bank link
“Manafort did not commit these crimes out of necessity or hardship,” they said. “He was well-educated, professionally successful and financially well off. He nonetheless cheated the United States Treasury and the public out of more than $6 million in taxes at a time when he had substantial resources.”
The development comes a day after a US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that Manafort lied to Mueller concerning a probe into Russia influence into the 2016 presidential elections.
The District Judge also found out that there was sufficient evidence to say Manafort broke his plea agreement by lying about three of five matters that prosecutors had singled out.
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