Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has shown no remorse for his crimes and “poses a serious risk of recidivism,” prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation argued in a Tuesday court filing in the Eastern District of Virginia.
“The defendant blames everyone from the Special Counsel’s Office to his Ukrainian clients for his own criminal choices,” the special counsel wrote in a response to a filing from last week in which Manafort argued for a sentence “significantly below” the 19-24 year guideline he faces.
Manafort had also argued that since the charges on which he was found guilty after his August trial were unrelated to the special counsel’s mandate, he should receive leniency from the judge.
Prosecutors pushed back on that argument in the Tuesday filing.
“Manafort also seems to contend that because he was not charged with additional offenses, that mitigates his crimes,” prosecutors wrote. “It does not.”
Mueller brought the case in February, accusing Manafort of an array of financial crimes related to his multi-million dollar political consulting business in Ukraine.
The special counsel says that while Manafort continues to owe millions in back taxes, the government cannot “be sure of the full extent of Manafort’s assets” because he never submitted a financial statement to any court.
“Such actions are inconsistent with learning any positive lesson from his criminal conduct and proof that the defendant poses a serious risk of recidivism,” prosecutors wrote.
The government also argued that Manafort was not experiencing the dire health problems he had claimed in previous filings.
“None of his prescribed treatments or medications indicates that his life is in any danger from a long period of incarceration,” prosecutors wrote.
Judge T.S. Ellis for the Eastern District of Virginia will sentence Manafort on Thursday. The 69-year old lobbyist will be sentenced in D.C. federal court on March 13 by Judge Amy Berman Jackson after pleading guilty to illegal lobbying charges in September 2018 and later botching his cooperation agreement with the government.
