#u.s. district judge t.s. ellis iii

[mellowfestbanana]

Paul Manafort's Trial And The Cocky Judge - where are we heading

Paul Manafort’s Trial And The Cocky Judge – where are we heading

‘THERE’S TEARS IN YOUR EYES’ Paul Manafort trial

Judges have a reputation for being strict and no-nonsense. But by all accounts, TS Ellis III, who is presiding over the trial of former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort, is in a league of his own. Here’s a roundup of his most notable moments in the trial so far:

The Smartest Guy In The Room

Ellis apparently likes to establish his…

[investmart007]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. | Longtime Manafort deputy Rick Gates admits embezzlement

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/u9YtKg

ALEXANDRIA, Va. | Longtime Manafort deputy Rick Gates admits embezzlement

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The government’s star witness in the financial fraud trial of Paul Manafort testified Monday that he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the former Trump campaign chairman — and told jurors that he and Manafort committed crimes together.

Rick Gates has been regarded as a crucial witness for the government ever since he pleaded guilty this year to two felony charges and agreed to cooperate in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

The hugely anticipated courtroom showdown brought Gates face-to-face with his longtime business associate and fellow Trump campaign aide. His testimony, given in short, clipped answers as Manafort rarely broke his gaze from the witness stand, follows that of vendors who detailed Manafort’s luxurious spending and financial professionals who told jurors how the defendant hid millions of dollars in offshore accounts.

But Gates, described by witnesses as Manafort’s “right-hand man,” is expected to provide the most damning testimony about Manafort’s state of mind as well as his own role in the crimes.

Gates told jurors that he siphoned off the money without Manafort’s knowledge by filing false expense reports. He also admitted to concealing millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts on Manafort’s behalf and to falsifying loan applications and other documents to help Manafort obtain more in bank loans.

“We didn’t report the income or the foreign bank accounts,” Gates told jurors, noting that he knew he and Manafort were committing crimes each time.

Gates read off the names of more than a dozen shell companies he and Manafort set up in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the United Kingdom to stash the proceeds of Manafort’s Ukrainian political consulting work.

Asked whether the money in the accounts was income to Manafort, Gates said, “it was.”

Gates said he repeatedly lied to conceal the bank accounts and, at Manafort’s direction, he would classify money that came in as either a loan or income to reduce Manafort’s tax burden.

Manafort’s defense has sought to blame Gates for any illegal conduct and cited the embezzlement to impugn Gates’ credibility.

Gates, who also served in a senior role in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, is expected to face aggressive cross-examination once prosecutors are finished questioning him. Gates pleaded guilty to financial fraud and to lying to investigators as he negotiated the plea agreement earlier this year. He is awaiting sentencing.

The criminal case has nothing to do with either man’s work for the Trump campaign and there’s been no discussion during the trial about whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia — the central question Mueller’s team has tried to answer. But Trump has shown interest in the proceedings, tweeting support for Manafort and suggesting he had been treated worse than gangster Al Capone.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who repeatedly interrupted prosecutors last week as they tried to present evidence about Manafort’s lavish life such as $900,000 in expensive suits and a $15,000 ostrich jacket, clashed again with prosecutor Greg Andres on Monday when Andres delved into the status and identities of the Eastern Europeans who made payments to Manafort.

Ellis said all that’s relevant is that Manafort was paid and whether he hid the income from the IRS.

“It doesn’t matter whether these are good people, bad people, oligarchs, Mafia. … You don’t need to throw mud at these people,” Ellis said.

Andres said he was entitled to show the jury why Manafort was getting tens of millions of dollars in payments.

“When we try to describe the work, Your Honor stops us and tell us to move on,” he said.

Prosecutors say Manafort used those companies to stash millions of dollars from his Ukrainian consulting work, proceeds he omitted year-after-year from his income tax returns. Later, they say, when that income dwindled, Manafort launched a different scheme, shoring up his struggling finances by using doctored documents to obtain millions more in bank loans.

All told, prosecutors allege that Manafort failed to report a “significant percentage” of the more than $60 million they say he received from Ukrainians. They aimed to show jurors how that money flowed from more than a dozen shell companies used to stash the income in Cyprus.

On Friday, a tax preparer named Cindy Laporta admitted that she helped disguise $900,000 in foreign income as a loan in order to reduce Manafort’s tax burden. Laporta, who testified under an immunity deal with the government, acknowledged that she agreed under pressure from Gates to alter a tax document for one of Manafort’s businesses.

Under cross-examination Monday, defense attorney Kevin Downing pressed Laporta on the complexities of Manafort’s finances as he worked to paint a picture of a political consultant who left the details to professionals and, in particular, to Gates.

Downing also accused Gates of embezzling “millions,” a higher amount than Gates later admitted to in his testimony.

Laporta said she had grown to distrust the information Gates was providing her, though she didn’t know about the embezzlement. But she said she believed Manafort was directing Gates’ efforts to disguise loans and conceal income, noting that Manafort was copied on her email traffic with Gates.

“In most instances, it was clear that Mr. Manafort knew what was going on,” she said.

By CHAD DAY and MATTHEW BARAKAT ,Associated Press

[verycleverboy]

“Mind-boggling”

The sentencing of Paul Manafort, former chairman of President Trump’s campaign, was highly anticipated, capping a significant chapter in Robert S. Mueller III’s special counsel investigation. But it was an unlikely candidate to become the latest example of a conflict that has vexed legal professionals and activists for decades: systemic inequality in the criminal justice system.

Yet, as a federal judge handed down his sentence in jam-packed Alexandria, Va., courtroom Thursday, and observers digested the judge’s decision — 47 months — Manafort’s case was immediately perceived as a high-profile instance of the justice system working one way for a wealthy, well-connected man, while working in another, harsher, way for indigent defendants facing lesser crimes.

“Paul Manafort’s lenient 4-year sentence — far below the recommended 20 years despite extensive felonies and post-conviction obstruction — is a reminder of the blatant inequities in our justice system that we all know about, because they reoccur every week in courts across America,” said Ari Melber, a legal analyst for NBC News, in a Thursday-night tweet.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Manafort faced up to 24 years in prison for bank fraud and for cheating on his taxes, yet U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis said that calculation was “excessive.” Manafort’s crime’s were “very serious,” Ellis said, but they didn’t warrant a punishment that could keep the 69-year-old imprisoned into his 90s.

Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor and expert in financial crimes, said Manafort’s sentence was very light “by any stretch of the imagination.”  Manafort, who once agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors but then was found to have lied to them, got a sentence that resembled someone’s who did not renege on their cooperation agreement, Levin said. 

“His crimes went on for an extremely long time, at the very highest levels of our government and deeply affected our democracy,” Levin told The Washington Post. “To get away with it for such a short sentence is something that is absolutely mind-boggling.”

Scott Hechinger, a senior staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender services, was one of many lawyers who had a problem with the sentence:

He has more examples, and when they’re viewed next to white collar cases, it seems to point to an unfortunate truth about the American justice system.

[phroyd]

In May, Mueller asked the court to issue 90 sets of subpoenas for potential witnesses for the Manafort trial. Wednesday’s request is for five additional sets.

The last round of preparations for the fast-approaching trial in Virginia appear to be underway; on Tuesday, Judge T.S. Ellis III agreed to reschedule the trial date from July 24 to July 25.

The request was made in light of conflicting schedules Manafort has with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia where he will also stand trial in September.

Traditionally, subpoenas are issued in sets before a trial – one copy for the prosecution and one for the defense.

This latest request marks a small development in Mueller’s subpoena requests overall. In May, he asked for only 70 blank sets. Wednesday’s filing marks five more sets heaped onto the existing pile.

A spokesman from the special counsel’s ofice declined to comment Wednesday.

At the bottom of Wednesday’s request, under a straightforward instruction that subpoena recipients bring along relevant records or documents they’ve electronically stored to court this July, an additional line beneath it can’t be read. It is marked as “under seal.”

Manafort, who faces multiple counts of bank and tax fraud, plus conspiracy and making false statements is scheduled to appear this Friday in Washington D.C. before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

Judge Jackson will consider whether or not Manafort’s bail should be revoked in light of recent allegations by Mueller that the former Trump campaign chairman tampered with a witness. The basis for the allegations stemmed from evidence an FBI agent compiled after monitoring Manafort’s communications following his arrest.

The agent claimed Manafort and a former business associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, obstructed justice when they “knowingly and intentionally” attempted to push witnesses off testifying at the forthcoming trials. Special Counsel claims the men wanted witnesses to testify in a way that deflected any connections between American officials and their own lobbying work.

In a response to the obstruction charge on June 9, Manafort’s attorney Kevin Downing challenged the allegations, saying Mueller was conjuring up a “sinister plot” around both Kilimnik and Manafort.

According to the Washington Post, Kilimnik is believed to be living in Russia. If so, extradition will almost certainly be off the table since Russia does not extradite its citizens.

If Jackson rules in favor of prosecutors Friday and revokes his bond, Manafort will wait out the remainder of time before trial in jail.

Phroyd

[vulgartrader]

Judge in Manafort Trial Says He's Been Threatened

From Fox News:

...[T]he judge in the fraud trial revealed Friday he has received threats over the case and now travels with U.S. Marshals.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, in rejecting a motion to release juror information to the media, argued that he's confident the jurors would be threatened as well if their information were to be made public.

“I can tell you there have been [threats]. ... I don't feel right if I release their names,” he said.

The deliberations are dragging on, indicating good news for the defense. Even if convicted, Manafort could get time served since he has spent months in solitary confinement already and the judge has shown his frustration with the prosecution.

[go-redgirl]

Judge in Manafort case accuses Mueller of gunning for Trump's 'impeachment or prosecution' CNBC ^ | 05-04-2018 | Dan Mangan

A federal judge Friday accused special counsel Robert Mueller's team of using criminal charges to squeeze former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort to get his help in possibly either prosecuting or impeaching President Donald Trump, multiple reports said.

The judge also strongly suggested that Mueller exceeded the scope of his special counsel office's authorization by charging Manafort with crimes that have nothing to do with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election or possible Trump campaign collusion with Russians.

"You don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud," U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said at a hearing on Manafort's case in Virginia federal court, where the trial in the case is set to begin July 10.

"You really care about what information he might give you about Mr. Trump and what might lead to his impeachment or prosecution," Ellis said.

"That's what you're really interested in," the judge added, saying Mueller's prosecutors are trying to get Manafort to "sing."

Lawyers for Manafort, who served as Trump's campaign manager for several months in 2016, were asking Ellis to dismiss bank fraud charges brought by Mueller, saying the special counsel does not have the authority to bring such charges in this case...

...Ellis questioned why the United States attorney's office in Alexandria, Virginia, was not handling the case in federal court there, as opposed to the special counsel's office.

"I don't see how this indictment has to do with anything the special prosecutor is authorized to investigate," Ellis said.

He also told a prosecutor in Mueller's office at the hearing that he wants to see an uncensored copy of a memo that outlines the scope of the special counsel's investigation.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com

[ericfruits]

Three Categories Of Victims

The Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board has suspended a convicted attorney.

From the press release of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia

A federal jury convicted a Fairfax attorney today on charges of conspiring to defraud and to launder fraud proceeds totaling over $1.5 million, including funds embezzled from Virginia State Senator Richard Saslaw’s campaign account, a Canadian business, and an organization intended to support students with autism and other intellectual disabilities.

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, David H. Miller, 70, conspired with his wife, Linda Diane Wallis, to defraud three categories of victims from 2011 through 2014. First, Miller, an attorney, conspired with Wallis to create two fake law firms, Federal Legal Associates and The Straile Group. Miller and Wallis used the two fake law firms to fraudulently bill Miller’s employer, SkyLink Air and Logistic Support, Inc. (SkyLink), a Canadian based aviation company that maintained an office in Dulles, for purported legal work that was never actually performed. Miller and Wallis caused approximately $368,400 in losses to SkyLink. 

Second, Miller and Wallis embezzled approximately $653,000 from the campaign account of Senator Saslaw. From June 2013 to September 2014, Wallis served as the treasurer of the Saslaw for State Senate campaign. During that time, Wallis issued over 70 fraudulent checks from the Saslaw for State Senate campaign bank account, which totaled approximately $653,000. All of the checks were issued without the knowledge or permission of Senator Saslaw or his campaign staff, and were ultimately deposited into accounts that were controlled by Miller or Wallis.

Third, Miller and Wallis misappropriated funds from an autism organization, which Miller co-founded and for which Wallis served as the Executive Director. The organization, known as The Community College Consortium on Autism and Intellectual Disabilities (CCCAID), claimed to provide assistance to community colleges to develop programs for individuals with autism and other intellectual disabilities. Between April 2010 and April 2013, community colleges located around the country and an individual donated approximately $783,000 to CCCAID. The funds contributed to CCCAID were supposed to be used to further the mission of the organization and not to enrich Miller or Wallis. Despite these restrictions, from 2011 through 2014, Miller and Wallis embezzled over $600,000 from CCCAID’s bank account and used the money to pay their own personal expenses.

Miller and Wallis laundered the proceeds of their crimes through multiple bank accounts and ultimately spent the funds on lavish personal expenses, including mortgage payments on a million-dollar home in Fairfax, renovations to an oceanfront property owned by Miller in Bethany Beach, Delaware, dues payments to the Country Club of Fairfax, and travel on private aircraft from Manassas to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a family vacation at a luxury oceanfront resort.

Miller’s co-conspirator and wife, Linda Diane Wallis, previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 56 months in prison on Mar. 18, 2016.

Miller faces a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison on each of ten counts of conviction when sentenced on Jan. 24, 2020. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Timothy M. Dunham, Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Division, FBI Washington Field Office, made the announcement after Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III accepted the verdict. Assistants U.S. Uzo E. Asonye and Samantha P. Bateman are prosecuting the case.

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2019/10/the-virginia-state-bar-disciplinary-board-has-suspended-a-convicted-attorney.html

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2019/10/the-virginia-state-bar-disciplinary-board-has-suspended-a-convicted-attorney.html

[mellowfestbanana]

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III: Five witnesses in Manafort trial to testify with immunity

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III: Five witnesses in Manafort trial to testify with immunity

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III:Five witnesses in Manafort trial to testify with immunityA U.S. judge said he would rule later on Monday on whether to delay the criminal trial of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and he would make public the identity of five witnesses granted immunity to testify. US President Barack Obama (L) walking from the…

[investmart007]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. | Longtime Manafort deputy Rick Gates begins testifying

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. | Longtime Manafort deputy Rick Gates begins testifying

ALEXANDRIA, Va.  — The longtime deputy to Paul Manafort began testifying Monday in the financial fraud trial of the former Trump campaign chairman, producing a hugely anticipated courtroom showdown between two business associates who once worked closely together and played important roles in the Republican president’s election bid.

Rick Gates has been regarded as a crucial witness for the government ever since he pleaded guilty earlier this year to two felony charges and agreed to cooperate in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Manafort���s defense has sought to blame Gates, described by witnesses as his “right-hand man,” for any illegal conduct and accused him of embezzling millions of dollars from Manafort. Gates, who also served in a senior role in President Donald Trump’s campaign, is expected to face aggressive cross-examination once prosecutors are finished questioning him.

The criminal case has nothing to do with either man’s work for the Trump campaign and there’s been no discussion during the trial about whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia — the central question Mueller’s team has tried to answer. But Trump has shown interest in the proceedings, tweeting support for Manafort and suggesting that he had been treated worse than gangster Al Capone.

The trial opened last week with a display of Manafort’s opulent lifestyle, then progressed into testimony about what prosecutors say were years of financial deception. In calling Gates, the government will present jurors with the firsthand account of a co-conspirator expected to say Manafort was knee-deep in an alleged scheme to hide millions of dollars from the IRS and defraud several banks.

During the questioning, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III will be both referee and wild card. He has played those roles throughout the trial, repeatedly scolding prosecutors to rein in their depictions of Manafort’s lavish lifestyle and demanding that they “move it along.” It is not a crime, he has said several times, to be rich and to spend ostentatiously.

Nonetheless, jurors were told of more than $900,000 in expensive suits, a $15,000 ostrich jacket and lavish properties replete with expensive audio and video systems, a tennis court encircled by hundreds of flowers and, as one witness put it, “one of the bigger ponds in the Hamptons.”

One by one, a retired carpenter, a natty clothier and a high-end landscaper detailed how Manafort paid them in international wire transfers from offshore companies.

Prosecutors say Manafort used those companies to stash millions of dollars from his Ukrainian consulting work, proceeds he omitted year-after-year from his income tax returns. Later, they say, when that income dwindled, Manafort launched a different scheme, shoring up his struggling finances by using doctored documents to obtain millions more in bank loans.

On Friday, a tax preparer named Cindy Laporta admitted that she helped disguise $900,000 in foreign income as a loan in order to reduce Manafort’s tax burden. Laporta, who testified under an immunity deal with the government, acknowledged that she agreed under pressure from Gates to alter a tax document for one of Manafort’s businesses.

Under cross examination, she said at the time she believed Manafort was directing Gates’ actions and “knew what was going on.”

All told, prosecutors allege that Manafort failed to report a “significant percentage” of the more than $60 million they say he received from Ukrainian oligarchs. They sought to show jurors how that money flowed from more than a dozen shell companies used to stash the income in Cyprus.

Though the names of those companies appeared on wire transfers and at times on his bookkeeper’s ledger, both Manafort’s accountants and his bookkeeper say they never knew that the companies — and corresponding offshore bank accounts — were controlled by Manafort.

When they appeared, the bookkeeper and accountants said, they thought the companies were clients or, in some cases, lenders.

But defense lawyers are trying to convince the jury that Manafort was consumed by his consulting business and left the particulars of his finances to professionals and, in particular, to Gates.

By CHAD DAY and MATT BARAKAT ,Associated Press

[thisdaynews]

JUST IN:US Jails Ethiopian For Lying To Obtain Citizenship

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/just-inus-jails-ethiopian-for-lying-to-obtain-citizenship/

JUST IN:US Jails Ethiopian For Lying To Obtain Citizenship

An Ethiopian, Mergia Negussie Habteyes, who naturalized to become a U.S. citizen in 2008 has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for having fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship.

Negussie Habteyes, 58, was residing in Alexandria, Virginia at the time of his trial. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia, according to the US Justice Department, in a statement on Friday.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger of the Eastern District of Virginia and Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Lechleitner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C made the announcement.

Mergia Negussie Habteyes, 58, previously pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful procurement of naturalization.

“Negussie-Habteyes believed he could conceal his past participation in the brutal persecution of political dissidents in order to enjoy the benefits of U.S. citizenship and escape accountability in Ethiopia,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski.

“Negussie hid his past atrocities as a human rights abuser and lied his way into the United States,” said U.S. Attorney Terwilliger.

“United States citizenship and the protections and privileges that accompany it is not intended for those who persecute their fellow man. My thanks to the prosecutors and law enforcement agents and officers for their outstanding work on this case.”

According to admissions in the plea agreement, Negussie participated in the persecution of detainees in Ethiopia from roughly 1977 to 1978 during a period of time known as the “Red Terror.” As part of actions led by a council of military officers in power at the time, known as the “Derg,” Negussie injured and abused detainees on account of their political opinion by beating them with weapons including belts, rods and other objects, causing permanent scarring and injury to some of the detainees. During these beatings, Negussie questioned the detainees about their affiliation with the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) and the opposition activities of the EPRP, which was politically opposed to the Derg.

[vagabondretired]

Now, ain’t that a shame?

Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, runs a significant risk of spending the rest of his life in prison and the evidence against him by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office seems strong, a federal judge declared in an order made public on Tuesday. “Given the nature of the charges against the defendant and the apparent weight of the evidence against him, defendant faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison,” wrote [U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who is assigned to a newly filed indictment against Manafort dealing with bank fraud and tax evasion].

[profoundpaul]

Ex-CIA Agent Sentenced After Leaking Secrets to China

A former CIA intelligence officer has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of selling American military secrets to China. Sixty-two-year-old Kevin Mallory was convicted of espionage in June 2018. On Friday, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III sentenced Mallory, who prosecutors wanted locked up for life, Fox News reported. Mallory, who…

The post Ex-CIA Agent Sentenced After Leaking Secrets to China appeared first on The Western Journal.

source https://www.westernjournal.com/ex-cia-agent-sentenced-leaking-secrets-china/

[opedguy]

Manafort Sentenced to 47 Months

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), March 8, 2019.--Sentenced to 47 months in federal prison, 69-year-old former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III thumbed his nose at Special Counsel Robert Muller, urging the independently-minded federal judge to give him 19-24 years in prison.  Critics of President Donald Trump expressed outrage at the relatively light sentence for income tax evasion, bank and wire fraud for work Manafort performed for Ukraine’s former Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukoych in 2006, 10 years before Manafort worked for only  six months for the Trump campaign.  Harvard Preofeesor Lawrence Tribe expressed disgust over the light sentence, knowing that Manafort was not charged with conspiracy with the Russian government to help Trump win the 2016 election.  Mueller was appointed Special Counsel May 17, 2017 by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein with the mandate of probing Russian meddling and alleged Trump collusion.

           Trump was “saddened” watching Manafort arrive for sentencing wearing a green jumpsuit in a wheel chair due to severe gout and other medical problems.  Whatever Manafort’s medical condition, Ellis based his sentence on the fact Mueller prosecuted Manafort for white collar crimes associated with his work 10 years before the 2016 campaign.  Manafort’s attorney argued for leniency based on the fact Manafort had no criminal record before Mueller put him under the microscope, completely unrelated to the 2016 campaign, but, more importantly, to the Special Counsel’s mandate to investigate Russian meddling or alleged Trump collusion with the Kremlin.  With Mueller’s final report to the Atty. Gen Bill Barr due soon, there’s no indication that the Special Counsel has found anything that connects Trump or his campaign to coordinating with Moscow to win the 2016 presidential election.  Yet Mueller wanted Manafort to spend the rest of his life in prison.

           Fined $50,000 and given nine months of time served, Manafort will spend 36 months in federal prison unless U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson requires his March 15 sentencing in D.C. federal court to run consecutively.  Berman-Jackson isn’t likely to require Manafort to serve more time, recognizing that the once elite political consultants, dating back to the Nixon days, has been punished enough.  To the anti-Trump press, Manafort’s sentence was taken personally, believing he should pay extra time for what Mueller couldn’t find with Trump when it comes to Russian collusion. Democrats and their friends in the liberal press couldn’t stomach the fact that Mueller should have never prosecuted Manafort, whether he committed any crimes or not.  Manafort’s sentence raises the possibility of a presidential pardon, something Trump has not ruled out.  Given that Manfort’s prosecution fits Trump “witch hunt” definition, a pardon would surprise no one.

           Getting 36 months in prison actually exceds average sentencing guidelines for income tax evasion, running about 12 months. Mueller’s contention that Manafort should get the maximum sentence under federal guidelines speaks volumes about the political nature to Manafort’s prosecution.  Pushing for a longer sentence, Mueller’s legal team antagonized Ellis, recognizing the political nature of the prosecution.  “To say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement,” Manafort told the court.  Yet Mueller’s prosecutors insist Manafort never accepted responsibility for his actions, demanding an outright apology.  Ellis slapped Mueller saying Manafort has “been a good friend to others, a generous person.”  Adding insult to injury to Mueller, Ellis said, “he has lived an otherwise blameless life,” before delivering his 47-month sentence, minus nine moths for ttme served.  No what the sentence, it wouldn’t have been enough.

           Whether admitted to or not, Manafort should not have been put in the  pucrosshairs by Mueller for anything outside his work for Trump.  Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation prosecuting Trump campaign officials for technical “perjury traps,” like Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen.  Mueller got Cohen on perjury for telling Congress he concluded discussions about Trump Tower Moscow in Dec. 2016 when in fact talks didn’t end until June 2017. When it came to former Atty Gen. Jeff Sessions or Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Mueller got them for not recalling they talked with former Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak, as if that were a crime.  Ellis recognized that Muller’s team showed too much zealotry trying to put Manafort away for life, for a garden-variety tax evasion case.  Democrats and the anti-Trump press are getting worried that Mueller’s final report won’t give them impeachable offenses to remove Trump from office.

           Ellis realized that he was sucked into the political maelstrom that’s swept Washington attempting, beyond anything else, to get rid of Trump.  House Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.) made clear he wants to create a record with more subpoenas and testimony to begin impeachment proceedings, regardless of whether he committed high-crimes-and-misdemeanors, the Constitutional standard.  “It’s very sad what happened to Paul,” Trump said.  “I have not offered any pardon.  I’m not taking anything of the table,” Trump said last year.  When you consider all the politics at play, it’s difficult for federal judges like Ellis and Berman to figure out how to mete out justice. Giving the ailing Manafort 36 months to rot in federal prison is no slap on the writs, especially given his medical problems.  Watching Mueller’s team try to throw the book at Manafort tells the whole story.  It’s not about justie, it’s about scoring points in what’s looking more like a failed investigation.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

[keywestlou]

MORNING STEW #7

Morning Stew time!

I hit a wrong button yesterday and was unable to properly complete the blog. Could not figure out what I did wrong. Finally gave up!

Sloan was unavailable at the time. She contacted me later in the afternoon. The solution simple. I had to hit one key and everything was back to normal.

I want to combine the best of 2 days into one blog this morning. May be a bit long. Titled it Morning Stew #7 because there will be no order to the blog. I will be entering this and that as the material comes up in my notes.

Were it not that this is a Morning Stew day, I would have titled the blog CRIME PAYS.

Reference is to Paul Manafort’s sentence. Forty seven months for all the bad he did. The man got away with murder, in effect.

The sentence reflects a failure in the judicial system. Combine it with the failures in the justice system overall. Our country is moving in the wrong direction. People are losing faith. Not a healthy situation.

The most powerful person in the United States is a U.S. District Court Judge. The trial judge in the federal system. More powerful than even a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Some District Court Judges exercise their power in undesirable fashions. Manafort’s trial judge T.S. Ellis one of them.

Article III of the Constitution permits federal judges to serve as long as they maintain “good behavior.” Effectively means they can sit their entire lives. Most do.

Ellis is 78 years old. A cantankerous old man. Enjoys playing tough guy from the bench. He has a reputation in the Virginia area as being “Caesar in his own Rome.”

Need I say more.

He gave the prosecution a hard time during the trail. Embarrassed the prosecution on occasion.

He is known as an arch conservative. Apparently.

I handled cases before such judges. You do the best you can. A lawyer and his client are stuck with them. Justice is not served when such persons “rule” our courts.

Today is International Women’s Day. God bless the ladies! We need them. Men have screwed things up for years. Let the ladies control for a while. They can do no worse.

In 1968, a new cigarette came out. Directed towards women. Virginia Slims. Their advertising line: You’ve come a long way, Baby.

Still true today. Ladies, keep it going!

I’ve been doing this blog 12 years now. I have 69,000 subscribers. Some search me out in the Chart Room when they vacation in Key West. Always pleased to meet them

Some are repeat visitors to the Chart Room. Last night, I met one again.

Tom from Indianapolis. Waiting for me as I came in the door. We had met 10 years ago.

Tom obviously a hard worker. He manages something like 36 car washer operations in Indiana. A tough job. He has been with the company many years. Started when there were only a few car washers.

He told me he married in Key West in 2002. Sixty or seventy guests. Wedding and reception planned on a catamaran. The Waterfront Market catering.

An unexpected rain storm. A deluge. Happens occasionally. The Catamaran could not go out. Water too rough.

Rain in the streets 2-3 feet. Not unusual either. Key West has 2 sewer systems. One strictly for run off water. No sewage. The run off sewers cannot take much water. Certain intersections flood. I have seen tourists swimming in these intersections on those occasions.

Tom and his bride in trouble. Their wedding planner came to the rescue. She arranged for the Pier House to take the reception inside one of their large rooms. Waterfront Market Catered at the Pier House. The Pier House did not charge Tom for having Waterfront do the catering.

Tom says…..A great party!

Tom here with friends from Michigan. In addition to Key West, they are doing Islamorada and Marathon.

Tom and I agreed that hopefully it will not be another 10 years before we meet up again.

Mary came in. We had  a drink together at the Chart Room. Then off to La Trattoria for dinner. La Trattoria appears to have become my restaurant of choice for the moment.

Trump did a great job with Venezuela. Another major screw up. He was trying to instigate revolution. Not for any humanitarian reason. Rather to get control of Venezuela’s oil reserves. The largest in the world.

No revolution.

The leader of the opposition Juan Guaido was out of the country. He has returned. Everyone expected him to be jailed.

Maduro no fool. He left him alone. Guaido walks the streets unbothered.

Venezuela’s economy horrible. Inflation at 2 million percent. Would you believe! I recall under Carter inflation caused interest rates to go to 22-23 percent. I thought that was horrible!

Trump did well with Kim in Hanoi. North Korea has begun rebuilding its missile sites.

The love affair did not last long.

Puerto Rico was screwed by Trump. He forgot they were American citizens. He failed to provide anywhere near sufficient help following Hurricane Maria.

Not the first time an American President has not treated Puerto Ricans well.

It was 1917 when then President Wilson signed the necessary legislation making the people of Puerto Rico U.S. citizens. The U.S. either had just entered World War I or was about to.

Wilson needed men to fight. The ranks of the military had to be built up and quickly. Soon after Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens, 20,000 were drafted.

The authoritarian state is a creeping phenomenon. As it was in Germany under Hitler. Little pieces of freedom frequently taken away.

I am not a fan of ICE. I believe they are quietly being strengthened and represent Trump’s Gestapo.

ICE and Border guards are “pulling aside” reporters, attorneys and activists at the border as they are entering Mexico. They are questioned. Notes made.

Fifty nine so far. Their experiences described as having a “chilling effect.”

What next?

Trump said he was going to grow America’s industries. Doing a lousy job!

General Motors announced this week they have begun “eliminating” 1,700 hourly employees. Perhaps for good.

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal front page right hand column carried an article titled: GE Chief Warns of Slow Recovery.

GE’s new President Larry Culp said GE needs to “pay the piper” in 2019. GE still in a turn around.

Where have the conservatives gone? Not many left. Many  Republicans think they are. However, conservative government is gone. Replaced by Trumpism.

Paul Waldman wrote an interesting opinion piece March 4. He said, “Many Republicans…..when the history of this period is written will come out looking terrible, as a bunch of cowards who made themselves handmaidens to the most corrupt President in American history.”

My Republican friends, take your party back!

Ash Wednesday was interesting.

Religion has been on a decline for years. It may be bouncing back. Such is based on my observations wednesday.

Many announcers, political pundits, etc. on TV wore their cross of ashes on their foreheads.

Wednesday evening at dinner time, I was driving past St. Mary’s By the Sea in Key West. The lines in and out of the Church were huge! People getting ashes.

Enjoy your day!

MORNING STEW #7 was originally published on Key West Lou

[go-redgirl]

The Navy Fighter Pilot Judge Who Shot Down Mueller by Caitlin Yilek | March 07, 2019 10:21 PM | Updated Mar 08, 2019, 12:11 AM

A federal judge known for his impatience in court sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Thursday to less than four years behind bars, defying a requested prison term of 19 to 24 years by special counsel Robert Mueller.

T.S. Ellis III, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and serves on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, called Mueller’s recommended sentence “excessive.” Instead, the former U.S. Navy aviator, who piloted an F-4 Phantom before heading to Harvard Law School and then Oxford University, handed down a 47-month sentence.

“To impose a sentence of 19-24 years on Mr. Manafort would clearly be a disparity. In the end, I don’t think the guidelines range is at all appropriate,” Ellis said.

The 78-year-old judge, who presided over the trial in which Manafort was convicted of eight financial crimes, including bank fraud, tax fraud, and failure to disclose a foreign bank account, seemed swayed by his attorneys' argument for a sentence "substantially below" the federal guidelines.

The sentence was in contrast with a sentencing memo from Mueller’s team.

"Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars," prosecutors wrote in a court filing last month.

“Manafort chose to do this for no other reason than greed, evidencing his belief that the law does not apply to him,” they wrote.

But Manafort's attorneys had hit back at the special counsel in their own sentencing memo, claiming prosecutors were trying to "vilify Mr. Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon" and "spreading misinformation about Mr. Manafort to impugn his character in a manner that this country has not experienced in decades."

Ellis was often curt during the case. At a pre-trial hearing, he questioned why the special counsel’s office had charged Manafort with crimes unrelated to their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Ellis argued that prosecutors ultimately wanted to pressure Manafort to give them information “that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment or whatever.”

He also intervened throughout the trial, disparaging the special counsel’s evidence and telling prosecutor Greg Andres to not roll his eyes.

When prosecutors focused on Manafort’s lavish lifestyle, such as his expensive taste in clothing, Ellis interrupted: “The government doesn’t want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, do they? Let’s move on.”

The judge, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, is known for his harsh rebukes from the bench and recounting of his youth.

In a case before him last year, Ellis told a defendant who had violated his parole, “You have to make up your mind whether you are an honest, law-abiding person or not.”

He then described his own experience with adversity, telling of how he had been called an ethnic slur because he could speak Spanish when he moved from Latin America as a child to a Chicago suburb. He also said he had run away from home.

Ellis was born in Bogota, Colombia, in 1940. He has an engineering degree from Princeton University, after which he joined the Navy. He left the service in 1967 to pursue law degrees from Harvard Law School and the University of Oxford, then went on to work for a private law firm until Reagan appointed him to the court.

He swore in immigrants as U.S. citizens during the first naturalization ceremony held at Arlington National Cemetery in 2008. An immigrant himself, Ellis often becomes emotional each time he administers the oath of citizenship.

"I did it to honor our country's warriors and to give the new citizens a sense for what makes this country great," Ellis said of why he chose to hold the ceremony at the cemetery instead of the U.S. courthouse in Alexandria.

[plusorminuscongress]

New story in Politics from Time: How Donald Trump Led to Paul Manafort’s Downfall

If he had never joined Donald Trump’s campaign, Paul Manafort would likely be a free man today.

Instead, the longtime political consultant is facing just under four years in a federal prison, the latest victim of the intense scrutiny that Trump has drawn to those around him for actions in his first two years in office.

As Judge T.S. Ellis III reminded the crowd at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. at the start of the lengthy hearing, Manafort was not being sentenced “for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election.”

That’s not to say it was was entirely unrelated to that investigation, however.

Before he became Trump’s campaign chairman in the summer of 2016, Manafort spent years helping Moscow-backed political parties in Ukraine, hiding from U.S. tax officials over $55 million in payments in more than 30 overseas bank accounts, leading to the bank and tax fraud charges.

During the campaign, he joined Donald Trump Jr. and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for a meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. At another point, as prosecutors told the judge in an assertion accidentally made public in a court filing, he shared valuable campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, who investigators allege has ties to Russian intelligence.

Manafort’s connections to Russia drew the attention of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose team uncovered the hidden payments and brought the charges as a standard tactic used to pressure valuable witnesses in an investigation into cooperating. For a while, it looked like that might work.

After he was convicted in a related case in a Virginia court in August, Manafort agreed to cooperate and spent hours in Mueller’s office. But prosecutors later accused him of lying and hiding facts from them, including about the Kilimnik meeting.

The sentence was well below guidelines, which recommended a 19- to 24-year prison term. Ellis, who had been skeptical of Mueller’s prosecutors from the start of the trial, said that though Manafort’s crimes were serious, such a long sentence would have been would not have been appropriate.

Manafort is one of six people who worked on Trump’s campaign in some capacity who have since ended up in legal trouble, either for lying to investigators or for illegal dealings in their personal lives. The list includes his one-time junior business partner and deputy campaign chairman, Rick Gates; foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos; national security adviser Michael Flynn; Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen; and his longtime informal adviser, Roger Stone.

Trump has called Manafort “decent man” and “a very good person,” raising suspicions that Trump was signaling he would pardon Manafort if he faced serious jail time. At one point, Trump compared the man who ran his nominating convention to the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone, who was eventually jailed for tax evasion.

Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and “Public Enemy Number One,” or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement – although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018

Still, Manafort is not out of the woods yet. Next week, he faces a separate sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who has been less sympathetic to Manafort, accusing him of a pattern of withholding facts in February.

That case centered on Manafort’s failure to disclose that he was lobbying for the Ukrainian government and what prosecutors call “conspiracy against the United States.”

Those two counts each carry a maximum of five years in prison.

By Brian Bennett on March 08, 2019 at 12:12AM