Paul Manafort got lucky yesterday. Judge T.S. Ellis sentenced him to four years less a month in jail. Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of 19 to 24 years. But Ellis concluded that Manafort had led, "an otherwise blameless life."
Manafort's record suggests otherwise. Matt Stieb writes:
Far worse than those criminal actions are his career highlights that were legal — or, at least weren’t under the scope of federal prosecutors. After setting up a lobbying shop with Roger Stone and Charles Black Jr., Manafort took his talents abroad, where he spent decades vouching for authoritarians in exchange for astonishing amounts of money. In 1985, Manafort signed a $600,000 contract with Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi in exchange for boosting his reputation on the hill as an anti-communist; it worked, and Congress sent millions in covert aid to Savimbi.
According to an astonishing report by the Atlantic’s Franklin Foer, it worked so well that the money Manafort routed to Savimbi allegedly emboldened the rebel leader to extend the Angolan Civil War, resulting in hundreds of thousands of additional deaths. In the late 20th century, Manafort was something akin to the lobbying-for-authoritarians edition of Forrest Gump, popping up around the globe wherever an autocratic leader needed a patina of legitimacy. He worked for the Saudis; for Ferdinand Marcos, who assassinated his primary opponent, in the Philippines; for Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire; and was indirectly involved in the Contra-like Karachi affair. The Center for Public Integrity tidily summed up his efforts in 1992, calling Manafort’s firm the “torturer’s lobby.”
But it all comes down to the facts of the case against Manafort -- and the context in which those facts are presented. In the United States, there are two kinds of justice -- justice for the well connected and justice for nobodies:
Class and race work together in the prosecutor’s office, judge’s chambers, and juror’s box, providing something close to a systemic guarantee: A poor person, or person of color — or one of the millions of Americans to which both identities apply — will not face the same criminal justice system that men like Paul Manafort experience. But the criminalization of poverty and criminalization of race aren’t the only embarrassing divides on display here. The stigmatization of poverty and race also ensure that [certain clients] would not receive the amiable treatment that Manafort enjoyed.
Next week, Manafort faces another judge in D.C. It will be interesting to see the context in which she operates.
Image: New York Magazine
10 comments:
It is mind boggling that they can get away with this. Surprising though, not so much! Juan Cole this morning at Informed Comment makes a fact backed comparison to people convicted and sentence much more harshly for crimes of shop lifting. Sometimes you just have to shake your head.
Justice is supposed to be blind, zoombats. But, obviously, she takes note of who is well dressed and well heeled.
I was appalled by the slap on the wrist Manafort received, Owen. I hope his next day of reckoning comes with less deference to his station in life. To add insult to injury, a presidential pardon for this felon is not off the table either.
Re: the wheelchair he used when appearing for sentencing: a nice touch, ne that Pinochet would have applauded.
It's getting harder and harder not to be completely cynical, Lorne.
Don't worry, he has other crimes to pay for...
I agree, Al. It'll be interesting to see how the judge in D.C. views his "blameless life."
They trash the shoplifter and the pot smoker to the full extent if it so pleases them. It’s easy, too easy and it’s their job. Calling it your job makes it right. Good work if you can get it. And what do we do about it? We call the bylaw guys or the cops when we see somebody smoking a cigarette in the park and give an excuse for and the means of taking on more of them. We ask for it every time we let them appeal to our sense of impotency by giving us yet another means to dominate some other powerless slug.
When we whine about the slap on the wrist accorded to some parasite with the power or money to afford it, we’ve just forgotten why they have rules in the first place. Or maybe we never knew.
“This is not a matter for officers.” Or for anyone else with the coin to cover a Christmas at Mar-a-Lago
Where are the bonafide libertarians? Don’t look for them among the law-and-order guys that the fat cats and their market-libertarians stooges have duped and herded into the voting booth.
One of life's maxims, John, is that those with the money get to call the tune.
unblemished life, almost fell off my chair laughing. In my opinion all he ever cared about was his own self and how much money he could make. He is one of the original "rat fxxckers". the phrase was "created' just for him, Lee Attwater and Roger Stone. unblemished life, right. As some one tweeted, this is the same judge who sentenced a guy for dealing meth to 40 years last year. Now if we're talking the "greater sins", selling out your country out to make money or selling meth?
as Mother always said there is one law for the rich and one for the poor. This is almost a get out of jail free card. Manafort couldn't even keep it honest while he was out on bail. .......unblemished, yes, after you use a can of white paint.
One of Manafort's defenders recalled that Manafort had been an altar boy, e.a.f. Perhaps that's what was behind the judge's opinion.
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