Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has failed to accept responsibility for his financial crimes, and his reported health problems are not significant enough to excuse him from a sentence of up to 24 years in prison, according to a blistering sentencing memorandum filed in a Virginia federal court on Tuesday by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Manafort is set to be sentenced by Judge T.S. Ellis on Thursday in the Eastern District of Virginia, after an Alexandria jury in August convicted him on eight counts of bank and tax fraud. On Mar. 13, Manafort faces a separate sentencing before Washington-based District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who has ruled that Manafort breached a plea agreement.
In their reply memorandum on Tuesday, Mueller's team responded to Manafort's pleas for leniency by repeatedly reminding Ellis of Manafort's woes in the separate D.C. case, where he faces up to 10 years in prison. Manafort has denied intentionally misleading investigators after his plea agreement.
"Although Manafort subsequently pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia prosecution, he has since breached his plea agreement by making false statements to the government and the grand jury," Mueller's team wrote, citing Jackson's finding in February that Manafort had "intentionally" broken his plea deal and thus exposed himself to a far harsher sentence.
Instead of taking responsibility for his conduct, Manafort opted for a trial in Virginia -- an exercise of his constitutional right, Mueller's team acknowledges, but also a decision that legally "undermines any reduction for acceptance of responsibility."
Instead of owning up to his conduct, Manafort has blamed the FBI and the Special Counsel's Office, according to the memorandum.
Mueller Sentencing Reply by Fox News on Scribd
"Neither the court, nor the government, can be sure of the full extent of Manafort’s assets because he has failed to submit a financial statement to either this court or the court in District of Columbia — yet another example that he has failed to accept responsibility in a prosecution where he was convicted of hiding assets," according to Tuesday's filing. "Further, unlike most defendants who appear in tax cases, Manafort has not paid any restitution to the Treasury Department and still owes more than $6 million."
The 69-year-old Manafort had argued that his health challenges -- including his reported diagnosis of gout -- contributed to his alleged misstatements to investigators after his plea deal. Manafort said his health problems were a reason for Ellis to take a lenient tact.
But Mueller's team fired back, noting that Jackson had ruled in the D.C. case that Manafort's team had nothing at all -- such as a timeline, or medical opinions -- to document that his health woes could have contributed to his false statements.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller, left, and his team say Manafort, right, has "unique privileges" in jail. (AP)
"I also found the defendant’s statements in his submission concerning his health to be particularly conclusory," Jackson said during a hearing Feb. 13. "In his response to the allegations, the defendant specifically asked me to consider the defendant's health issues exacerbated by the conditions of confinement, quote, in particular, solitary confinement, close quote, as a reason why I should find that the inaccuracies were not intentional. But the submission did not include any chronology, any medical or mental health information, any information about the details of his custodial situation, or any information concerning the state of his health on any of the dates in question."
Jackson added: "So I gave the defense an opportunity to elaborate at the hearing. And when I asked questions and at that point it all evaporated and counsel had little or nothing to say, other than, It's been shown, One sees an impact, and there really wasn’t any specificity there. And it left the impression that the issue was left in the pleading for public consumption, but not mine."
Moreover, the legal standard for imposing a lenient sentence for a health condition is extraordinarily strict, prosecutors noted, pointing to a previous case that held that even “terminally ill persons who commit serious crimes may not use their affliction to escape prison."
"Manafort can and should receive proper medical care while he is incarcerated," Mueller's team tells Ellis. "But none of Manafort’s reported conditions warrants a variance or departure. First, where the Bureau of Prisons ('BOP') has the ability to provide medical treatment for the defendant's condition, departure" from normal sentencing requirements is generally not appropriate, prosecutors wrote.
The memorandum concludes: "Manafort has not submitted a report from a medical practitioner or shown that the BOP is unable to treat his medical conditions. To the contrary, during his nine-month incarceration, the Alexandria Detention Center has appropriately addressed the defendant’s medical needs."
Fox News is told that Ellis typically takes his time on sentencing, and that the sentencing hearing on Thursday could take up to two hours.
Ellis, on the whole, has been more sympathetic to Manafort than Jackson, leading Mueller's team to file a complaint against Ellis. In one bizarre moment during Manafort's trial in August, Ellis accused a Mueller prosecutor of crying.
“I understand how frustrated you are. In fact, there’s tears in your eyes right now,” Ellis said.
When the prosecutor, Greg Andres, denied Ellis’ claim, the judge said, “Well, they’re watery."
But although Ellis has pushed back repeatedly on Mueller's team -- and has even accused them of going after Manafort solely to target President Trump -- he has still ruled against Manafort on several occasions.
In August, for example, Ellis excoriated the defense team for opposing Manafort's transfer to an Alexandria, Va., jail -- shortly after complaining that the jail at which he was housed was also inadequate.
"Defense counsel has not identified any general or specific threat to defendant’s safety at the Alexandria Detention Center," Ellis wrote. "They have not done so, because the professionals at the Alexandria Detention Center are very familiar with housing high-profile defendants including foreign and domestic terrorists, spies and traitors."
He continued, "It is surprising and confusing when counsel identifies a problem and then opposes the most logical solution to that problem."
Fox News' Jake Gibson and Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report.
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