Paul Manafort Criminal Convictions: Eight Federal Felony Counts and Subsequent Plea Deal, Sentencing, and Presidential Pardon
Tier 1Pardoned2017-10-30 to 2020-12-23
Factual Summary
Paul Manafort served as chairman of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign from June to August 2016. On October 30, 2017, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office indicted Manafort on charges related to his political consulting work in Ukraine, which predated his time on the Trump campaign but raised questions about the financial and foreign entanglements of Trump's senior campaign leadership.
On August 21, 2018, a jury in the Eastern District of Virginia convicted Manafort on eight of eighteen federal counts: five counts of tax fraud, one count of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, and two counts of bank fraud. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the remaining ten counts, and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges.
In a separate case in the District of Columbia, Manafort reached a plea agreement on September 14, 2018, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy against the United States and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. As part of the plea deal, Manafort agreed to cooperate with the Special Counsel's investigation. However, prosecutors later alleged that Manafort had breached the cooperation agreement by lying to investigators, and a federal judge found that Manafort had indeed made false statements on multiple subjects.
On March 7, 2019, Judge T.S. Ellis III in the Virginia case sentenced Manafort to 47 months in prison. On March 13, 2019, Judge Amy Berman Jackson in the D.C. case sentenced Manafort to an additional 73 months, with 30 months to run concurrently with the Virginia sentence, resulting in a combined sentence of approximately 7.5 years.
On December 23, 2020, President Trump granted Manafort a full pardon. The White House statement described Manafort as a "victim of what has been revealed to be one of the most shameful political witch hunts in American history." Manafort had served approximately two years of his sentence, part of it in home confinement due to COVID-19 concerns.
Primary Sources
1. United States v. Manafort, No. 1:18-cr-83 (E.D. Va. 2018), jury verdict on eight counts, August 21, 2018
2. United States v. Manafort, No. 1:17-cr-201 (D.D.C. 2018), plea agreement filed September 14, 2018
3. Sentencing transcript, E.D. Va., Judge T.S. Ellis III, March 7, 2019
4. Sentencing transcript, D.D.C., Judge Amy Berman Jackson, March 13, 2019
5. White House Press Release, "Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding Executive Grants of Clemency," December 23, 2020: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-regarding-executive-grants-clemency-122320/
Corroborating Sources
1. NPR: "Trump Pardons Roger Stone, Paul Manafort And Charles Kushner," December 23, 2020
2. NBC News: "Manafort convicted on 8 counts; mistrial declared on 10 other charges," August 21, 2018
3. American Bar Association: "Manafort sentenced to additional 43 months in prison," March 13, 2019
4. PBS NewsHour: "Trump pardons former campaign chairman Paul Manafort," December 23, 2020
Counterarguments and Context
Trump and his supporters characterized the prosecution of Manafort as part of a politically motivated investigation by the Special Counsel. They argued that Manafort's crimes predated his involvement with the Trump campaign and were unrelated to any alleged collusion with Russia. Trump himself stated that Manafort was treated worse than "some of the worst criminals in the history of our country." Manafort's defense team argued that sentencing guidelines were excessive and that his cooperation, however imperfect, warranted leniency. The pardon power is an unrestricted constitutional authority of the president, and Trump's use of it for Manafort, while criticized, was legally permissible.
Author's Note
The pardon of a president's own campaign chairman, convicted of financial crimes uncovered during an investigation into that president's campaign, is without precedent in American history. The pardon eliminated any remaining incentive for Manafort to cooperate with ongoing investigations. Whether the pardon was an exercise of legitimate executive clemency or an act designed to prevent further disclosures damaging to the president is a question the factual record invites but cannot definitively resolve.