FILE PHOTO: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort arrives for arraignment on a third superseding indictment against him by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on charges of witness tampering, at U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S. June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
(Reuters) – Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team told a U.S. judge on Saturday that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort “repeatedly and brazenly” broke the law, and argued he did not deserve leniency at sentencing.
The recommendation from Mueller, who is investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election and whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Moscow, increases the likelihood that Manafort will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Manafort pleaded guilty in a federal court in Washington last September to conspiracy against the United States – a charge that includes a range of conduct from money laundering to unregistered lobbying – and conspiracy to obstruct justice for his attempts to tamper with witnesses in his case.
He is due to be sentenced on March 13.
While Mueller did not recommend a specific sentence he portrayed Manafort as a “hardened” criminal who was at risk of repeating criminal behavior once he is released from prison.
“For over a decade, Manafort repeatedly and brazenly violated the law,” Mueller’s office said in a sentencing memorandum released by the court on Saturday.
“His criminal actions were bold, some of which were committed while under a spotlight due to his work as the campaign chairman and, later, while he was out on bail from this Court.”
Manafort, a veteran Republican political consultant, who earned millions of dollars working for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, will turn 70 in April and faces a potentially lengthy sentence in a second case in Virginia in which he was convicted last year of financial crimes.
Reporting by Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Alistair Bell