Crime

Paul Manafort Gets 7.5 Years, Which Is Fine. It's Fine.

All in, Paul Manafort is going to jail for a while, which is as good as it gets.

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Paul Manafort (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

I get that people want Paul Manafort, a convicted international criminal, to go to jail for something approaching a geological time scale. The man is a liar, a fraud, and a cheat. He propped up dictators and oligarchs around the world, and played a key role in getting the very worst person elected as President of the United States.

And now he’s going to jail for about as long as somebody who steals a car. It doesn’t seem fair. It isn’t fair.

But it’s fine.

Aside from making us feel better about ourselves, can someone explain to me the operative difference between Manafort going to jail for seven years (which is about where the sentences from Judge T.S. Ellis III and Judge Amy Berman Jackson will time out, when put together and reduced for good behavior) versus 10 years? Or 15? The difference between Manafort one day getting out of prison and Manafort dying there is, what, exactly? Are we worried that Manafort will get out of jail when he’s 76 and help… Don Jr. collude with Russian oligarchs to become president? ‘Cause I’m not worried about that.

Are we concerned that only going to jail for seven years, as opposed to longer, will inspire other Paul Manaforts to live a life of wealth and power because, at the end, you only have to do seven years in the pokey? Are there really people out there who would think, “You know, Vlad, this is some really nice caviar but, I must say no. Paul Manafort went to jail for 20 years for helping you. Maybe I could take seven, but 20 is way too much.” I just don’t think that’s how international dictator whisperers make decisions.

Obviously, there is massive systemic unfairness that allows Manafort to commit his crimes and get off relatively lightly, while criminals of color have their lives ruined for much less socially damaging offenses. We treat financial crimes as a filing error and drug offenses as a gateway to murder. It’s wrong. WE HAVE A VERY BAD SYSTEM OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

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But, as I’ve argued here, the solution to our criminal justice problems shouldn’t be to ratchet up the penalties on wealthy, white-collar, white men. It should be to show the same leniency and restraint with blue-collar crimes committed by non-whites. We incarcerate too many people, for too long, for unproven societal gains. THAT is our problem.

Paul Manafort is not our problem. Paul Manafort is a 69-year-old man who is going to jail for a long time. If you don’t think it’s “long enough,” you have to articulate what you are trying to accomplish with a longer sentence. Recidivism? Deterrence? Revenge? What? You can’t put Manafort in jail for long enough to make up for all of the unfairly harsh sentences handed down to black and brown convicts. You can’t reform the whole system of criminal penalties by making an example of this one disgusting and offensive white man.

The danger with the Manafort sentence is not that it is too light, it’s that Donald Trump might pardon him anyway. That would send a message to future, and more importantly current, criminals that committing massive fraud on behalf of powerful people will result in no punishment.

And there’s even a solution for that. Right after Manafort was sentenced, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance announced 16 additional charges against Manafort. These are state crimes. If he’s convicted on any of them, Trump can’t pardon them away.

Manafort did not “get away with it.” Even if Trump pardons him, he won’t get away with it. Manafort is going to jail. For a while. Because he is a criminal. That’s enough for me.

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Paul Manafort Is Sentenced to 3.5 More Years in Prison [New York Times]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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