Thread by @Monaheart1229

Ok, so even with the usual court delays, this Manafort hearing seems to be taking quite a long time...
Just saying

2-From a source inside the court room, at 4:15 Judge Ellis told the courtroom that Manafort is not being sentenced for anything related to the OSCs investigation into RU interference. "He is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian govt"

3-Judge Ellis has banned all laptops and cellphones from his courtroom today, so that's part of why we're not hearing much yet.

4-4:40: CNN is reporting that Judge T. S. Ellis has rejected one of Manafort’s requests for a reduced sentence. Shimon Prokupecz reports that the request “was related to how the judge should view the foreign banking and tax offenses”.

5-I'm being told that Judge Ellis has just taken a 15 minute recess in the Manafort courtroom..

6-Recess in Manafort case is bc the Judge is digging into the legal teams' arg over whether Manafort sought a $5.5 million loan & admitted lying to the bank to get the money with the intention to cause harm to the bank. Ellis is considering Manafort's acceptance of responsibility

7-Here's a copy of the Defense Sentencing Memo filed by Manafort's attorneys that Judge Ellis is currently considering in re Manafort's pleadings today.
washingtonpost.com/defense-memo-o…

8- So court reconvened about 10 minutes ago...this thing has been going on for close to 2 hours now.. If nothing else, Judge Ellis is being thorough

Am hearing that Judge Ellis has now raised the seriousness of Manafort's Mortgage fraud... Ellis seems to be looking at every single angle, which is right and fair, even in the case of the man who fingered Pence for VP.

10-Manafort has now asked to speak to the court himself. Interesting, and the first time he's done so.

11-Paul Manafort is expected to address the judge before his sentencing, his attorneys have said. Prosecutors have argued that Manafort is still a wealthy man and that he never gave meaningful help-prosecutors arguing that PM still has as much as mil in assets.

In re fines & restitution that Manafort's capable of paying, prosecutor Asonye is telling Judge Ellis that Manafort is still a rich man...so it's not a simple case of Ellis saying to Manafort this is how much time you'll serve.. it's complicated.

*4 Mill in assets..

12- Manafort gave a short, unapologetic statement to the court about his humiliation and shame and troubles his family have faced. No remorse was expressed.

13-Am told that Ellis has gone back into recess. I'm betting he's not too impressed with Manafort's lack of remorse, I mean, OSC said in the sentencing recommend that PM is a "hardened career criminal"..dude's going away for a long, long time.

14- Somebody just said that it's as if Manafort was saying to Judge Ellis, "I'm sorry that I was caught, and that's it." Resonates with me. He isn't a very smart guy..there's so much more that he could've done with that.. he's just like Trump.

15-CNN is reporting that Manafort said:""I appreciate the fairness" of this court during the proceedings. "You bent over backwards" to give me a fair trial "Thank you for a fair trial," "I know it is my conduct that brought me here."
Not what I'm told..not what MSNBC's reporting

16'-and not what my source on the other end of the phone is telling me. Interesting.

17-From The Guardian re Manafort's statement: "The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I. To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement. He apparently did not apologize"

18-From WaPo:
The Washington Post
(@washingtonpost)
"Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, asks judge for compassion and does not apologize for his conduc"t Dunno where CNN comes up with their info...but nothing that they said is substantiated by anyone else reporting

19-Here's the WaPo report:
washingtonpost.com/local/public-s…

20-Judge Ellis has said that "the guidelines in this case are excessive, the sentence range is quite high"

21- Dilanian and Melber on MSNBC are making the point that if Ellis takes it easy on Manafort, OSC can tack on a lot more in DC on March 13.. and that's when it'll be decided (by the notorious ABJ) whether it'll be served concurrently or successively.

22-MSNBC reporting that Ellis said that Manfort "has lived an otherwise blameless life" has Ellis been paying attention AT ALL?

23-Ellis just told Manafort that "I was surprised that I did not hear you express regret"
BREAKING: Ellis has sentenced Manafort to only 47 MONTHS in prison.
Holy HELL!

25- No worries, OSC are FURIOUS with Manafort and will make sure that they argue the daylights out of giving him the max in DC next week now that Ellis has taken it so easy on him. And Amy Berman Jackson is the judge in DC--she's the one who put PM in jail 9 mos ago.