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8 tweets,
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1. I hesitate to do this, but when Tucker Carlson uses my commentary on the unjust Manafort sentence and inaccurately states that MSNBC commentators said, “Paul Manafort must die...” via @YouTube
2. And further inaccurately states that the MSNBC “ghouls” are “outraged that a tax cheat isn’t getting the death penalty,” I feel compelled to correct the record. Neither I nor any commentator I know has advocated for capital punishment for Paul Manafort. Moreover . . .
3. I’m not sure how many cases Tucker Carlson has investigated, indicted and tried, or how many sentencing hearings he’s litigated, but he plainly does not understand the federal sentencing guidelines . . .
4. A commission made up of former prosecutors, defense attorneys, retired judges and others (of all political persuasions, I might add) set the sentencing guidelines that apply in every federal court in the country. Those guidelines indicate that . . .
5. Manafort’s sentencing range was 19 to 24 years. Of course, there are accepted factors that would allow a judge to depart downward - go below- the applicable guideline range. The two most common factors are acceptance of responsibility and substantial assistance to the gov’t...
6. Of course, Judge Ellis found that Manafort did NOT accept responsibility. More importantly, Manafort not only failed to provide substantial assistance to the Mueller team, but Judge Jackson found he lied about matters central to Russian collusion . . .
7. Accordingly, Judge Ellis had no principled basis to go below the guideline range. To the contrary, if he was governed by the facts and honestly applied the law, he would have sentenced Manafort to the top of the guideline range. I doubt the reality of the situation is . . .
8. of any interest to the Tucker Carlsons of the world, but I thought it worth setting the record straight about the unjust and unjustifiable sentence imposed by Judge Ellis. Fortunately, Judge Jackson, a fair, unbiased and serious-minded jurist, will get it right on Wednesday.
