Senate Dem warns against Manafort pardon after sentencing

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Wednesday warned President Trump against pardoning Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, after Manafort was sentenced to over three years in prison on foreign lobbying and other charges.

Mr. Manafort is going to prison because he committed serious crimes at home while advancing the interests of Russia and other foreign countries abroad. Any attempt to pardon him would be a gross abuse of power requiring immediate action by Congress.

— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) March 13, 2019

A federal judge earlier Wednesday added 43 months to Manafort’s prison term, bringing his total to 7 1/2 years from two separate cases. The Washington, D.C.-based case this week regarded charges of conspiracy to launder money and commit tax fraud, failing to file foreign bank accounts and register as a foreign lobbyist, as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice by tampering with witnesses.

{mosads}He was also handed a four-year sentence in Virginia last week for charges of bank and tax fraud.

His sentence is the longest produced thus far from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016.

Trump has not ruled out pardoning Manafort, saying last week he feels “very badly” for his former campaign head.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a vocal Trump detractor, also called on the president Wednesday to avoid pardoning Manafort.

“I think that pardoning Paul Manafort would, in effect, send a message you can break the law, defy the justice system, and then be rewarded by the president of the United States,” he said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.” 

Meanwhile, the Manhattan District Attorney indicted Manafort Wednesday on 16 charges, including residential mortgage fraud, attempted mortgage fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy. 

The state charges, which were announced minutes after the D.C. sentence, fall outside of Trump’s pardon purview.