Manafort got off easy

Nash Greeven, Staff Writer

Recently, Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, received his sentencing for crimes he had been indicted for.

Many thought that he would receive decades in prison for his crimes.

Yet, at the end of the day, after two judges handed down their verdicts, Manafort has only received a paltry eight years in prison.

The controversy surrounding this decision has been heated, to say the least.

As for myself, I believe that Manafort deserved many more years than he got.

Manafort spent years, if not decades, working on behalf of the most deplorable people on earth.

He worked on behalf of people like murderers and dictators.

He defrauded our nation out of millions of dollars through his hidden assets.

He undermined the integrity of our very own electoral system, all for the benefit of a foreign adversary.

He even lied to prosecutors, broke his agreements with them and continued trying to grift while under indictment.

He did all of this gleefully, strutting and preening, confident as to how slick he was.

Everything about what he’s done, and how he’s acted, shows that he deserves many years behind bars.

Yet, for all that was listed above, he gets less than eight years in prison.

Manafort’s sentence is a sick joke in comparison to the draconian punishments routinely doled out for lesser crimes.

Punishments that are, through our unequal system of justice, doled out against the poor and people of color.

Worse, Manafort’s sentencing will serve as a prime example to others of his ilk, both in the present and in the future, that the magnitude of these crimes is worth the risk.

It tells them that they will live a life of luxury and power, with scant punishment.

That is, if they even get caught in the first place.

This easy sentencing is disgraceful.

Manafort pleaded to the idea that the nine months he spent in prison had changed him as a man.

He made a feeble argument for his leniency, the judge commented he knew what he was doing all along and made the decisions consciously.

Yet, he only ended up with just about eight years in prison at the end of the day.

I don’t know about you, but I completely believe that we have done the wrong thing and have set a bad example of what lying and cheating the American people, and democracy as a whole, will get you.

You’ll get a scant few years in prison due to the otherwise blameless life you’ve lived.

Manafort deserved a much harsher punishment than what he received.