Was Paul Manafort’s sentence too light? Here’s how it compares with other cases usatoday.com

WASHINGTON – Within moments of Paul Manafort being sentenced to less than four years in federal prison, there was shock on cable news and online. It was a far cry from the 12 to 25 years he could have been ordered to serve behind bars. Many outlined cases in which defendants accused of lesser crimes were given much harsher  punishments. Some used the case as a way to display the racial disparities within the criminal justice system. Others targeted U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis, who had been critical of prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller’s office. During Manafort’s sentencing on Thursday, Ellis said had committed “serious, very serious crimes,” but he also said Manafort had “lived an otherwise blameless life and earned the admiration of many.” The issue sparked debate on how much time President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman should spend behind bars and why the sentence was considerably below what sentencing guidelines called for and what prosecutors had noted in court filing. But data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission for 2017 shows that Manafort is not alone in receiving a lesser sentence.