Paul Manafort sentenced to 43 more months behind bars
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E-mail Xinhua, March 14, 2019
A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to another 43 months behind bars on conspiracy charges.
"It is hard to overstate the number of lies and the amount of fraud and the amount of money involved, a significant portion of his career has been spent gaming the system," Judge Amy Jackson of the Federal District Court in Washington said of the case.
Speaking at a press event Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he felt "very badly" for Manafort, and that Manafort is in "a very bad situation".
Trump said he had "not thought about" pardoning Manafort.
The latest ruling would add on to the 47-month term Manafort received from a federal judge in a separate case in the state of Virginia, making it seven and one-half years in prison for the veteran Republican lobbyist.
Manafort's punishment was considered lighter than previously expected.
The ruling capped a high-profile case that was the result of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, which was aimed at probing alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Although Manafort was convicted on multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy, none of them were related to his work inside the Trump campaign and did not reveal improper dealings between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Manafort, 69, joined Donald Trump's campaign team in March 2016 and later became Trump's campaign chairman until mid-August of that year. He was convicted in a Virginia federal court trial on charges of tax and bank fraud last year and pleaded guilty on others.
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