'Blameless' Manafort? Twitter Users Torch Judge For Bizarre Claim, Light Sentence.

Judge T. S. Ellis III was slammed for giving the former Trump campaign manager such a light sentence.
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U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III is being slammed on social media for giving a surprisingly light sentence to Paul Manafort, who was President Donald Trump’s campaign manager for part of the 2016 election.

Manafort was found guilty on eight counts, including bank fraud, filing false tax returns and failure to report foreign bank accounts. Sentencing guidelines called for 19 to 24 years in prison.

Manafort’s attorneys argued for leniency by claiming he was a “first-time offender.” Ellis agreed, saying Manafort “has lived an otherwise blameless life,” and sentenced him to just 47 months.

However, as “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert cracked, “He wasn’t so much a first-time offender as a first-time getting caughter.” In fact, Manafort has lived anything but an “otherwise blameless life,” often working for ruthless dictators and notorious human rights abusers.

On Twitter, people lambasted the judge, both for his comments and for the sentence. Many pointed out other people who had received much harsher terms for far less serious offenses:

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