Following Paul Manafort’s second sentencing, his lead attorney Kevin Downing claimed that Judge Amy Berman Jackson “conceded that there was absolutely no evidence of any Russian collusion in this case.”
“So that makes two courts,” Downing continued. “Two courts have ruled no evidence of any collusion with the Russians.”
Facts First: Neither of the judges ruled on anything relating to collusion. And neither of the judges offered any conclusions about whether there was collusion with Russia in the 2016 campaign.
In fact, some hecklers noticed this misstatement during Downing’s press conference and fact-checked him on the spot. One heckler called Downing a liar, repeatedly shouting “that’s not what she said!” in reference to the judge.
President Donald Trump made a similar claim after Manafort’s first sentencing in Virginia.
“Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia,” Trump misleadingly tweeted Friday.
The President expanded on this Wednesday, claiming that “no collusion” with Russia was “proven today” following Manafort’s second sentencing in Washington, DC.
That’s incorrect.
Judge T.S. Ellis, who sentenced Manafort last week, pointed out that Manafort was “not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government.” This, clearly, is not the same as stating there was no collusion with the Russians; and the judge never made that claim. He never gave the Trump campaign a clean bill of health regarding collusion — it simply wasn’t a part of the case.
Like Ellis last week, Jackson made it clear on Wednesday that Manafort was never accused of colluding with Russia. She went onto clearly state — for all to hear, inside the courtroom and elsewhere — that the question of collusion was “not resolved” in this case, “one way or another,” and was part of an ongoing investigation.
She also pushed back on Manafort’s lawyers for making the “no collusion mantra,” as she called it, a key part of their legal defense. “No collusion,” she said, “is a non-sequitur.” She chastised Manafort’s lawyers for repeating this argument and suggested it was “for some other audience,” perhaps Trump.
Manafort was convicted of eight counts of financial fraud and pleaded guilty to two more counts of conspiracy. In all, he was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison.
He is by far the highest profile defendant to face charges from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. And, his legal troubles aren’t over — minutes after he was sentenced in Washington, state charges against Manafort were announced by Manhattan’s district attorney for a handful of crimes including alleged mortgage fraud, falsifying business records, and a number of other state felonies.
