美国国家公共电台 NPR Paul Manafort, Former Trump Campaign Chairman, Sentenced To Just Under 4 Years

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A federal judge has given Paul Manafort at least a chance not to spend the rest of his life in prison. Manafort is President Trump's former campaign chairman convicted of financial crimes. Prosecutors¹ highlighted the $15,000 ostrich² jacket and more than $1 million worth of suits that Manafort owned. He supported his lifestyle with illicit³ dealings in Ukraine. Federal sentencing guidelines suggested up to 24 years in prison for the defendant⁴, who is 69. Why give him just under four years instead?

NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas was at the courthouse and is in our studios. Good morning.

RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE⁵: Good morning.

INSKEEP: Well, what was the reasoning by Judge T.S. Ellis?

LUCAS: Well, Ellis made clear in his sentencing that Manafort's crimes are serious. He wanted to spell that out clearly. We're talking about tax fraud, failing to disclose a foreign bank account and bank fraud. The tax fraud, in particular, Ellis said is basically stealing from every American who pays taxes. That's a serious crime.

But Ellis also said that, you know, you take all sorts of factors into consideration when coming up with a sentence - general deterrence⁶, you look at the entirety of a defendant's life. And he said, in Manafort's case, he's a first-time offender⁷. Otherwise, blameless life.

And you also look at sentences in similar cases, and that appeared to be a big factor in Manafort's sentence. As you noted⁸, the guidelines' range was 19 to 24 years. Ellis said that's way out of whack⁹. He landed on a total of 47 months, but he also imposed financial penalties - nearly $25 million in restitution¹⁰ - and...

INSKEEP: That is a lot of ostrich jackets...

LUCAS: ...A $50,000 fine.

INSKEEP: ...I suppose we should say. Manafort himself must have made a case for a shorter sentence?

LUCAS: He did. Manafort was actually wheeled into the courtroom yesterday in a wheelchair. He sat in that wheelchair throughout the entirety of the nearly four-hour proceedings¹¹. He was wearing a baggy¹² green prison uniform. And he spoke¹³ in what's known as allocution. And he said, you know, the last two years have been the most difficult years that he and his family have ever experienced. He said that he feels humiliation¹⁴ and shame. He knows that he's caused deep, deep pain to his family. And he's spent nine months already in jail.

He said he feels the punishment from these proceedings. It's impacted his health, his professional and financial life. He says that he has had time to reflect while in jail. He wants to turn his notoriety into something positive, and he asked for the court's compassion¹⁵. But Judge T.S. Ellis did say, right before he imposed his sentence, I didn't hear you say you regret what you did.

INSKEEP: Wow.

LUCAS: I didn't hear you say I'm sorry.

INSKEEP: Nevertheless, the 47-month sentence rather than the 24-year sentence. But is 47 months the entirety of the time that Manafort could possibly spend in prison?

LUCAS: Well, Manafort has a second case. That case is here in Washington, D.C. He pleaded guilty to two conspiracy¹⁶ charges. This is a case that was also brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. Manafort, in D.C, agreed to cooperate with the government. That cooperation deal collapsed¹⁷ after the special counsel's team essentially¹⁸ said that he lied to investigators¹⁹ about a number of things.

The presiding judge in D.C., Judge Amy Berman Jackson, agreed with the government. The maximum sentence that Manafort faces here in D.C. is 10 years. Now, the question that hangs over all of this is whether Judge Jackson here in D.C. is going to make him serve, whatever sentence she gives him, simultaneously²⁰ or stagger it. So is he going to get another 10 years in addition to what he got in Virginia?

INSKEEP: Any chance of a presidential pardon?

LUCAS: The president has not taken that entirely²¹ off the table, but his lawyers say it's not under discussion.

INSKEEP: Ryan, thanks so much.

LUCAS: Thank you.

INSKEEP: That's NPR justice reporter Ryan Lucas.

1 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

2 ostrich   

n.鸵鸟

参考例句：

• Ostrich is the fastest animal on two legs.驼鸟是双腿跑得最快的动物。
• The ostrich indeed inhabits continents.鸵鸟确实是生活在大陆上的。

3 illicit   

adj.非法的，禁止的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He had an illicit association with Jane.他和简曾有过不正当关系。
• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year.今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。

4 defendant   

n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的

参考例句：

• The judge rejected a bribe from the defendant's family.法官拒收被告家属的贿赂。
• The defendant was borne down by the weight of evidence.有力的证据使被告认输了。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 deterrence   

威慑，制止； 制止物，制止因素； 挽留的事物； 核威慑

参考例句：

• An extreme school of "disarmers" pronounced stable deterrence was a dangerous deception. “裁军论者”中的极端派声称，稳定的威摄是一种危险的骗局。
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。

7 offender   

n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者

参考例句：

• They all sued out a pardon for an offender.他们请求法院赦免一名罪犯。
• The authorities often know that sex offenders will attack again when they are released.当局一般都知道性犯罪者在获释后往往会再次犯案。

8 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

9 whack   

v.敲击，重打，瓜分；n.重击，重打，尝试，一份

参考例句：

• After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食，卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
• He gave me a whack on the back to wake me up.他为把我弄醒，在我背上猛拍一下。

10 restitution   

n.赔偿；恢复原状

参考例句：

• It's only fair that those who do the damage should make restitution.损坏东西的人应负责赔偿，这是再公平不过的了。
• The victims are demanding full restitution.受害人要求全额赔偿。

11 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

12 baggy   

adj.膨胀如袋的，宽松下垂的

参考例句：

• My T-shirt went all baggy in the wash.我的T恤越洗越大了。
• Baggy pants are meant to be stylish,not offensive.松松垮垮的裤子意味着时髦，而不是无礼。

13 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 humiliation   

n.羞辱

参考例句：

• He suffered the humiliation of being forced to ask for his cards.他蒙受了被迫要求辞职的羞辱。
• He will wish to revenge his humiliation in last Season's Final.他会为在上个季度的决赛中所受的耻辱而报复的。

15 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

16 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

17 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

18 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

19 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

21 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。