Judge slams ‘unusual’ aim to defer Manafort sentencing in Mueller case

Dana Verkouteren | AP

This courtroom sketch shows Paul Manafort listening to U.S. District court Judge T.S. Ellis III at federal court in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018. 

U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis threw cold water on prosecutors’ aim to delay former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s sentencing until after he has finished cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators.

Ellis, who had gained a reputation for being combative and impatient with federal prosecutors during Manafort’s trial in Virginia, said in a Wednesday filing that such a move “would be highly unusual.”

In that trial, Manafort was found guilty on Aug. 21 of eight criminal counts including tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to file foreign bank account reports. In a separate case on similar criminal charges in Washington, D.C., Manafort struck a plea agreement with Mueller’s prosecutors on the eve of the trial start date in mid-September.

As part of the deal, Manafort agreed to fully cooperate with investigators as part of the special counsel’s ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The judge in that case, Amy Berman Jackson, noted at a hearing following the plea deal that Manafort had agreed to delay his sentencing date until a time set by the government, according to The Washington Post.

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.

In his filing, Ellis said it appeared from the text of the plea agreement and other court filings that Manafort’s sentencing date, as well as the government’s decision on whether to re-try 10 deadlocked criminal counts, “will be deferred until after the defendant’s cooperation is complete.”

But the judge, whose district court in Alexandria, Va., bears a plaque above the entrance doors declaring “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied,” shot challenged the prosecutors’ apparent scheduling preferences.

“This would be highly unusual,” Ellis wrote. “In this District, the government’s decision to re-try a defendant on deadlocked counts is always made in a timely manner and sentencing occurs within two to no more than four months from entry of a guilty plea or receipt of a jury verdict.”

Ellis ordered a hearing for Friday, Oct. 19, at 1:15 p.m. ET, where a sentencing date will be set and the unresolved criminal counts will be discussed. Manafort will also receive information about his right to obtain an investigative report before his sentencing.