Friday, MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough reacted to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s sentencing to 47 months in prison on tax and bank-fraud charges, which Scarborough noted is “severely reduced.”
Scarborough went on to say Manafort’s sentence “damaged American democracy,” even though none of his sentencing was related to Russian collusion.
“[G]iven the length of time that Paul Manafort created, or engaged, in these crimes and given the fact that he did it at the highest levels of government and given that actually it could be argued that it damaged American democracy, how in the world could this judge go so far below the guidelines?” Scarborough asked MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos.
“The simple answer is because he can,” Cevallos replied. “The sentencing guidelines for well over a decade now have been advisory only. And that means the judges can go below the sentencing guidelines as long as they calculate them.”
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