Paul Manafort and his lawyer Kevin Downing arriving at the Federal courthouse for a motion hearing. (Victoria Pickering/Flickr)
Former Justice Department official Matt Miller on Friday told MSNBC the ugly reason that Judge Thomas Ellis went easy on Paul Manafort -- just like the judge, he's a rich white man.
"I think the sentence was a miscarriage of justice," Miller said. "Those sentencing guidelines aren't pulled out of thin air, they're comparisons of other cases around the country. I think on its face, this is a dramatic departure that isn't justified by Manafort's conduct. "
"The bigger issue is when you look at the way the criminal justice system works and the different sentences that white collar offenders versus not even violent offenders, but non-violent offenders," Miller continued. "There's a dramatic disparity."
"I think what happens is in a lot of these cases, you have a judge like T.S. Ellis who looks at a defendant like Paul Manfort, sees someone rich, powerful, nearly 70 years old and looks at a version himself."
Watch the video below.
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