By Diego V.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign chairman and experienced political consultant, Paul Manafort, was recently sentenced to four years in prison for a financial fraud case that ruined his reputation.

  In 2016, he retired from being Trump’s campaign chairman for unknown reasons. Rumors began to speculate that he was related to business dealings regarding Russian leaders in Ukraine. After Trump was elected president, Robert Mueller was appointed to oversee the investigation about ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia. During this investigation, they found that Manafort engaged in a bank fraud scheme that allowed him to hide millions of dollars from consulting work in Ukraine. Manafort is being charged on 8 counts of financial fraud, and Mueller charged him with 2 counts of conspiracy in a separate case.

  On March 7, Paul Manafort was sentenced to four years of prison for 1 of 2 cases against him. Many are mad about this because they think it’s an incredibly small punishment. The suggested sentence was a 19-24 year prison term.

  Barbara McQuade, a former attorney who teaches law at the University of Michigan, said the punishment was “atrociously low,” and that “dropping all the way from 19 to four years is absurd.” However, Judge T. S. Ellis III said that while Manafort’s crimes were “very serious,” following the recommended sentence would have been an unnecessary and harsh punishment.