Manafort’s defense attorney Kevin Downing must be a glutton for punishment. He walked in front of the television cameras and not only lied, he blatantly ignored his client’s judge. Instead, he did exactly that which she just forbade him to do.
Downing appeared in front of the cameras just moments after the judge gave his client a verbal ripping. His words rang hollow. Then again, he was speaking to an audience of one, so it did not really matter:
‘It’s callous, it was hostile and totally unnecessary.’
The attorney looked wooden in his report:
‘Wow — Manafort’s attorney, Kevin Downing, is shouted down outside the courthouse after he falsely claims “2 courts have ruled no evidence of any collusion with any Russians.”‘
Wow — Manafort’s attorney, Kevin Downing, is shouted down outside the courthouse after he falsely claims “2 courts have ruled no evidence of any collusion with any Russians.”
“Liar! That’s not what she said!” someone yells. pic.twitter.com/gGqdrP2ihJ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 13, 2019
District court Judge Amy Berman Jackson warned that there had been no “Russian collusion” evidence. Still Downing said:
‘(She had) conceded there was absolutely no evidence of any Russian collusion in this case.’
A protester in the crowd shouted:
‘Liar! That’s not what she said!’
Then, the hecklers shouted “traitor” and drowned Downing out. With Jackson’s additional sentence, Manafort will serve seven and a half years in prison minus time served. That is unless he get time off for good behavior and unless he gets pardoned by Donald Trump.
The president’s campaign manager had a strong connection with Russia. He took time away and to give a man with a close ties to President Vladimir Putin campaign data — right in the busiest time for the campaign.
Less than half an hour after the judge gave her final sentence, New York hit Manafort with 16 additional charges, which Trump has no way of pardoning.
Twitter world went nuts. Check out some of our favorites below:
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
