Paul Manafort, the longtime political consultant who once led Donald Trump's presidential campaign, asked a federal judge for leniency Monday as he faces the potential of spending the rest of his life in prison in criminal cases stemming from the Russia investigation.
In a new court filing , Manafort's attorneys described the 69-year-old as a victim of circumstance, prosecuted by special counsel Robert Mueller only because the government couldn't make the case that he colluded with the Kremlin's interference in the 2016 presidential election.
They also dismissed prosecutors' characterisation of Manafort as a hardened criminal, saying he was merely a wealthy consultant who committed "garden variety" crimes by illegally lobbying for Ukrainian interests and hiding millions from the IRS.
"The Special Counsel's attempt to portray him as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts before this Court," they argued, noting that the prosecution has "devastated him personally, professionally, and financially."
Even as Manafort's lawyers said their client takes responsibility for his actions, they sought to downplay his crimes, noting that his conduct, "while certainly illegal, unquestionably falls on the less serious end of the spectrum of federal felonies."
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