Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is very unhappy about Paul Manafort’s near-four year prison sentence.
She took to Twitter to complain about it being too light, blamed it on Manafort being rich and suggested that somehow or another he “bought” justice:
"Paul Manafort getting such little jail time for such serious crimes lays out for the world how it’s almost impossible for rich people to go to jail for the same amount of time as someone who is lower income.
In our current broken system, “justice” isn’t blind. It’s bought."
Paul Manafort getting such little jail time for such serious crimes lays out for the world how it’s almost impossible for rich people to go to jail for the same amount of time as someone who is lower income.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 8, 2019
In our current broken system, “justice” isn’t blind. It’s bought. https://t.co/1UgBXmR8bl
It’s bought? Really?
The judge reportedly suggested that what Mueller’s prosecutors were asking for was far too much. Here’s part of what he said:
The 69-year-old longtime political operative had faced between 19-and-a-half to 24 years behind bars for the charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. Prior to announcing his decision, Judge T.S. Ellis called that range “excessive,” and said Manafort “has lived an otherwise blameless life.”
“Let me be clear: the guidelines would suggest sentencing is a calculation. It is not. It is a judgment,” Ellis said.
Ellis then went through cases he thought were similar to Manafort’s in which defendants received little to no time in prison. “It is important to avoid unwarranted disparities,” he said.
“Reasonable people may disagree,” Ellis said of the light sentence. Manafort will also receive nine months of time already served.
Clearly Judge Ellis wanted to be fair to Manafort and avoid disparities. He also took into account his entire life from the way it sounds and even said that Manafort is a ‘generous person’.
But rather than address the substance of what Ellis said, AOC just mouths off about it being an example of inequality where rich people get lighter sentences than poor people because they’ve bought the system or something.
Who made Mueller’s prosecutors the gods of sentencing? Why are they right and the judge isn’t?
Further, and this is what I really, really want to know, just how did Manafort pay off the judge? Did he have his lawyers transfer funds to the judge like some kind of mob boss while he sat in solitary? How did Manafort buy his lighter sentence? How was justice “bought”? There’s no way she could answer these questions because she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She’s just spouting trite liberal dribble.